Causes and effect of poverty and injustice

INTRODUCTION

People living in poverty are exceptionally vulnerable to crime, abuse and exploitation. If they do not have the ability to take real and effective recourse against these actions, then impunity and inequality is perpetuated, and their vulnerability is exacerbated. Accountability becomes a sham. Their increased vulnerability and exclusion further hampers their ability to pursue justice; spiraling down the generations. Poverty will only be defeated when the law works for everyone.  Access to justice is crucial for tackling the root causes of poverty, exclusion and vulnerability. Effective and accessible justice systems can be tools to develop progressive principles on which law is based on economic and social rights -

mandating provision of affordable housing, enforcing the human rights of people living in poverty, or by remedying their exploitation by powerful public or private actors.Access to justice is also an important lever for gender equality. Women are more likely to be poor and also face extra burdens or obstacles in accessing justice mechanisms. Gender-based crimes and abuses are often not well legislated for or effectively dealt with; public stigma and prejudice also play a part in silencing abused women and preventing them from seeking justice. Obstructed access to justice thus feeds the cycle of engendered poverty and violence, and perpetuates impunity for gender-based crimes.Thus there exist a direct relationship between the poverty and injustice in the world as a whole.