Access to Justice for Residents of the Hague

The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL), a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in The Hague, has a mission to promote people's access to justice. In this way, HiiL makes a concrete contribution to SDG 16: access to justice for everyone. Worldwide, an estimated 5 billion people have no or insufficient access to justice when they really need it, the so-called justice gap. That is why HiiL researches and devises innovative solutions for the legal problems that people experience. 

In The Hague, the international city of peace and justice, residents also experience legal problems. That is why the municipality of The Hague has joined forces with HiiL to map out the legal problems of the residents of The Hague. It is the first time that such a survey has been conducted at a local rather than national level. 

Phase 1 of the collaboration was carried out in 2020 and consisted of a study to get a clear picture of the legal problems experienced in The Hague. Through surveys (so-called Justice Needs Surveys), interviews and a stakeholder survey, it appears that 55% of the people who completed the survey have or have had one or more legal problems in recent years. Neighbor disputes were the number 1 issue, followed by the topics housing, crime and traffic. While the survey showed that many people seek help to solve a problem, the survey also showed that 56% of the problems were still unresolved. 

In phase 2, a legal route for residents to resolve neighbor disputes will be explored with stakeholders. There are many different organizations that citizens turn to for help. This emphasizes that it is often not clear to residents where they can best go with their problem. A clear route and overview of the aid that is available contributes to improving access to justice, in which the citizen of The Hague is the central focus. 


For more information, you can visit this website.