Legal Empowerment Workshop at CIVICUS World Assembly Generates Passionate Dialogue on Legal Empowerment

Glasgow, Scotland, June 22, 2006  

Legal Empowerment’s workshop at the CIVICUS World Assembly provided an important opportunity for representatives from civil society around the globe to debate the legal empowerment agenda. The session on “Legal Empowerment of the Poor: Addressing Power Divides and Exclusion” was opened by Kumi Naidoo, founder of CIVICUS and Advisor to the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. Naidoo told delegates that his engagement with Legal Empowerment was based on the importance of the group’s agenda to civil society, and the real opportunity to build bridges between powerful policymakers and grassroots organizations and individuals.

Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, who serves as a Legal Empowerment member, noted that Legal Empowerment works to fulfill many of the tenets of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which guarantees everyone the right to own property. “People without legal rights or protections live in a continual state of legal and political vulnerability,” said Robinson, who specifically addressed the importance of gender equality within Legal Empowerment’s agenda and the importance of addressing issues like women’s inheritance rights and identity devices like birth registrations to ensure rights to women and children.

Secretariat Executive Director Naresh Singh described Legal Empowerment’s role as creating an enabling environment for legal empowerment, saying, “Never in the history of human civilization has anyone with power ever willingly given power to those without power. The powerless have to take power either through violent means, civil rights movements or passive resistance. So, if the word ‘empowerment’ means ‘to give power to’ then it is a nonsense word. It never happens. What is possible is self empowerment. We have to create the environment in which the poor can empower themselves. The work of Legal Empowerment is about setting up the legal environment in which the poor can take greater control of their lives.”

Delegates asked a broad range of questions that touched on Legal Empowerment’s role in a broader development agenda, as well as the scope of its desired outcomes and methods for catalyzing change.
The CIVICUS World Assembly is an annual conference for international civil society representatives to exchange ideas and experiences and to build strategies for a just world. The meeting in Glasgow entitled “Acting Together for a Just World” was attended by more than a thousand delegates from around the world.