After last year’s successful national consultative summit seeking solutions to the problem of escalating extralegal killings and enforced disappearances that constitute a violation of our people’s civil and political rights, the Supreme Court now shifts its attention to what has been termed as “second-generation human rights”— our people’s social, economic, and cultural rights by holding on June 30 to July 1 the Forum on Increasing Access to Justice: Bridging Gaps and Removing Roadblocks.  

Through the Forum, the Court will receive inputs directly from the different stakeholders of the justice system, particularly the sectors that are most vulnerable in our society, regarding their issues and concerns on access to justice, particularly through the judicial system, and recommendations on how the Court may address the same. This will enable the Court to better implement  the  social justice mandate of  the Constitution through its singular rule-making power concerning the protection and enforcement of constitutional rights, pleading, practice, and procedure in all courts, the admission to the practice of law, the Integrated Bar, and legal assistance to the underprivileged. [Const., Art. VIII, § 5 (5)]

The Forum will be held simultaneously through video conferencing in the Court of Appeals Auditorium in Manila, the Cebu Grand Hotel in Cebu, and Pearlmont Inn in Cagayan de Oro.

Speakers will include representatives from the various basic sectors and the concerned government agencies and institutions. There will also be observers from media, the academe, diplomatic corps, and donor organizations, among others. Participants and observers will be divided into breakout groups, the discussions in which will be facilitated by a Court of Appeals justice. The outputs of the groups for Luzon/National Capital Region, Visayas, and Mindanao will be presented in plenary session on Day 2 of the Forum.

Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno will give the keynote address and closing remarks, while Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Conrado M. Vasquez, Jr. will give the welcome remarks. SC Justice Arturo D. Brion will be the Masters of Ceremonies.
 
The Forum will be held with funding support from the European Commission and The Asia Foundation.