JUSTICE ON LIFE SUPPORT

Photo: UN Women/Patric Rose

This piece lays the groundwork for the exploration of the overarching question “Are our justice systems fulfilling their mandate, particularly for women?” Examining the state of our justice systems as they exist today, it outlines the justice gap affecting the majority of humans worldwide, before exploring the various components contributing to this state of affairs. The article concludes by posing some questions as to how the current status quo can be changed.

The reality of the justice gap

In 2019, the Task Force on Justice released a trailblazing report that offered eye-opening insight into the global justice gap. The findings? Some 5 billion people find themselves on the wrong side of this gap, with little or no access to justice.

Who are the people affected by this lack of access?

The 5 billion humans lacking adequate access to justice can be grouped into three main categories…

• The Unprotected: Stateless individuals, those subjected to slave-like conditions, or nationals of states where the rule of law is weak. Lacking access to basic legal protections, they are perpetually on the brink, exposed to harm.
• The Disappointed: Those who, despite their best efforts, hit a wall in their pursuit of justice. Maybe they don’t know how to obtain information or help, or maybe they have been let down by a slow, complicated, and pricey legal process. A justice system that promises much but delivers little has left them in the lurch.
• The Excluded Majority: People without legal identities, without documented evidence of property rights, and countless workers in the informal sector, devoid of legal protection against unfair practices. This, sadly, is the largest of the three groups. Given what we know about the challenges women face in accessing justice, they are very likely to be heavily represented in all three groups.

What’s holding us back?

To further comprehend the justice gap, we need to consider it in terms of three major types of hurdles faced – physical, resource, and literacy barriers.

• Physical barriers: These obstacles have to do with accessibility. For many, courts are miles away, located in capitals or urban areas. This often leaves folks from the countryside and remote places at a loss. The need for legal parties and legal professionals to be present in the same place, at the same time, to resolve disputes is also a physical barrier.
• Resource barriers: Obtaining justice is not just about seeking the truth, it’s also about time, money, and infrastructure. A lack of such resources thus puts justice out of reach for many.
• Literacy barriers: This doesn’t mean just reading and writing. It’s about recognizing when you have a legal problem in the first place and then knowing how to address it. Based on the World Justice Project data, only 29 per cent of people can identify their problem as a legal issue, with many putting the problem they face down to simple “bad luck.” The evidence shows that as much as 70 per cent of people with legal problems never seek advice or get any assistance. of people with legal problems never seek advice or get any assistance.

Outdated justice systems

Our present-day justice systems were designed centuries ago to address the needs of a vastly different world. In a time when news travelled only as fast as a horse could run, and entire populations were excluded from holding equal rights and accessing justice. While the text of the statutes in the book has often been changed, the experience of justice for users of the justice system has remained largely unchanged – for centuries. A remarkable (or damning) enough feat, considering the advancements made by humankind in other areas.

The way it works today, instead of making things simpler for citizens, we’re often just complicating matters, making things harder for everyone involved.

In an adversarial process – a judicial contest between the parties of a dispute – participants basically create more work for each other simply by doing their job. This not only leads to increased workloads all around, but it also escalates conflict, increases costs, and causes considerable distress for both those seeking justice and the institutions tasked with providing it.

The financial costs borne in such a system are often by themselves enough to deter participants from attempting to seek justice in the first place. With billing methods geared towards quantity rather than quality, justice professionals are incentivized to churn out billable hours rather than efficiently resolve a larger number of cases.

Should justice be a privilege?

Legal problems are not distributed evenly among the population and there are groups of people who are more likely to experience injustice than others. But here’s the sad truth: The people who need justice the most often get it the least.

It’s the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” principle in action.

Those who are most persistent, have abundant time, or can afford to outsource their legal matters are most likely to receive timely decisions.

But what about everyone else? Shouldn’t justice be available to all, and not just the select few?

IN CONCLUSION, LET’S PONDER A FEW QUESTIONS: