Capacity building of justice actors is expected to improve justice services and generate demand, and is key, but not by itself sufficient, to ensure the sustainability of gains in confidence and trust. To this end, EAJ will incorporate a procedural justice emphasis into programming approaches.The effectiveness of procedural justice approaches to improve trust and confidence in justice services among marginalized communities has significant international research backing. The procedural justice approach addresses confidence deficits by ensuring that justice service delivery addresses three universal expectations:
- Communities expect fairness of process, a uniform and neutral application of rules by justice actors in arriving at decisions
- Communities expect transparency in the provision of information, including explanation of processes and the rationale and reasons for decisions rendered
- Communitiesexpecttobetreatedwithdignityandrespectbyalljusticeactors throughout
Evidence shows that when these elements are applied successfully, community awareness and understanding of the law and justice processes improve, with accompanying increases in demand for services, as well as community cooperation and compliance with rulings and decisions. The approach empowers individuals by providing more information about processes and improving their understanding of factors informing decisions. This fosters greater individual agency in determining appropriate justice pathways and motivates communities to invest and participate in, as well as cultivate local ownership of, broader justice co-creation and service delivery improvement initiatives that EAJ supports.
