PGO - Inclusive Justice

OVERVIEW

The Inclusive Justice Activity facilitates justice service access for citizens living in rural and violence-affected areas.  The activity strengthens investigations, prosecutions, and reparations for high-impact crimes, and expands access to quality justice through community and state-led dispute resolution.  The activity also increases trust in the Colombian justice system through reduced impunity, improved access to justice services, and increased respect for rule of law. This activity works with Colombian actors like the Ministry of Justice, municipal governments, and other justice sector institutions, including transitional justice actors established by the 2016 Peace Accord, like Truth Commission, the Unit Search for the Search of Missing Persons, and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. The activity works in 76 municipalities, and it runs from January 2022 to January 2027.

GOALS

REDUCE IMPUNITY

Inclusive Justice helps reduce impunity by supporting government actors’ improved use of justice sector tools in the investigation, prosecution, and resolution of high-impact crimes, like land restitution, gender-based violence (GBV), and threats and homicides to social leaders. The activity also awards grants to civil society organizations (CSOs) that provide legal representation and psychosocial support to victims participating in criminal processes.

EXPAND JUSTICE SERVICE ACCESS

Inclusive Justice expands communities’ access to justice services by promoting conflict resolution through alternative methods, applying restorative justice, and increasing ethnic communities’ capacity to apply their own justice. The activity also strengthens the capacities of family commissioners and Justice Houses, i.e., the one-stop shops where citizens can access justice information and conflict resolution services, to address grievances at a community level.  Finally, the activity works with local counterparts to bring justice services to rural areas through virtual tools and mobile justice brigades.

PROMOTE TRUST IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM  

Inclusive Justice increases citizen trust and satisfaction in the justice sector by encouraging citizen participation in the formulation and oversight of public policies. The activity uses public dialogues to help government actors understand communities’ legal needs, and to then adjust justice services to meet these needs. The activity also promotes social, behavioral, and cultural change, and facilitates community access to justice services through legal clinics, pro-bono activities, and private sector partnerships.

ANTICIPATED RESULTS 

• Increase public budgets for the justice sector;
• Launch 500 mobile justice brigades in rural areas;
• Prioritize and support procedural advances for 9,200 GBV cases;
• Create and strengthen local justice committees in 76 municipalities;
• Enable the implementation of restorative justice mechanisms for adults;
• Reach 51,500 agreements using alternative dispute resolution mechanisms;
• Build institutional capacity to implement protection measures in GBV cases;
• Increase national level coordination for Justice Houses and strengthen 27 Justice Houses;
• Leverage and/or mobilize USD $3 million from public and private sources to support justice efforts;
• Strengthen local and national social organizations’ capacity to use dispute resolutions, provide psychosocial support, and advocate for marginalized groups; and
• Promote procedural progress in cases of GBV, attacks against social leaders, and armed conflict crimes at the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, while providing psychosocial support and legal representation to conflict victims.