This year the focus of the High Level Political Forum is SDG16 relating to access to justice. In line with this the Socio-Economic Rights Project at the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape in conjunction in partnership with the African Centre of Excellence for Access to Justice is convening a three-day workshop on Africa and Asia Civil society on Access to Justice.
This workshop will discuss the importance of the HLPF process and the Voluntary National Review process (VNR). Through the VNR process, countries are able to report to the HLPF on the progress made in implementing the SDGs. Fifty-one countries will conduct Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) for HLPF 2019. Seventeen of these will be African countries, and 14 Asian countries.
The objectives of the workshop include the following:
- To provide information and data on SDG 16.3 and the HLPF scheduled to take place in July 2019
- To develop strategies with a view to ensuring the visibility and active participation of civil society groups from Africa and Asia during the HLPF in July 2019
- To build capacity of civil society groups in Africa and Asia to understand and engage with the Voluntary National Review process
- To allow for cross-fertilisation of knowledge and ideas on access to justice between civil society groups in Africa and Asia and other regions.
