To Promote Justice, Agencies Must Expand Access to Legal Information

Though guaranteed legal protections under U.S. law, many documented and undocumented migrant farm workers toiling near Immokalee, Florida, have been routinely exploited by employers and forced to work for slave wages, finding themselves victims of wage theft and sexual harassment. They were denied payment, forced to work unpaid overtime and subjected to other abusive practices. This abuse continued unaddressed for years, but over the last decade, the laborers have been organizing themselves, learning about the law, educating one another, and creating structures that address their grievances, forcing major food companies to pay a higher wage.

Despite the existence of laws that protect the vulnerable against injustices, many remain unaware of their rights and lawyers remain equally unaware of the precedents for addressing violations.

This is true in the United States and around the world. In Abu Dhabi, migrant construction workers suffer from wage theft, and risk having their passports confiscated or being forcibly deported if they protest working conditions. Local laws also prohibit workers from seeking other employment within the country. As a result, unscrupulous employers take advantage of their workers’ lack of options. The world was made aware of these rights violations when Emirati contractors began building branches of global institutions, such as the Louvre, the Guggenheim, and New York University on Saadiyat Island. While labor-sending nations, the UAE and Western institutions are responsible for oversight of contractors, as in the case of the Coalition of Immokalee, only workers’ own knowledge of their rights will ensure that they are respected. 

It’s not enough that laws protecting workers exist—a nation’s citizenry must also be aware of their rights. Access to information contributes to the creation of a just system of which everyone is aware and to which society as a whole has agreed. When a neighbor sees justice delivered because someone within the community courageously stood up for him or herself, the path toward a pervasive culture of justice becomes clearer. Slowly, often with great risk, people begin to hold their government accountable and ultimately obtain a voice in their own governance.

It sounds like a lofty ideal, but is it practical? Yes, but only if we invest resources in providing access to legal information to citizens and practitioners. When the U.S. Agency for International Development invests in rule-of-law programs overseas to promote democracy and human rights, it needs to also focus on providing access to the legal framework supporting those programs. Multilateral donors must evaluate all rule-of-law programs through an “access to justice lens” that prioritizes the dissemination of information about laws. In other words, if a government invests $2 million to build a courthouse and train judges, prosecutors, and public defenders, it also must make an investment to ensure that people are aware of their rights and lawyers have access to the published law. 

This means not just investing in publishing the legal tomes that sit on library shelves, but also the technology that could disseminate this critical information widely and easily, such as through text messaging services, and resources for those who can educate the public about the laws that uphold their human rights. Text messaging has been used widely to disseminate health information—why not legal rights information as well?

Creating a culture of justice begins with an engaged citizenry. The fight for access to justice for workers in Immokalee and migrant workers in Abu Dhabi continues. It hasn’t been easy, and risks remain. However, the road to justice begins only when people become aware of their rights.

Samir Goswami is a regional sales director at LexisNexis, the world’s largest database of primary law and news archives. 

(Image via ER_09/Shutterstock.com)