Work in this thematic area focuses on prisons and police (including human rights in policing, healthcare in prisons and safeguards against torture and ill-treatment), human rights standards in the judiciary (focusing on enhancing the application of case-law of the European Court of Human Rights), migration issues, the efficiency of justice systems (with a focus on analysing judicial statistics to optimise court administrations) and/or legal co-operation (which concentrates on increasing the individual independence of judges and prosecutors and the accountability of the judicial system).

Back Assessment of legal needs as a practice to improve access to justice

Assessment of legal needs as a practice to improve access to justice

Enhancing access to justice through a proper assessment of the legal needs was in the focus of the roundtable (webinar) organised in Skopje, with key stakeholders and legal professionals – an initiative of the EU and Council of Europe joint action “Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia”.

During the discussions was underlined that regular assessment of the legal needs provides important data and a solid basis for a more efficient planning and provision of legal aid. This practice enables the elaboration and evaluation of relevant policies in the area of access to justice that respond to the needs of the population.

The participants from key institutions in the field of justice, including the Ministry of Justice, State Statistical Office, Civil society organisations (CSOs), Legal clinics etc., who attended the event had the opportunity to hear more about the legal needs methodologies from prominent international speakers such as Mr. Peter van den Biggelaar - former CEO Dutch Legal Aid Board,  Mr. Alan Paterson, Professor of Law, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland, and chair of the International Legal Aid Group (ILAG), Mr. Martin Gramatikov, Director Measuring Justice of the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HILL), as well as the national expert, Ms. Nada Naumovska, senior programme coordinator at FOSM and Mr. Goce Kocevski, national CoE consultant.

During the webinar local stakeholders were acknowledged with the benefits of conducting regular legal needs assessments, as well as the international good practices and lessons learned in conducting legal needs assessments. These discussions aim to ensure the support and co-operation of Macedonian stakeholders for adopting such practices in North Macedonia in the future.

This event has been organised by the action “Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia” which is part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.

 

 

 

Skopje 20 October 2020
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Actions under theme I: Strengthening justice

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.