Date: 18 September 2016

Location: Westin Grand Central Hotel, New York

Background

Held jointly by the OECD and the Open Society Foundation (OSF) on the margins of the UN General Assembly, this event built on two 2015 OECD Expert Roundtables on Equal Access to Justice. The event aimed to highlight a central contribution to the OECD Inclusive Growth Agenda and the OECD response to the Sustainable Development Agenda by underlying the role of access to justice as an enabler of inclusive growth and sustainable development. The event featured keynote remarks from the OECD Secretary-General, Mr. Ángel Gurría, and the President of OSF, Mr Chris Stone. Additionally, high level officials from a diverse range of governments highlighted innovative country approaches to promote access to legal and justice services, including:

• Mr Wolfgang Brandstetter, Federal Minister of Justice of Austria
• Ms Frances Fitzgerald, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Ireland
• Mr Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Sierra Leone
• Mr Tshililo Michael Masutha, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, South Africa
• Mr Pavlo Petrenko, Minister of Justice, Ukraine
• Mr Bill Baer, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General, United States
• Mr Gabriel Cifuentes Ghidini, Director of Justice, Security and Governance, Department of National Planning, Colombia

The event was followed by a technical brainstorming meeting (19 September 2016).

Objectives

The event:

1. Articulated the important link between achieving access to justice and improvements in inclusive economic growth.
   
   
2. Highlighted good examples of how countries are implementing access to justice policies.
   
   
3. Garnered support for innovative policies to achieve SDG target 16.3 through effective national access to justice strategies.
   
   
4. Launched joint OECD-OSF comparative research on access to justice as a driver of inclusive growth and development.

Documentation

Agenda

Issues brief: Leveraging the SDG's for Inclusive Growth: Delivering Access to Justice for all

Keynote speech: 
Leveraging the SDGs: Delivering access to justice for all 
- Angel Gurría, Secretary-General, OECD

Event Highlights

More on Access to Justice

Contact

Gov.Accesstojustice@oecd.org