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	Access to Justice by Global Rights   Where there is a real or perceived breakdown of justice, and where political, legal, economic, and institutional biases and barriers marginalize segments of the population, the struggle for equal access to justice can be complex and dangerous.   Even in countries that have passed legislation aimed at strengthening the rights of vulnerable or disadvantaged groups—as in Morocco, with the adoption of landmark women’s rights reforms to the family code—procedural and institutional obstacles can seem insurmountable to people without significant financial resources or knowledge of the legal system.   For this reason, access to justice—as defined by the United Nations Development Programme and understood and accepted within the international human rights community—means both that laws and remedies must be just, equitable, and sensitive to the needs of the poor and marginalized, and also that the difficulties that vulnerable populations have in understanding and asserting their legal rights before the institutions set up to administer the law are addressed.   Global Rights’ Access to Justice program works to build our local partners’ capacities to help the poor and marginalized access legal mechanisms and improve the functioning of those mechanisms in a way that increases faith in the justice system, while also expanding opportunities for vulnerable groups to engage with it.   We believe that equal access to justice, whether through the courts or customary legal mechanisms, creates a crucial precondition for societies working to achieve broad-based prosperity and security under the rule of law. It serves as a social safety valve, fostering a structured and peaceful context in which people are able to understand and assert their legal rights.   Global Rights works throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America to reduce these barriers. We believe that equal access to justice, whether through the courts or customary legal mechanisms, creates a crucial precondition for societies working to achieve broad-based development and security under the rule of law. It serves as a social safety valve, fostering a structured and peaceful context in which people are able to understand and assert their legal rights.   Founded in 1978, Global Rights is an international human rights capacity-building organization working in partnership with local activists in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to promote and protect the rights of marginalized populations.Through broad-based technical assistance and training, we seek to strengthen local partners to document and expose human rights abuses, conduct community outreach and mobilization, advocate for legal and policy reform, and provide legal and paralegal services.   At the core of our programming is a deep commitment to increase access to justice for poor and marginalized groups, promote women’s rights and gender equality, and advance racial and ethnic equality.   Global Rights’ programs rarely comprise just one of these three key focuses, but, instead, overlap and intertwine. For example, in the Maghreb, we administer a court accompaniment program that builds the capacity of local women-led and women-focused NGOs to provide ongoing legal counseling to women in their communities, accompany them to court, and ensure application of the laws through monitoring, documenting, and analysis of judicial decisions. Advances made in one program area necessarily inform the others. Visit the related web page
	U.N. Human Rights Council issues recommendations to U.S. by American Civil Liberties Union USA   Nov, 2010   GENEVA:– The U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) today issued a set of recommendations for the United States to bring its human rights policies and practices in line with international standards. The recommendations are the result of the first-ever participation by the U.S. in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, which involves a thorough assessment of a nation''s human rights record. The American Civil Liberties Union, which was in Geneva last week to observe the UPR process, welcomed U.S. participation as an important step toward protecting human rights at home.   The following can be attributed to Laura W. Murphy, Director of the Washington Legislative Office:   "The UPR process provides an opportunity for the United States to identify human rights violations, develop real solutions and bring our policies in line with international human rights standards. The Obama administration should set a good example by working with Congress and state and local governments to translate human rights commitments into domestic laws and policies that will have a positive impact on all people in America."   The following can be attributed to Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program:   "While the Obama administration should be commended for its participation in the UPR, in order to lead by example, this international engagement must be followed by concrete domestic policies and actions and a commitment to fixing all domestic human rights abuses. The administration must take immediate and specific presidential actions to ensure domestic human rights are effectively monitored and enforced within the United States."   The ACLU called on the government to heed the recommendations of the HRC, including to:   * ensure accountability for not just the interrogators who used torture but also the senior Bush administration officials who authorized it, provide reparations for victims of torture, close Guantánamo and end indefinite detention without charge or trial, and end the discredited military commissions;   * end racial and ethnic profiling by law enforcement, especially with respect to immigration – including termination of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program and halting expansion of Secure Communities;   * impose a federal moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards nationwide abolition, and address serious flaws in the administration of the death penalty including racial bias, under-funded indigent defense programs, conditions on death row and a lack of full access to federal courts;   * take concrete steps to ratify human rights treaties, especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;   * take concrete measures to address racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system, including the disproportionate representation of minorities and inhumane prison conditions;   * enhance efforts to address disparities in access to social and economic rights and take concrete and effective measures to ensure that minorities enjoy equal access to quality education, health care and housing;   * establish a national civil and human rights commission by transforming the existing U.S. commission on civil rights into an independent human rights monitoring body; and   * issue an executive order on human rights to effectively and transparently coordinate U.S. follow-up on the UPR recommendations, as well as full implementation of ratified treaties including the Race Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture on the federal, state and local levels. Visit the related web page
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