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	Four billion people around the world do not enjoy the protections afforded by the law by Open Society Justice Initiative, agencies   It is estimated that four billion people around the world do not enjoy the protections afforded by law. The poorest and most vulnerable instead live at risk of losing their homes or the land upon which they depend for survival.   They are exploited by corrupt government officials or local power-brokers, who use money or force to take what they want. When poor communities cannot seek justice for their grievances, the resulting anger can spill over into violence.   If serious progress is ever going to be achieved in overcoming extreme poverty, the poor must enjoy the rule of law and functioning institutions of justice, otherwise money will continue to flow towards the powerful.   Goal 16 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals includes “access to justice” and ensuring that everyone has access to legal identity, such as birth registration. Goal 16 also includes targets addressing corruption, tackling violence, promoting accountability and transparency, and calling for access to justice and information and the promotion of the rule of law at all levels.   The importance of equal access to justice and participatory and inclusive approaches to development are recognized throughout the Sustainable Development Goals agreement in the framing preamble, and in the other goals, targets and review mechanisms.   Imagine a vibrant, modern economy sustaining itself where there is no respect for the sanctity of a contract, where a deed of ownership is not worth the paper it is written on, or where all disputes are resolved in a trial of strength, rather than by weighing the justice of competing claims. The rule of law is a basic precondition for sustainable economic development. In societies with some legal protections, those who lack the resources for or access to the legal system are often denied these safeguards.   During the negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals we at Open Society Foundations and our partners stressed the importance of including new targets on violence reduction, access to justice and the provision of legal identity, as well as the creation of more ways to enable citizens to take an active part in decisions that effect their well-being.   We continue to work with our partners around the world to present clear, concrete examples of access to justice is a fundamental human right and how it can support more inclusive global development.   March 2018   How do we measure Access to Justice? A global survey of legal needs shows the Way, by Peter Chapman & Alejandro Ponce.   When was the last time you had a legal problem? Not just a problem in court, but an issue that involved recourse to law? If your answer is within the last two years, you are not alone. An important new survey by the World Justice Project (WJP) found that more than half of the people they interviewed, in 45 countries around the world, said the same.   The survey, Global Insights on Access to Justice, is the first of its kind to try to understand global access to civil, rather than criminal, justice. The survey covered 1,000 people in the three largest cities of the 45 countries involved, ranging from Canada and Mongolia to Nicaragua and Vietnam. Specific legal problems varied by country, but consumer and land disputes were among the most commonly reported, with an average incidence of 25 percent and 20 percent, respectively.   The survey is an important step in advancing global conversations around the critical role access to civil justice plays in securing inclusive, sustainable development.   To combat poverty, policymakers and governments need to better understand civil justice problems, which disproportionally affect the poor and marginalized. There is currently no global policy framework for doing this for civil law, unlike in criminal law, where the right to counsel, for instance, is asserted in a range of international and national principles.   While the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for access to justice for all by 2030, the two global measures agreed to so far maintain a global focus on criminal justice (crime-victim reporting rates and pretrial detention rates). The WJP data highlights the importance of legal needs–based survey measures that explore civil justice.   The WJP data confirms widespread findings from national surveys: that when people are faced with civil justice problems, most do not turn to courts and lawyers for assistance or resolution. More than half of those who sought legal help or advice turned to a family member or friend, and less than one-third turned to a lawyer for assistance.   When seeking resolution, 13 percent turned to a third-party institution or individual for resolution, with the rest either resolving their problem through negotiation, direct agreement, or not resolving the problem at all.   More than one in six respondents reported that although their legal problem persists, they have given up all attempts to resolve it further.   More than half of those surveyed reported that it was difficult or nearly impossible to pay the costs incurred to resolve their legal problem.   What’s more, among respondents whose legal problem was not yet settled, fewer than half reported that they were able to get all the expert help they wanted.   These issues have tangible developmental and social impacts. The WJP survey found that justice issues impact people’s financial, social, and physical well-being. Slightly more than one in four respondents reported having experienced a stress-related illness due to their legal problem. More than one in five respondents reported the loss of employment or need to relocate because of their legal problem.   WJP’s survey findings have important implications for global policy debates that extend well beyond access to justice practitioners:   We need to increase our focus on access to civil justice and integrate access to justice into other development and poverty debates. It is important to discuss the role of access to justice for ensuring decent work and economic growth, protecting land rights, and guaranteeing safe and adequate housing, among many other development priorities.   We must challenge the misconception that courts and lawyers are the solution to access-to-justice issues. We should support flexible systems of legal assistance that meet people where they are, to help secure outcomes that are more just. Nonlawyers and community-based paralegals can play a critical role.   We need to build on the WJP survey to develop more robust measures of civil justice. It is exciting to see national governments—in Colombia, South Africa, and Indonesia, among others—exploring how to incorporate legal needs survey measures into their development frameworks through concrete, contextual indicators. Understanding access to justice in a developmental paradigm can help to offer opportunities for new partnerships, financing models, and, ultimately, more effective programs.   If we are to build a more inclusive society, we need to better understand and account for the justice problems that people actually experience. This new data from WJP represents an important step in that direction. Members of the United Nations body evaluating indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals should take note.   http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/issues/rights-justice http://osf.to/2jGpnat http://namati.org/stories/ http://www.icj.org/ruleoflawevent-hrc37/ http://www.icj.org/the-role-of-judges-lawyers-and-prosecuters-in-preventing-human-rights-abuses/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/ListOfIssues.aspx   * The Universal Rights Network notes that in every single country in the world, Justice is accorded unequally on the basis of wealth and power relations. No country is an exception. Visit the related web page
	Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are unacceptable by ReliefWeb, UN News, agencies   24 Apr 2018   Humanitarian Organisations in Yemen outraged by Attacks on Civilians.   Following more indefensible attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure this week, international non-government organisations in Yemen strongly condemn an upsurge in violence across the country that is having gross and disproportionate impact on civilian safety, infrastructure and humanitarian space.   We are aggrieved and outraged by reports of Saudi-led Coalition airstrikes on a wedding in Yemen's Hajjah governorate on Monday morning that killed at least 22 people and injured more than 60 others, including children, later followed by a hit on a petrol station that killed at least 18. This follows distressing reports of at least 15 civilians killed by an airstrike on a house in Ibb earlier this month. Airstrikes in Sa'ada have hit in close proximity to INGO premises and a sustained strikes in Hodeida this month have forced hundreds of families to flee.   In Taizz, ongoing shelling and ground clashes have reportedly now forced tens of thousands of people from their homes since the beginning of the year. Frontlines near Ibb have pushed more people from their homes, and several missiles fired into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by Ansar Allah forces are reported to have targeted civilian infrastructure and hit private civilian property.   These incidents are indicative of worrying trends in a war that has deep consequences for civilian populations.   Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are unacceptable. We are alarmed by the apparent disregard of all parties to the conflict for the safety of women, men and children whose civilian status affords them protection from acts of war.   Sustained violence, economic decline, the erosion of services and impedimentsto the delivery of humanitarian aid are driving a staggering scale of humanitarian need across the country.   We appeal to all parties to this conflict and those with influence over them to respect the laws of war and take immediate steps to ensure the protection of civilians.   We urge them to cease attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, and to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to people who need it to survive.   Finally, we call on the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen to investigate and report on all recent violations. Yemen needs a political solution, not a military one, and parties to this conflict must take responsibility for finding a way to end this war. http://bit.ly/2vHtbB8   * Report from Danish Refugee Council, ZOA, Norwegian Refugee Council, INTERSOS, CARE, Saferworld, Mercy Corps, Handicap International - Humanity & Inclusion, Action Against Hunger USA, Medecins du Monde, International Medical Corps, Save the Children, Global Communities   22 Apr. 2018   At least 60 people killed and 130 injured in a terror attack at election centre in Kabul.   A Public Health official said that among the people killed on Sunday, 22 were women and eight were children. He said some 130 people were wounded, among them 17 children and 52 women, and "the toll could still rise."   The terror attack targeted civilians who were registering for national identification cards in Kabul, for upcoming elections in Afghanistan. TV stations broadcast live footage of hundreds of distraught people gathered at hospitals seeking word about their loved ones.   The IS/Daesh terror group claimed responsibility for the horrific attack.   President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the attack, and vowed such incidents wouldn't prevent people from participating in parliamentary elections in October.   UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.   Apr. 2018 (UN News)   The United Nations in Afghanistan condemns today's suicide attack in Kabul at an election-related facility that initial reports indicate claimed the lives of at least 50 civilians, with more than 100 others injured.   The incident is the latest in a spate of attacks that appear to deliberately target election-related facilities which have taken place since last week's commencement of the voter registration process for the parliamentary and district elections scheduled for 20 October 2018.   'The UN family in Afghanistan feels a deep sense of revulsion at today's outrage', said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan. 'Compounding the callous disregard for the lives of civilians, the killing appears to be part of a wholly unacceptable effort by extremists to deter Afghan citizens from carrying out their constitutional right to take part in elections'.   Today's attack occurred in the vicinity of an identity-card distribution and voter-registration centre in part of the city mostly populated by Shia Muslims.   Since voter-registration began on 14 April, there have been a number of violent incidents around the country against the centres where citizens are required to sign up for the upcoming ballot.   On Thursday, two police officers at a voter registration centre in Jalalabad were shot and killed by armed assailants, while in Ghor last week gunmen torched a voter registration center and abducted electoral and security officials. They were released the following day. The UN urges that those responsible for the violence be brought to justice.   On behalf of the United Nations in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto expresses deep condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery of the injured.   The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) renews its call upon all parties to the conflict to increase all efforts to protect civilians, as the number of civilians killed and injured by armed conflict in the first quarter of 2018 remains at the same high level recorded in 2017.   From 1 January to 31 March 2018, UNAMA documented at least 2,258 civilian casualties, reflecting similar levels of civilian harm documented in the first three months of 2017 and 2016.   'All parties to the conflict in Afghanistan must do everything in their power to protect civilians from harm', said Ingrid Hayden, the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan. 'Afghan civilians continue to suffer, caught in the conflict, in ways that are preventable; this must stop now'. http://bit.ly/2K8nxLn   http://www.hrw.org/news/2018/05/08/no-one-should-see-such-day   27 Jan. 2018 (News agencies)   Over 100 people killed in ambulance blast in Afghan capital Kabul.   The death toll from a massive suicide car bombing in the capital Kabul has risen to 103 and the number of those injured has climbed to 235, after an attacker drove an ambulance packed with explosives through a security checkpoint saying he was transferring a patient to hospital, before detonating the blast in a crowded city street.   As medical teams struggled to handle the casualties, some of the wounded were laid out in the open, with intravenous drips set up next to them in hospital gardens.   "It's a massacre," said Dejan Panic, coordinator in Afghanistan for the Italian aid group Emergency, which runs a nearby trauma hospital that treated dozens of wounded.   "Today's attack is nothing short of an atrocity," Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement, adding that those behind it must be brought to justice.   Nadir, who witnessed Saturday's attack, said women and children were among the dead.   "Most of them killed were civilians, our hearts are crying for the innocent people who got killed. Everyone is sad here," he told the Al Jazeera news network. He was among those who helped the injured.   "Some lost their legs, others arms, some had their faces destroyed. It was blood everywhere. The images keep flashing in front of me," he said.   Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul, said Afghan officials were calling the attack a "massacre".   "In the immediate aftermath of the attack, we saw bodies scattered across the street," she said. "The hospitals are inundated with the wounded and officials fear the death toll may rise." Ahmed Naweed, a witness, told Al Jazeera: "There were many dead bodies and blood everywhere," he said. "People were crying and screaming and running away."   United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, strongly condemned the bomb attack on a street near Government buildings in the Afghan capital, Kabul.   The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the deadly incident, in which the attackers used a vehicle painted to look like an ambulance, including bearing the distinctive medical emblem, what the UN Assistance Mission in the country, known as UNAMA, flagged as a 'clear violation of international humanitarian law'.   Mr. Guterres said that indiscriminate attacks against civilians are grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and can never be justified.   http://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/afghans-fleeing-conflict-face-worsening-hunger http://www.irinnews.org/photo-feature/2018/06/11/day-life-kabul-emergency-room   24 Jan. 2018 (News Agencies)   Gunmen stormed the offices of Save the Children in Jalalabad on Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding 27 in an attack claimed by ISIS.   Save the Children confirmed 'with profound sadness' that three of its staff members had been killed in the attack. 'All other staff have been safely rescued from the office. Four were injured in the attack and are receiving medical treatment', a spokesman said.   'Save the Children condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms. We are shocked and appalled at the violence carried out against our staff in Afghanistan, who are dedicated humanitarians, committed to improving the lives and wellbeing of millions of children across the country'.   All Save the Children programmes across Afghanistan were being temporarily suspended and offices shut. 'Investigations into the nature of the attack are ongoing and the motive cannot yet be confirmed', the organisation said. 'We remain committed to resuming our operations and lifesaving work as quickly as possible, as soon as we can be assured that it is safe to do so'.   The assault on Save the Children, which has operated in Afghanistan since 1976, follows an ambush of International Committee of the Red Cross workers last year. Six employees were killed in that attack, and the charity said in October it would drastically reduce its presence in the country.   The decision by the Red Cross, which has been working in Afghanistan for more than 30 years, highlighted the growing dangers facing aid workers.   The UN's mission in Afghanistan said that it was looking into reports of Wednesday's violence. 'Attacks directed at civilians or aid organisations are clear violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes', it said.   Jan. 2017   Statement by Save the Children: Deadly Attack on Save the children in Jalalabad.   It is with profound sadness that we can confirm three Save the Children staff members were killed earlier today in an attack on our office in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. All other staff have been safely rescued from the office. Four were injured in the attack and are receiving medical treatment.   Save the Children condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms. We are shocked and appalled at the violence, carried out against our staff in Afghanistan who are dedicated humanitarians, committed to improving the lives and wellbeing of millions of children across the country. We are doing everything we can to ensure all of our staff get the support they need in the aftermath of this devastating incident.   Investigations into the nature of the attack are ongoing and the motive cannot yet be confirmed. Attacks against aid workers must never be tolerated and have a direct impact on the children we work to protect.   Save the Children has been working in Afghanistan since 1976 providing life-saving health, education, nutrition and child protection programs that have helped millions of children. We have temporarily suspended our operations across the country following today's events, however we remain fully committed to helping the most deprived children of Afghanistan. http://bit.ly/2F7Wdtw http://tmsnrt.rs/2BApiLO   Jan. 2018   United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has spoken out against the fatal attack on the Afghan offices of renowned international non-governmental organization Save the Children, saying that he was appalled and deeply saddened by the casualties.   'Humanitarian organizations provide life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable men, women and children in Afghanistan. Aid workers, and their premises and assets, should never be a target', the statement said.   'The Secretary-General reiterates that all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan are obliged under international law to protect humanitarian workers and civilians', it added.   Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan appalled by attack on Humanitarian Organisation.   'I am appalled and outraged by this attack reportedly directly targeting the office of the NGO Save the Children. 'Humanitarian workers are not a target', said Ms. Adele Khodr, the acting United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan. 'I renew our calls on all parties to the conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and humanitarian workers', said Ms. Khodr.   The building of another NGO in a neighbouring compound also caught fire during the attack. All staff could evacuate this compound safely. Two people were reportedly killed in the attack and a dozen civilians injured, including five children, according to information from the hospital where they are being treated.   'Humanitarian workers providing life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable girls, boys, women and men in Afghanistan have to be able to work in safety and communities have to be able to access assistance in safety', said Ms. Khodr.   Afghanistan is one of the most challenging and dangerous environments for humanitarians to operate in. In 2017, a total of 17 aid workers were killed and 32 injured. More than 150 humanitarian partners assisted more than 3.4 million people in the first nine months of the last year.   http://bit.ly/2ncub8C http://bit.ly/2DCKPJP http://en.emergency.it/press-releases/message-of-solidarity-from-emergency-to-save-the-children/ http://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/ngo-community-afghanistan-calls-action-ensure-protection-aid-workers-following
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