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Community Paralegals and Customary and Informal Justice

Date of Publication: 
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
About This Publication: 

Community Paralegals and Customary and Informal Justice explores how community-based paralegals and other legal aid providers can strengthen the accessibility and inclusiveness of customary and informal justice (CIJ) systems. It brings together leading-edge research and the grounded experience of IDLO programs in several sub-Saharan African countries to address:

  • the key functions of community-based paralegals in contexts of legal pluralism, including paralegal support for women and marginalized populations
  • creating an enabling environment for sustainable community paralegal engagement with CIJ systems
  • recommendations for policymakers and practitioners seeking to improve the accessibility and inclusiveness of CIJ systems

It is the fourth publication in the series Navigating Complex Pathways to Justice: Engagement with Customary and Informal Justice Systems, following a Policy and Issue Brief, Practitioner Brief, and Issue Brief on Women and CIJ Systems, that seeks to advance policy dialogue and distil lessons from programming and research to help realize Sustainable Development Goal 16.

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