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This article first appeared in SierraEye Magazine.

When parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change meet later this month in Glasgow, Scotland, the focus will be on the whether the biggest emitter States are doing enough to cut back on emissions and stave off a possible climate meltdown. Industrialised countries bear the biggest responsibility for the current state of the world’s climate. They must take bold action to roll back harmful practices and support countries like Sierra Leone, vulnerable to the effects of climate change, to adapt to the new reality.

Yet to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change on their populations, States like Sierra Leone need to do more than simply rely on the provisions of international instruments. In 2019, while addressing the UN General Assembly during the Climate Action Summit, President Bio noted that “Sierra Leone…is rated as the third most vulnerable [country] to the effects of climate change.” He complained that the country is a “victim of actions we have not contributed to” and thus is unfairly and unacceptably paying the price both in terms of human lives and lack of development. He highlighted actions his government was taking to address climate change including planting over 100,000 trees as part of a five-year plan to plant two million trees.

Sadly though, 2019 turned out to be one of the worst years for Sierra Leone’s climate fight and the president’s words at the UN appear to have been mere lip service. The country’s 2020 public finance audit report shows that in 2019 more than 10 million slow-growing, rosewood trees were shipped off to Asia. Approximately two hundred thousand acres of old-growth forest was destroyed in the process- with the Outamba-Kilimi National Park, a protected forest in the north of the country, being the hardest hit.  Effectively, in a single year the government nullified its five-year reforestation plan, five times over.

Despite calls from environmental activists and civil society organisations to ban timber export, the government has steadfastly resisted. It plans to continue in the coming dry season after a pause brought about by the rains. Fifty years ago, Sierra Leone had a forest cover of 60%. Today, it is below 5%. At the current rate of exploitation, our vulnerable country will hit rock-bottom in a few short years- a victim of its own actions.

The impacts of this assault on our forests are already being felt. Rainfall this season has been shorter and more violent. Clean, fresh water is in short supply across the country.  Farm yields have dropped considerably because of poor soil quality and food insecurity affects almost 50% of the population. The 2017 landslide in Freetown that killed over a thousand people is a haunting reminder of how deadly the absence of forests can become. Yet the government is failing to course correct.

So as the country delegation prepares to show up at Glasgow, they should resist the temptation of promising what they will ultimately undermine or not deliver on. Instead, they need to honestly acknowledge that not only have they failed to do as much as they could to counter the effects of climate change in our backyard, but they have also worsened its impact.

The Government needs to take responsibility for this failure and recognise the long term danger that it portends for the people if things are not done differently, quickly.  And there are a few things that our precious nation could start doing to ward off the worst of the impacts.

For starters, an unequivocal ban on the export of timber from protected areas and old growth forests will make a quick and decisive difference. It will be a definitive statement of intent to the world that we take the climate crisis seriously. This can be complemented by effective forest conservation and regeneration programmes led by and targeting communities. By banning the export of timber, we will save 10 million trees annually, countless number of lives and most importantly, save a country.

Another action government could take is to conduct proper due diligence for any development project or investment likely to cause damage to our environment. From fish habours to mining concessions, where the net impact of a project or investment is negative, they should not be pursued. The longevity and health of a nation should not be sacrificed for short term revenue generation.

Finally, communities that bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change should be part of decision-making processes relating to conservation and protection of nature as well as the approval of development projects or investments.

We can and must do more internally to mitigate the impacts that climate change will continue to have on the people of Sierra Leone.

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We still have a chance to change that.

This week, the Task Force on Justice released one of the strongest endorsements of legal empowerment in any international document in history.

The Task Force, made up of governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector, came together to determine how countries can shift from justice for the few to justice for all by 2030.

As one of the civil society representatives on the Task Force, Namati’s CEO, Vivek Maru, goal was to sound the message of our movement: that progress towards justice requires giving people the power to know and exercise their rights.

The report doesn’t tiptoe around legal empowerment but rather embraces it as crucial to the achievement of the SDGs. “Legal empowerment helps people understand and use the law,” the Task Force finds. “It enables them to recognize legal problems when they arise and equips them with the skills and confidence to take action.”

Legal empowerment is essential not just for resolving individual disputes, but for “challeng[ing] powerful business and state interests” and “tackling the root causes of collective injustices.”

The report acknowledges that civil society has “a vital role to play in helping build trust in justice systems, by bringing justice closer to the people” and highlights the funding and protection challenges that stymie our community’s efforts.

The Task Force “supports the demand of the Justice For All campaign” and underscores that achieving the promise of the SDGs requires “recognizing grassroots justice defenders, financing them in ways that respect their independence, and protecting them from violence and coercion.”

The time is now to build long-term momentum. Use the Justice For All Action Pack to share the report’s recommendations with your government and highlight how civil society and government can work together to implement them.

Tap into the global energy around SDG16. At two moments in this Year of Justice — the High-level Political Forum and the UN General Assembly — governments will report for the first time on the progress they’ve made in delivering access to justice.

The Task Force report calls for governments to come to these events with concrete country-level commitments. Let’s use this window to shape what those commitments will be.

We cannot afford to have another year slip by without a hard charge towards justice. Our movement is helping to change the current trajectory. It’s high time our governments followed suit.

Download the full report here. 

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These words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ring true today. Especially when justice defenders themselves are at risk.

Today, on MLK Day, Namati and the Justice For All campaign are launching a policy brief that offers recommendations on how governments, donors, and multilateral institutions can finance and protect grassroots justice defenders, and why these steps are crucial to achieving the promise of “justice for all” in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Grassroots justice defenders do the work of legal empowerment. They support vulnerable groups to contend with complex, broken, or corrupt legal systems, and apply skills like negotiation, organizing, and advocacy to help people overcome injustice.

Despite mounting need, their efforts are under-resourced and often under attack.

Aid funding towards justice has decreased by 40% in 4 years; the funding that does exist tends to go to top-down approaches rather than bottom-up.

Meanwhile, civil society space is shrinking. In 2018, 321 defenders in 27 countries were targeted and killed for their work—the highest number on record. Two-thirds of Global Legal Empowerment Network members report that they were threatened for carrying out frontline justice work.

This new policy brief is an essential tool for anyone who wants to change that.

Written in close consultation with partners and Network members, our community argues that without investing in legal empowerment and securing the safety of its champions, “justice for all” will remain empty rhetoric, leaving the majority of the globe without access to justice.

Recommendations to address financing challenges include:

• ensuring investments in legal empowerment don’t curtail the independence of justice defenders;
• tapping into sector-specific sources of funding in areas like land, environment, and health.

Recommendations to address protection challenges include:

• Protecting grassroots justice defenders from intimidation, harassment, and murder;
• prohibiting lawsuits whose main purpose is to harass justice defenders.

This Wednesday, January 23rd, we are hosting a webinar to discuss how this policy brief can serve as a template to drive advocacy around the SDGs in our respective countries and as part of a global movement for justice. We hope you will join us.

Governments must ensure that justice flows not only to the strongest, richest, or most powerful, but to everyone. Justice defenders help make that happen. It’s high time world leaders recognize that with both words and action.

Download the PDF of the policy brief here.

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Ten years ago, the UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor released a landmark report finding that “at least four billion people are excluded from the rule of law.” The Commission, on which I was an Affiliate Expert, identified legal empowerment as an essential solution for closing the justice gap.

Over the last decade, and on every continent on the planet, community paralegals have put the power of law in people’s hands, turning legal empowerment into a global force.

In 2015, our movement succeeded in having justice included in the Sustainable Development Goals. This was a major shift in global thinking, with leaders from 193 countries committing to making “access to justice for all” a reality.

Yet, despite many promising victories, community paralegals and other grassroots justice defenders remain grossly underfunded and increasingly under attack.

People like Musa Usman Ndamba, a Global Legal Empowerment Network member and land rights activist from Cameroon. In May, Musa was sentenced to six months in prison based on claims of defamation from a wealthy businessman, which many in our community believe was retribution for Musa’s work exposing corrupt land deals. His imprisonment came after five years of judicial harassment, during which the court adjourned his hearings over 55 times.

Musa’s case is emblematic of how justice defenders are increasingly under threat of harassment, imprisonment, and violence.

Adding to these challenges is a lack of funding for the work of legal empowerment. In a recent survey of the Global Legal Empowerment Network, 67% of respondents noted that they’ll have to make cuts or will not be able to operate in the coming year due to funding concerns.

In 2015, when justice was included in the Sustainable Development Goals, not one country pledged a penny to finance access to justice. In fact, donor funding for justice has actually declined by 40% over the last four years.

As long as justice defenders are thwarted in this way, with threats increasing and funding decreasing, injustice will remain the norm for billions of people across the globe.

To overcome these odds, #JusticeForAll is a global campaign mobilizing to demand funding and protection for grassroots justice defenders. Sign the petition today and we’ll deliver our collective demands to world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

In recognition of the 10-year anniversary of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, we are also launching 10 Days of Local Action. From September 25 to October 6, grassroots campaign partners are organizing actions to advance financing and protection for grassroots justice defenders. Check out this Action Pack to see how you can join these efforts and organize an event in your community.

The people that make up our movement give me hope. Ten years ago, the Commission wrote, “Democracy and legal empowerment are kindred spirits.” I believe it. Our movement believes it. It’s time we made world leaders believe it too.

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When the 17 goals were announced, most were accompanied by major financial commitments: $956 million from the Gates Foundation and the UK government for nutrition; $25 billion in public and private financing for a global strategy to improve healthcare for women and children. Not a single penny was pledged to access to justice.

Grassroots approaches to justice remain chronically underfunded. Between 2005 and 2013, only 1.8% of global aid was dedicated to the justice sector [i] and only a handful of governments and donors recognize or fund grassroots justice defenders. In some of the world’s strongest economies, legal aid budgets are being cut.

Declines in democracy are further undermining the fight for justice in many societies. As authoritarianism grows and civil society space shrinks, the efforts and safety of grassroots justice defenders come increasingly under threat. [ii]

This World Social Justice Day grassroots justice defenders from around the world came together in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to call on world leaders to deliver on their promise of ensuring access to justice for all.

Mary Robinson and Hina Jilani of The Elders joined hundreds of civil society organizations for a public walk from the Cabildo to the Congress to demonstrate their shared commitment to realizing access to justice for all. The event is part of #WalkTogether, a year-long campaign leading up to Nelson Mandela’s 100th anniversary to inspire hope in the world by celebrating courageous moral leadership for “Mandela’s freedoms”: Peace, Health, Justice, and Equality.

The walk coincided with the first convening of a new global Task Force on Justice. Ministers from Argentina (host of the G20), the Netherlands (host of The Hague’s justice institutions) and Sierra Leone (chair of the G7+) have joined Hina Jilani as chairs of this new body. They have been tasked with accelerating the delivery of the SDGs that increase justice for people and communities living outside the protection of the law.

Civil society from across the world presented the members of the justice task force with the Declaration Villa Inflamable and called on them to implement its recommendations. The Declaration outlines practical steps for governments, the private sector, and civil society to increase access to justice by working together and supporting community-led efforts.

We know, however, that the biggest issues facing the justice community cannot be solved by a single walk or declaration. That is why Namati and the Global Legal Empowerment Network is taking the momentum generated by this event forward into a new three-year global campaign: Justice For All. The campaign will advocate for governments to improve funding and protections for grassroots justice defenders. Only when the work of those who help people to know, use and shape the law is secured will we be able to achieve access to justice for all.

Check out more photos and highlights from the day’s events on Twitter. 

[i] 2011 World Development Report

[ii] The Economist Intelligence Unit (2017), ‘Democracy Index 2017,’ available at Country analysis, industry analysis – Market risk assessment and The Economist Intelligence Unit (2017), Democracy Index 2017 – Free speech under attack. London: The Economist, available at Democracy Index 2017

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With authoritarianism on the rise worldwide, finding a solution to the funding gap is now more critical than ever.

Namati’s CEO, Vivek Maru, shares his ideas on how we can overcome this financial challenge in a new article for Foreign Policy.

Read the full article on Foreign Policy’s site by clicking here.

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But there is good news. In January 2016, the United Nations (UN) formally adopted a list of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that are designed to end extreme poverty, fight injustice and tackle climate change. Goal 16 specifically recognizes the importance of legal empowerment and equal access to justice for all, and how it can help achieve sustainable development. This historic achievement has the potential to foster great change.

As the 193 UN Member States who adopted the SDGs start working towards making the goals a reality, they are going to need help with implementing and monitoring their SDG commitments. This provides the legal empowerment and access to justice community with an unprecedented opportunity; they can use their government’s commitment to the SDGs as a way to seek funding and increased support for their work.

Namati and other members of the Transparency and Accountability (TAP) Network have been capitalizing upon this opportunity. Over the last few years Namati, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), the International Legal Foundation, and Open Society Justice Initiative have been working with reformers in countries around the world to push forward vital justice reforms using the momentum created by the SDGs. In Kenya, for example, the country’s first Legal Aid Law was passed, and in Indonesia the government adopted a comprehensive national justice plan. We want to share what we learned and support others to use the SDGs to advance much-needed justice reforms.

Our new publication, Advocacy: Justice and the SDGs is a step-by-step guide to help activists, policy practitioners, and members of civil society to use the SDGs to advocate for increased justice support and financing from their governments. It was developed with partners from around the world and through a series of consultations with members from the Global Legal Empowerment Network and wider civil society.

In September, we brought together over one hundred reformers at the UN General Assembly in New York. Participants had a robust discussion about how the SDGs can be used to further access to justice and shared successes, concerns, and challenges that they have faced in implementing this agenda. They also critiqued the guide, suggesting ways the content could be improved to serve the needs of NGOs working at the grassroots level. All of the comments were used to further revise and refine the toolkit.

Stacey Cram, Namati’s policy director, introduces the “Advocacy: Justice and the SDGs toolkit”.

In partnership with the governments of Argentina, Indonesia, and South Africa, the guide was officially launched on November 16th at the Second International Conference on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The conference gave members of civil society and governments an opportunity to share experiences and discuss ways to increase access to justice through the extension of legal aid systems. They welcomed the Advocacy: Justice and the SDGs guide with enthusiasm.

Reflecting on the event, Stacey Cram, Namati’s Policy Director said: “It’s been a wonderful few days with delegates from around the world discussing how the SDGs can help advance civil and criminal justice issues. People are clearly excited about the opportunity the SDGs present. However, it is also clear that there is a shared uncertainty about how exactly to utilize them. This is what makes this guide so important – it will be a practical tool to help turn this excitement into concrete action.”

The toolkit introduces the SDGs and explains the important part legal empowerment plays in their success, using cases studies to illustrate this relationship. It also contains a number of tips and diagnostic tools, including an access to justice assessment, GAP analysis, and solution tree, to help readers obtain data around country-specific justice issues. Ultimately, this guide will assist its users in developing advocacy strategies for reforms that will address country-specific justice issues, increase overall access to justice, and help hold their government accountable to their SDG and other international justice commitments.

To download the guide or learn more about its content and usage, please click here.

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