Director Rachel Rossi Delivers Welcoming Remarks at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

On behalf of the United States, I am thrilled to welcome you to this official High-Level Political Forum side event, “Turning the Tide: Scaling SDG 16 for the Future, Reinforcing Access to Justice, and Advancing Democracy.”  

My name is Rachel Rossi, and I serve as Director for the Office for Access to Justice at the U.S. Department of Justice.

I am honored to welcome you in partnership with the Department of State, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the U.S. Agency for International Development and our 16 co-sponsors. 

As you know, SDG 16 provides a roadmap to advance peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions. 

I am proud to lead an office focused on these principles, the Office for Access to Justice, which advances a vital mission: that justice should belong to everyone, regardless of wealth or status. We lead robust and high-level policy initiatives to close justice gaps. 

For example, just last month, our office launched AccessDOJ, a new Department-wide program that uses human-centered design principles to ensure that our services are more accessible, effective and efficient. We also promote economic justice, including through advocacy for the elimination of unjust legal system fines and fees. We support access to counsel and legal help, including through our launch of the first-ever medical-legal partnership in a federal prison to meet civil legal needs. And we advance access to justice across the U.S. government by leading the Federal Government Pro Bono Program and the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable, among many more initiatives. 

Our office also plays a key role in U.S. engagement on access to justice within multilateral for a like the United Nations. In this role, we were proud to offer technical assistance during the negotiations which led the UN General Assembly last year to adopt the first-ever UN resolution on access to justice.

Additionally, in line with Presidential mandates, our office assists with U.S. efforts to implement SDG 16. In line with this directive, later today, the U.S. DOJ Office for Access to Justice is convening – for the first time – a variety of entities and leaders from diverse backgrounds, including academics, people with lived experience, civil society organizations, cities, counties, states and our federal government. Together, we will discuss how better collaboration going forward can generate knowledge, inspire action and connect data to policy to advance the goals of SDG 16 here in the U.S. We hope you will join us in this effort. 

I’ll conclude by centering us on the reason we are here: the far too many individuals who are simply not able to access justice in the U.S. and around the world. In these grand halls, with sweeping views, surrounded by governments, with the expansive goals set forth by an impressive Sustainable Development agenda, it can be easy to forget the people this work is for. But the founding United Nations Charter reminds us that the “peoples of the United Nations determined … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.” 

To pursue this work effectively, we must consistently center the perspectives of the communities we serve and the real-life impact of our mission. The United States ranks 115th out of 142 countries, and dead last among the 46 wealthiest countries, on “accessibility and affordability of civil justice” in the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index. In real and human terms, this means that people cannot get enough help with the most critical needs, such as access to housing, food security, keeping families together or safety from violence. The United States also maintains the highest prison population in the world, and barriers to accessing counsel remain pervasive across our criminal justice systems. 

SDG 16 is more than an agenda item. It is a tool to facilitate action to directly impact people, ensuring that core promises of economic security and equal justice are within reach for everyone. 

Colleagues, this Forum, and this panel, are a call to action for a renewed commitment to this mission. The task before us is urgent. Together we can turn the tide and successfully close the justice gap.

Now, to deliver keynote remarks, I am pleased to welcome Isobel Coleman, Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. I was honored to join Deputy Coleman last year at the Summit for Democracy in Washington and continue to be impressed by her commitment to access to justice. Since that time, our partnership with USAID has grown – and we look forward to future joint efforts.