Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) is an eight-year regional justice sector reform project funded by the Government of Canada. It is being implemented from within the Caribbean Law Institute Centre, Faculty of Law, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus.

The Project has as its ultimate outcome, enhanced access to justice benefitting men, women, youth and businesses in 13 CARICOM Member States. These are: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, The Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

In November 2014, IMPACT Justice began implementation of its activities and by the end of March 2019, the Project has:

• drafted 9 model Bills;
• hosted and/or sponsored several public legal education activities on various aspects of the law;
• created and distributed public legal education material to inform persons about their rights and other legal topics;
• provided sponsorship to several persons pursuing post-graduate education in legislative drafting;
• completed a region-wide legal education survey to provide governments with information which can be used to shape policy;
• trained persons in arbitration, community mediation and Restorative Practices;
• provided training for law library staff from across the region, many of whom had never been trained in law librarianship;
• started an update to the CariLaw legal database which was subsequently taken over by Justis One and established online databases for the Caribbean Law Review and West Indian Law Review; and
• provided library materials to libraries of UWI, the University of Guyana and the University of Suriname.

Over the next few years, IMPACT Justice will continue to work towards addressing deficiencies in the justice sector in CARICOM and promoting economic and social development in the region.

For more information please click here.