Rule of Law Clinic: Practical Ways to engage with Customary, Informal and Community Justice Services

Subsequent to the TED Rule of Law Clinic on “Using data and evidence to deliver justice services” that took place in October 2024, the TED network organised the second clinic co-convened by HiiL, IDLO and WJP. Building on a webinar organised in May 2024 on the theme of customary, informal, and community justice services, the co-convenors shared insights on the use of data and evidence for understanding the context-specific advantages offered, risks posed, and challenges faced by customary, informal, and community justice services using examples from Mexico, Somalia, Uganda and the Sahel. The participants discussed how to balance local customs of informal mechanisms with formal systems safeguards (e.g. human rights) and explored ways to link formal and informal systems. 

The key takeaways from the clinic are:

• Advantages: Customary and informal justice systems are often faster, more accessible, more culturally relevant, and cheaper for most people. A vast majority of justice seekers turn to customary, informal and community justice services. In fragile contexts, peacebuilding and statebuilding agendas can only be possible through strong institutions, and this includes informal justice institutions. 
• Diversity: Yet, these systems are not without challenges (legitimacy, gender concerns etc.) and demonstrate significant diversity across contexts. As regards concrete, practical guidance on how development actors may engage with those justice providers, there is no one-size-fits-all end point that all CIJ programmes have, rather, the intended results will need to be context-specific and engagement will vary accordingly. 
• Prospects for donors ensuring PCJ within CIJ systems include: figuring out who and where the changemakers are and working with them by taking the overarching approach that traditions are not set in stone; creating monitoring and accountability mechanisms that foster change; creating guidelines and standard operating procedures for CIJ adjudicators; fostering legislative harmonisation; and relationship-building between the formal and informal systems, including encouraging cross-fertilisation between both systems.
• Ways in which data can contribute to PCJ within CIJ systems: by improving the availability or number of people using CIJ systems; improving the quality of the decision-making;  improving the efficiency of justice decisions; improving the coordination between the formal and informal systems.
• Risks associated with attempts at scaling and sustainability of CIJ programmes include: the very nature of top-down scaling can impact on the features that make CIJ systems sought after (cultural relevance, flexibility); recognition of CIJ systems can come with the risk of feelings of marginalisation from the magistrates; scaling can also lead to coordination difficulties by multiplying the number of partners to work with; rapidly decreasing funding for A2J, where even the formal justice systems are at capacity of the funding available; the risk of simulation, whereby justice centres were opened in communities but were not utilised by justice seekers in those communities.  

The detailed meeting report is attached below, and the video recording can be viewed here: 

The TED Secretariat will publish a practical toolkit with further links and materials on Customary, Informal and Community Justice Services soon. We’ll keep you updated!