Overseas legal assistance is to receive a major boost with the advent of a new initiative, the Justice Assistance Network.
The network is the result of work undertaken by the Attorney General’s office, the Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Justice.
It aims to: identify the areas of greatest priority for overseas assistance in the legal and justice fields and ensure resources are targeted on those areas; allow the UK to provide “consistent, timely and strategic legal assistance to developing countries”; and “underpin the wider aims of reducing poverty, promoting the rule of law, which contributes to promoting good governance, preventing conflict and fighting international crime”.
Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, who announced the launch last week, says: “In putting this network in place we are ensuring that justice is at the heart of making poverty history.
“We have a duty to provide legal assistance to the places that need it most and in doing this we are making it a priority to address poverty and humanitarian causes.
