Rights mean little if those entitled to them are not aware they exist. Due process is of doubtful value when you are illiterate, or unable to understand the proceedings. Courts are next to worthless for those who cannot afford the bus fare to reach them. Nor should justice be about courts alone. For all these reasons, legal empowerment is crucial. Part of IDLO's bottom-up (or demand side) approach, it involves equipping people with the knowledge, confidence and skills to realize their rights. Even as we work to improve the functioning of justice systems, we strengthen citizens' capacity to press for justice from below.
The rule of law only exists to the extent that it works for all.
IDLO works to empower rural women by enhancing legal knowledge and rights awareness, giving them tools to promote justice in their local communities, and promoting their professional participation in the justice sector. Many women living in rural communities are excluded from decision-making processes and unable to access formal justice structures.
In September and October 2017, IDLO and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) organized 2 workshops and a dialogue forum in Uganda and Tanzania convening law students and legal academics to discuss the role of the law in national and global HIV responses.
Two students from South Sudan’s University of Juba’s College of Law (COL) have successfully competed in the African Human Rights Moot Competition, held from 18 – 23 September in Mauritius. Their participation was facilitated by IDLO as part of its work to foster legal education in South Sudan.
High-Level Dialogue on legal and expert assistance to make foreign investment work better for the sustainable development of the LDCs.
The story goes as follows: A wife confronts her husband with allegations of an extramarital affair. The husband’s reaction is violent; yelling and screaming, he beats her. She goes to seek help from a local administrator – but falls on deaf ears.
“I come from Bangladesh, a country which also has enormous problems about the denial of justice, and about efforts and the measures that are being taken to strengthen people’s capacity to access justice. But, it was here in Africa, that I learned what it can mean, in real terms, for the people. And I will tell you now the story of Rosie.”
Sustainable management of natural resources in Indonesia is negatively affected by overlapping land permits, with local governments, companies, local populations and indigenous people simultaneously claiming the same land. In East Kalimantan, the government has identified several nature reserve areas, but in the same area there are vast coal deposits, oil palm plantation sites and timber, gas, oil and coal extraction companies. Beyond this, local communities claim ownership of land based on historic or customary rights.
Fires are affecting forests and peat lands in Indonesia. This is problematic because these areas are often declared de facto open areas for which the government grants licenses to concession companies. Overlapping permits can result in farmers being displaced on their own lands, tenure conflicts and the criminalization or eviction of rural communities.
Over 5,000 people across several provinces in Afghanistan have learned about violence against women and citizens’ legal rights through an awareness campaign supported by IDLO.
Over 5,000 people across several provinces in Afghanistan have learned about violence against women and citizens’ legal rights through an awareness campaign supported by IDLO.
 Policy Statements
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