5bn people lack access to justice – World Justice Project

The World Justice Project has said an estimated five billion people worldwide cannot obtain justice for everyday problems. The WJP, in a statement last week, said its assessment showed the gap was mainly among people who are “excluded from the opportunity the law provides, and people who live in extreme conditions of injustice.” The United […]

The World Justice Project has said an estimated five billion people worldwide cannot obtain justice for everyday problems.

The WJP, in a statement last week, said its assessment showed the gap was mainly among people who are “excluded from the opportunity the law provides, and people who live in extreme conditions of injustice.”

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its policies up to 2030 proposes to guide global and national development policies to “ensure equal access to justice for all.”

However, a growing body of research shows that the world is not on track to meet this target.

“An important portion of the justice gap are the estimated 1.4 billion people who have unmet civil justice needs,” the statement reads.

“Many governments have attempted to understand and address civil justice issues by relying on administrative data from courts, but this adopts a narrow view of justice and does not capture the experiences of people who seek justice from informal mechanisms, or from those who do not take their justice issues to any authority for adjudication or mediation.

“The challenge is clear: more and better data is needed for countries seeking to measure their progress on delivering justice for all in the context of the 2030 development agenda and their own national development plans.”