Derechos: Human Rights Listings

Invitation to participate in the online discussion forum on

Justice for the Poor:
Breaking Legal Inequalities Traps at the local level


We would like to invite you to participate in our online Justice for the Poor e-discussion forum
starting Monday, the 15th of May, 2006.

While there is broad agreement on the importance of building the ?rule of law? and providing
?access to justice? to the poor, after several decades of limited results there is little consensus
on how to actually do these things. Experience suggests that key factors for achieving results in
Justice Sector Reform (JSR) projects include their ability to engage with local level contexts and
values systems, and their attention to the interactions between state and non-state (or
?customary?) justice systems.

The overall aim of the Bank?s Justice for the Poor (J4P) program is to inform and then evaluate
innovative approaches to local level Justice Sector reform (JSR) and ?mainstreamed? justice
initiatives as part of broader governance strategies. The program also aims to build an empirical
knowledge base about the dynamics of law, justice and social change and develop a community of
practice for the exchange and disseminate knowledge and experience.

The aim of this e-discussion is to contribute to the process of building a community of practice,
bringing together a wider range of diverse people working on these issues. It is intended to serve
as a vehicle to share and disseminate country and cross-regional knowledge and experience among
experts and practitioners worldwide. The e-discussions will cover the four following topics:

May 15 - May 22 Origins of local level justice initiatives
May 22 - May 29 Content and design of local justice reform efforts
May 20 - June 2 Dynamics of Implementation
June 2 - June 9 Efficacy of impact

The e-discussion will be moderated by an overall moderator, Ms. Caroline Sage, who will be joined
each week by a guest moderator for the week. All moderators are justice reform and local level
conflict specialists and involved in the Bank's Justice for the Poor program.

To register as a participant for this event please go to the following link and enter the required
fields. Thereafter, you will be sent a confirmation email that you have been accepted as a
participant to the e-discussion forum:
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/DevForum/registrations/j4p.htm.

The J4P team looks forward to your participation and reading your views, comments and questions
with regards to the following:

Are the discussions relevant to operations and policy dialogue?
Have we missed any salient issues where operations would like/have more insights?
How relevant are our insights to inform ongoing/upcoming projects?
Any other comments on the analysis and implications.

Should you have any further questions regarding the project, e-discussion forum, or the
registration process, please feel free to contact the technical administrator, Ms. Verena Lahousen
at vlahousen@worldbank.org or the project manager, Ms. Karen Sirker at ksirker@worldbank.org.

Sincerely,

J4P Team

New Tactics in Human Rights Featured Monthly Tactical Discussions – “Information is Power: Librarianship and Human Rights” – begins September 26

Beginning in September the New Tactics in Human Rights project [New Tactics in Human Rights] will feature monthly tactical discussions on a specific tactic and its adaptability to other contexts and issue areas. Members will have the opportunity to dialogue with featured resource people from the New Tactics network who have used and implemented the tactic.

Join the on-line community at www.newtactics.org between 19 and 25 September to ensure your immediate participation in the “Information is Power: Librarianship and Human Rights” discussion taking place September 26 – October 2, 2007. Librarians (information experts/workers) can serve a critical role in helping organizations to research, document, collect, organize and store their information to be more efficient and effective in their mission and work. But librarianship means so much more! Featured on-line discussion resource practitioners for September are Saša Madacki, Toni Samek and Bert Verstappen.

§ Saša Madacki, Director of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina is author of the Tactical Notebook, Making Sense of the Information Wilderness: Library and Information Services for the Improvement of Human Rights Work. [Read more]

§ Toni Samek, educator and scholar at the School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta, Canada is author of Librarianship and Human Rights: A 21st Century Guide through CHANDOS (Oxford) Publishing (www.chandospublishing.com). [Read more]

§ Bert Verstappen is Programme Coordinator with the Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International HURIDOCS and has a broad experience in developing tools for handling human rights information and providing training in them. Read more

Join the on-line community so you can be part of these inspiring tactical discussions.