The UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor estimates that four billion people live outside the protection of the law. The Open Society Foundations are working to strengthen and expand access to the law for all.

Read summaries of the decisions on admissibility and merits taken by the UN Human Rights Committee at its 102nd session, held in July 2011.

The Open Society Justice Initiative has prepared short summaries of the decisions on admissibility and merits taken by the UN Human Rights Committee at its 100th session, held in October 2010.

Read short summaries of the decisions and views which the UN Committee against Torture took on individual communications at its 41st and 42nd sessions, held respectively in November 2008 and May 2009.

Read short summaries of the decisions and views which the UN Committee against Torture took at its 43rd and 44th sessions, held respectively in November 2009 and May 2010.

This working paper sets out Open Society Foundations’ vision of how legal empowerment can support development and justice by ensuring that the law is not confined to books or courtrooms, but is available to everyone.

As the 47 members of the Council of Europe, this briefing sets out the background issues for journalists and others in question and answer form.

James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, set out a range of steps needed to ensure fair treatment of the poor by national justice systems during a meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York.