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	Human rights through legal empowerment by Namati, CPR, NYU School of Law, agencies   Reimagining justice: human rights through legal empowerment, by Sukti Dhital.   According to the United Nations, more than four billion people live outside the protection of the law. Adding to this unjust and ongoing status quo are profound levels of income inequality and rising authoritarianism, deepening the marginalization of communities across the globe. The result is an urgent need to reimagine justice, to build legal systems that work for everyone, driven by the voices of those who have been historically powerless.   American writer James Baldwin once said that to 'know how justice is administered in a country, one must go to the unprotected and listen to their stories to learn not whether the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it'.   Legal empowerment is a growing field of human rights practice, scholarship, and education that strives to do just this, to listen to the stories of communities affected by injustice, and to reverse the tide by strengthening the capacity of marginalized individuals to use the law to find solutions to their justice problems.   Indeed, in September 2015 the UN General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through which the global community pledged to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development and ensure access to justice for all by 2030 (Goal 16).   The 2030 Agenda acknowledges the significance of rule of law to sustainable development in several distinct ways: by reducing crime and violence, advancing equality and eradicating discrimination, strengthening laws and institutions at the national and international levels, and empowering people.   Although the Agenda doesn't explicitly discuss the role of legal empowerment, it necessarily plays a catalytic role in reaching the proposed SDGs.   Notwithstanding the strong rhetoric about access to justice for all, the SDGs have not been backed up with much action. When the goals were announced, many of them were supported with significant financial pledges. For example, $25 billion in public and private financing was committed to improve healthcare for women and children. Not one dollar was pledged for access to justice.   There is much greater promise, however, at the grassroots: today there are more than 1400 organizations around the world dedicated to legal empowerment. One such example is Namati, an organization committed to building an evidence-based movement of grassroots legal advocates.   Namati convenes the Global Legal Empowerment Network, a network of practitioners and scholars who learn from each other through the sharing of online resources, in-depth learning exchanges, and an annual Legal Empowerment Leadership course.   The Network has also built a growing library of legal empowerment resources to advance grassroots justice worldwide.   Legal empowerment continues to take many forms: from grassroots paralegal programs, to mediation and dispute resolution initiatives, and law and organizing efforts that marry litigation with broad mobilization efforts.   A central tenet of the work is the shifting of power relations, with communities working closely with lawyers and activists to expand access to justice, keeping the community in the lead in defining the justice they seek.   Unlike traditional legal interventions, legal empowerment is broad and flexible, uniting multiple disciplines of law, development, political science and pedagogy to address power dynamics that are key to addressing poverty and marginalization.   The concept of legal empowerment is anchored in international human rights law and rests on Sen's theory that poverty is a deprivation of capabilities and opportunities, with external constraints inhibiting an individual's ability to shape and exercise his or her basic rights.   It provides citizens with a stake in the state and draws from trade union and feminist movements, which saw emancipatory power of popular education and embedded rights awareness with self-reflection and collective action.   Legal empowerment emerged in part as a response to criticisms of top-down approaches within the development field and the failure of development methodologies to meaningfully impact the lives of poor and marginalized communities.   But violations or deprivation of human rights are often a barrier to legal empowerment. Violations of the right to health, education, security, and association can prevent or inhibit individual and/or community participation in domestic legal systems. Legal empowerment programs must adopt specific strategies to tackle these barriers and encourage meaningful participation from marginalized communities.   Towards this end, human rights lawyers are expanding their work beyond traditional legal representation to include legal empowerment interventions that create safe social and political spaces for communities to (re)claim their rights.   This year, the Robert L. Bernstein Institute for Human Rights; an institute committed to the advancement of legal empowerment is hosting a groundbreaking conference to examine the key concepts underpinning the legal empowerment field, illuminating how empowerment can transform access to justice and make real human rights.   There are diverse issues and interventions at stake around which experts can offer dynamic insights into legal empowerment research, with a focus on methodologies, evidence, and gaps in scholarship. Innovative community driven strategies are especially critical to hold state and corporate actors accountable for human rights violations in varying regional and political contexts.   Crucially, this gathering will not only be a forum to listen to the stories of the unprotected, as Baldwin rightly advised; it will be an opportunity to understand how legal empowerment is supporting communities across the globe to become the authors of their own justice, and through their liberation, the inspiration for more.   * Sukti Dhital is a human rights lawyer and the deputy director of the Robert L. Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU School of Law.   http://www.openglobalrights.org/Reimagining-justice-human-rights-through-legal-empowerment/ http://2018.nyubernsteinconference.org/panels/ http://namati.org/ http://www.justiceforall2030.org/   July 2018   Community Strategies and Remedies for Natural Resource Conflicts in India, Indonesia and Myanmar - Report by Centre for Policy Research (India) and the Namati Environmental Justice Program.   From the 1990s when many Asian countries and other parts of the world embraced economic liberalization, speculative business interests in land have replaced state control of land use for developmental purposes. Large-scale land conversions and land grabs have exploded in Asia following economic globalization and many point to the years of 2005 to 2008, when food prices peaked, as the period of the global land rush.   The growing demand for land by corporations and private investors has fueled several regional land rush waves, bringing them directly in conflict with communities who require these lands to continue their occupations and survival.   The following is the overview of a three-year study to scope the nature and extent of land use change in the three postcolonial Asian countries of India, Indonesia and Myanmar. It is organised as a set of three country chapters and detailed case studies from each country.   The study analyses primary data on land use approvals for mining, hydropower, industrial estates and plantations over the last three decades in these countries as these sectors have caused large-scale land transformations. The approvals have been analysed for temporal, regional and sectoral trends in land use change. The study also draws from an extensive body of land use studies done by government, academics, international donors, investor coalitions and non-governmental organisations.   This research hopes to contribute to the understanding of the conditions and consequences of land conflicts arising from land use change. What are the reasons why land conversion proposals escalate into land conflicts, what are the strategies that affected communities adopt to address these and to what outcomes, are some of the questions the study investigates. These have been done with primary data collected from land conflict cases through semi- structured interviews as well as secondary sources such as media reports and published studies.   The overall objective of the study is to understand how communities secure land and natural resources that are intrinsic to their basic human survival and livelihoods and to what effect. It aims to generate evidence and knowledge regarding the strategies and remedies extracted by affected communities in the face of project impacts and land conflicts.   * Access the report: http://bit.ly/2NE9huY Visit the related web page
	69 of the richest 100 entities on the planet are corporations by ESCR-Net, agencies   Oct. 2018   Report from the Swiss bank UBS and PwC, reveals the total wealth held by the world's billionaires has surged by 19 per cent to $12.6 trillion, according to the survey of more than 2,000 of the world's richest people. The survey was based on interviews and financial data of 2,158 individuals from 43 countries. The survey covers an estimated 98 per cent of billionaires wealth. Chinese billionaires alone added $2 trillion to their bank accounts, according to the report. The United States alone is home to 585 billionaires, the most in the world.   According to UBS, 40 of the 179 new billionaires created last year inherited their wealth, a trend that has driven an explosion of wealth inequality over the past several decades. According to UBS, this trend will continue to accelerate over the next 20 years, given that there are currently 701 billionaires over the age of 70.   "A major wealth transition has begun. Over the past five years (2012-2017), the sum passed by deceased billionaires to beneficiaries has grown by an average of 17 percent each year," the UBS report concludes. "Over the next two decades we expect a wealth transition of $3.4 trillion worldwide; almost 40 percent of current total billionaire wealth."   http://www.taxjustice.net/2018/09/20/moneyland-plutocracy-secrecy-and-crisis-in-the-tax-justice-networks-september-2018-podcast/ http://www.taxjustice.net/category/blog/ http://www.ips-journal.eu/regions/europe/article/show/tax-paradise-lost-3006/ http://www.icrict.com/ http://www.icrict.com/our-commissioners-papers/ http://www.globaltaxjustice.org/ http://www.cesr.org/tax-abuse-leads-human-rights-abuse   Manifestations of Corporate Capture. (ESCR-Net)   Corporate capture refers to the means by which an economic elite undermine the realization of human rights and the environment by exerting undue influence over domestic and international decision-makers and public institutions. The elements of corporate capture identified by the research for this project so far include:   Community Manipulation   Community manipulation refers to the corporate undermining of community decision-making processes related to an investment project. The strategies employed involve the use of financial or other incentives to entice community leaders to support corporate projects that undermine the interests and decisions of the wider community. At times these strategies involve the use of alcohol, offers of employment, financial rewards and/or intimidation to secure leaders approvals.   Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be used as a tactic to manipulate or divide communities to acquire a social license to operate. Through community development projects, at times in partnership with so called foundations, charities or NGOs, CSR offers short-term benefits that are often intended to mask long-term harm.   Economic Diplomacy   The economic diplomacy dimension of corporate capture refers to support from diplomatic missions which advance the interests of corporations from their countries operating in foreign countries in cases where these actions are at the expense of the human rights of local people. In its worst form, diplomatic missions have defended the questionable activities and provided further support for ''their'' corporations when they become implicated in serious human rights violations in foreign countries.   Judicial Interference   The economic diplomacy dimension of corporate capture refers to support from diplomatic missions which advance the interests of corporations from their countries operating in foreign countries in cases where these actions are at the expense of the human rights of local people. In its worst form, diplomatic missions have defended the questionable activities and provided further support for ''their'' corporations when they become implicated in serious human rights violations in foreign countries.   Legislative & Policy Interference   Legislative & Policy interference refers to pressure exerted on legislatures and policy makers by corporations and their representatives to provide greater opportunities for business, or remove/undermine regulation of corporate activities, which ultimately undermine the protection of human rights.   Among other forms of interference, these activities often include provision of campaign or other donations to elected officials in return for draft legislation or votes during parliamentary proceedings favorably to the interests of corporations.   Privatizing Public Security Services   Privatizing the use of public security services involves the provision of a salary or other inducements by corporations for police, army or other public security services to act in their interest against local communities. The activities these state security services often provide for corporations are confronting demonstrators, gathering intelligence on local communities and intimidating opponents of corporate projects.   Revolving Door   ''Revolving Door'' as a component of corporate capture refers to the movement of employees from the corporate sector to public regulators and other agencies, and vice versa, in the process undermining the impartiality of state agencies, facilitating corporate-friendly regulation and policy, lessening the application of existing regulations and securing favorable corporate contracts with state agencies.   Shaping narratives   Influencing the public opinion, by manipulating the media and spreading dominant narratives about progress and development, is another manifestation of corporate capture.   Delegitimizing the struggles of affected groups and communities that stand up against corporate interests has become an increasingly common practice. Narratives are often used to justify the privatization of essential public services (often undermining human rights to water, sanitation, health and education), the use of public resources via tax subsidies or policy, support from export credit agencies or other forms of public finance to further the private interests of corporate actors, and the implementation of large-scale projects at the local level.   Capture of Academic Institutions   Corporations are increasingly involved in financing academic institutions, affording them opportunities to influence educational priorities including curricula, as well as research agendas. It's also becoming increasingly common for universities and research centers to receive corporate financing to develop assessments or studies regarding corporate-sponsored projects.   Finally, corporate philanthropy associated with educational and research institutions can bolster a corporation's public image, dampening public debate about the company's adverse impacts.   http://www.escr-net.org/corporateaccountability/corporatecapture/manifestations-corporate-capture http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2018/oct/17/69-richest-100-entities-planet-are-corporations-not-governments-figures-show http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2018/oct/11/untrammelled-corporate-power-threatens-global-breakdown-says-un-agency http://pewrsr.ch/1L62cQW Visit the related web page
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