Access to Information on Civil Law for Remote and Rural Indigenous Peoples
View/ Open
File version
Version of Record (VoR)
Author(s)
de Plevitz, Loretta
Loban, Heron
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2009
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The United Nations Development Program on access to justice has observed that:
Legal awareness is critical to seeking justice. Poor and disadvantaged people often do not make use of laws, rights and government services because they simply do not know about them… Lack of legal awareness is a powerful impediment to those seeking access to justice. Those who are subject to grievances cannot seek a remedy unless they are aware that such a remedy exists. For awareness to be present, sufficient information has to reach people in ways they can understand.
This issue is especially relevant in Australia where people in remote and ...
View more >The United Nations Development Program on access to justice has observed that: Legal awareness is critical to seeking justice. Poor and disadvantaged people often do not make use of laws, rights and government services because they simply do not know about them… Lack of legal awareness is a powerful impediment to those seeking access to justice. Those who are subject to grievances cannot seek a remedy unless they are aware that such a remedy exists. For awareness to be present, sufficient information has to reach people in ways they can understand. This issue is especially relevant in Australia where people in remote and rural areas have limited access to civil law information and often have ‘no awareness that a problem is a legal problem...[or] that their rights have been infringed’. For many Indigenous people, the only white law known to them is the criminal law which they or their family members encounter as offenders.
View less >
View more >The United Nations Development Program on access to justice has observed that: Legal awareness is critical to seeking justice. Poor and disadvantaged people often do not make use of laws, rights and government services because they simply do not know about them… Lack of legal awareness is a powerful impediment to those seeking access to justice. Those who are subject to grievances cannot seek a remedy unless they are aware that such a remedy exists. For awareness to be present, sufficient information has to reach people in ways they can understand. This issue is especially relevant in Australia where people in remote and rural areas have limited access to civil law information and often have ‘no awareness that a problem is a legal problem...[or] that their rights have been infringed’. For many Indigenous people, the only white law known to them is the criminal law which they or their family members encounter as offenders.
View less >
Journal Title
Indigenous Law Bulletin
Volume
7
Issue
15
Copyright Statement
© 2009 Indigenous Law Centre and the author(s). The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. For information about this journal please refer to the journal’s website or contact the author(s).
Subject
Policy and administration