Enhancement of Justice at Community Level in Zambia – Workbook for Stakeholders in Access to Justice

Human rights abuses and constraints to accessing justice negatively affect many rural and urban poor residents in Southern and Eastern provinces of Zambia. The most pressing human rights concerns are violence against women including domestic violence, sexual abuse of children (defilement) including child labor, neglect of children by their parents, and disputes related to land ownership, including women’s lack of access to property which always manifests itself either at divorce or when a husband dies intestate. Through a legal needs assessment that was undertaken in six communities in Southern in 2011 and three in Eastern provinces in 2012, the local communities expressed limited knowledge of what rights were guaranteed to them by law, what remedies were available for violations of those rights, and lack of confidence in both the formal and informal justice institutions responsible for providing remedies for violations of human rights and law.

This workbook has been developed to provide traditional leaders and paralegals in the target areas with legal information and practical skills that will enable them to help their community members through traditional adjudication and free legal advice in relation to the specific legal needs brought out by the community. The provision of paralegal services is intended to increase rights awareness on the part of local residents as well as their ability to vindicate those rights through access to institutions responsible for ensuring justice. The workbook is intended to be a practical and flexible reference materials for both traditional leaders and paralegals during community sensitization activities and even while sitting to hear cases in traditional courts and community legal desks