scholarly journals A perspective on utilizing legal frameworks to obligate service providers to protect human rights in Malawi: A Case of the Mandatory Provision on Pro Bono Services under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act, 2018

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-495
Author(s):  
Grace MTAWALI
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Culture Of Silence ◽  
Legal Frameworks

Malawi's Constitution of 1994 changed the law in a pro-human rights direction. It provides for safe guarding measures aimed at protecting human rights. Malawi also has progressive pro-human rights legislations which emulate provisions of international and regional human rights instruments. However, enforcement of legal frameworks remains a challenge, partly due to poverty hence a large percentage of the population is unable to meet legal costs; lack of legal literacy and distance hinders access justice. A culture of silence continues to perpetuate human rights violations, so too uncoordinated efforts by service providers in protecting human rights. The majority of legal practitioners practice commercial law hence over burdening the Legal Aid Bureau with under privileged clients, whose cases mostly border on human rights violations. This paper will look at the opportunities government has in utilizing the legal frameworks to obligate duty bearers to provide services that aim to promote human rights including access to justice for under privileged Malawians. Legal practitioners are now, under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act of 2018, obligated to provide pro bono legal services in order to have their licenses renewed. This has seen a rise in the number of under privileged people, particularly women, able to access justice at various levels. This can also be attributed to human rights awareness done by the Human Rights Commission, human rights lawyers and civil society organizations. This paper will therefore examine the positive impact such an initiative has had in protecting human rights and upholding the rule of law in Malawi.

Access to Justice for Internally Displaced Persons: The Global Legal Order

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Ndimurwimo ◽  
Leonard Opara
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Internal Displacement ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Internally Displaced Persons ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Displaced Persons ◽  
Internally Displaced

Internally displaced persons are people who are uprooted from their social, economic, cultural and educational environment and made squatters or homeless within the jurisdiction of their own country. They consequently have no permanent place of abode. Internal displacement therefore becomes a situation that deprives individuals of access to justice and leads to violations of the human rights of categories of citizens. For example, women, children and the elderly are more vulnerable and lack social-economic assistance from their loved ones and family support because of their internal displacement. Their situation denies them access to justice from several perspectives, such as being in a state of despair, instability and uncertainty. This article examines the ways in which the domestication of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa of 2009 (the Kampala Convention) and clinical legal education can be used to promote access for internally displaced persons to justice and basic human rights. In this regard, the article further analyses access to justice for internally displaced persons through the teaching methodology of clinical legal education in African legal jurisprudence. Finally, the article recommends the involvement of legal clinicians and other practitioners as advocates of internally displaced persons’ access to justice, respect for human rights and the rule of law as a requirement for the domestication of the Kampala Convention by Member States in Africa.

Early assessment of mental health and options for documentation of torture in newly arrived asylum seekers

2021 ◽  
pp. 387-394
Author(s):  
Nora Sveaass ◽  
Birgit Lie
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Early Identification ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Early Assessment ◽  
Health Related

This chapter describes experiences regarding early health assessment of persons seeking protection in a new society, and discusses these in relation to existing research. as well as to policies and recommendations from states, academia, and civil-society organizations. Early identification and documentation of torture and other human rights violations with regard to follow-up, protection needs, right to reparation, and access to justice are touched upon. There is a growing acknowledgement of the importance of early assessment of health and early identification of health-related problems in persons exposed to ongoing and serious stress. We will argue that this should also be understood in terms of international obligations to provide health care and other forms of redress to persons subjected to torture and ill treatment. States receiving refugees and asylum seekers must consider good health assessments and services to persons seeking protection, as part of their human rights obligations, as well as good and sound public health approach.

scholarly journals Improving Access to Justice: Community-based Solutions

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-90
Author(s):  
Fatos Selita
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Organizational Changes ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Science Community ◽  
The Uk

Inaccessibility to justice is a major issue internationally, and in some countries access to justice has decreased in recent years. For example, the growth of inequality and decline of state support have left access to justice in the UK and the USA in a worst state in decades. There is therefore an urgent need to find solutions to protect peoples’ rights. This article outlines key issues of access to justice and identifies a number of solutions from grassroots efforts to organizational changes. The article highlights the importance of community-based solutions, such as mass pro bono contributions from individuals, law service providers and other organizations. It also proposes, as a key solution, making legal professions more representative of societies, and calls for law schools and legal regulators to take the required steps. Another important contributor to improved access to justice is promotion of pro bono work by all lawyers and law organizations at their own initiative. The article also discusses enhancing existing law degrees with additional topics on access to justice, to help students gain an objective picture of the realities of the legal system, and on individual differences, to benefit from latest interdisciplinary science. Community-based solutions provide stability even in times of difficult economic circumstances and political turbulence, and therefore are relevant to all societies.

Localizing Human Rights SDGs: Ghana in context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar S. Abdellatif
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
West African ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Agenda 2030

In September 2015, Ghana along all UN member states endorsed the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the cardinal agenda towards achieving a prosperous global future. The SDGs are strongly interdependent, making progress in all goals essential for a country’s achievement of sustainable development. While Ghana and other West African nations have exhibited significant economic and democratic development post-independence. The judiciary system and related legal frameworks, as well as the lack of rule law and political will for safeguarding the human rights of its citizens, falls short of considering violations against minorities. Will Ghana be able to localize human rights related SDGs, given that West African governments historically tended to promote internal security and stability at the expense of universal human rights? This paper focuses on evaluating the commitments made by Ghana towards achieving Agenda 2030, with a particular focus on the SDGs 10 and 16 relating to the promotion of reduced inequalities, peace, justice and accountable institutions. Moreover, this paper also analyzes legal instruments and state laws put in place post Ghana’s democratization in 1992 for the purpose of preventing discrimination and human rights violations in the nation. The article aims to highlight how Ghana’s post-independence political experience, the lack of rule of law, flaws in the judiciary system, and the weak public access to justice are obstacles to its effective localization of human rights SGDs. Those obstacles to Ghana’s compliance with SDGs 10 and 16 are outlined in this paper through a consideration of human rights violations faced by the Ghanaian Muslim and HIV minorities, poor prison conditions, limited public access to justice and the country’s failure to commit to international treaties on human rights. Keywords: Ghana, human rights, rule of law, security, Agenda 2030

scholarly journals La prohibición de la tortura: derecho humano

Tequio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 36-46
Author(s):  
Guadalupe del Carmen Morales-Toledo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Multidisciplinary Team ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Istanbul Protocol ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Degrading Treatment

Torture is a crime linked to serious human rights violations. To prevent, investigate, sanction and eradicate it, represents one of the biggest challenges when it comes to justice and human rights within our country, which currently holds high levels of impunity, and requires new and better investigation techniques, methods and strategies, that will allow meeting the demands for access to justice requested by the victims of these crimes. People deprived of their liberty (PDL) are demanding that all acts of torture itself become the subject of an investigation conducted by a multidisciplinary team in which lawyers, doctors and psychologists participate, based on the guidelines constituted in the Manual on Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, commonly known as the Istanbul Protocol.

scholarly journals THE INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM AND THE ROLE AND RIGHTS OF JUDGES

REVISTA ESMAT ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 220-250
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Abi-Mershed
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Core Component ◽  
Effective Protection ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Judicial Protection ◽  
Domestic Level

Access to justice at the domestic level is a core component of human rights protection, with judges playing a key role in that process. Judges may require particular protection when subject to violations of their own rights in connection with their judicial mandate. This article first provides a basic overview of the Inter-American Commission’s and Court’s respective mandates. There are some brief references to examples from Brazil, as well as some concerning judicial independence and the protection of judges. The article then reviews a series of individual cases in which the Commission and Court have set standards on the obligation of states to respect the role and independence of judges. The focus is on independence, through respect for their security of tenure against improper interference, as well as effective protection when judges are subjected to threats or violence due to their work. In relation to judicial protection and guarantees, the article also looks briefly at the system’s clear position against the use of military jurisdiction to investigate, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations. The article closes with a brief reflection on the system and the commonalities and distinctions within which it necessarily works.

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