Regional Alliances for People-Centered Justice: Promoting Equal Access to Justice for All in Africa and Ibero-America

By Laura Ospina & Themba Mahleka

Justice is often seen as a universal principle, but its effective delivery requires tailored solutions that resonate with different regions’ specific needs and challenges. This is where regional alliances play a pivotal role. By uniting key justice actors with shared legal, cultural, and historical contexts, these new models of regional coalitions provide a platform for collaboration, innovation, and the advancement of people-centered justice.

These alliances—comprising governments, regional, and international organizations, donors, academia, and civil society—serve as collaborative platforms to drive systemic effective change and enhance justice systems to be more responsive, inclusive, and people-centered. This blog explores the modalities, benefits, and unique aspects of such new regional alliances and their particular role in advancing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.3, which aims to promote the rule of law and ensure equal access to justice for all. In particular, we will focus on the Ibero-American Alliance for Access to Justice and the African Alliance for People-Centered Justice, both hosted and founded by the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies at NYU’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC).

Modalities of Regional Alliances for People-Centered Justice?

Regional alliances operate through various modalities that enable multi-stakeholder engagement and action. These modalities include:?

1. Multi-Stakeholder Governance Structures—Alliances are often structured to ensure equal participation from governments, civil society, and international organizations, fostering shared ownership and accountability.
2. Knowledge Sharing and Peer Learning—Platforms such as regional forums, working groups, and research collaborations help stakeholders exchange best practices, lessons learned, and innovative justice solutions, bringing together experts with different backgrounds and expertise.
3. Policy Advocacy and Reform—By engaging in high-level policy dialogues, alliances advocate for legal and institutional reforms that strengthen access to justice.?
4. Funding and Resource Mobilization—Regional coalitions coordinate financial and technical resources from donors and development partners to support key justice initiatives.?
5. Capacity Building and Technical Assistance—Alliances provide training, technical support, and institutional strengthening to enhance the capacity of justice actors at national and local levels.?

Benefits of Regional Alliances for People-Centered Justice

Regional alliances play a transformative role in justice reform by:

1. Enhancing Policy Coherence and Coordination—These alliances create a unified approach to justice challenges, aligning regional and national policies with global commitments such as SDG16.3.
2. Amplifying the Voices of Marginalized Communities—By involving civil society and grassroots organizations, these alliances ensure that local justice initiatives reflect the needs and lived experiences of marginalized populations.
3. Fostering Innovation and Best Practices—Cross-regional collaborations facilitate the exchange of innovative legal empowerment strategies, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and technology-driven justice solutions.
4. Strengthening Accountability and Transparency—By tracking progress and setting benchmarks, alliances contribute to more transparent and accountable justice systems.
5. Scaling Impact and Sustainability—Regional partnerships help scale successful justice programs beyond national borders, ensuring long-term sustainability and institutionalization of reforms.

Unique Aspects of Regional Justice Alliances in Africa and Latin America??

In permanent dialogue with the Justice Action Coalition, these alliances work to coordinate efforts of the justice sector ecosystem in their respective regions to promote synergies and highlight and exchange best practices and challenges facing the sector. The Alliance aims to amplify efforts of justice actors in the region, promoting and mobilizing both political and financial support.?

While regional justice alliances share common objectives, their focus and implementation in Africa and Ibero-America reflect distinct regional dynamics and justice challenges.

The Ibero-American Alliance for Access to Justice

In Ibero-America, spanning Latin America, Andorra, Portugal and Spain, access to justice is a foundational concern. The Ibero-American Alliance on Access to Justice (IBA), established in 2022, has been instrumental in advancing justice that is equitable, accessible, and responsive to the needs of the people. This alliance, with its deep roots in shared language and cultural heritage, has united regional organizations, civil society, and international bodies to tackle the complex challenges of providing justice for all. Its goal is to generate synergies, identify best practices and outstanding challenges, and advocate for the political and financial support required to strengthen the justice system in the region.

Central to the IBA’s vision is the idea that justice should be inclusive and accessible, ensuring that legal systems do not remain the domain of the privileged few. The alliance has advocated for legal aid systems, alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms, and reforms aimed at creating a legal culture that is transparent and accountable to its people. Moreover, the IBA emphasizes the importance of legal education and awareness in ensuring that people understand their rights and the means to access legal protection. To accelerate the implementation of SDG 16.3 in the region, the IBA prioritizes the development of data and evidence, improving innovation within the justice sector, and promoting a regional normative framework for access to justice.

In 2023, the IBA released its inaugural Regional Progress Report on Access to Justice in Ibero-America, a joint deliverable of the Justice Action Coalition. The report presents a snapshot of the state of access to justice in the region, highlighting the efforts being made by regional actors in the justice ecosystem in the region to improve access to justice for all. It focuses on three main areas:

1. Data on the justice gap in the region, as well as innovation efforts in trying to close such gap;
2. Progress on the development of a normative framework for a Regional Convention on Access to Justice1;
3. Efforts undertaken to leave no one behind within the overarching promise of the 2030 Agenda, drawing on the regional normative framework, the 100 Brasilia Rules.

For 2025, the IBA will produce two subsequent reports. First, it will focus on developing a regional report on the state of access to justice for children and adolescents, identifying best practices and key challenges. The report will be launched at the 5th World Congress on Justice for Children in June in Madrid, Spain. Subsequently, during the second half of the year, the IBA seeks to provide a regional assessment of the access to justice for incarcerated women, identifying the structural and systemic barriers that limit their access to justice and perpetuate inequality. Both reports seek to consolidate data to inform policy decisions and help strengthen justice systems to ensure effective, equitable, and people-centered access, promoting the implementation of evidence-based reforms.

The African Alliance for People-Centered Justice

Recognizing the fragmented nature of people-centered justice approaches in the continent, the African Alliance for People-Centered Justice (AAPCJ) was established in 2024 to mainstream the concept, support local and national actors in implementing justice-focused policies, and foster a unified understanding of its principles. This includes relying on legal empowerment to help individuals know, use, and shape the law and leveraging customary and informal justice systems to address people’s most pressing justice needs.

Based on the learnings from the IBA, the AAPCJ was established as a high-ambition coalition of governmental, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental organizations that seek to promote the understanding and use of people-centered approaches to justice in Africa. It seeks to contribute to reducing the justice gap and foster equal access to justice for all by promoting people-centered justice.

SDG16, which focuses on promoting peace, justice, and strong institutions—including ensuring equal access to justice, upholding the rule of law, and building accountable institutions—aligns closely with Goal 11 of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, emphasizing justice as a central theme. This alignment presents a valuable opportunity to leverage these frameworks to strengthen each other. This coalition of diverse stakeholders championing people-centered justice seeks to enhance collaboration and integration between these development agendas.

The mission of the AAPCJ is to promote equal access to justice for all across Africa by:

1. Bridging the knowledge, data, evidence, and communication gaps between practices within different regions across the continent and globally.
2. Strengthening the enabling environment for the adoption of people-centered justice initiatives by joining forces around shared goals, priorities, and agendas and utilizing open government and interdisciplinary approaches to transform justice systems.
3. Advancing progress towards the attainment of SDG16 and Goal 11 of Agenda 2063 by empowering justice leaders and partners to develop, implement, and scale innovative solutions to justice problems.

In 2025, the AAPCJ will notably be working on producing a report on People-Centered Justice in Africa, engaging in a south-south regional exchange with the IBA at the World Justice Forum in June in Warsaw, Poland, and will be co-hosting an inaugural conference on People-Centered Justice in Africa in October.

Conclusion

By focusing on regional cooperation, regional alliances like the AAPCJ and the IBA allow key regional and local actors to help tailor justice reform initiatives to the specific needs of their populations, taking into account diverse cultural, social, and economic realities.

Additionally, regional alliances foster collaboration among governments, regional justice organizations, civil society, and international organizations, ensuring that resources are shared and knowledge is disseminated effectively. They provide a platform for advocacy, legal reform, and the collective pursuit of a justice system that truly serves the people.

Moreover, these regional frameworks serve as vital engines for achieving SDG 16.3 by fostering collaboration, innovation, and accountability as they enable platforms to exchange ideas and explore new methods for improving access to justice, spanning from the integration of technology to the development of community-led justice initiatives. In Africa, for example, focusing on collective approaches and integrating customary and informal justice systems mechanisms is key to expanding access to justice. In Ibero-America, legal empowerment and inclusivity drive impactful justice reforms.

As these alliances continue to evolve, sustained political commitment, inclusive participation, and strategic resource mobilization will be essential in ensuring that justice systems truly serve all people, especially those most in need.

[1] In 2024, the Ibero-American Alliance’s efforts focused on revising the draft of the Regional Convention on Access to Justice (CIAJ), aiming to establish the foundations for a legally binding agreement on access to justice for COMJIB (Conferencia de Ministros de Justicia de los Países Iberoamericanos) member countries and other interested parties. The first Regional Conference, “Moving Towards an Ibero-American Convention on Access to Justice,” held in Santiago, Chile brought together national progress on access to justice, and featured discussions on regional realities from ministries, judiciaries, public defenders, civil society, and academia, exploring how the Ibero-American Convention could address justice challenges across the region.

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