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Efforts on Enabling Access to Justice in Most Populous Country

Efforts on Enabling Access to Justice in Most Populous Country. Wenjuan Zhang, Vice Director of Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers. Challenges. With challenging number of disadvantaged groups Young lawyer system, small number, uneven distribution

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Efforts on Enabling Access to Justice in Most Populous Country

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  1. Efforts on Enabling Access to Justice in Most Populous Country Wenjuan Zhang, Vice Director of Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers

  2. Challenges • With challenging number of disadvantaged groups • Young lawyer system, small number, uneven distribution • Tension between fast economic development, speedy urbanization and the rule of law building

  3. Efforts to enable access to justice by government, lawyers’ association and civil society

  4. Nationwide and Institutionalized Legal Aid

  5. Led by government • Started in 1994,state responsibility • Legalized eligibility and procedure • Established government-funded nationwide legal aid offices (3236 by 2012) • Institutionalized financing system • Case type: criminal, civil and administrative case

  6. Budget Growth

  7. Efforts by Lawyers’ Association

  8. More Focus on Legal Aid and Public Interest • Among 22 specialized committees, at least 4 related committees ,Child Protection Committee, Constitutional Law and Human Rights Committee, Environment Law Committee, Committee on Legal Affaires in Rural Areas • Among18 Commissions, having Legal Aid Commission, Public Interest Law and Social Responsibility Committee

  9. Initiatives Launched by the ACLA • Lawyer Social Responsibility Annual Report , 2012 • Strategic partnership with BCLARC to establish the biggest pro bono network on child protection (＞9000 members), 2004 • CLHRC’s launched annual impact litigation case ranking, 2006 • 1+1 program for sending lawyers to poor counties without lawyers

  10. A collaborative and problem-solving oriented experiment on effective legal aid model for migrant workers

  11. Problems to be addressed • Early 2000, urbanization created more than 200 million domestic migrant workers • Their labor rights seriously violated • Reluctant to resort to judicial remedy for lack of free and competent counsels • Central government wanted to solve the problem but didn’t find right way

  12. Experiment • Baseline research on problem identification and problem analysis in 2003 • Experimenting civil society-based and specialized legal aid model in 2004 • Inviting key stakeholders to be part of the experiment • Integrated advocacy model: from service to policy advocacy to rights training • Data-based model reflection and development

  13. Scaling-up with the support of UNDP • UNDP China Office program officer knew about the model through conference and media • 2007-2008, UNDP and China Legal Aid Foundation co-funded the establishment 20 legal aid offices for migrant workers

  14. Geographical distribution

  15. Achievement • More than 30 such organizations established outside of Beijing • Cultivating first generation of professional MW legal aid lawyers (150) • Serving 266,152 migrant workers • Collecting payment and compensation into the hands of MW at amount of 4.5 million US dollars, saving tens of thousands of families out of poverty • A dozen of proposals on MW rights adopted

  16. Impact • ACLA issued policy to promote the model among legal profession (2006) • State Council issuing policy to waive income proof requirement for migrant workers • Create political space for civil society based legal aid organizations • Government starts contracting model • Rights protection evidently improved, such as unpaid salary cases dropped from 80% to 20%

  17. Connect global with local

  18. Lessons learned • Collaborative and problem solving oriented strategy is significant for success in countries with immature rule of law system • Local ownership and local led experiment is critical for sustainability • Data-driven evolving learning capacity is critical for developing a contextualized and effective legal aid model • Cultivation of legal aid leaders and specialists is critical for expanding delivery capacity and quality control

  19. Thanks! Q&A Johannesburg, June 26th 2014

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