AIDP-IAPL Strategies

Strategic Considerations of the AIDP-IAPL
2015-2019
Document of the President (adopted by the Board of Directors in June 2015)

1. Promotion of scientific activities and scientific collaboration
2. Enhancing the Association’s national and regional presence
3. Promoting the upcoming generation
4. Extension of partnerships and cooperation with other institutions and associations
5. Improvement of Publication and Communication Strategy
6. Management and Financial Strategy
7. Multi-linguistic Performance 

1. Promotion of scientific activities and scientific collaboration

• Organisation of the XXth Congress of the Association shall be preceded by preparatory colloquia (one per section). The design and the organization of the Congress will be revised. 
• Organisation of the Second World Conference.
• Promotion of regional conferences.
• Promotion of the Association’s scientific activities via working groups that will deliver input for regional and international fora (Council of Europe/UNODC, etc.) 
• Intensification of cooperation between the Association and ISISC in organising courses and expert seminars as well as responding to call for tenders. Exploring the possibility of setting up joint study programs (e.g. master courses).
• Strengthening the Association’s scientific institutional network (AIDP Network for Criminal Justice) and making it operational. 

Comments

Promotion of scientific activities and of scientific cooperation is the vital goal and raison d’être of the Association. In fact, the Association was created as a platform designed to facilitate and promote scientific contacts among professionals. Without doubt, the National Groups are the natural and primary structures of cooperation. During the last mandate we took important measures to increase opportunities of meetings between members of the Association at the supranational and international level. In this vein, we promoted the organisation of regional conferences and the World Conference. 
      
In 2015-2019 the Association will promote - with the assistance of the Deputy Secretary Generals - the organisation of regional conferences (at least one per year). The Association will also organise a World Conference that shall take place in either 2015 or 2016.  The Association will hold the XXth International Congress of Penal Law in 2019, which will be preceded by Preparatory Colloquia (one per section). 

As far as the Congress is concerned, the previous experience has shown that the design of the Congress might need revision. The core business will remain the discussion and approval of the submitted resolutions of the preparatory colloquia. The Scientific Committee will discuss how and to which extent side-events (round tables, discussion groups) can be organised and if and to which extent they can or should be related directly to the main topics of the sections of the Congress.  

On the other hand, the Association should further operationalize the AIDP Network for Criminal Justice. Now that the AIDP has worldwide partnership agreements with international and regional institutions this platform should not only be used for exchange of ideas, but also for acting operationally when it comes to tendering or representative activities at the international fora. The experience of cooperation between the Association and ISISC in the organisation of courses and studies as very positive and reveals a line that shall be intensified in the future with maximization the whole network. 

It is the aim to conclude an agreement with the Max Planck Institute of Foreign and International Criminal Law and to include it within the AIDP Network for Criminal Justice. 

2. Enhancing the Association’s national and regional representation 

• Intensifying efforts in order to increase the AIDP membership among practitioners and professionals working in the administration of justice, both at the national and international level.
• Supporting the creation of new national groups. Developing new means to promote their renewal and to generate new dynamics. 
• Intensifying the support to the Young Penalists Committee.

Comments

Besides the promotion of scientific activities of the Association, enhancing the national and regional representation of the AIDP is a strategic goal of utmost importance. 

The goal of the Association - being a contact platform - is to be open for all and to gather as many criminal law academics and practitioners as possible and to integrate them into the Association as members. In order to achieve this goal, our efforts to enlarge the social base of the Association continue.

This effort shall result, on one hand, in the increase of the number of our members. In this respect it is necessary to avoid concentrating too much in the Association on the academics. Instead, it is necessary to intensify our efforts to attract practitioners and civil servants working in the criminal justice administration both at the national and international level.

The activity of national groups is crucial in enlarging the membership base. Therefore the Association shall make all efforts to strengthen and support the creation and functioning of national groups. It must be avoided that the lack of activity or suboptimal functioning of national groups affect the image of the Association as a whole, as well as that it stops colleagues from the respective countries from participating in the Association. In that respect, monitoring of national groups by the Deputy Secretary General responsible for the respective region is crucial.

Of course, the enlargement of the social base has also great importance for the financial viability of our Association. This is even more so since the Association is financed mainly by the fees paid by members and national groups.

3. Promoting the upcoming generation

• The importance of the Committee of Young Penalists in the life of the Association is already obvious and we are thankful to them for their initiatives and participation at all levels. The support of the Committee of Young Penalists shall be continued and intensified as much as possible. 
• The Young Penalists should consider how the new social media can be used as tool of communication and dissemination and with the aim of increasing participation and promoting the upcoming generation.

4. Extension of partnerships and cooperation with other institutions and associations 

• Reinforcing the cooperation with the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the Organisation of American States and other international institutions.
• Support and promotion of the Coordination Committee of the Five Big Associations.
• Promotion of initiatives (like the Prizes of the AIDP) with other centres/institutions. 
• Establishment of structural contacts with professional organisations active at the regional and international level. 

Comments

The Association has consultative status at several regional and international organisations or has privileged cooperation with them. It is, however, important to set up a strategy to have more impact on the work of these institutions. This can be done through more active presence of the AIDP at the meetings of the respective regional and international organisations. For that reason a vice-president is in charge of the external relations of the AIDP. It is further important that the Association participates in side-events at the main meetings/congresses of such regional and international organisations and disseminate and represents our resolutions. 

The Association also has outstanding relations with other organisations in the field of criminal justice, the so-called sister organisations, such as the International Society of Social Defence - whose President is one of the Vice-presidents of the Association - the International Society of Criminology - whose President is member of the Executive Committee of the AIDP -, the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation and the World Society of Victimology. In the course of the last mandate, a committee of coordination of these five big associations has been set up. Further effort must be invested to see how this sister network/platform can set up operational activity that is mutually beneficial for all participants and increases the visibility of the criminal justice associations at the institutional level and in civil society. 

The cooperation with other institutions led to the creation of two important prizes: 

• the Jescheck Prize together with the Max-Planck Institute of Foreign and International Criminal Law, and 
• the Siracusa Prize together with ISISC. 

We shall further promote such initiatives that are very essential from the point of view of promotion of our activity. 

Finally, it is also crucial to establish structural contacts with professional organisations (advocates, prosecutors, judges, etc.) that are active at the regional and international level. The executive Vice-President, who is the President of the International Association of Prosecutors, is in charge of this task. 

5. Improvement of  the Association’s Publication and Communication Strategy 

• Setting up a Publication and Communication Strategy, a Renewal of the Review Committee and the Committee of the ReAIDP.
• Improve the use of the renewed web page in support of the AIDP`s scientific activities in general.
• Setting up a promotion and marketing strategy of the Association. Developing instruments (AIDP brochure, flyers, etc.) for this purpose. 
• Supporting our representatives at international and regional institutions.
• Completing our website, already trilingual, with specific pages in other languages spoken by large parts of the world’s population.

Comments

Although the image of the Association is very good in the world due to its history and activities, the efforts to improve this image even further must remain continuous. It is therefore necessary to establish a publicity and marketing strategy and to launch a promotion line for the Association and to use tools (flyers, brochures, social media, etc.) that enable to make promotion campaigns of the Association by the Executive Committee and other structures of the Association. 

Taking into account that the Website shall be the fundamental tool for the promotion of the Association we will develop our website, already trilingual, and add specific pages in different languages equally spoken by greater parts of the world population.

Concerning the publications of the Association, 

• We published three volumes of Nouvelles Etudes Pénales containing all the resolutions of the Congresses of the Association (in French, English and Spanish). The NEP remains open for publication of results of the scientific activities of the National Groups.
• After the renewal of the editorial team of the RIDP, the Committee of the Review shall reflect on the editorial strategy of the Review and in particular to an increased presence in the Anglophone world. 
• The Electronic Review is an excellent means of fast publication (of course contributions are submitted to review prior to publication in the eRIDP). Therefore the necessary decisions should be adopted in order to secure broader knowledge about the existence of the Electronic Review and the possibility to publish articles in it. .

The web page of the Association has been reorganised and it is now a more and more important communication tool. In order to fully profit from the possibilities offered by the web page for the purposes of our scientific activities and also for general purposes, these possibilities should be explored. 

6. Management and Financial Strategy

• In accordance with the new By-Laws, the AIDP will revise its Internal Regulation. 
• Full use of the possibilities offered by the web site.
• Adoption of the provisions necessary to consolidate the financial situation. For this reason the Executive Vice-President will elaborate on a yearly basis a Financial Strategy and a Financial Outlook to the Future.

Comments

While the management and financial condition of the Association are good, the effort to improve shall continue. It is the task of the Executive Committee to study the necessary changes of our internal functioning and to apply them or to present respective proposals to competent bodies of the Association. The full use of the web page is part of this strategic line. 

Finally, the importance of the economic aspects is crucial for the life of the Association.  In this respect, the Association shall devote part of its financial resources, besides publishing the Revue, to the development of scientific activities like the organisation of conferences and research, to the improvement of its internal functioning and to its external representation at the regional and international level. 

7. Multi-linguistic Performance

• Publication in English, French and Spanish of our key tools (minutes of meetings of the directing organs, questionnaires, resolutions, newsletter)
• Study Multi-Linguistic Performance in our Publication and Communication Strategy 
• Use of our regional and national groups in that respect
• Professionalize the quality of the translation

Comments

The AIDP should be perceived as a global player which is able to publish and communicate properly in the three working languages.

Further activities in other languages represent, of course, an added value. This can be done through the translation and publication of our resolutions, through regional working groups, through regional conferences, etc.