Access to Justice in Displacement (A2JD)
Access to legal services is access to your rights.
When armed conflict, riots, natural disaster, or targeted mistreatment force people from their homes, the last thing on anyone’s mind is calling a lawyer.
However, lawyers (and legal systems) provide vital, though understudied, support to displaced persons in rebuilding their lives. Reconnecting displaced persons with their entitlements and rights is crucial for them to construct independent, dignified lives in their new location.
The project, funded for 2019 and 2020 through the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund, seeks to build an international coalition of practitioners and academics to launch an international, participatory collaboration to develop better legal interventions in jurisdictions, particularly in the Middle East and Asia, where such interventions have been largely overlooked.
The project
Review of the literature
We are conducting a review of the existing academic, policy and practice literature on the provision of legal services to displaced persons.
Coming Soon
Conversations with practitioners
We are having conversations with providers of legal services to displaced persons and their allies. We continue to recruit participants from all jurisdictions in the Global South.
Coming Soon
Making an impact
We are looking to bring our findings and resources that we are develop back to the community of practice. We plan to co-write a ‘agenda for action’ (a manifesto for legal aid for the displaced) and collate our individual and collective reflections into a publication by the Refugee Law Initiative.
Coming Soon
Practice Notes
The A2JD project will communicate reviews of the literature and its key findings to its audience of practitioners through, amongst other means, short practice notes on identified challenges by answering the question: What does this mean for the delivery of legal services to displaced persons?
Practice Note 1:
Legal Advice by Telephone as a Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many legal services providers to refugees and displaced persons have been forced to close their offices and provide services by telephone. Almost all legal service providers have previously used the telephone to communicate with clients. However, the current high demand for such services; exclusive reliance on telephone communication; and, demand for new services by telephone pose significant challenges for organisations. This Practice Note reviews the literature on the delivery of legal services by telephone (‘telephone services’), including ‘hotlines’ and ‘telephone counselling’, and collates resources that might be of help in thinking through the use and expansion of telephone services.
COVID-19 is changing everything…
As part of the A2JD project, we are distributing information and developing resources to support providers of legal services to displaced persons.