The Role of Access to Justice in Sustainable Development

Presentation by Mrs. Maria Kaddu Busuulwa,    
Senior Legal Associate,FHRI.

at the East African Academy in Arusha, Tanzania from 4th - 5th 2014

Qtn: How will access to justice in Uganda work towards the attainment of SDGs?

Scope of discussion

·         What is access to justice?

·         What are the Sustainable development goals (SDGs)-summary

·         What should access to justice entail/what should it be in reality and how will it lead towards the development/sustainability of SDGs.

What is access to justice?

Ø  According to United States Institute of Peace, access to justice is more than improving an individual’s access to courts or guaranteeing legal representation. Access to justice is defined as the ability of people to seek and obtain a remedy through formal or informal institutions of justice for grievances in compliance with human rights standards.

What is Sustainable development and/or Sustainable development goals?

Ø  There are many definitions of sustainable development, including this landmark one which first appeared in 1987: — from the World Commission on Environment and Development’s (the Brundtland Commission) report "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Ø  Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the other hand refer to an agreement of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 (Rio+20), to develop a set of future international development goals. The proposal contains 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues, including ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests.

Ø  Goal 16 talks about access to justice. It seeks to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels 

 Access to Justice - A drive towards achieving the sustainable development goals

a)     Access to justice requires Equal Access to the laws in place

·         Equal access to the laws in place involves extending the reach of formal rule of law institutions to the population by removing barriers to their use.

·         It also involves engaging both the formal and informal sectors to enhance its reach, effectiveness, and compliance with human rights standards.

·         There is no access to justice where citizens (especially marginalized groups) fear the system, see it as alien, and do not access it; where the justice system is financially inaccessible; where individuals have no lawyers; where they do not have information or knowledge of rights; or where there is a weak justice system.

·         Access to justice involves normative legal protection, legal awareness, legal aid and counsel, adjudication, enforcement, and civil society oversight.

·         Equal access therefore will enlighten people about the laws in force which will enable them fight for their human rights thereby covering a broad range of sustainable development issues, including ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests.

·         In Uganda though the constitution provides for equal access to the law for all, in reality this is still myth as the poor and marginalized are mostly left out.

b)    Access to justice should address barriers to both quantity and quality of the law.

·         Improving access to justice is not just about more courtrooms or more judicial officers. It is also about quality of justice. Justice systems that are remote, unaffordable, slow, or incomprehensible to the public effectively deny legal protection.

·         Better prepared defense attorneys, more citizen-oriented court staff, more reasonable hours, better information about the justice system are all means for improving quality.

·         The justice system should be linguistically accessible with local language proceedings or provision of interpretation. Once these barriers are addressed, the social, economic and environmental goals will also be addressed.

·         Uganda is striving in addressing these barriers by training judicial through institutions such as Judicial Studies Institute, through NGOs and so on.

c)     Enhance physical access to attain access to justice.

·         Courts and police stations usually exist in urban, populated areas, leaving the rest of the country without proper access to the formal justice system.Relate to Uganda Bring judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, court administrative staff (including translators), police, and corrections officials, as well as logistical/security support and public information capacity to areas where the justice system has ceased to function.

·         Efforts should be undertaken to build and improve courts and police posts outside of urban areas to increase access to justice thereby fostering sustainable development.

·         In Uganda, most of the JLOS institutions are located in the urban centres e.g the appellate courts, law firms and legal aid service providers yet most of the Ugandan population is based in the rural areas.

d)    Increase access through provision of legal aid.

·         Legal information centres and legal aid offices that offer free or low-cost legal advice and representation, that train people to represent themselves, and paralegal-based projects that train and employ people to serve as advocates and mediators, can all increase public knowledge of the legal system.

·         Supplement legal aid schemes with paralegal aid schemes run by NGOs.). FHRI trains paralegals in Uganda.

·         Legal assistance can also be provided by law students or recent graduates through their law schools or legal resource centres. In Uganda, Law Development Centreadopted this method.

·         Hence by ensuring access to justice for the poor through provision of legal aid, we shall be able to see a decrease in poverty levels. In Uganda, legal aid services providers under the umbrella of LASPNET are in the process of drafting a legal aid bill which they want to be passed by parliament. In this way poverty eradication, gender equality and making cities more sustainable by decreasing crime rate can be achieved.

e)     Promote legal awareness.

·         For the population to access justice, they must understand their rights and the means for claiming them. For example if people are more aware of their basic human rights like the right to education, this can go a long way in influencing the economic development of the country. People once educated can even engage in public contacts which further promote social and economic development.

f)      Strengthening the informal/non-state e.g. civil society organisations and formal/state justice mechanisms to achieve access to justice

·         Maximizing access to justiceinvolves the use of both informal/non-state and formal/state justice mechanisms based on strict compliance with human rights standards. This will likely require harmonizing informal practices with national and international human rights law.

·         The informal systems derive legitimacy from traditional, customary, or religious sources. In these environments, they often help resolve disputes because the formal, state-based system does not reach the entire population, the population views informal mechanisms as more legitimate and effective, and the volume of cases may be too large for the formal system to process.

·         Where the informal sectors are left out, it will also mean that a large section of the population especially the poor and marginalised will not be able to access justice.

·         In Uganda, some cases can be handled by clan elders as long as decisions reached are in line with the constitution.

g)     Strengthen civil society as the foundation for promoting access to justice.

·         Civil society organizations should have a legal status to appear in court to undertake public interest litigation and can go a long way in promoting access to justice and fostering sustainable development. Legal barriers to their work need to be removed (e.g., laws that prohibit civil society from criticizing the judiciary).

·         In Uganda, FHRI has taken on public interest cases e.g. on the right to bail and treason, FIDA against laws discriminating against women especially under the Marriage and Divorce Acts.

h)    Recognize that increased access to justice depends on public confidence in the justice system especially the rule of law.

·         The rule of law is the legal principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to arbitrary decisions by individual government officials.

·         The recently adopted Resolution of the UN General Assembly on the Rule of Law (A/RES/67/1 24 September 2012) recalls that “the advancement of the rule of law at the national and international levels is essential for sustained and inclusive economic growth, sustainable development, the eradication of poverty and hunger and the full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development, all of which in turn reinforce the rule of law.

·          Applying the law equally as the rule of law requires regardless of identity is critical to creating a semblance of fairness and legitimacy. This involves applying laws in a non-discriminatory manner, treating all parties equally in the courtroom, and having rulings that are consistent with the law regardless of the identity of the parties (gender, class, religion).

·         Examples from Uganda..

Conclusion

Access to justice has and will always play a critical role in the functioning of societies.  More recently, however, the public, private, and non-profit sectors have recognized access to justice contributions and potential as engines of sustainable development and growth.  As a result, investing in access to justice is viewed not only as the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do.  Such investments, however, will not achieve their highest yield if societies or our people do not have adequate access to justice and basic human rights. .

WITHOUT ACCESS TO JUSTICE, INVESTMENTS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WILL LIKELY FAIL TO YIELD MAXIMUM IMPACT OR HAVE LASTING RESULTS.