Online Roundtable on Legal Aid in Humanitarian Settings

Refugees and other forcibly displaced people have widespread unmet legal aid and justice needs, not least in humanitarian contexts, where justice systems are often more fragile and where further barriers specifically for displaced populations often exist.  

The consequences for people are severe and must not be overlooked in humanitarian responses. Legal actors can thus play an important role in supporting and empowering refugees and other displaced people in their quest for accessing rights, justice, and solutions to their displacement.  

Realising that humanitarian actors have traditionally worked in parallel with access to justice/rule of law actors, ensuring that national legal ecosystems, are included in humanitarian coordination spaces and setting of priorities is a challenge to be overcome.  

The multi-stakeholder GRF Legal Community Pledge has recently been launched with the aim of mobilizing the diverse legal community to take action for and with refugees and other displaced people to increase legal assistance and to facilitate improvements to the systems through which rights, justice, and solutions are accessed. With a key aim of strengthening partnerships and collaboration between legal actors, including refugees themselves. 

With speakers from RELON (Refugee-led network of Kenya)/GRN (Global Refugee-led Network) Africa, UNHCR, HIAS, PILnet (coordinators of the GRF Legal Community pledge), Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies and others, DRC will host this Online Roundtable to discuss what common legal aid needs are for refugees and other displaced in humanitarian contexts, how coordination can be ensured between the humanitarian sector and (other) legal actors and what specific commitments within this area can look like under the GRF Legal community pledge, and invite you to join the discussion – and to share this invitation along to colleagues and others whom you think will be interested.    

The Online Roundtable will take place on 31 October 2023, 15:00-16:30 CET. 

Sign up for the eventand reach out to Cecilia Vejby Andersen, [email protected], for any questions.