At the conclusion of the Colloquium all participating judges adopted a Concluding Statement on the role of the judiciary in delivering access to justice and in undertaking judicial education initiatives in this regard:

1. A group of 40 judges from across South Asia, together with lawyers and academics, met in New Delhi over the past two days to consider and discuss the challenges facing our judiciaries in delivering access to justice, in particular to the poor and marginalised sectors of society, and the need to strengthen judicial independence and integrity.

2. This meeting is the first in a series of judicial colloquia within the region, and begins a process of dialogue among judges focused on the issue of access to justice in a context of poverty and disadvantage. This dialogue aims to:

2.1 exchange information and experiences among judges on how to enhance access to justice in our national courts;

2.2 familiarise judges with new and innovative jurisprudence emerging from within the region and elsewhere which is of particular relevance to the needs of developing countries and to delivering access to justice for the poor and disadvantaged, in particular women and realising the goal of reducing poverty;

2.3 learn from each other regarding practical strategies and innovative practices to secure human rights and access to justice within South Asia;

2.4 consider how to apply developments in international and regional standards on human rights and access to justice within our courts.

3. We hope that the process we have begun will enable each of us, in our respective jurisdictions, to contribute to:

3.1 Setting up a process for ongoing interaction between judges, including through setting up a clearinghouse of information -- within each country and across the region -- to enable exchange of views, case law and experiences, particularly on strategies to expand access to justice for the poor and disadvantaged;

3.2 Developing stronger caselaw addressing issues relating to poverty and inequality;

3.3 Identifying, adopting or strengthening innovative methods of improving access to justice for the poor and disadvantaged;

3.4 Responding to the changing economic and social conditions in each of our countries, and the challenge of protecting rights within this context; and

3.5 Enabling closer interaction and links between the judiciary on the one hand and academics, lawyers and NGOs representing the interests of the poor and disadvantaged, on the other, to inform the judgments of the former and the strategies of the latter.

4. In order to enable these changes to be made we need to decide, now and in a very focused way:

4.1 How to develop an understanding of access to justice from the point of view of the poor -- we need to think about whom we seek to reach, the kind of services that we provide through the justice system and their quality;

4.2 How to take forward this learning and information into our own spheres of influence;

4.3 How to make available to judges cases and materials on -- access to justice in national courts and institutions from our region and beyond; and finally,

4.4 How and what steps to take to strengthen the independence and integrity of the judiciary wherever it is threatened, not only in South Asia, but across the Commonwealth?

5. We are agreed as a group that we will take necessary steps:

a) to create opportunities for dialogue among judges -- within each country and between different levels of the judiciary, and at a sub-regional level -- to consider the specific problems faced by poor and marginalised groups, in particular women, in accessing justice;
b) while retaining the emphasis on enabling judicial dialogue, to invite selected lawyers, academics, other practitioners, including forensic experts, and NGOs with experience in efforts to address the causes and effects of poverty or to deliver access to justice to the poor and disadvantaged, to share with us their experiences of the practical realities of obtaining access to justice;
c) to facilitate the collection, translation and dissemination of relevant cases and materials and information on innovations for access to justice (including through email and a website) by CHRI and INTERIGHTS, and the establishment of a clearinghouse for this purpose;
d) to encourage studies in our courts to pinpoint the practical and the legal barriers to access to justice for the poor and disadvantaged, in particular women, and to identify the extent to which even positive judgments may not be effectively implemented. While there is a general understanding of the difficulties of implementation, we have little evidence to demonstrate the particular problems faced by the poor and disadvantaged groups;
e) to develop effective ongoing and sustainable judicial education and awareness programmes focusing on access to justice - including gender sensitisation programmes -- for the superior judiciary, subordinate courts and magistrates, and other tribunals at regional, national , sub-national or local levels, including where possible by contributing to development of the curriculum of existing judicial training programmes or judicial training institutes ;
f) to develop a database of information regarding best practices in each jurisdiction in delivering access to justice for the poor and disadvantaged;
g) to include within any dialogues or training programmes consideration of case management, court management, criminal and civil procedures and family law, and legal aid, as relevant and to incorporate diverse educational techniques for this purpose;
h) to convene a regional colloquium after two years and prior to that to hold a national colloquium in each country:

i) to review the changes which we have been able to make in our respective courts;
ii) to see whether we have found ways to increase access to justice for the poor, for human rights survivors and vulnerable groups, in particular women.

Our initiative here may be a drop in the ocean, but it is an initiative that we need to take urgently, as individuals and institutions charged with the defence of constitutional rights, and by working in collaboration with each other nationally, regionally and internationally, in order to develop ways and means to improve the quality of justice for the poor and disadvantaged within our countries.