Wenjuan Zhang, Vice Director of Zhicheng Public

Interest Lawyers

With challenging number of disadvantaged groupsYoung lawyer system, small number, uneven distributionTension between fast economic development, speedy urbanization and the rule of law building

Efforts to enable access to justice by government, lawyers’ association and civil society

Started in 1994,state responsibilityLegalized eligibility and procedureEstablished government-funded nationwide legal aid offices (3236 by 2012)Institutionalized financing systemCase type: criminal, civil and administrative case

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Among 22 specialized committees, at least 4 related committees ,Child Protection Committee, Constitutional Law and Human Rights Committee, Environment Law Committee, Committee on Legal Affaires in Rural Areas Among18 Commissions, having Legal Aid Commission, Public Interest Law and Social Responsibility Committee

Lawyer Social Responsibility Annual Report , 2012Strategic partnership with BCLARC to establish the biggest pro bono network on child protection ( ＞ 9000 members), 2004CLHRC’s launched annual impact litigation case ranking, 20061+1 program for sending lawyers to poor counties without lawyers

A collaborative and problem-solving oriented experiment on effective legal aid model for migrant workers

Early 2000, urbanization created more than 200 million domestic migrant workersTheir labor rights seriously violatedReluctant to resort to judicial remedy for lack of free and competent counselsCentral government wanted to solve the problem but didn’t find right way

Baseline research on problem identification and problem analysis in 2003Experimenting civil society-based and specialized legal aid model in 2004Inviting key stakeholders to be part of the experimentIntegrated advocacy model: from service to policy advocacy to rights trainingData-based model reflection and development

UNDP China Office program officer knew about the model through conference and media2007-2008, UNDP and China Legal Aid Foundation co-funded the establishment 20 legal aid offices for migrant workers

More than 30 such organizations established outside of BeijingCultivating first generation of professional MW legal aid lawyers (150)Serving 266,152 migrant workersCollecting payment and compensation into the hands of MW at amount of 4.5 million US dollars, saving tens of thousands of families out of povertyA dozen of proposals on MW rights adopted

ACLA issued policy to promote the model among legal profession (2006)State Council issuing policy to waive income proof requirement for migrant workersCreate political space for civil society based legal aid organizationsGovernment starts contracting modelRights protection evidently improved, such as unpaid salary cases dropped from 80% to 20%

Collaborative and problem solving oriented strategy is significant for success in countries with immature rule of law systemLocal ownership and local led experiment is critical for sustainabilityData-driven evolving learning capacity is critical for developing a contextualized and effective legal aid modelCultivation of legal aid leaders and specialists is critical for expanding delivery capacity and quality control

Thanks!Q&A

Johannesburg, June 26th 2014