Brief abstracts of conference sessions will be listed here once the final program has been confirmed.

Title: The need of innovation to achieve greater rule of law in a cross cultural situation: The case of La Garita and the goal of active citizenship

Lead Presenter: Grandez Mariño, Agustin

Co-Presenters:

  1. None

Session Abstract: La Garita is a rural community located in the region of Ica, south of Lima, capital city of Peru. In this place, 120 families live in unbearable conditions: limited public lighting, lack of drinkable water services, absence of a healthcare center, among others. Most of the people of La Garita work at the agricultural exportation industry under precarious conditions. In this context, The Legal Clinic on Identity Rights started working in La Garita by requesting to provide access of birth certificates of minors of the community. The travel to La Garita was the beginning of self-questioning on the way the legal clinic has worked the past 5 years. The usual of approach of the Legal Clinic on Identity Rights was to wait for legal consultations of the people requiring legal assistance. Nevertheless, due to La Garita´s particular cultural way of living, this approach was not possible. Therefore, in order to connect with the needs of the community and provide them with the access to rule of law that they required we needed a new approach to the community. This new approach started with the students of the Legal Clinic on Identity Rights receiving training for field work, so that it was possible to reach every family of La Garita through home visiting (in which the students ask the persons of the community on their needs). Through qualitative techniques such as semi-structured interviews and participant observation, the Legal Clinic on Identity Rights was able to face the various structural and social vulnerabilities of the community. Although originally, it was intended to collect information regarding the lack of access to identity rights; during the visits made in 2018, it became clear to us, that besides the importance of having an official ID, it was needed to connect this rural community with active citizenship in which they could access governmental social programs and participate in the decision making progress that occur at the public level that has had a deep impact in their lives such as the discriminatory labour system under which they are hired to work in the agricultural export industry. In this sense, our goal is that from an active citizenship La Garita’s people could become more aware of the undermining of their rights as citizens and the impact that improving these conditions would have in their everyday life.

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