Turning the Tide: Scaling SDG 16 for the Future, Reinforcing Access to Justice, and Advancing Democracy

July 16, 2024
1:15–2:30 p.m. (ET)
United Nations Headquarters, New York
Conference Room B

This event at the 2024 High-Level Political Forum will demonstrate the United States’ strategic support for United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16—to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels—as a critical foundation to strengthen democracy and economic prosperity at home and abroad. The event will spotlight the sustainable, resilient, innovative, and people-centered solutions and approaches that governments and stakeholders are employing to advance implementation of UN SDG 16, drawing upon President Biden’s Memorandum on Access to Justice and U.S. rule of law commitments undertaken through the Summit for Democracy. The event will also provide a forum for deliverables to be announced related to SDG 16 (e.g. USAID’s new people-centered justice programming and its Rule of Law IDEAS Lab and DOJ’s civil legal needs survey pilot), promote the connection between access to justice and countering corruption, promote the Meeting of Experts on Access to Justice to be convened by UNODC in accordance with GA resolution 78/227, and affirm U.S. support for SDG 16 as instrumental to implementation of other SDGs, including SDG 1 (poverty eradication).

Objectives

To further sustain this momentum, encourage more progress, and strengthen new and existing partnerships, Turning the Tide: Scaling SDG 16 for the Future, Reinforcing Access to Justice, and Advancing Democracy aims to:

• Highlight national-level efforts, including in the United States, to advance access to justice as a means of building trust with communities and reducing historic inequities, in line with SDG 16;
• Identify evidence-based and promising practices on inclusive and people-focused data collection and research efforts in support of SDG 16, including investigating the links between access to justice and poverty reduction, which lead to integrated policy-making;
• Consider new approaches to finance and scale justice efforts, in line with SDG 1 focused on poverty reduction efforts and SDG 17 which is focused on implementation.
• Promote the nexus between countering corruption and access to justice.
• “Future-proofing” SDG 16 (e.g. through S4D, SDG 13/2) to ensure global action remains committed to its achievement and maintenance.

Agenda

Keynote Speaker

• Isobel Coleman, Deputy Administrator, USAID

Welcoming Remarks

• Rachel Rossi, ATJ Director, U.S. Department of Justice

Panelists

• Jhody Polk, Founder, NYU Jailhouse Lawyer Initiative
• Alvaro Herrero, Under Secretary for Strategic Management and Institutional Quality, Buenos Aires
• Veronica Valdez Cabe, Coordinator, Nuclear and Coal-Free Bataan Movement
• Andrews Kananga, Executive Director, Legal Aid Forum
• Mumba Malila, Chief Justice of Zambia.

Moderator

• H.E. Martin Kimani, Executive Director, NYU Center on International Cooperation

This event is co-sponsored by UNDP, Pathfinders, Justice Action Coalition, the Netherlands, IDLO, NYU School of Law’s Robert and Helen Bernstein Institute for Human Rights, American Bar Foundation, UNODC, ILF, International IDEA, Namati, UNF, and World Justice Center.