{"id":10605,"date":"2021-07-28T16:09:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/?post_type=event&p=10605"},"modified":"2021-07-28T16:21:56","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:21:56","slug":"kyivlepp-2020-graduates-conducted-a-research-on-access-to-justice-in-remote-communities-in-northern-macedonia","status":"publish","type":"event","link":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/event\/kyivlepp-2020-graduates-conducted-a-research-on-access-to-justice-in-remote-communities-in-northern-macedonia\/","title":{"rendered":"KyivLEPP-2020 graduates conducted a research on access to justice in remote communities in northern Macedonia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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During the Kyiv Legal Empowerment Practical\nProgram, Macedonians came up with the idea of creating a mobile office for\nparalegal aid that would come to various settlements on a certain day to\nconsult people. To make the services of such an office focused on the legal\nneeds of community residents, the team conducted a survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some settlements in the municipalities of\nPrilep, Krivogashtan and Dolnen are very far from the cities and do not have\ngood roads, so locals often cannot get the necessary legal assistance. To\novercome these barriers to access to justice, the Association for Legal\nEducation and Transparency \u201cLET STATION\u201d STANICA PET has set up a telephone\n\u201chotline\u201d for legal aid provision. But some cases cannot be solved by phone\nalone and require a more careful approach. Therefore, the representatives of\nthe association go to the people, covering hundreds of kilometers a day. Such\ntrips take a lot of effort and time, and seriously reduce the coverage and\neffectiveness of care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to do? The team from Northern Macedonia\nfound the answer to this question when they took a design thinking course at\nthe Kyiv Legal Empowerment Practical Program at the end of 2020, together with\nteams from Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They decided that multidisciplinary teams that\nwould work in the Mobile Office for Paralegal Aid (MOPA) would advise remote\nsettlements: lawyers, paralegals, psychologists, social counselors. Such an\noffice will be located in a vehicle with the necessary equipment or in offices\nrented in different villages for a certain day of the week. With the support of\nits curator from KyivLEPP, Executive Director of the Legal Development Network,\nCoordinator of the Legally Empowered Community Program Yevhen Poltenko, the\nteam created an action plan to implement its idea: an interprogramme exchange\ntook place, the action plan included a research on the legal needs of residents\nof remote settlements in Prilep, Krivogashtan and Dolnen municipalities to\nunderstand how to make MOPA-services most effective for each community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Survey in the municipalities of Prilep, Krivogashtan and Dolnen. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KyivLEPP-2020 graduates surveyed 107 men and\nwomen of all ages, which is almost 2% of all residents of the municipalities of\nPrilep, Krivogashtan and Dolnen. Of these, 16 respondents (14%) answered that\nthey know what administrative procedures are conducted by local and central\ninstitutions, 35 respondents (32%) answered that they have limited knowledge,\nand 59 (54%) – that they have no idea about procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the availability of institutions\nthat people need to turn to to exercise their rights, the residents of the\nsettlements answered as follows: 44 people (40%) – have only a few institutions\nin their communities, 58 (53%) have to go to the nearest city, and 8 (7%) – all\nnecessary institutions are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

33 (30%) respondents said that due to the lack\nof such institutions they often cannot exercise their rights, 58 (53%) said\nthat they had faced such a problem only once and 19 (17%) had never experienced\nproblems with exercising their rights due to lack of institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

95 respondents (86%) believe that they need\nsupport of a NGO that will provide legal assistance and advice in their\ncommunities. 16 (14%) were unsure. Nobody gave a negative answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Survey in the municipalities of Prilep, Krivogashtan and Dolnen. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KyivLEPP\ngraduates of Northern Macedonia are gathering teams of lawyers, paralegals,\npsychologists, social consultants, making schedules for offices in the\nsettlements of 3 regions. Offices will start operating in test mode. All cases\nwill be entered into a national database already used by LET STATION and other\norganizations. In December, the KyivLEPP team will re-interview local residents\nto sum up the first results of the MOPA – pilot project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nan interview with INFO COMPASS, Vesna Shapkoski, coordinator of the team from\nNorthern Macedonia and executive director of the Association of Legal Education\nand Transparency \u201cLET STATION\u201d STANICA PET, said that annually  at least 500 residents of the three\nmunicipalities would receive assistance through the mobile office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The\nidea of colleagues from Northern Macedonia not only brings justice closer to\nthe people. Solving the legal problems of the inhabitants of remote communities\nis a new opportunity for their cohesion and activation. This survey confirmed\npeople’s request for legal services and allowed to find out on how and where in\nthe community it is convenient for people to get these services. Based on the\ndata obtained, it will be easier for the initiators of the MOPA project to\ncommunicate to local and central authorities the need for further support for\nthis decision. After all, the permanence of paralegal offices in communities is\none of the key needs of people, which was revealed by this survey. \u201d – the\ncurator of the team Yevhen Poltenko comments on the results of the survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be recalled that last year five teams participating in the KyivLEPP <\/a>program developed projects that could improve access to justice in their countries. The program is implemented by the Ukrainian Access to Justice School of Practice <\/a>through the cooperation of colleagues from the Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation, the Coordination Centre for Legal Aid Provision, the Legal Development Network, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Legal Club PRAVOKATOR.Kyiv\u00a0 and the expert and financial support of the Human Rights and Justice Program of the International Renaissance Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the Kyiv Legal Empowerment Practical Program, Macedonians came up with the idea of creating a mobile office for paralegal aid that would come to various settlements on a certain day to consult people. To make the services of such…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10574,"template":"","project":[],"section":[],"event-type":[],"region":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/10605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/event"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/10605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project?post=10605"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=10605"},{"taxonomy":"event-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event-type?post=10605"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=10605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}