Strengthening Indigenous Voices: Legal Empowerment & Community-Based Methods for Advancing Access to Justice Despite advances in the past 20 years, Indigenous communities continue to highlight serious human rights violations with consequent grave threats to their forests, way of life, and identities as Indigenous Peoples. The disproportionate effects and discriminatory responses to the global pandemic and climate crisis have only exacerbated the marginalization already faced by Indigenous communities. In the midst of these ongoing human rights challenges, Indigenous communities and grassroots organizations continue to innovate and meet the needs of their people. Critical to this work is legal empowerment¬--a rights-based methodology that centers people in their own fight for justice by empowering people to know, use, and shape the laws that impact their lives. Around the world, indigenous peoples are employing community-based methods to defend their ancestral lands and protect the forest ecosystems upon which not only their cultures but also a stable global climate depends. The goal of these legal empowerment efforts is both to seek justice but also to support Indigenous communities to lead efforts to prevent and redress human rights violations. Drawing upon the expertise of indigenous leaders around the world, this webinar explores the ways in which legal empowerment and community-based methods are advancing access to justice for Indigenous and forest communities.
