Justice for All
Many people do not know how they can claim the existing laws for their own protection. Helvetas has been helping disadvantaged people and women in particular for years with legal advice sessions in which experts help people to assert their rights.
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Project NameAccess to Justice
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Project Phase2021 to 2025
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FundingThis project is an SDC mandate.
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Thematic focusVoice, Inclusion & Cohesion
Gender & Social Equity
Partnership & Capacity Development
Justice for the vulnerable
In 2015 the Government of Tajikistan decided to make legal counseling a free public service, and on July 4, 2020, the Law on Legal Aid adopted. Currently, 44 free legal aid centers functioning throughout the country, where any person can seek free legal counselling from state lawyers. Helvetas supports this transition to state-provided legal counseling and helps civil society organizations monitor the quality of the service. Since the inception of free legal aid system, legal aid centers have provided legal services to 59,539 persons in the country.
Access to justice is to support the justice system in Tajikistan to empower the vulnerable members of the society to have access to a free legal aid system. People in rural areas of Tajikistan don’t generally benefit from the advantages of the justice system due to lack of legal awareness and knowledge of their own rights. This leads to many family-related legal issues, specially when the marriages are only religious and not legally registered. Topics involved here are divorce, child benefits, legal property.
Helvetas strengthens the capacities of state actors in conducting legal awareness campaigns by developing communication strategies and informational materials and supports them in conducting legal information sessions and thematic events, as well as provide capacity development through conducting management trainings and subject matter trainings for the legal aid lawyers.
The Project involves civil society in monitoring the state-run free legal aid system through social monitoring/accountability mechanism and broadly support civil society by conducting capacity building training, development of learning materials and advice on public dialogue facilitation between the state and civil society on the grassroots level. Monitoring of free legal aid system through social monitoring/accountability mechanism creates more accurate picture of the services provided by legal aid centres.
The Access to Justice project is a mandate of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) implemented by the consortium of Helvetas and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
