Month June 2023

New Report Highlights People-Centred Justice Initiatives and Good Practices around the World

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The Justice Action Coalition (JAC), a group comprised of over 30 countries and organizations seeking to advance equal access to justice for all, last week released a new report entitled, “Good Practices and Commitments on People-Centered Justice”. The report highlights the commitments and work of JAC members in furthering people-centered access to justice. Good practices and initiatives highlighted in the report include:

  • Canada’s National Action Plan on Open Government (2022-2024) which includes pledges to share justice-related data, the use of plain language, and efforts to ensure access to justice for underrepresented and marginalized populations.
  • Columbia’s Diferencia Foundationwhich opened Alternative Conflict Resolution Centers in Bogotá and Medellín, with two target populations: LGBTI peoples and indigenous communities. These centres advance legal empowerment and the peaceful resolution of conflicts for historically discriminated peoples in Columbia.  
  • Portugal’s Justice Ministry has released a centralized, digital platform – RAL+ – that allows for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) case management. Using RAL+, Portuguese citizens can seek workplace mediation, request information, and monitor their cases. Justice professionals can track cases in real time and readily interact with parties and representatives.
  • In 2023, Indonesia created a Paralegal Justice Academy, which trains village chiefs to be paralegals. In the months since it launched, 300 chiefs have been trained, aiding local dispute resolution across the country.
  • The Solomon Islands’ Paralegalism Project trains and deploys paralegals to remote communities, educating community members on their rights and access to justice services. Since 2019, 25,441 people have been reached with this program.
  • The United States’ USAID Program in 2023 launched a Rule of Law Innovation, Design Experimentation, Acceleration, and Solutions (IDEAS) Lab. The Lab supports access to justice initiatives across the globe – for instance, facilitating a local justice needs survey in Kyrgyzstan, and starting an online community justice house in Ukraine.
  • Supported by the Dutch government, UNDP and UN Women have brought mobile legal aid services to Tanzania and Uganda, helping over 20,000 women and girls with claims related to land use, gender-based violence, marriage, and divorce.

You can read the full report in English here: https://cic.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/JAC-Good-Practices-and-Commitments-on-People-Centered-Justice-June-2023.pdf.

B.C. Demographic Survey Seeks to Identify Systemic Racism and Aid Equitable Access

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British Columbia has launched a new survey aimed at gathering information on gaps and barriers that exist for racialized groups and Indigenous Peoples across the province. The recently launched B.C. Demographic Survey focuses on the needs of the province’s diverse population and addresses priorities outlined under B.C.’s Anti-Racism Data Act, which came into effect in June 2022.

The Anti-Racism Data Committee has identified the following priority areas for research:

  • Racial diversity within B.C.’s Public Service and equity in hiring and career development;
  • Interactions with the justice system and analysis of ‘complaints’ models;
  • Health outcomes, including understanding how the system is performing for different demographic groups;
  • Understanding how students across demographic groups access and use education supports and their outcomes;
  • Children, youth, and family wellness in home and away from home;
  • Economic inclusion, including analysis of unpaid work and foreign credential recognition;
  • Homelessness, housing supply and security

The survey is open to B.C. residents aged 13 or over. A parent or legal guardian can complete the survey on behalf of children under 13. The survey is available in 15 languages and will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. It will remain open until September 29th.

Access the survey in English here: https://antiracism.gov.bc.ca/help-fill-gaps-in-bc-government-services.

Information for this post was gleaned from the Government of British Columbia’s Anti-racism webpage and the following CBC News article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-demographic-survey-systemic-racism-legislation-1.6877013.

UNDP Publishes Evaluation of Support to Access to Justice

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The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published an evaluation of the UNDP’s support to access to justice. The evaluation examines UNDP support from 2014 to 2022, and is based on the following UNDP definition of access to justice: “the ability of people to seek and obtain a remedy, through the formal or informal justice system, and in accordance with human rights principles and standards”.

The evaluation’s six evaluation questions collectively identify the extent, effectiveness, relevance, coherence and sustainability of the UNDP’s efforts, which are assessed using qualitative and quantitative methods.

The evaluation’s 7 recommendations include:

  • Enhanced investment by the UNDP, and the strengthening of the UNDP’s value proposition in the area of access to justice at the country level, based on comprehensive analyses of institutional and people’s justice needs;
  • Pivoting UNDP programmes to people-centred justice, including ongoing support to the institutionalization of legal aid and programmatic focus on fairness, quality and oversight of justice processes in ways that align with people’s ability to address and prevent justice problems;
  • Expanding the UNDP’s work to include more actors, such as alternative dispute resolution;
  • Investment in more and better people-centred justice data.

The full Evaluation of UNDP Support of Access to Justice report and infographics are available in English here: http://web.undp.org/evaluation/evaluations/thematic/a2j.shtml.

National Self-Represented Litigants Project Seeking Feedback on Virtual Hearings

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The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP), an organization that works to enhance the responsiveness of the Canadian justice system to self-represented litigants, is seeking feedback from self-represented persons on their experience in virtual hearings.

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, courts and tribunals in Canada have increasingly shifted toward virtual processes, replacing many in-person court hearings with meetings via Zoom, Teams, etc. The National Self-Represented Litigants Project is conducting research aimed at understanding self-represented litigants’ experiences with virtual hearings in all legal environments (family, civil, criminal, tribunal). The survey is open to self-represented litigants anywhere in Canada. The survey is anonymous and will take no longer than 15-20 minutes to complete.

The survey is available in English here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/C68ZLYP.

Ce sondage anonyme est disponible en français ici : https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZDXDMJH.

This research is funded by the McLachlin Fund.