LA TRINIDAD, Benguet— To sustain justice and to check abuses across Asia, the International Bridges for Justice (IBJ) has formally launched its 2nd Justice Makers Fellowship Competition over the week.

The competition formally opened on January 27 in 76 countries world.

Dr. Michael Bengwayan, an IBJ facilitator for the Philippines said, the competition is open to applicants who have concrete, achievable ideas to promote and foster criminal justice and rule of law initiatives.

Each winning fellow will receive US $ 5,000 to implement the project. The winners will also participate in a week-long intensive training curse in Singapore.

IBJ will select only 8 fellows from the participating 76 countries, Bengwayan said.

A panel of judges from various parts of the world will choose seven Fellows from among the applicants while the eight will be chosen by a public rating process that allows people to register on www.justicemakers.net to evaluate each proposal, he added.

The prize money may not be that big, but it would give the winning fellow the potential for more additional funding from other international funding agencies.

The IBJ Justice Makers Fellewoship Competition is hosed on the IBJ-run website, www.justicemakers.net.

In a statement, IBJ CEO and founder, Karen Tse said, the IBJ Justice Makers Fellows is critical to protection the basic legal rights of ordinary citizens.

“We are getting people around the globe working to end torture and ensure legal rights”, She added.

A non-profit organization founded in 2000, IBJ was founded with the vision to end torture in the 21st century though justly implementing criminal laws.—larry madarang