Strengthening Access to Justice for Marginalized Communities: At Article 43 International, we are dedicated to enhancing access to justice for poor and marginalized populations by supporting legal services, raising awareness of human rights, and developing legal capacity. Legal empowerment is central to our mission, as it enables individuals to understand, claim, and defend their rights, thus fostering sustainable socio-economic development.
Legal Assistance: Deliver comprehensive legal support to indigenous communities and minorities who face discrimination, land dispossession, or violations of fundamental rights, ensuring equitable access to justice and the defense of their rights.
Policy change is essential for fostering a rights-respecting environment. At Article 43 International, we believe that robust policy reform is critical to ensuring the protection of fundamental rights.
Multistakeholder collaboration in policy development leads to stronger digital rights protections. By bringing together diverse voices—government, civil society, and the private sector—we can create comprehensive frameworks that safeguard digital rights and promote inclusion.
Policymakers and stakeholders must remain engaged in promoting digital rights and inclusion.Our work focuses on ensuring that those in positions of influence are consistently active in shaping and defending policies that protect digital freedoms and equitable access.
We conduct strategic litigation, research, and advocacy to ensure that national security and counterterrorism policies are aligned with human rights standards and the rule of law. Our efforts focus on balancing security needs with fundamental freedoms.
In addition to defending individual cases, we use strategic litigation to set legal precedents that strengthen protections for everyone. Through our legal actions, we aim to expand the scope of justice, creating lasting legal safeguards for entire communities.
We confront human rights abuses and work toward sustainable solutions by engaging with national governments, international organizations, and multilateral institutions. Our goal is to strengthen the rule of law and ensure that human rights are upheld universally.
Championing People-Centered Justice for Sustainable Development
At Article 43 International, we advocate for people-centered justice and the promotion of the rule of law to advance sustainable development and foster more peaceful, inclusive, and resilient societies. We believe that justice systems should be accessible, responsive, and aligned with the needs of the communities they serve, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Customary and Informal Justice (CIJ) refers to justice and conflict resolution mechanisms that operate outside the formal state-based legal system. These systems range from traditional and indigenous methods to local alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. CIJ systems are often more accessible, cost-effective, and trusted by communities compared to formal legal systems. They typically emphasize restorative justice, flexible rules, and culturally resonant solutions through negotiated outcomes.
However, some CIJ practices can be inconsistent with international human rights standards, often reflecting unequal power dynamics and conservative social norms that negatively affect women and other marginalized groups. These practices may perpetuate discrimination and hinder the full realization of human rights for all.
At Article 43 International, we are committed to working with the full spectrum of justice pathways available to individuals, especially women and excluded communities. Our goal is to enhance the accessibility, accountability, and responsiveness of CIJ providers while fostering stronger cooperation between informal and formal justice systems. We aim to promote innovative approaches, generate knowledge, and influence policy in ways that center CIJ within the broader global justice agenda, ensuring that justice systems are inclusive, equitable, and aligned with human rights standards.
The wide gap between the poor and well to do in accessing legal services is apparent
Under this mandate, it was the Committee’s experience that many problems encountered by the rural and urban poor in their efforts to develop their communities were legal in character. In particular, three problems were noted:
- The lack of access of these groups to courts, administrative agencies and other forums in which basic policy decisions affecting their interests were formulated.
- Their lack of awareness of and inability to protect their rights.
- The general intimidation and exploitation of these groups by the better-equipped and better-off groups in society.
Educating the public regarding their legal rights and duties and the modalities for protecting those rights or discharging the duties.
- Taking legal proceedings to protect the public interest generally or to get authoritative judicial pronouncements on contentious public issues.
The stability and continuity of the colonial political economy depended on repression. The legal system was almost exclusively law-and-order oriented. The post-colonial continuity of the administrative structures defining this orientation in most African countries has ensured that our legal systems and the attitudes of our law enforcement officials are “colonial” or repressive. Nowhere is this fact more evident than in rural Africa. Given the fact of their largely pre-colonial culture, most rural people find the legal system more alien than do urban folks who have, at least to some extent, internalized the basic premises of Western juris- prudence defining our legal systems. Law becomes doubly oppressive in that it is not only used repressively but it is in itself ideologically oppres- sive. Oppression is the second major characteristic of rurality for our purposes. Here again it is oppression by government.
An effective educational programme for these communities should address this double political problem. It should help prepare the participants better to protect their rights within existing institutions and procedures while also politicizing them to resist the undemocratic value systems structuring these institutions and procedures and realizing their collective power to change these value systems.