Publications
Read and download reports, handbooks, briefing papers, legal and policy submissions, and fact sheets from the Open Society Justice Initiative.
A Community-Based Practitioner’s Guide: Documenting Citizenship and Other Forms of Legal Identity
This guide provides instructions on how to establish a community-based paralegal program to help people document citizenship and other forms of legal identity.
June 2018Innovative Efforts, Proven Results: How Timap for Justice Provides Legal Aid in Sierra Leone
This 12-page illustrated brochure summarizes the successes achieved by a community paralegal project in Sierra Leone that focused on providing front-line legal aid to pretrial detainees.
March 2015Joint Statement on Pretrial Detention in Africa
16 civil society groups called on the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights to work to end excessive use of pretrial detention.
October 25, 2011Justice Initiatives: Legal Empowerment
Eight case studies look at how legal empowerment projects can reduce poverty and help people realize their rights; with a forward by George Soros.
September 2013Kenya's National Integrated Identity Management Scheme (NIIMS)
Kenya's introduction of a national digital identity scheme has triggered protests from local human rights and community groups concerned with both privacy, and the scheme's impact on minority communities.
March 2020Lawyer at the Police Station Door: How REPLACE Provides Legal Aid in Nigeria
This 12-page illustrated brochure summarizes the successes achieved by a project that used duty solicitors to give detainees in Nigerian police stations early access to legal advice.
March 2015Legal Aid in Europe: Minimum Requirements under International Law
This briefing paper summarizes the current minimum international legal standards on the right to legal aid, drawing on European human rights law and global principles and standards.
April 2015Legal Tools: Arrest Rights and the Right to Information
Part of a toolkit on arrest rights in Europe, this “template brief” from the Open Society Justice Initiative provides lawyers with research on the right of suspects to obtain information during criminal proceedings.
November 2012