Strengthening access to justice through clinical legal education (CLE)

Abstract

Purpose

Building local capacity to protect public health and promote social justice with stigmatized populations disproportionately at risk of HIV infection is difficult regardless of context. The purpose of this paper is to document an international collaboration's approaches to integrate sexual rights and community legal education into two HIV online peer outreach and prevention (OPOP) programs in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper documents an international collaboration's approaches to integrate sexual rights and community legal education into two HIV online outreach and prevention programs (OPOP) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The project's goal was to increase access to justice alongside HIV prevention and education.

Findings

The paper illustrates how a clinical legal education (CLE) externship clinic can provide an opportunity for law students and advocates for justice to make an authentic contribution to assisting others, very different from themselves, in overcoming legal injustices in Thailand.

Originality/value

The paper argues that the CLE externship clinic provides a productive framework for designing e‐democracy initiatives with future lawyers and advocates for justice to achieve a greater understanding of and synergy with the dynamic relationships between academic knowledge and its practical application to the legal and justice issues that will arise in the diverse communities they may work in the future. Furthermore, the paper also argues, that to improve e‐democracy, equity and social justice, practitioners now need to acknowledge that technology is part of a suite of resources when it comes to HIV prevention and promoting human, legal and sexual rights, it is not simply the solution.

Citation

Walsh, C., Lasky, B., Morrish, W. and Chaiyajit, N. (2012), "Strengthening access to justice through clinical legal education (CLE)", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 380-391. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506161211267446