Episode 43 – Why be a Watchdog with Taegin Reisman and Jennifer Easterday

Sad news for all international justice nerds (Stephanie is particularly upset about this one): the International Justice Monitor which supplied many of us with daily updates on major trials, is stopping its work (while keeping its archive online).

We took the occasion as a chance to chat with two expert trial monitors, Taegin Reisman and Jennifer Easterday, about why people monitor trials, what its intended impact – especially on affected communities – is, and who is picking up the torch now that Open Society Justice Initiative is no longer focused on this area.

Taegin Reisman is now Content Officer at Open Society Foundations after managing IJMonitor. Jennifer Easterday is the Executive Director at JustPeace Labs and helped mould Open Society’s monitoring project via her time with the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center, ensuring the monitoring of the trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

If monitoring is your thing, we refer also to the guide written by Janet for Open Society for organisations thinking about how to gather, disseminate and advocate around mass atrocity trials.

Jennifer’s version of escapism involves watching Vikings and reading Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Taegin is braving Season 4 of the Handmaid’s Tale, and recommends books Untamed by Glennon Doyle and Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong.