<\/p>\n
The slow burn of justice. <\/em>In launching the \u201cResisting Injustice\u201d blog series, Namati has evoked the powerful image of the arc of history bending towards justice and, in the process, a long history of calls to justice by such inspirational Americans as Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Parker. On questions of justice, I often turn to another well-worn image: the flame.<\/span><\/p>\n The flame of justice burns in all of us, across communities and generations. It is our shared dignity as well as our responsibility to nurture it so that it doesn\u2019t go out or burn out of control \u2013 the proverbial forest fire \u2013 in such a way that one person\u2019s or group\u2019s pursuit of justice comes at the exclusion of others.<\/span><\/p>\n Across the world, the space for respectful debate and disagreement is rapidly shrinking.<\/strong>\u00a0In some countries, populist movements have used a discourse of suspicion and intolerance to target disadvantaged groups, like refugees and migrants, while other countries have seen outright attacks on freedom of expression. Are the fires of justice growing too weak or raging out of control? It is not an easy question to answer in one go.<\/span><\/p>\n Like many, I was inspired and relieved a couple of months ago to see lawyers in major airports across the US come to the assistance of foreign nationals facing a government order that challenged many shared notions of justice. In that moment, we saw the power of the law to resist injustice in a moment of crisis (which also, as Irene Khan the Secretary-General of IDLO recently remarked<\/a>, made lawyers \u201ccool\u201d again). It was a spark of justice that ignited the imagination of people across many boundaries. And we see those sparks in different legal empowerment efforts in countries around the world. This example<\/a> of a community in Duah, Liberia confronting a village leader on a crony land deal is one of many that jump to mind.<\/span><\/p>\n