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| Sunday, 26 September 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Justice for all The Ministry of Constitutional Reform, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, launched its 'Equal Access to Justice Project' at the BMICH two days ago. The Project, will be implemented in stages country-wide, and is scheduled for completion in mid 2007.
The project aims to increase its impact by covering all entry points to the justice system as a whole including the existence of laws compatible with international conventions and instruments, effective implementation mechanisms such as the police, prisons and the judiciary, and empowerment mechanisms including civil society organisations, lawyers, law students, and citizens themselves. As such, the programme is not confined to one angle such as providing legal aid, but aims to increase awareness among the citizens of their fundamental rights, sensitise law students and lawyers to the necessity for providing legal aid, enable civil society organisations play an advocacy role, educate the police and prisons as to the rights of the people and the important role they have to play in protecting these rights, and strengthen the judiciary to dispense justice in an efficient and effective manner. Elaborating on this the Government Analyst of UNDP, Thusitha Pilapitiya states that "a programme to sensitise members of the judiciary with regard to gender equality would have no real effect without a similar programme targeting the police, prison, and lawyers, as well as raising awareness on gender sensitivity among the disadvantaged victims". To ensure ownership by all of the diverse stakeholders involved in the justice sector, a Working Group was set up to develop the project. The Group's role was to devise a realistic plan of action to overcome the obstacles faced by the poor and disadvantaged in accessing the justice sector. The group comprising representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Judicial Services Commission, Department of Police, Department of Prisons, Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Sarvodaya on behalf of civil society, Human Rights Commission, Centre for the Study of Human Rights, and the Law Schools, jointly examined the root causes relating to the problems associated with accessing the justice system. "The Working Group moved away from the traditional definition of Access to Justice, which generally meant access to lawyers and courts, and some Alternate Dispute Resolution. Implementation "The Group adopted a broader approach. 'Access' was defined as normative protection, effective remedies including implementation and enforcement, and empowerment to seek a remedy. The term 'justice' was defined to include treaties, constitution, laws and regulations, customary law, judiciary, police, prisons, Human Rights Commission, lawyers, civil society, and law students," says Pilapitiya. The Project will strive for legal empowerment of and increased access to justice by the disadvantaged. The Project is expected to achieve an increase in the number and diversity of persons receiving effective legal services, receiving information on their rights and duties, and receiving community level Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) services. It is also expected to remove barriers to access the justice system such as geographical distances, unavailability of legal aid, and intimidation. "Of great importance is the goal to ensure that human rights are better promoted, and effectively protected", explains Pilapitiya. Activities of the Equal Access to Justice Project will focus on training, awareness, and most importantly policy changes to bring about sustainability. The Project is expected to facilitate an enabling environment to bring about changes in the way all justice sector actors conduct business and disadvantaged groups access their legal rights, whilst creating lasting mechanisms at the local level for citizens to act together to finally ensure justice. In addition to achievement of sustainability through changes in policy and practice, the adoption of a Human Rights Based Approach (HBRA), as well as a 'top down' - 'bottom up' approach remain key elements in the project strategy "The HRBA will ensure that attention would be paid to identify the most disadvantaged and the poorest of the poor in planning and implementing legal aid, legal awareness and ADR activities. Therefore the minimal steps in this approach would be considered as identifying claims of rights-holders and the obligations of duty-holders, as well as underlying structural causes when rights are not realised. It will also assess capacities of rights-holders to claim their rights and of duty-holders to fulfil their obligations; programme goal-setting, planning, design, and implementation guided by human rights standards and principles; and monitor and evaluate outcomes based on the same standards and principles", elaborate the project planners. The 'top down' - 'bottom up' approach will ensure that such mechanisms as local level committees will be placed at the villages and institutionalised for claim holders to express their needs, and duty holders to respond. Impediments This initiative by the Government of Sri Lanka supported by UNDP becomes all the more appropriate as poverty remains one of the biggest impediments affecting the ability to access justice in Sri Lanka. The poor represent the largest among the vulnerable groups and a large proportion is classified as living below the income poverty line with 6.6 per cent earning less than US$ 1 per day and 45.4 per cent earning less than US$ 2 per day. It has also been identified that sections of women and children are yet vulnerable groups with specific problems related to their ability to access justice services. Lack of empowerment and lack of resources impeded their access to the formal systems of justice. Increased numbers of women-headed households due to the armed conflict, and men-only headed households due to women leaving for employment, especially in the Middle East, have created special problems for women and children in these households. The lack of sufficient reporting mechanisms and powerful institutional arrangements to provide redress is a clear violation of the rights of the affected women and children. Commenting on the novel idea of including the Law Faculty of the University of Colombo, the Department of Law of the Open University of Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lanka Law College, the UNDP's Government Analyst says "The creation of a sense of social responsibility among law students can effectively strengthen the availability of high quality legal counsel for disadvantaged groups in Sri Lanka. We hope to introduce innovative efforts to take legal services to the people, as opposed to having the people come to the Project, and will include conducting of legal aid clinics by law students in disadvantaged areas. The Project will address policy changes necessary to advocate legal aid studies into the curriculum of the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo, Department of Law of the Open University of Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lanka Law College, and will explore the feasibility of advocating giving of credit to the law students for their participation in legal aid activities." Resolving the problems of access to justice is especially important in the current context of the on-going peace process in Sri Lanka. It is crucial at this point to build confidence in the justice sector to instill confidence among the people that their rights will be protected by the State. Public confidence in the justice sector is also a precondition for investor confidence in the economy. The focus is clearly on the poor and disadvantaged, and is therefore complementary to other current initiatives in this sphere. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
'Equal Access to Justice' takes a novel approach to ensure that
disadvantaged groups obtain equal access to justice by incorporating an
integrated definition of the justice sector.
