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About Us |
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The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is a socio-legal non-governmental organization registered as a public charitable trust in Gujarat, India. It is one of the first organizations of its kind in Gujarat and was set up with a view to pursue justice and to uphold and promote human rights. The Centre operates through a network of law centres in local communities across the state of Gujarat and over recent years has expanded its operations to neighbouring states as well. The centres consist of a team of lawyers, paralegals and researchers that take a holistic approach to human rights by providing litigative support as well as outreach to villages through law clinics. CSJ focuses on the various legal issues concerning the rights of women, Dalits, tribals, minorities and other socially vulnerable groups. Today, CSJ responds to almost 2,000 cases annually through its law centres.
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| The law centres take four approaches to their operations: |
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Legal Aid Approach- where individual problems of people are addressed on a one-on-one basis. |
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Legal Awareness Approach- where the focus is on proliferating information about legal rights through awareness programmes. |
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Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism Approach (ADRs)- in which agencies other than courts are set up for settling disputes. This includes activating state mechanisms like permanent conciliation boards and family counselling centres. |
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Law Reform Approach- wherein existing laws are challenged for not being sensitive to the needs of vulnerable groups. |
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In addition to providing litigative support to secure the rights of vulnerable groups, CSJ takes up public advocacy campaigns, identifies human rights violations and serves as a watch dog for human rights abuses.
CSJ has also played a pioneering role in demonstrating the successful operation of institutional intervention in the field of law. The Centre has extensive experience training lawyers, law students, members of the lower judiciary, paralegals and socio-legal counsellors. |
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