How legal empowerment can help solve the crisis of democracy
Many people around the world are dissatisfied with how democracy is functioning in their countries, and so they should be. According to over 600 indicators measured by the V-Dem Institute, the level of democracy enjoyed by the average person worldwide is down to levels last seen in 1985. On top of that, 6 billion people live in countries where the rule of law is weak or weakening, according to the World Justice Project.
These and other statistics reinforce the extent to which communities are being challenged by decreasing government accountability, shrinking civic spaces, attacks against human rights defenders, a lack of justice for rights violations and increasing discrimination. Taken together, these challenges undermine access to justice and the rule of law as foundations of healthy, sustainable democracies.
What does this mean for people’s everyday lives? In Nigeria, about two-thirds of people in cities live in what are known as informal settlements on land without any government recognition. This lack of recognition means no public services like schools, health clinics, water, sanitation or electricity, as the communities — and the people who live in them — simply do not exist as far as governments are concerned. They face discrimination, physical violence and forced evictions despite courts ruling that they deserve recognition and services like everyone else. In September, one of these struggles reached a global stage when The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos, written and acted by community members, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The film shows the true story of how the Nigerian justice system failed to protect 30,000 people from eviction. Despite global visibility, one week after the TIFF premiere, a new round of forced evictions, prohibited under international law, began in several informal settlements in the Nigerian city of Lagos.
What is happening in Lagos and so many other parts of the world reflects a growing trend of declining democracy. Canada has a lengthy track record of defending global democracy, notably during and following the Cold War, in pushing for sanctions against the apartheid government in South Africa, and through peacekeeping efforts. Today’s challenges to democracy at home and abroad are different — for instance, those stemming from technological innovations that enable disinformation, hate speech and gender-based violence and that disrupt people’s ability to participate in democratic processes. Nevertheless, we can learn from the history of these early efforts to respond to the current wave of rising repression and authoritarianism around the world.
Democracy thrives where people are free to express their opinions and accountability is respected. When we make the law work for everyone, we bridge the gap between rights as they exist on the books and people’s ability to claim those rights. Legal empowerment approaches emerged during earlier struggles to establish democracy, uphold rights and squeeze justice from broken systems in Indonesia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, South Africa and elsewhere. In these cases, strategies led by community members increased access to justice, reinforced democratic principles and made the law work for those who need its protection the most by helping people to know their rights and how to use them.
Take this example in Indonesia: In the 1980s during the Suharto government, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation moved beyond providing legal aid to individuals to focus on systemic barriers affecting peoples’ rights. In doing so, the Foundation positioned itself as a “locomotive of democracy”. It developed a set of strategies that combined legal challenges with advocacy, community empowerment and public campaigns. More recently, democratic backsliding in Indonesia prompted the Foundation to partner with IDRC to learn why its approach from the 1980s worked so well and how it can be adapted to present-day challenges.
The work in Indonesia shows the effectiveness of responses designed and led by local actors. Since 2021, IDRC has been building on what we know works, supporting teams across 17 countries working on community-based justice approaches to fight repression and deepen democracy.
In October 2024, Canada had the chance to make our leadership in democracy-building shine as we hosted in Ottawa the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Global Roundtable on Access to Justice. The findings fed into the Global Forum on Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy in Milan, Italy, on October 21-22. These gatherings of key global actors provided opportunities to showcase local, people-centred justice solutions from around the world and to spark renewed Canadian leadership and support. Both — solutions and support — are critically needed to build more inclusive, equitable and people-centred systems of justice and help solve the crisis of democracy.
Discover the lessons emerging from research on legal empowerment, thanks to IDRC’s partnership with Namati and the Grassroots Justice Network.
