An assessment of the access to justice in a country can only be a successful process, resulting in concrete improvement in access to justice, if the very specific conditions of that country and society are realistically taken into account within a unique (as opposed to “standard”) plan, and with direct participation of all concerned stakeholders and beneficiaries at the national and local level. This is one of the overall conclusions of the Regional consultation on access to justice assessments that took place in Bangkok within the “Access to Justice Week” (4-8 October 2010).

 

The Access to Justice Assessments Regional Consultation was an opportunity for UNDP Country Offices and practitioners who have conducted access to justice assessments in the Asia-Pacific region to come together and discuss the experiences and lessons from designing and conducting access to justice assessments as well as using findings to influence policies and programmes.

 

The experiences from a broad range of countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia, Timor Leste, the Philippines, India, and Pakistan provided a rich basis for discussion and learning on the challenges and opportunities encountered in designing and conducting the assessment as well as analyzing and disseminating findings and building partnerships. The similarities and differences between the assessments were highlighted and an open discussion was held on what worked and what would be done differently by practitioners who had designed and implemented such assessments.

 

The participation of institutions and organisations such as National Legal Services Authority in India, the Supreme Court and Civil Court of the Maldives, the Economic Social and Cultural Rights- Asia, TIFA Foundation Indonesia, the Alternative Law Groups, The Asia Foundation, the Open Society Justice Initiative, the World Bank Justice for the Poor Indonesia, the International Council of Jurists as well as UNDP country offices in the region were valuable in providing very concrete recommendations for the mapping/case study paper being developed on access to justice assessments in the region.

 

Among the points made during the consultation, many reflect the general need for much more local ownership and relevance of the assessment process in terms of actors participation, timing, or even the most practical aspects of assessment implementation such as the choice of language and translators. Some of the recommendations are highlighted below.

 

 

Finally, the country-based practitioners present at the consultation suggested to move away from developing a “standard toolkit” on access to justice assessments, since it would be difficult to have a universal approach that is applicable in all the very specific and diverse contexts of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Instead, a set of detailed case studies analysed through some key questions on objectives, ownership, impact, etc. of assessments would be useful.

 

The Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments participated in this regional consultation, and will use its precious recommendations, among other inputs, to further enhance its Users’ Guide series with a Users’ Guide on assessing Access to Justice – to be developed in 2011 in partnership with Harvard University.

 

Photo: UNDP Indonesia