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An Opportunity to Strengthen Inclusive Development by Measuring Access to Civil Justice

This article aims at analyzing 17 SDGs and related issues. 

Countries and civil society organizations increasingly find that civil justice data comprise a vital tool for tracking progress towards inclusive and sustainable development. Civil justice data help us understand what “access to justice for all” means in practice, as well as how to enforce SDG ambitions around poverty, health, decent work, gender equality and climate action. In this respect, two initiatives have been commenced by the UN Statistical Commission in order to analyze civil justice data. Firstly, the Praia City Group, established by the Commission in 2015, recently drafted a Handbook on Governance Statistics. The initiative has the purpose of analyzing the performance of justice institutions together with legal capability, empowerment, access to legal assistance and the overall policy environment.  Secondly, the IAEG-SDGs has recommended the inclusion of a new indicator focused on civil justice in the 2020 Comprehensive Review of the global indicator framework. The Group is proposing as the new measure: “proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism.”

These new approaches serve to understand what problems people and communities have and where they turn to for resolution (if anywhere), which is vital for ensuring we leave no one behind.

See also: Praia Group Handbook is a Long-awaited Stepping Stone to Governance Statistics

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