Access to Justice is an Absolute Human Right for All

Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow

3,801 people received legal assistance through the SolidarityNow Solidarity Centers

Access to justice, the equality of all before the law, the exercise of the right to court representation and the right to trial are four of the basic human rights* which SolidarityNow defends as self-evident for every person -regardless of nationality, gender, religion, political beliefs.

Access to justice is the minimum denominator of citizens’ rights reinforcement and demonstrates the proper functioning of a democracy. It is a proof and at the same time the foundation for the proper functioning of a democracy”, states Antigone Lyberaki, General Director at SolidarityNow.

SolidarityNow since the establishment of its Solidarity Centers operating in Athens and Thessaloniki has incorporated legal assistance as an elementary service provided pro bono to anyone who requests it. Groups of experienced lawyers in both refugee and civil, penal and administrative law support all those who need legal assistance by providing a wide range of services – from issuing legal documents, representation in services (especially for asylum seekers) to court representation. The various legal services provided aim to respond to both the large number of cases received by the organization and the complexity of each case separately.

The level of complexity of the cases dealt with is captured by the ratio of those cases that demand court representation.

During 2017, 7.44% of the Athens Solidarity Center legal service beneficiaries’ cases required court representation while the equivalent for the Blue Refugee Center is 9.88%, while for the Thessaloniki Solidarity Center is 14.53%. The above percentages indicate that 1 out of 10 among the 3,801 Solidarity Centers’ legal services beneficiaries brought a case that required court representation to be resolved.

The paradigm of the Athens Solidarity Center

In 2017, the Athens Solidarity Center assisted a total of 1,526 beneficiaries and its legal team undertook a significant role in addressing the legal assistance needs of asylum seekers in Athens:

  • 130 of the 236 family reunification cases were successful for the families
  • 55 of the 112 cases of court representation had a positive outcome for the beneficiaries

The next step: securing resources to meet the needs of even more

Building upon the effective initiatives to date, including: hosting of an Asylum Service office at the Athens Solidarity Center, supporting the operation of four more regional Asylum Offices and providing 13 grants to other Civil Society organizations which provide legal support to those who need it, SolidarityNow targets in the future to:

– Ensure that additional financial and human resources are put in service of the people to meet the increased, unmet needs of the population.

– Reinforce the right to access free legal advice to Greek citizens who lack sufficient resources, as well as to other vulnerable individuals including refugees and asylum seekers.

– Facilitate training to judges and other public officers in human rights and asylum law, including the ever-evolving standards and case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

Read more on the SNapshot entitled “Access to Justice” which is based on a survey of people who received legal support from the organization: https://www.solidaritynow.org/en/ekdoseis/.

 

* Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), United Nations (1948)