IDRC and the Grassroots Justice Network have launched a freely available book titled Legal Empowerment in Informal Settlements: Grassroots Experiences from the Global South. The volume presents a collection of case studies showcasing how grassroots, community-led justice strategies—known as legal empowerment—are advancing human rights in urban informal settlements across the Global South.
Residents of informal settlements face daily challenges such as forced evictions, arbitrary arrests, and systemic neglect of essential services including water, housing, and education. Despite these obstacles, communities are actively organizing and mobilizing to assert their rights. In a world of increasing uncertainty, documenting these strategies provides critical insight into effective, community-driven approaches to justice.
Edited by Adrian Di Giovanni of IDRC and Luciana Bercovich of the Grassroots Justice Network, Namati, the book captures stories of resistance and resilience. It illustrates how organizations and residents are using legal empowerment to secure more dignified living conditions—foundations that support healthy, sustainable democracies and global stability.
Several of the case studies, along with the introductory chapter, draw on IDRC-supported research. The research examined strategies for promoting the legal empowerment of urban poor communities, including the use of community paralegals, strategic litigation, participatory research, and grassroots mobilization. The case studies focus on informal settlements in and around Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Karachi, Pakistan.
What sets this collection apart is its grounding in the lived experiences of those directly engaged in supporting informal settlement communities. Written by lawyers, activists, researchers, and community members with years of on-the-ground experience, the book is the first to highlight how legal empowerment strategies enable residents to know, use, and shape the law, building meaningful change from the ground up.
