Workshop on Democracy, Rule of Law and People-Centred Justice
Oct 7, 2024 | 9:00 AM - 4:00 PMRenaissance Room
Oct 7, 2024 | 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Renaissance Room
Description
Recent years have seen a weakening of democracy around the world, accompanied by a documented decline in the rule of law and justice. The independence of judges and lawyers is coming under strain, and civil society actors – especially those providing front line justice support and human rights defence – have seen their ability to operate threatened. These concurring challenges stand to deepen the impacts and extent of an existing global justice gap, whereby over half the world’s population lacks meaningful access to justice.
Recognising these growing challenges, and their interplay, underscores a new urgency to understand how justice systems and actors can be supported in upholding and reinforcing democracy and the rule of law. Greater understanding is needed on a practical, conceptual, and policy level as how best to promote democratic governance, the rule of law and people-centred justice – including basic questions about those goals relate to and reinforce one another.
Justice institutions and actors – judges, lawyers, grassroots justice defenders – have long stood as a cornerstone of the rule of law and democracy, acting as forces for positive change in upholding and reinforcing democracy in periods of threat or transition. People-centred justice efforts to address the global justice gap reflect calls to “democratize legal systems”, for instance, through legal empowerment initiatives, which seek to place people and communities at the heart of the justice reforms.
This technical workshop co-hosted by IDRC Canada and the OECD seeks to tackle these pressing issues by focusing on the intersection of democracy, the rule of law, and people-centred justice. The workshop will gather a diverse group of experts, practitioners, and stakeholders to engage in participatory discussions on how justice systems and actors can be strengthened to uphold democratic values. Participants will benefit from short introductory presentations by experts, followed by interactive discussions designed to reflect on real-world experiences and gather insights. Structured around a series of informal, working-level sessions, the workshop will focus on three key objectives:
1) To build a deeper and shared understanding of the challenges of the decline in democracy and the rule of law from a people-centred justice perspective.
2) To capture available data, evidence, and experiences of justice institutions and actors in confronting these challenges and promoting more democratic legal systems and governance.
3) To chart gaps and areas of shared priority, as well as potential mechanisms for collaboration or coordination among participant organisations.
Discussions will focus on several key topics: the current state of justice institutions and their role in maintaining democracy and the rule of law; strategies for democratising legal systems to reinforce governance; effective people-centred justice approaches that can help communities navigate, counteract the democracy and the rule of law decline, and contribute to the positive trends and changes. Sessions will also explore how justice systems can be made more effective, inclusive, and responsive to prevent justice problems, address the justice gap, reduce inequality and exclusion.
