The theme of the Roundtable, Reimagining justice: building trust through people-centred justice, is inspired by Sustainable Development Goal 16 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, which calls for peaceful, just and inclusive societies and equal access to justice for all. The Roundtable furthers the implementation of the OECD Recommendation on Access to Justice and People-Centred Justice Systems and supports the OECD Reinforcing Democracy Initiative.

We came together to discuss how the justice sector can effectively respond to the mounting pressures on democracy and the fraying trust in public institutions, that we see in countries around the world. We are concerned by the related issues of insecurity and the decline in people’s well-being.

We recognize that the quality of a country’s justice sector and its ability to deliver on the promise of the rule of law, is linked directly to the robustness of its democracy and the well-being of its society. People-centred justice is key to re- enforcing and sustaining trust and the democratic relationship between people and the public institutions that govern them.

We explored measures and strategies to bring justice closer to people in a practical, inclusive and compassionate manner and we shared experiences and challenges related to the implementation of different justice pathways and innovation to reach people and enable them to resolve their everyday justice problems.

The 2030 Agenda calls for a more holistic approach. Individual and communal problems are interconnected, from housing to poverty to health to environmental degradation. To confront these serious problems, we sought to understand the underlying drivers and the challenges people face in resolving them. Experts presented research findings related to global trends including the use of AI and digitalisation; the failure to eradicate gender-based violence; and the ongoing discrimination of marginalized people and groups.

Together, we explored the foundational role of justice actors, formal and informal, to confront serious problems faced by people and communities such as the climate crisis and the impact of artificial intelligence on our societies and economies. We recognized that different countries and regions face many similar problems and that by sharing our innovative practices and experiences we can learn from one another. Our reflections and our work will continue.

We welcome the OECD papers launched on justice data governance, online dispute resolution and measuring access to court services. We look forward to future work on the toolkit and indicators to support implementation of the Recommendation, and other initiatives to strengthen data and evidence for people-centred justice.

Providing meaningful access to justice for all can help restore public confidence and reinforce the rule of law as a critical component of democracy. We welcome the increased focus on the rule of law and access to justice in the OECD’s Reinforcing Democracy Initiative. We look forward to the forthcoming Global Report and call on the OECD to scale up its support to member and partner countries that want to increase the effectiveness of their justice sector, in line with the Recommendation.

We recognize the International Development Research Center for their collaboration on the Roundtable, for their ongoing support to legal empowerment as a core component of people-centred justice, and for their hosting of the workshop on democracy, rule of law and people-centered justice, bringing together people and organisations from across the globe.

We acknowledge that we have hard work before us in order to heal our societies (including the natural world) both locally and globally. We call on all countries and partners to work with us, in the context of the UN’s 2030 Agenda, the OECD’s Reinforcing Democracy Initiative, the Open Government Partnership and the Justice Action Coalition.

We are grateful to all who traveled to Canada to share their expertise and experience. We will continue to support each other and work to build people-centred justice systems that can inspire trust, enable prosperity and well-being, and leave no one behind. 

Chair, 2024 OECD Global Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice

Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada