By Madhulika The coronavirus pandemic has acted to highlight and exacerbate the failures in access to justice for domestic workers in India. The spread of Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown measures implemented by the Government of India to contain its spread has had a profound impact on work and workers. In India, women employed in…
Author: melissa.manley.19
Why India’s Constitutional Guarantee of Anti-Discrimination is Not Enough?
By Vatsal Patel India is perhaps the only country where the constitutional guarantee of non-discrimination is not backed by a comprehensive legislation. While Article 15(1) of the Indian Constitution posits a mandatory duty upon the State to not “discriminate against any citizens on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of…
Singapore High Court denies justice, again.
By Anmol Ratan In March 2020, the High Court of Singapore by the way of its decision in the case of Ong Ming Johnson v. Attorney-General and other matters upheld the validity of its colonial sodomy law, namely the Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code yet again. This section criminalises the act of ‘gross…
‘The Model Minority’: a Hinderance to the Pursuit of Justice
By Debadrita Chakraborty Indian immigrants fail to acknowledge their complicity in injustices both in India and America. Here’s why. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is here to stay. Catalysed by one of the most heinous racial homicide of the 21st century, BLM protests have since snowballed into one of the greatest ‘domino’ resistance movement…
Technology: Tool or Barrier to Access to Justice
By Louis Dejeu-Castang “The introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) together with local authority funding cuts has created an adverse environment which has resulted in half of the law centres or agencies offering free legal advice being closed”[1]. This striking statistic highlights the severity of the crisis facing…
How casteist is the Coronavirus pandemic?
By Anmol Ratan History bears testimony to the fact that unlike most of the world, India is not new to practice of social distancing. Maintaining social as well as physical distance has been historically entrenched in various form of isolation by the upper castes in the Hindu social order ever since the Vedic times[i]. Based…
The Threat of Technology to Access to Justice
By Abe Chauhan This essay was awarded third place in UCL CAJ SPBC writing competition to answer the question: “Technology is a useful tool for furthering access to justice”. Many are heralding a new era of ‘posthuman governance’[1] in which complex social issues are ‘deconstructed into neatly defined, structured and well-scoped problems that can be solved algorithmically’.[2]…
Outlawing the Practice of ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ in Sudan: An advanced step towards preaching health as a Human Right
By Sahajveer Baweja Our guest contributor is currently a 3rd-year B.A.LL.B. student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala, India. Recently, Sudan has made a landmark move by amending its Criminal Code and penalising the archaic practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) making it punishable by three years of imprisonment. FGM as a practice stems…
Clash of the Titans: Students v Academics Fundraising Debate for Kalayaan
By Isabel de Leon On the 21st of January 2020, the Centre for Access to Justice Student Pro Bono Committee held its first Academics vs Students Debate Fundraiser. This event was organised in support of Kalayaan, a small London-based charity that works to provide practical advice and support to, as well as campaigns with and…
Lawyers without Borders host Human Rights moot competition
By Regina Yip and Samuel Leung On 5 December 2019, the UCL Chapter of Lawyers without Borders (LWOB) and the Centre for Access to Justice hosted the final round of the LWOB Human Rights Moot. This year, the two finalist teams, including Mia Chaudhuri-Julyan and Alex Diaper, and Olivia Bessant and Emma Lazell, argued a moot…