Advocating access to justice: Facilitating or gatekeeping?

Abstract

Advocacy is one of the central means for supporting access to justice. The social work profession has advocacy as one of its main courses of action. This discusses the components in actions that are considered as good practice for facilitating access to justice in its democratic aspects. More explicitly social workers advocacy for promoting the worth and dignity of human beings in society. Four different ideals in social work are presented, self-help, treatment, philanthropy and bureaucracy. Thereafter, cases presented as best practice from European social workers are used for pointing out the central components described for good advocacy work. These are communication, inclusion and flexibility. Taken together, the aspects all go back to having respect for those in need of advocacy. In advocating for access to justice, it is important that the advocates are actively aware of their own role in a way that their efforts facilitate access to justice.

Las Rutas y Dinámicas Sociales de las Necesidades Jurídicas y el acceso a la Justicia para la Gestión de Conflictos en el Sur del Perú

“…Desde el punto de vista de Svensson (2023Svensson ( , p. 1243 se debe considerar la posibilidad del desconocimiento de los mecanismos para resolver el conflicto como un indicador importante en la decisión de quienes acuden frente al conflicto. Para ello se debe considerar que la promoción de los mecanismos de solución de conflicto son centrales para apoyar el acceso a la justicia.…”