A powerful community of learning

In countries around the world, democracy is under threat. Nearly 70% of our Grassroots Justice Network members report that helping communities know, use, and shape the law has become increasingly difficult in their contexts, with almost half sharing that their colleagues or communities had been threatened or arrested in the past year.

But we are not facing these challenges alone. Throughout 2024, more than 1,300 members from 70+ countries convened in person and online to exchange strategies for resisting repression and deepening democracy.

“When we learn from one another, we get stronger,” says Network member Tom Weerachat, a community organizer from Thailand. “Through sharing knowledge and tools, we bring everyone closer to achieving justice.”

Members from 18 countries where democracy is under fire came together to analyze common tactics of repression and strategies for overcoming it. From this collaboration – and with input from over 100 other members – we created a practical playbook for countering authoritarian tactics. We launched a podcast where justice defenders share their strategies for strengthening community participation in decision-making. We produced a report that brings together powerful examples from 17 countries where grassroots legal empowerment has led to large-scale improvements in laws and systems.

The demand for learning is soaring. In Latin America, where we have piloted ELAC (the Latin American School for Community Lawyering and Legal Activism) since 2022, applications have increased by nearly 400%. Our learning programs provide practical knowledge that helps justice advocates get real results. For example, ELAC helped Annel Zepeda, a grassroots leader from Mexico, use data to convince her city council to reconsider a construction permit that would have destroyed a wetland in a flood-prone area.

To meet the growing demand for learning worldwide, we developed plans for the Grassroots Justice Network Academy, a learning institute to be launched in 2026 with the aim of catalyzing movements capable of deep systems change in 100 countries.