Search Results for: open society

The Open Society Justice Initiative, the Open Society Initiative for East Africa, Namati, and the Nubian Rights Forum submitted this briefing paper to assist the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in its efforts to ensure the implementation of the case of Nubian Minors v. Kenya. In that March…

Dear Mr. President, Last Thursday I was at State House to witness the low-key start of a potentially profound revolution in the land sector. For decades, our people and the environment have borne the scourge of a broken land tenure system. Many attempting to buy land to build a future for their families have lost…

Efforts to advance justice and improve the rule of law can be divided into two categories. One set of efforts—by far the better funded and more established of the two—focuses on state institutions, on improving the effectiveness and fairness of the courts, the legislature, the police, the health and education systems, etc. A second set of efforts, sometimes termed legal empowerment, focuses on directly assisting ordinary people, especially the poor, who face justice problems.

This Essay argues that the institution of the paralegal offers a promising methodology of legal empowerment that fits between legal education and legal representation, one that maintains a focus on achieving concrete solutions to people’s justice problems but which employs, in addition to litigation, the more flexible, creative tools of social movements.

The Open Society Justice Initiative, TIFA Foundation, Namati, and the Indonesian Legal Resource Center (ILRC) are bringing together legal empowerment practitioners from across Southeast Asia to a Regional Workshop for Community-Based Paralegal Programmes. Applications will be accepted until September 7, 2012.

Right now, civil society organizations can add their voice to a growing campaign urging governments to adopt a development agenda that spreads justice, legal empowerment and the rule of law. We urge you to make your voice heard by signing the statement here.

Access to justice expert, Leanne McKay, blogs about the African Regional Workshop for Community-Based Paralegals. The workshop provided the first-ever opportunity for paralegal programs across the region to discuss strategies for addressing some of the challenges they face in executing their programs.

Deadline to apply: 28 August 2017. Download the application form here. Around the world, more than four billion people are living outside the protection of the law. They are unfairly driven from their land, denied essential services, excluded from society, and intimidated by violence. Legal empowerment is about turning that tide. It’s about enabling people…

A few weeks from now, the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) will begin winding up its activities. The committee was established in 2013 to review the current 1991 constitution taking into account views from the public and lessons from other countries. This 80 member review body has been constituted by an eclectic mix of representatives including amongst…

Soros is a prominent investor, philanthropist, and supporter of democratic ideals. He founded the Open Society Foundations, which support democracy and human rights in over 70 countries. He is also the chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC. As one of history’s most successful financiers, his views on economic issues are widely followed.

The Namati Citizenship program and the Open Society Justice Initiative developed “Documentation of Citizenship and Other Forms of Legal Identity: A Practitioner’s Guide for Community-Based Justice Programs,” in response to the growing recognition of the opportunity for community-based justice actors to assist individuals and communities suffering from a lack of documentation of citizenship or other…