This is the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) specialized website on access to justice for trafficked persons. It is intended to be a tool for those providing legal assistance or advocating for the rights of trafficked persons during the legal process. The site contains legal resources, relevant publications and guides as well as a forum for sharing information, strategies and experiences so that, ultimately, more individuals who have been trafficked or exploited at work or during the migration process have better recourse to justice. 

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The term Access to Justice is not defined in international law and has been used in different ways in different contexts. Traditionally, the term refers to opening up the formal systems and structures of the law to disadvantaged groups in society. This includes removing legal and financial barriers, but also social barriers such as language, lack of knowledge of legal rights and intimidation by the law and legal institutions.

Access to justice has, thus, two dimensions: procedural access (having a fair hearing before a tribunal) and also substantive justice (to receive a fair and just remedy for a violation of one’s rights). It is also refers not only to the courts, but also to civil and administrative processes such as immigration review or state compensation funds. Further, protection of rights must continue through all stages of the legal process, from the time of reporting a crime to the police, to following the grant of a remedy by the court to make certain that it is enforced.

Trafficked persons are often highly vulnerable and, as a general group, are usually marginalised - whether as illegal and/or low-skilled migrants in destination countries, or through social stigma and poverty in countries of origin. Achieving access to justice for victims of the crime of trafficking therefore requires comprehensive social and legal support, as well as constant analysis of the legal structures in place that make it more difficult for trafficked people to enter into and be empowered by the law. This website aims at facilitating this process.