We want countries to have effective extradition arrangements so that they can fight serious cross-border crime and terrorism, but we believe extradition laws can and should contain safeguards to ensure that basic human rights are respected. The safeguards we are seeking include:

• Protection against people being extradited when there is a real risk they will be subjected to serious human rights abuses;
• A requirement to exhaust less severe alternatives before turning to extradition;
• Protection against disproportionate use of extradition for minor crimes;
• A fair and independent judicial process before any person is extradited, with a right to legal advice in both countries; and
• A more transparent process for deciding where cross-border cases are prosecuted.

Fair Trials has been campaigning for fairer extradition laws since 2009. We are:

• Providing advice, information and referrals (link) to people threatened with extradition;
• Highlighting the human stories of injustice, (link) including through a short film (link)about the European Arrest Warrant, to demonstrate the need for reform;
• Organising events and producing detailed policy documents and reports (link)on the need for reform, including our major report, The European Arrest Warrant seven years on – the Case for Reform; (link)
• Developing free online legal training covering cross border justice and human rights; (link) and
• Providing evidence and practical suggestions for reform to policy-makers and prosecutors.

Within Europe, we are also working to improve respect for basic fair trial rights, to build a sound basis for trust in all EU countries’ justice systems. This is needed for the fair operation of the European Arrest Warrant (see EU Defence Rights). (link)

Persuading states to match effective extradition laws with safeguards for human rights has been a challenge but our campaign is working:

• We have generated press coverage on the need for extradition reform in the mainstream press including the Economist, (link)  the Times (link) and the Huffington Post amongst others.
• Many of our reform recommendations were adopted in the UK’s extradition review, (link) and the UK’s Extradition Act has been amended to include many of the safeguards we have sought;
• We have intervened in many serious cases of injustice – see the case of Andrew Symeou for example; and
• In January 2014, the European Parliament adopted a report calling for the new EU laws to introduce EU-wide safeguards in the European Arrest Warrant.