• Raise the profile of a case: share it online, or 
• Campaign: Write to your local representative to request action on protecting fair trial rights
• Donate to our work: Fair Trials does not charge for its services and relies on your support to help hundreds of people each year. You may also wish to consider organising your own fundraising events. We are always happy to hear what people are doing to raise funds, and help out however we can. 
• Inform others: Tell colleagues, friends and family about how we work for a world where every person’s right to a fair trial is respected.

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE

• Sign up for our newsletters - you'll see on campaign pages opportunities to sign up for updates on specific issues to stay up to date on our latest cases and campaign work
• You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Volunteering

Like many other charities, Fair Trials draws on key support from volunteers to increase its impact. This takes many forms, from our LEAP network, to students who are able arrange internships through their institutions for academic credit. We also work closely with a number of city law firms whose staff work on different campaign areas with us. 

Please contact us if you are interested in volunteering for Fair Trials and contributing to our work, or visit the vacancies page.

Fundraising

Organising a sponsored event is a great way to help us raise money, whilst raising awareness of fair trial issues in your local community.

Fair Trials is grateful to those supporters who help us meet our fundraising challenge – it could be anything, from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, to holding a bake sale. The sort of event you host is only limited by your imagination – so make sure it is something you will enjoy!

If you'd like to know more, then drop us an email. Here is our advice for successful fundraising:

• Set yourself a target: Come up with a figure you would like to reach and let potential sponsors know.
• Spread the word: The more people who know about what you are doing, the more sponsors you will get. Let everyone know – after all, you are doing it for a good cause.
• Be prepared: Have more information on the work of Fair Trials to give to people and also how they can get involved.
• Gift aid: If you're in the UK, make sure that your UK donors sign a gift aid declaration. This allows us to claim an extra 25p on each £1 you raise.
• Use Justgiving: The site allows people to easily and securely donate online, removing the inconvenience of collecting cash from individual sponsors. The site also automatically calculates and includes Giftaid for UK donors. Visit Fair Trials' section on Justgiving to create your own page.

We are always happy to hear what people are doing to raise funds.

Legacies

Leave a gift in your will

Since it was first established in 1992, Fair Trials has helped thousands of people imprisoned in countries across the world. We have prevented many high-profile miscarriages of justice and helped people return home to their families and loved ones.

One way to help us continue this important work for years to come is to consider leaving a gift in your will. Every legacy we receive can have a significant impact on our work, offering a lifeline to many more people.

If you are interested in leaving a lasting gift and would like to speak to someone from Fair Trials about it, please do not hesitate to be in touch. 

Our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn channels will keep you up to date on our work and let you know how you can get involved.

You can connect with us on our social media channels to keep up to date with our latest news, advice and case studies. We also use it to highlight cases that we

 Have you seen a story that you think we should care about? Then get in touch and let us know. Increasingly, as we’ve seen through movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter – using your voice on social media can really make a difference.

Throughout our site you’ll find links to share our stories or information to make it as easy as possible.

We don’t use our social media for any kind of direct assistance, so if you’re looking for help in your own case its better to first look through the information in our Need Help section, and if you can’t find the answers you’re looking for, then follow the prompts to get in touch with us over email.

Follow us on twitter here.

You can also find individual staff members’ twitter accounts on their own staff pages.

Like us on Facebook here.

Connect with us on LinkedIn here.

While you’re at it, you can also subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

That’s it for now, but we’ll let you know if and when we set up a Pinterest, or go back to our MySpace.

Finance and Operations Officer (Brussels)

Fair Trials is an international human rights NGO, which exists to build respect for the right to a fair trial in criminal cases. We have grown gradually over the past five years and have an established track-record as a trusted voice on criminal justice. We have 16 staff across offices in London, Brussels and Washington DC, and are in the process of increasing the geographical reach of our work.

We are looking for a dynamic Finance and Operations Officer to provide financial and operational support for the Fair Trials Europe (FTE) foundation and its charitable activities and projects.

Financial work will include managing all local payments, maintaining approvals and coding, administering banking and credit card arrangements, managing payroll and the social secretariat, helping oversee the project reporting processes for Fair Trials and it’s partners.

Operational work will include HR, timesheet and supporting procurement processes, helping manage grant applications and agreements and reporting for grant deliverables including on the EC portal, supporting company secretarial processes, supporting the day to day needs of the Belgian office environment including health and safety, utilities, supplies and infrastructure.

The role is important and integral to the efficient functioning of the foundation, it’s teams and projects and will require an individual with a flexible and can-do mindset.

For full details of the job, please see the candidate briefing and job description.

To apply for this role, please send a CV and cover letter identifying how you meet the job description to [email protected] by Thursday, 31st January 2019.

Call for Applications for a Consultant to Research Trial Waiver Systems in Hungary

Fair Trials, in support of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, is seeking a consultant to conduct research into the use of trial waiver mechanisms in Hungarian criminal procedure. This research is being conducted in the framework of the Fair Trials coordinated Legal Experts Advisory Panel (LEAP) network and the civil society working group of the LEAP network: the JUSTICIA European Rights Network and is co-funded by the Justice Programme of the European Union.  

In April 2017, Fair Trials launched a report, The Disappearing Trial, which highlighted the fast spread of trial waiver systems – sometimes colloquially known as “plea bargaining” – across the World over the past 30 years. The report highlighted that trial waiver systems are often introduced without sufficient analysis into the potential negative consequences that the use of these systems can have on the criminal justice system as a whole. In addition, the report highlighted that, without adequate procedural safeguards being implemented the rights of criminal defendants could be placed at risk.

Trial waivers were introduced into Hungarian criminal procedure in the 1990s and were reformed with the 2017 amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure. In preparation for an in-depth study on the use of the new trial waiver mechanisms across the EU, anticipated to begin in late 2019, Fair Trials and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee wish to conduct a scoping exercise into the use of the trial waiver mechanisms in Hungary. The scoping exercise will seek to answer the following questions:

1. What changes were implemented into the trial waiver mechanisms in use in Hungary?
2. What impact did the initial trial waiver system have on criminal justice and the rights of defendants in Hungary and what shortcomings were identified?
3. What are the expected impacts of the changes to the trial waiver system in Hungary and what early indications can be seen from the implementation of the new Code of Criminal Procedure?
4. What is the relationship between the implementation of the EU’s Directives on the rights of suspects and accused persons in criminal procedure and the implementation of trial waiver systems in Hungary?

In order to answer these questions, Fair Trials is seeking to hire a consultant to conduct research in Hungary who will conduct the following activities at a minimum:

• Conduct desk review of law and practice in Hungary related to trial waiver systems, including reviewing laws, regulations, legislative records, public reports, data and academic literature produced related to the Hungarian trial waiver systems to-date;
• Hold interviews with at least 10 practitioners and/or government officials knowledgeable of the introduction, amendment and/or implementation of the Hungarian trial waiver systems;  
• Participate in a small workshop – to be organized by Fair Trials and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee – in Budapest for experts to discuss the Hungarian trial waiver system; and
• Draft a short report of approximately 20 pages (excluding annexes) summarizing the research findings, in both English and Hungarian languages.  

These activities must be completed within 20 working days of start of a consultancy contract entered into between the consultant and Fair Trials. It is not expected, however, that the work would involve 20 full working days of work. The consultant will work under the supervision of a member of staff of Fair Trials, with the advice and support of a member of staff of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, and will be paid upon receipt of a satisfactory research report.  

Interested consultants are invited to submit an application, in English, to [email protected] by no later than 17.00 CET on Thursday 24 January 2019. The application should include details of the consultant’s relevant experience (e.g. C.V.’s and details of relevant projects carried out), a proposal and timeline for how the consultant intends to carry out the research, and a proposed budget to carry out the research within the specified timeframe. Selection will be based on the application that represents the best value for money, with a decision anticipated to be taken by 31 January 2019.

Download the call for applications here

Like many charities Fair Trials relies on the support of volunteers to do its work. These positions at Fair Trials have a massive impact on the charitable work we do and are an opportunity to gain an excellent insight into our work and develop extensive professional skills.