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The rationale of this indicator is to focus on one step of the process and in particular on the accessibility of justice institutions and mechanisms (both formal and informal) by those who have experienced a justiciable problem. The indicator can provide important information about the overall accessibility of civil justice institutions and processes, barriers, and reasons for the exclusion of some people.

This indicator measures the number of persons who experienced a dispute during the past two years who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, as a percentage of all those who experienced a dispute in the past two years, by type of mechanism.

Percentage (%)

This indicator has several advantages:

•  It is people-centered, as it measures the experience of justiciable problems from the perspective of those who face them.
• It provides a broad assessment of people’s approaches to addressing the problems they face, both inside and outside of formal institutions or mechanisms.
•  It focuses on the experience of accessing justice mechanisms or institutions when in need dIt is easy to interpret
• It can be produced on the basis of a few survey questions, which can be easily incorporated into ongoing national surveys.
• It is well suited to monitor public policies aimed at improving the functioning of formal or informal dispute resolution mechanisms (top-down policies) and to those aimed at empowering the population (bottom-up policies).
•  It can be disaggregated by various socio-demographic (such as age, sex, migratory background, etc.) and geographical variables and thus be used to identify vulnerable groups/areas.
•  It draws on methodological guidelines derived from a comprehensive review of more than 60 national surveys conducted by governments and civil society organizations in more than 30 jurisdictions in the last 25 years

A dispute can be understood as a justiciable problem between individuals or between an individual(s) and an entity. Justiciable problems can be seen as the ones giving rise to legal issues, whether or not the problems are perceived as being “legal” by those who face them, and whether or not any legal action was taken as a result of the problem.

Categories of disputes can vary between countries depending on social, economic, political, legal, institutional and cultural factors. There are, however, a number of categories that have broad applicability across countries, such as problems or disputes related to:

• Land or buying and selling property
• Family and relationship breakups
• Injuries caused by an intentional or unintentional act or omission of another person or entity
• Occupation/employment
• Commercial transactions (including defective or undelivered goods or services)
• Government and public services (including abuse by public officials)
• Government payments
• Housing (Tenancy and landlord)
• Debt, damage compensation, and other financial matters

Dispute resolution mechanisms can vary across countries around the world. While in many countries courts represent the main institution dealing with disputes of civil nature, the same may not be true in countries or societies where the first point of reference in such cases are informal systems, traditional or religious leaders. The formulation of the indicator, and the formulation of the questions in the survey, have to account for these differences and make sure to include all relevant institutions or mechanisms that are generally recognized and used.

A list of dispute resolution mechanisms could include:

• Lawyer or third-party mediation
• Community or religious leaders or other customary law mechanisms
• A court or tribunal
• The police
• A government office or other formal designated authority or agency
• Other formal complaints or appeal procedure

is by type of mechanism.

The number of persons who experienced a dispute during the past two years who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism (numerator), divided by the number of those who experienced a dispute in the past two years minus those who are voluntarily self-excluded (denominator). The result would be multiplied by 100.

This is a survey-based indicator that emphasizes citizens’ experiences over general perceptions. Both numerator and denominator are measured through sample surveys of the general population. The computation of this indicator requires the inclusion of a short module of four questions.

N/A

A major challenge is that the concept of dispute (justiciable problem) is subject to different interpretations and the propensity to consider a disagreement or conflict in terms of a justiciable problem can vary greatly across individuals and between societies. 

Another challenge refers to identifying possible dispute resolution mechanisms as they vary considerably in different countries around the world. The formulation of the questions in the survey has to take into account these different possibilities and make sure to include all relevant institutions generally recognized in the community.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.