Sustainable Development Goal 16.3 promises to ensure equal access to justice for all by 2030. Without increased justice, the world will not be able to end poverty, reduce inequality, reach the furthest behind, create conditions for shared and sustainable development, or promote peace and inclusion.

Currently, 5.1 billion people – two-thirds of the world’s population – lack meaningful access to justice, with women, children, the poor, people with disabilities and minority ethnic groups disproportionately affected. In low-income countries, it would cost just $20 per person to provide access to basic justice services. Yet, two billion people live in countries that cannot afford even half that cost. At the same time, donor investment in justice has declined by 40 percent over the past four years and just 1.5 percent of official development assistance is spent on justice in fragile contexts. 

It is clear that closing the justice gap requires a transformation in ambition, with both development and foreign policy communities engaged, alongside the private sector. It requires confronting political obstacles to change and moving beyond a focus on institutions that are distant from people and fail to serve their needs.

Join us for a discussion with David Steven, Associate Director of the Center for International Cooperation at New York University and Head of the Secretariat of the Task Force on Justice – an initiative of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies. David will discuss the findings of the Task Force’s report on taking a different approach to delivering on SDG 16.3 by putting people at the centre of justice systems and justice at the heart of sustainable development. The final Task Force report is to be presented at the High-Level Political Forum on SDG 16 at the United Nations in July.