The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor was an independent international commission, hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and established in 2005 as the “first global initiative to focus on the link between exclusion, poverty, and the law.” [1] Drawing on three years of research and consultations, the Commission proposed strategies for creating inclusive development initiatives that would empower those living in poverty through increased protections and rights.
The Commission's final 2008 report, Making the Law Work for Everyone, argued that as many as 4 billion people worldwide are “robbed of the chance to better their lives and climb out of poverty, because they are excluded from the rule of law”.[2] In response, the report proposed four “pillars” for legal empowerment of the poor, which, the Commission argued, would enable those living in poverty to become partners in, rather than passive recipients of, development programs. These four pillars are: access to justice and the rule of law, property rights, labor rights, and business rights.[3]
Upon concluding its work and producing its final report, the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor ceased to exist. The Commission’s findings gave rise to a number of initiatives, including UNDP’s Initiative on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (created in 2008), the Justice for the Poor program at the World Bank (started in 2009), work on Legal Empowerment as part of the Justice Initiative of the Open Society Foundations and more recently the creation of the Global Legal Empowerment Network (2012) and the Legal Empowerment Fund (2020).
A high-level event held in 2018 at the start of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly, marked the tenth anniversary of Making the Law Work for Everyone.[4] It lauded the Commission's work as a foundation for the then newly formed Task Force on Justice, created to develop an agenda to realize 'access to justice for all' by 2030, as defined in Sustainable Development Goal 16.
- ^ [1] Archived 2010-06-27 at the Wayback Machine Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (2008). Making The Law Work for Everyone. "Legal Empowerment of the Poor - UNDP - Home". Archived from the original on 2010-10-01. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
- ^ [2] Archived 2010-06-27 at the Wayback Machine Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (2008). Making The Law Work for Everyone. p.1
- ^ [3] Archived 2010-06-27 at the Wayback Machine Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (2008). Making The Law Work for Everyone. p.31
- ^ Langen, Maaike de (2021-01-23). "Legal Empowerment, Justice and Inclusion". Medium. Retrieved 2023-04-06.