Justice Matters 2026

The world is sliding into deeper insecurity. For the twelfth time in sixteen years, global peace has declined, and in the past five years alone conflict levels have doubled. Today, fifty countries are gripped by extreme, high, or turbulent violence—from protracted wars and authoritarian crackdowns to spiralling crime and state collapse. This is not a passing crisis; it is a structural failure. At the heart of this failure lies a deficit of justice. While military responses, ceasefires, and disarmament negotiations dominate the global response to conflict, the absence of fair, accessible, and legitimate pathways for resolving grievances is often ignored. Yet instability is rarely born in a vacuum. It grows where people are excluded, abused, or ignored; where corruption replaces accountability; and where systems of law serve power, not people. Stability and justice are not separate policy goals; they are co-dependent conditions of peace.

This conference invites bold and honest conversation on what it means for stability to follow justice: making justice a frontline strategy in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, repivoting international development cooperation and diplomacy to prioritise access to justice, and respecting local mechanisms of dispute resolution. It asks difficult questions about justice in fragile and polarised contexts, and challenges the international community to confront whether it can claim to be building stability while turning a blind eye to injustice.