YUCOM – Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights and Secons – development initiative group, supported by USAID and the Institute for Sustainable Communities, implemented from November 2012 to March 2013 the ’Access to Justice (Justice for All)’ project.
The goal of this project is to formulate a strategy for the reform of the free legal aid system in the country. This strategy will be based on the analysis of the perception of access to justice and the role of free legal aid to citizens and capacity analysis of free legal aid. The survey will be conducted in 25 cities in Serbia on a sample of 1200 respondents. The findings will be used as a basis for training courses and seminars for free legal assistance providers and for making a practical booklet that will be available to the public. The results of this research will be the subject of separate publication and will be presented at the final conference.
The project is aimed at mapping the existing institutional practices, the legal framework, the access to justice, the advocacy to improve the legal aid system and the participation of civil society organizations in order to foster efficiency and fairness of the judiciary in Serbia.
The debate was organized as part of a public debate on the draft law on legal aid which should regulate this area in a comprehensive manner and recognize the role of civil society organizations. In addition to the representatives of the civil society the participation of representatives of the ministry of justice, local self – government legal aid advicers and the Chamber of Advocates is accpected at the debate.
The project foresees the implementation of a campaign to raise public awareness on the issue of free legal aid as well as free legal aid assistance to socially excluded persons, in accordance with the findings of the research.
