The renewed Justice Dashboard: contributing to decreasing the justice gap and support the delivery of justice

“I am seeking a divorce from my husband as he was abusive towards me. But I am worried about how it would affect my children, as they love their father and he loves them too. I need to build a cordial relationship with my soon to be ex-husband so that my children do not feel the absence of a parent in their life. At the same time, I want to ensure that child-care responsibilities, especially the finances, are distributed between both parents, such that neither of us one bears the brunt. I need help  in recovering from this rough patch in my life and settle this dispute as amicably as possible.’’ – Kai (F, 35)

Authored by: Dr. Martin Gramatikov and Manasi Nikam

Today, in our world, there are more than 5 billion people who need justice. Much like Kai, they need justice to resolve day-to-day issues such as divorce, while others need help in dealing with crime, or land disagreements. Some are struggling and fighting for social justice, fundamental rights, and the rule of law. 

To contribute to decreasing the justice gap and support the delivery of justice HiiL makes available the next iteration of the Justice Dashboard. In a nutshell, the Dashboard portrays the story of HiiL – how data, solutions, innovation, and transformation lead to justice that works for the people. A user-friendly justice. The primary audiences of the Justice Dashboard are justice workers such as judges, lawyers, paralegals, justice innovators, ministers and other decision-makers, and everyone else whose mission is to prevent and resolve justice problems. They are the main protagonists of the Justice Dashboard storyline. Our ambition is to support the dedicated justice workers from Nigeria, Yemen, Ukraine, Indonesia, the US, Lebanon… and everywhere else in the world. 

This dynamic web interface portrays people’s justice journeys and the treatments that prevent or resolve problems. The Justice Dashboard is powered by a large volume of data from interviews with almost 100.000 randomly selected individuals from 17 countries. The data shows how people encounter justice problems and which journeys they take to achieve fair resolutions. It also shows how people evaluate their paths to justice. As a user of the Justice Dashboard, you can play with the data, formulate your questions, and pursue action-oriented answers.

Going beyond the justice problems, the Justice Dashboard delves into promising solutions that can solve people’s justice needs. Based on thorough desk research and analysis of good practices the Justice Dashboard displays the key building blocks of solving problems. Like Lego interlocking bricks these building blocks are containers of practical knowledge about resolving legal problems. The Justice Dashboard aspires to empower justice workers with tools that will make them more effective and efficient in the delivery of justice.

By design, the Justice Dashboard is an evolving story. In October 2020, HiiL is launching the Dashboard key infrastructure. In a matter of weeks, we will add more content. For instance, very soon we will expand with data from a recent survey with thousands of Ethiopian citizens as well as refugees, residing in the country. At the moment, there are building blocks dedicated to the mains steps of dispute resolution such as meeting, documenting, containing, deciding, understanding, and restoring. In the next months, we will make more building blocks available to the justice workers.

The story of the Justice Dashboard will continue in the direction of justice innovations and justice transformation. In a practical and easy to understand way, the Dashboard will show the game-changing innovations that have the potential to deliver justice to hundreds of thousands, even millions of people. Next, it will explore the question of how justice systems have to reform to live up to the growing needs. Some of the topics that will be discussed are: what are the creative ways to finance justice and how to adapt the regulatory framework to allow innovation.

In summary, the 2020 iteration of the Justice Dashboard is there to help in the pursuit of user-friendly justice. It contains large volumes of data about justice needs as well as actionable ideas about reaching fair solutions. Much more will come in the following weeks and months. Check out the Justice Dashboard regularly for updates.