Legal Rights of the Poor: Making the Law Work for Everyone
This master class is intended to complement the PROLAW curriculum to ensure that the central principle of the SDGs: “Leave No One Behind”, which requires inclusive approaches, is given adequate attention. According to Justice for All report (2019 ): “4.5 billion people are excluded from the opportunities the law provides. Over 1 billion people lack legal identity. More than 2 billion are employed in the informal sector and the same number lack proof of housing or land tenure. This makes them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and less able to access economic opportunities and public services. In total, 5.1 billion people – two-thirds of the world’s population – lack meaningful access to justice. While people in all countries are affected, the burden of this injustice is not randomly distributed among people. The justice gap is both a reflection of structural inequalities and a contributor to these inequalities”.
Earlier in 2008, the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor in its landmark report, “Making the Law Work for Everyone” , had identified about 4 billion people who could not use the law to improve their livelihoods and who were essentially living in the shadows of the law on the margins of the formal sector institutions of the law and the development process. The class will provide responses to these challenges in 2 of the 4 PROLAW concentration areas: 1. Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding; and 2. Economic development. Aspects of the other 2 concentration areas: Building State Institutions and Constitutions; and Environmental Law will be weaved into these areas as appropriate.
The 2-day master class will be structured into 4 sessions. Sessions 1 and 2 will provide an overview of the principles and strategies of legal rights and legal empowerment of the poor as they relate to the Sustainable Development Goals broadly. Sessions 3 and 4 will then focus on these principles and strategies as they relate to economic development and conflict and peace, two of the concentration areas of PROLAW.
This master class is intended to complement the PROLAW curriculum to ensure that the central principle of the SDGs: “Leave No One Behind”, which requires inclusive approaches, is given adequate attention. According to Justice for All report (2019 ): “4.5 billion people are excluded from the opportunities the law provides. Over 1 billion people lack legal identity. More than 2 billion are employed in the informal sector and the same number lack proof of housing or land tenure. This makes them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and less able to access economic opportunities and public services. In total, 5.1 billion people – two-thirds of the world’s population – lack meaningful access to justice. While people in all countries are affected, the burden of this injustice is not randomly distributed among people. The justice gap is both a reflection of structural inequalities and a contributor to these inequalities”.
Earlier in 2008, the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor in its landmark report, “Making the Law Work for Everyone” , had identified about 4 billion people who could not use the law to improve their livelihoods and who were essentially living in the shadows of the law on the margins of the formal sector institutions of the law and the development process. The class will provide responses to these challenges in 2 of the 4 PROLAW concentration areas: 1. Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding; and 2. Economic development. Aspects of the other 2 concentration areas: Building State Institutions and Constitutions; and Environmental Law will be weaved into these areas as appropriate.
The 2-day master class will be structured into 4 sessions. Sessions 1 and 2 will provide an overview of the principles and strategies of legal rights and legal empowerment of the poor as they relate to the Sustainable Development Goals broadly. Sessions 3 and 4 will then focus on these principles and strategies as they relate to economic development and conflict and peace, two of the concentration areas of PROLAW.