The 176th International Training Course (Online)“Achieving Inclusive Societies through Effective Criminal Justice Policies andPractices”
1. Duration and ParticipantsFrom 15 November to 9 December
17 overseas participants from 11 jurisdictions

2. Programme Overview
Goal 16 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) seeks toachieve peaceful and inclusive societies, and this training course aimed to promote
the role of criminal justice in achieving such societies. This programme offers
participants an opportunity to share experiences and knowledge on (i) Effective
measures to support crime victims and (ii) Effective measures in the pre-trial, trial andsentencing stages to prevent reoffending and facilitate offenders’ social reintegration.
This programme was exclusively conducted online due to the Covid-19
pandemic.
3. The Content of the Programme(1) Lectures
In order to maximize the effectiveness of the programme, all lectures delivered byexternal lecturers in English, including their respective Q&A sessions, were conductedin a live online format. However, since the participants needed to continue theirprofessional and family duties during the programme, other lectures were recorded inadvance and broadcast on-demand. Specifically, participants were asked to watch ondemand video lectures and to submit their questions for the lectures via an online
learning management system. The lecturers then answered the questions during
recorded Q&A sessions that were broadcast on-demand. This way, we tried to provide
both convenience and interactivity while delivering the training on demand.
In this programme, participants also watched on-demand video lectures by UNAFEI
professors on the criminal justice system in Japan as a preliminary assignment andsubmitted their questions online.
In addition, the following two visiting experts from overseas and three ad hoclecturers from Japan were invited to share their knowledge on the theme of this training
course:Visiting Experts• Ms. Vera Tkachenko
Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)“Rethinking incarceration: Promoting partnerships to reduce reoffending”• His Honour Judge Jonathan Cooper

Deputy Resident Judge for Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom“Community Sentences in England and Wales”
 Ad hoc lecturer• Mr. MUTO Issei
Assistant Director, Crime Victim Support OfficeEducation, Training and Welfare Division,Commissioner-General's Secretariat, National Police Agency“Crime Victim Support Provided by the Police”• Mr. HONDA Yuichiro

Public Prosecutor
Chief, Social Reintegration Support Office
General Affairs Department, Tokyo District Public Prosecutors’ Office“Efforts of the Social Reintegration Support Office”• Ms. TOMITA Satoko

Attorney at Law
Chief, International Affairs Office, Japan Legal Support Center“Japan Legal Support Center”(2) Group Work
Participants were divided into two groups based on time zones and the themes of
their choice for the Individual Presentations sessions and discussions.
 Individual Presentations
Participants shared the practices and the challenges in their respective
jurisdictions regarding the theme of the Programme through their individualpresentations. All the presentations were recorded and uploaded online forreference by participants in other groups or those who could not attend thesessions.
 Discussions
Participants had fruitful discussions on the themes of the Programme: (i)Effective measures to support crime victims and (ii) Effective measures in the
pre-trial, trial and sentencing stages to prevent reoffending and facilitate
offenders’ social reintegration.
• Effective measures to support crime victims
The participants discussed and shared their perceptions of the differences invictim and witness protection systems in different countries. This served as thebasis for the following discussion. In addition to the above, we sharedknowledge about the system and its operation in each country, including
measures to prevent secondary victimization, including witness protection, theuse of victim impact statements to appropriately consider the impact of theincident on the victim in sentencing, legal aid for victims who are particularly
vulnerable and need special consideration, such as underage victims and female
victims of sexual crimes, and damage recovery through restorative justice ineach jurisdiction. The usefulness, challenges and operation of these systems
were the subject of discussion. Although the systems adopted to support victims
differ in each jurisdiction, prevention of secondary victimization by criminal
justice actors is the first priority, and practical efforts to enable investigators andjudicial officers to treat victims in an appropriate manner, as well as theenhancement of training to realize such efforts, are necessary to reduce thebarriers for victims to report their victimization. It was also shared that theseefforts enable victims to report the damage, facilitate the investigation of casesand enhance the cooperation of victims in conducting trials.
• Effective measures in the pre-trial, trial and sentencing stages to prevent
reoffending and facilitate offenders’ social reintegration
As measures to reintegrate offenders into society, the legal frameworks andpractices of various jurisdictions were introduced, including alcohol and drug
courts, and various educational programmes to promote the reintegration ofoffenders into society. In addition, in many countries, prisons are suffering fromovercrowding, which hinders appropriate correctional education for offenders.
As the causes of overcrowding, participants shared the different problematic
situations in each jurisdiction, such as the overuse of arrest and pre-trialdetention, strict bail criteria and insufficient use of non-custodial sentencing.

Then the need to improve the situation was shared. Based on this, measures toimprove practice were discussed.
(3) Action Plans
Each participant concluded the programme by presenting their own action plans
based on the challenges they identified and what they learned in the lectures,presentations by the colleagues and discussions.
4. Feedback from the Participants
Most of the participants said that they would have preferred to have thetraining in Japan because they would have liked to visit the relevant facilities todeepen their understanding of the actual practices, and they would have liked moretime to interact with each other, including in informal situations. On the other hand,
they also commented that they were able to cultivate knowledge online.
5. Comments from the Programming Officer
Although we see words and concepts such as the SDGs and inclusive society
more and more, criminal justice practitioners are not often aware of them in their
daily practice. However, it is important for them to think about the nature andhistory of criminal justice and the direction they should aim toward in the future
by cultivating their consideration of topics that are closely related to practice. It
can also serve as a milestone when dealing with difficult cases for which there areno fixed answers or when considering the framework and operation of a newsystem. In this sense, this training course included a long-term perspective toward
2030, the target year of the SDGs. I believe that this training course provided many
useful hints for our long-term vision for the next 10 years. As the programming
officer of this training course, I was exposed to a variety of ideas relating toinclusive societies, and I feel that I was able to update my own mindset. I hope theparticipants are able to utilize the knowledge gained from this training course forthe future development of criminal justice procedures in their jurisdictions.