http://www.environmentaldemocracy.ie/

The Centre for Sustainability, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland. 1

Michael Ewing and Alison Hough

The Meeting of the Aarhus Taskforce on Access to Justice10-12th September 2007

An Introduction to the Access to Justice Indicators

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was established in 2000 to promote accelerate and

enhance worldwide implementation of Principle 10 at the

national level.

Leadership: The Core Team

3The Centre for Sustainability, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland.

The Centre for Sustainability, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland. 4

TAI strategies• Develop and continuously refine an

indicator-based tool to assess government performance

• Support civil society teams in an increasing number of countries to conduct assessments

• Utilize the results of assessments to urge governments to implement Principle 10

5

TAI Worldwide

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The Centre for Sustainability, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland. 6

Development of the Access to Justice Indicators

• Web-based tool since June 2006

• Access to Justice Indicators

• 70 case studies worldwide• 11 in Europe• 10 in Ireland

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Indicator Topics

• A2J Topics Include:

• Law – Evaluate the national legislative and judicial frameworks

• Effort – Assess the government’s actions to provide access, including the implementation of laws

• Effectiveness – Assess if laws and government efforts resulted in effective practice

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Indicator Subtopics 1

1. Subtopics under Law include:

– Scope and quality of general legal framework– Quality of the general legal limits– Scope and quality of specific legal framework– Legal requirements to build capacity of

government agencies– Legal requirements to build capacity of the

public– Legal requirements for timeliness

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Indicator Subtopics 2

2. Subtopics under Effort include:

– Scope and quality of effort– Cost and affordability– Fairness and equitability– Timeliness– Channels of access– Effort to build government capacity– Effort to build capacity of the public– Efforts to build the capacity of sub-national

governments

Indicator Subtopics 33. Subtopics under Effectiveness include:

– Impacts of access– Outcomes of access– Government capacity-building– Capacity-building for the public– Capacity-building for sub-national

governments– Capacity-building for the media– Capacity-building for civil society

organizations

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The Centre for Sustainability, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland. 11

ATJ Law

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ATJ Effort

Average quality of Access to J ustice EFF0RT in 9 cases in Ireland(%)

22 5127

Weak Int. Strong

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ATJ Effectiveness

Thank you for your attention.For more information TAI Secretariatc/o World Resources Institute10 G St, NE, Suite 800Washington, DC 20002 USA

Internet: www.accessinitiative.orgCOMHRA (TAI in Ireland) http://www.environmentaldemocracy.ie/

Email: access@wri.orgThe Centre for Sustainability, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland 14