Access to Justice at the Center of SDG Progress: East African Countries

This chapter posits that East African countries have failed to sufficiently streamline access to justice under SDG 16 as part of their broader policies and programs aimed at making progress under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through a review of United Nations Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) submitted to the VNR mechanism established by the United Nations General Assembly, this chapter analyzes the implementation of the SDGs in the East African region and the extent to which policies across all SDGS integrate access to justice strategies. The authors specifically focus this chapter on the SDG Goal 16 on access to justice due to its relevance for enforcing rights essential to achieving greater progress on the SDGs and across development spectrums, generally. This chapter ultimately concludes, based on an analysis of the VNRs, that countries in East Africa have failed to implement access to justice policies toward the achievement of SDG 16, and that further policies need to be put in place to ensure the population, particularly the poor and marginalized, have access to functional justice systems where they can enforce their rights. After the introduction, the chapter provides a methodology section that explains the relevance and scientific basis of using VNRs to analyze implementation of the SDGs in the East African region. The following section then draws off access to justice literature to provide a theoretical basis that highlights the intersection between access to justice and development in order to demonstrate its relevance toward advancing other SDGs. The next section analyzes access to justice implementation within the East African Region through an analysis of the VNRs, demonstrating the limited attention by East African countries to expanding justice. This section also considers the justice challenges facing countries in the region. The chapter ends by reinforcing the chapter’s principle assertion that access to justice must be better prioritized within all areas of SDG policy making and offers a discussion about how countries can more effectively integrate justice policies and programming into SDG strategies.