World Justice Challenge: A Year of Impact

The World Justice Challenge is a global competition to identify, recognize, and promote effective and innovative initiatives to protect and advance the rule of law. In June 2022, the World Justice Project awarded five winning projects at the World Justice Forum in The Hague. These outstanding projects from Cambodia, Ghana, India, Nigeria, and a US-based global program were selected for their impact in three thematic areas: access to justice, anti-corruption and open government, and equal rights and non-discrimination.  

One year later, the World Justice Project hosted a webinar series and heard from these Challenge winners how their work has advanced, the most pressing priorities they currently face, and how they are continuing to take action for the rule of law.  

See below for more information: 

June 29, 10 a.m. ET 

Addressing the evolving threats to LGBTQ+ Communities

In celebration of Pride Month, WJP launched this series on June 29 with InReach, the winner of the Data for Justice prize. InReach, creator of the world’s first tech platform matching LGBTQ+ people facing persecution with verified resources, shared updates on how their work has reacted to meet the evolving discrimination and threats facing LGBTQ+ communities today. 

July 12, 11 a.m. ET 

Mobilizing Communities to Tackle Gender-Based Violence

In this session, ElsaMarie D’Silva, founder of Red Dot Foundation, shared progress made since Safecity won the World Justice Challenge. Safecity is a crowdmap for anonymous reporting of sexual and gender-based violence. In the last year, Safecity has expanded beyond India and is now being used in more than ten countries, where local chapters and partners are working to strengthen existing laws and develop effective strategies for violence prevention. Partners from The Philippines, Kenya and Brazil shared their experiences adopting the Safecity platform to counter gender-based violence in their communities.

July 26, 9 a.m. ET 

Systems Thinking to Advance People-Centered Justice

On July 26, we learned how Cambodia’s human rights defenders are moving forward together to build stronger communities. We heard from World Justice Challenge winner, Cambodia Bridges to Justice, and its partners the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, Legal Aid Cambodia, Community Legal Education Centre, and the Centre for Law and Transformative Change. Together they shared their insights of change and opportunity, leaving listeners with a thought-provoking call to action to meaningfully invest in people-centered justice programming.

August 10, 10 a.m. ET 

Expanding Access to Justice in Prisons and Beyond 

In this webinar, POS Foundation shared insights from their work to advance criminal justice reform in Ghana. The Justice for All Program, for which they won the World Justice Challenge, works to alleviate prison overcrowding through mobile, in-prison special courts. Their work in the past year has expanded to include an initiative training inmates as paralegals to write and file their own appeals and represent themselves in court, and a regional project to provide protection and legal assistance for small-scale cross-border trading in West Africa.

August 30, 10 a.m. ET 

Monitoring and Fighting Corruption in Nigeria

During this webinar, listeners heard from TransparencIT about the state of corruption and opportunities for change in Nigeria. Through their work to track and evaluate corruption case proceedings, including creating the country’s first central online database of corruption cases, TransparencIT helped successfully reduce the average duration of corruption trials from eight years to 3-4 years. Representatives from TransparencIT shared how their efforts have advanced in the past year and what key priorities remain, including efforts to institutionalize special Anti-Corruption Courts in the Nigerian judiciary. 

Apply now for the 2024 World Justice Challenge.

Questions? Contact [email protected].