LocationsOur Journey to Improve Access to Legal Aid for Poor and Vulnerable Populations in Tunisia
8 novembre 2024
Working on legal aid in Tunisia has been a real journey of learning, adaptation, and collaboration. Between November 2023 and July 2024, as part of the “Legal Aid and Social Protection” project jointly implemented with the World Bank and financially supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, our team facilitated 25 discussion workshops in the field. These workshops brought together a diverse group of 1,270 key legal aid actors, including social workers, judges, clerks, lawyers, representatives of social aid offices in prisons, and members of the National Counter-Terrorism Commission. The objective was to discuss legal aid mechanisms and build bridges between two essential sectors — justice and social protection.
Why is it important to understand the context?
In Tunisia, access to justice remains a major challenge, especially for the most vulnerable populations. Although the legal aid system established by the State offers a range of legal, judicial, and jurisdictional services, it remains largely unknown and often underutilized. Our mission was clear: equip social workers and justice actors to better serve marginalized populations, particularly those who, without such assistance, would not have access to public legal support and might forfeit their rights.
One example shared by social workers during this process is that of a widow living in a rural region of the Northwest. After her husband's death, she found herself in extreme poverty, unaware of her rights and unable to afford a lawyer. Her story highlights the difficulties she faced in inheriting her late husband's property. Living more than 80 kilometers from the nearest court, she couldn’t afford the travel costs. It was only with the help of a social worker that she learned about the public legal aid service available to poor and vulnerable people. As a result, she benefited from the services of a bailiff, lawyer, and expert, appointed and paid by the State, to defend her right to access the property.
This story illustrates some of the obstacles faced by vulnerable populations, particularly in rural areas, where legal and judicial services are often limited or difficult to access. This is where our initiative becomes particularly meaningful. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank are collaborating with Tunisian institutions to strengthen integrated social services, including public legal aid mechanisms. Their support helps improve the capacities of national actors and make existing services more accessible. According to testimonies from legal aid actors, judicial fees often reach 1,000 Tunisian dinars, an insurmountable burden for many citizens, particularly when coupled with other geographical, cultural, and civic education barriers. These obstacles exacerbate social exclusion.
Better synergy between social and judicial actors
One of the key strengths of the workshops was the involvement of social workers and other social actors from various regions, often the first point of contact for at least 3 million people in precarious and vulnerable situations. Although their frontline role is crucial, their limited knowledge of available legal aid mechanisms affects their ability to refer beneficiaries to public legal aid services.
A recurring theme throughout the workshops was the critical need for better coordination between legal aid offices (BAJ) and social services. Following the BAJ’s observation that they struggle to identify most applicants' eligibility for legal aid due to the lack of sufficient documentation, it was almost unanimously recommended that the use of data from the national AMEN SOCIAL program could serve as a successful example of how these data can be used to assess economic vulnerability, ensuring greater reliability and a more integrated approach.
It’s important to note that the AMEN SOCIAL program is relatively new, having been established by the authorities in 2019 following a comprehensive overhaul of the National Assistance Program for Needy Families, operational since 1986. The AMEN SOCIAL program is now functional, and only now are other public structures beginning to understand the usefulness of utilizing this database to better target their interventions for vulnerable populations.
Moreover, workshop participants highlighted the lack of a formal framework governing collaboration between the justice and social sectors, which could contribute to ensuring that vulnerable populations can effectively access their rights. Synergy between social and justice actors is necessary at every stage of the legal aid process, including in the preliminary phase of legal assistance, which involves welcoming, informing, and directing individuals to the appropriate institutions.
In the case of women victims of violence, the referral of victims by social workers to the BAJs is essential to initiate the legal aid procedure.
Challenges and future prospects
Despite the progress made, several challenges remain. In addition to the lack of coordination between the social protection and justice sectors in terms of data sharing, social workers are often uninformed about the available legal and judicial mechanisms, while justice professionals may not have enough understanding of the complex social realities faced by these individuals. This fragmentation of services can result in leaving the most vulnerable people without the necessary aid, especially legal assistance to assert their rights or protect them.
Furthermore, one of the main challenges of legal aid is that it is not well-known by the majority of the Tunisian population, unlike social, monetary, or in-kind assistance. The low uptake of these mechanisms, explained in part by the public’s significant lack of awareness of the availability of public legal aid, highlights the urgent need for more proactive communication targeting vulnerable populations. For instance, the story of a young man accused of a crime in Sfax, shared by a social worker, sheds light on the tragic consequences of a lack of information and knowledge. Not knowing his rights and unable to afford a lawyer, he was sentenced to prison. It was only after being incarcerated that he learned by chance about public legal aid.
Similarly, legal aid for specific groups, such as women victims of violence, victims of trafficking, or terrorism, remains largely unknown despite the existence of specific legal frameworks governing it. This lack of awareness hinders these victims' access to fair legal recourse, despite the protections offered by various laws. Another testimony shared by a social worker involved a mother of three children, a victim of domestic violence, who for years hesitated to leave her abusive husband for fear of not being able to support her children alone. It was only after being referred by a social worker that she discovered she could benefit from immediate and unconditional legal aid as a victim of violence, enabling her to seek custody of her children and obtain a protection order signed by the family court judge.
On the other hand, lawyer fees remain a major obstacle to the effective implementation of legal aid. Lawyers appointed as part of judicial and/or jurisdictional aid for administrative justice believe that their remuneration is low, discouraging them from accepting multiple cases. This reality has affected the population's perception of lawyers' performance. Testimonies gathered during discussions emphasized the need to review lawyer fees and payment procedures to encourage their active participation in making legal aid more accessible. Such a reform could improve access to justice and restore litigants’ trust.
Lessons learned and recommendations
At the end of the 25 workshops, it was clear that we had sparked the interest of all legal aid actors in establishing a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral approach to legal aid. Legal aid can only be effective if it remains siloed and disconnected from other public assistance mechanisms. It must be integrated into a broader system that includes social services, healthcare, and education, as well as stronger community engagement. Social workers in the regions are now better equipped to guide individuals through the legal aid process, while justice actors—judges, lawyers, and clerks—are more familiar with the social support systems available for vulnerable groups. To ensure effective access to justice for vulnerable populations, the following actions are recommended:
Strengthen public communication: About 75% of surveyed Tunisians believe the media should play a key role in informing vulnerable populations about their rights and available public assistance mechanisms.
Enhance training for professionals: Legal aid actors must receive regular training, particularly in listening, empathy, communication, and crisis management. About 95% of workshop participants expressed this need.
Improve inter-institutional coordination: Better integration of the AMEN SOCIAL program with the legal aid process would optimize the delivery of aid and improve its coverage.
Review lawyer fees: Fair fees, closer to standard rates, would encourage more lawyers to take on legal aid cases and improve the quality of their services.
Simplify procedures: Making access to legal aid simpler and faster is essential.
Improve access to legal aid for detainees: Strengthen the capacities of social aid offices in prisons and increase detainees’ awareness of their rights to access justice.