Legal Empowerment of the Poor Within the System of Free Legal Aid Delivery
Implementing the idea of “Empowerment…” – 2008 - establishing the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor; – 2009 – the report of General Secretary of UN on Legal Empowerment of the Poor and poverty reduction; Launching of implementing the LEP Initiative in Ukraine by the IRF within support of Open Society Justice Initiative (Budapest).
Ukrainian context The IRF supported the Legal needs’ assessment research, which showed: • Ukrainians need the legal aid. However they are passive because feel the lack of information regarding the sources of this aid 77% of respondents. • Poverty and distrust to the legal system are main reasons and and barriers for the people to maintain their rights. 52% could not get legal aid because they lacked money. 83% think that the rulings issued by judges are influenced by wealth status and those who possess more wealth will have the advantage when turning to judiciary system.
Network of Community Law Centers
Ensuring access to justice
CLCs provide the persons attending the Centers with requests with the information on legal issues, identify legal needs of local residents, actively cooperate with local government bodies to resolve individual problems and protect community interests.
Geography
Lvyv (2), Volyn (1), Rivne (2), Khmelnitsly (2), Kyiv (1), Chernigiv (1), Poltava (1), Odesa (5), Kherson (6), Luhansk (6), Dnipropetrovsk (1), Mykolayiv (1) regions.
Mission and impact • To establish the social links in the communities; • To include vulnerable groups to the social and decision making processes; • To raise the peoples’ capability to maintain their rights in legal ways.
The Centers’ principles • Aid is provided for free for all community members; • Aid is geography accessible, including for rural residents; • The Centers are ruled by the common Provision on the Community Law Centers and use the same client reporting forms; • The Centers operate as civil society organizations; • The Centers cooperate with self-government institutions on defining legal needs and readdressing the issues of the community members.
Program areas • Pro bono services provided by attorneys; • Mediation and alternative dispute resolutions; • Training paralegals and volunteers; • Establishing connections between rural communities of Ukraine.
Approaches Cooperation with the libraries
Informational materials development
Group consultations on most frequent legal issues
CLCs in Internet On-line consulting on www.pravo.prostir.ua
On Facebook Legal Empowerment of the Poor Ukraine
Outputs • 2009 – 2011 > 20 000 consultations; • Majority of the clients are women (>60%); • Most frequent requests are on social welfare issues (>50%); • > 70% requests were satisfied during the first visit to the CLC.
Outline “Acting legal rights are not luxury one can dispense with, but a general need. Exclusion of the poor from the scope of law – is not only an outrageous injustice, it means depriving them of the opportunity to improve their life, and is the element that keeps down the development of poor countries”. Report of the UN Commission on. Legal Empowerment of the Poor. “Making the law work for everyone”, 2008.
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International Renaissance Foundation Rule of Law Program 2011