15:30 - 17:00 (CET)

During these working sessions, participants will explore how to design and implement data-driven strategies that contribute to building more just communities.

• Cultivating Judicial Leadership in the Tech Evolution of Courts Online EN / FR / ESP
• Establishing a People-Centered Access to Justice Research Agenda In-Person EN
• Gender Justice on the Frontlines: Grassroots and Institutional Responses to GBV Online EN / FR / ESP
• The Impact of Data and Evidence in Anti-Corruption Policies in Mexico Online EN / ESP
• Intersectional Discrimination in a Post-Covid World: Violations, Solutions, and Actions In-Person and Online EN
• Pathways to Justice: Effective Tools for Localized Community Solutions In-Person EN
• People-Centered Innovations in Community Justice In-Person and Online EN 
• Whistleblowing for Our Future: Innovations in Society’s Best Anti-Corruption Tool In-Person and Online EN

This session presented the Microjustice4All legal empowerment and legal inclusion mapping methods as
country specific tools to support the implementation of SDG16. These tools work by identifying legally
excluded groups, their level of vulnerability, and the legal problems that must be solved to promote
empowerment. Participants were instructed on how to start a legal inclusion mapping projects and
sustainable legal empowerment programs to help map and meet the basic daily legal needs of marginalized
groups in their own countries. 

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The Invisibles is the first digital identity project that focuses on the standards needed to facilitate the
scaling of digital identity projects beyond local populations. This session presented and gathered feedback
on: case studies where secure, trusted digital identities for doctors in the UK and refugees in the Middle
East have been built; proposed standards for creation, verification, and use of standards for creating digital
identities for disenfranchised populations; and an expanded vision of access to justice in the digital age.
Speakers emphasized that it is critical that access to justice be understood as more than just access to
courts and formal legal systems, but also include access to basic human rights related to identity: the right
to exist, the right to control one’s identity, and the right to have access to opportunity The session
highlighted a number of methods to improve the provision of digital identity including creating a
standardized system, using vaccination records, and leveraging a distributed multi-organizational approach. 

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What is the role of parliaments in relation to realizing “justice for all” and the sustainable development
goals? What should expert parliamentary committees be doing to ensure that national governments are
making progress? The session highlighted best practices from national parliaments, with the help of some
parliamentarians active in the field, and participants discussed the development of resources for
parliaments on their role in relation to access to justice and SDG16. Speakers emphasized the importance
of governing in coalition with others, to reduce partisanship and political influence in addressing the needs
of the justice system. It was also recommended that digitalization should not take place on a grand scale at
huge expense, but should be implemented in phases as economically as possible.

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This working session focused on how civil society can undertake investigations of transnational crimes to
collect evidence and press governments to take action. The Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) discussed
civil society’s role in bridging the enforcement gap when intergovernmental or governmental approaches
fail to address pressing issues. Specifically, the WJC presented its approach to the lack of enforcement of
laws related to wildlife crime and the urgent need to acknowledge it as transnational organized crime. The
WJC presented its intelligence-led approach to investigations and the role of public hearings as the ultimate
means to generate government accountability if all else fails. The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)
presented its approach documenting illegal fishing through film-led investigations to bring about
government enforcement. These approaches are essential to fill gaps left by a lack of enforcement of laws
against illegal fishing. During the session, both organizations highlighted the fact that without government
action, durable reform is not possible. Therefore influencing government strategies and priorities is crucial. 

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This session explored ways to advance the collection, analysis and programmatic use of people-centered data, indicators, and measurement tools that capture the legal needs and paths to justice of citizens and businesses. The session discussed strategies to produce accurate diagnostics of the challenges and opportunities around effective access to justice, and helped identify issues that could be addressed by public policies. To this end, the session drew on the experiences of various countries to illustrate opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned arising from the implementation of legal needs surveys, use of administrative case data and other data collection exercises, and featured various resources including the newly released Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Open Society Justice publication Legal Needs Surveys and Access to Justice. Key recommendations include:

• Frame data collected by the government as a public good that should be used by academia and civil society, and involve civil society in the development of survey instruments and tabulation plans. This ensures that government data does not lose its edge as a tool for advocacy and activism.
• Focus on measuring justice dispensed outside of courtrooms. We know that only 5-10% of people’s legal problems end up in courts.
• Use the OECD and OSJI methodological guidance on legal needs surveys and forthcoming Praia City Handbook as tools for your efforts to design measurement tools on access to civil justice. Stay tuned regarding a proposed indicator on civil justice for SDG target 16.3.

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Digital trails could endanger people and organizations in various high-risk contexts. This session provided an
overview of a data responsibility framework, the risks surrounding the use of communication channels with
regards to metadata, and explored practical mitigation strategies. By addressing case studies involving
whistleblowers, human rights activists, journalists and aid workers, the session encouraged attendees to
ask relevant questions and take home answers for their own organizations.The session concluded with
three key points. First, was a call to action, encouraging humanitarian organizations to avoid abstract
discussions about metadata, but to engage at the ground level and produce tangible outcomes. Second,
was to highlight that threat models are constantly changing and it is important for organizations to
frequently re-evaluate the risks they are exposed to and reexamine their data responsibility framework.
Finally, the Centre for Innovation presented an assessment framework for assessing metadata risks of
messaging platforms. They underscored how important it is for organizations to better understand how
metadata is collected and stored by platforms and be aware of the risks associated with using social
messaging platforms.

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A deficiency in global law is the gap in legal remedies available to those affected by transnational enterprises. The creation of the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration intends to help close this gap. This session discussed the utility of international dispute resolution in the field of business and human rights and the viability of the Hague Rules to enable businesses and people to resolve their disputes in a consensual and legally binding way. The session highlighted that an arbitration solution to this specific aspect of the justice gap may be attractive to both corporations and victims due to its properties of neutrality, enforceability of cross border arbitral awards, and procedural flexibility of both the applicable law and the process. The main challenge, on the other hand, is that arbitration is a voluntary, consent-based process. Among the central issues under consideration for the continued development of the Hague Rules are the four key areas of consent, composition, confidentiality, and cost. 

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Customary and informal justice systems provide vital pathways to everyday justice, and are essential to fulfilling the promise of justice for all reflected in SDG16. Discussion focused on how efforts to achieve SDG16 can engage with the opportunities and challenges associated with justice pluralism. There is no possibility of realizing this ambitious goal of justice for all by 2030 without considering, and carefully evaluating, the vital role of customary and informal justice systems. Customary and informal systems present unique advantages. These systems are the only dispute resolution fora available in some communities, and therefore allow people to seek justice when they would otherwise be excluded entirely. These systems often have high levels of use and acceptance in the communities that they serve because they are geographically closer, faster to resolve disputes, trusted more than formal court-based systems, more cost effective to use, and are more familiar in terms of linguistic and cultural relevancy. Yet, all justice systems—whether formal or informal—have shortcomings. Therefore, it is particularly important to consider how informal systems treat vulnerable and marginalized groups within their respective communities. Ultimately, improving outcomes should be the goal when engaging the complexities of legal pluralism and customary systems.

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