Law Librarian Blog

11 Key Takeaways from Pew Internet's Research on the Changing Role of Public Libraries and Library Users in the Digital Age

News to me but then I rely upon AALL's Washington Blawg for legislative lobbying info (NB, perhaps I missed it) but apparently May 7th was National Library Legislative Day (ALA). Anyway, on that day, Lee Rainie, Director of Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project presented to ALA The Power and Relevance of Libraries: Takeaways from Pew Internet research based on Pew's research activities which have been focusing on the changing role of public libraries and library users in the digital age for several years now.

Unlike many Powerpoint stacks, Rainie's takeway points are well documented and highly recommended. Public sector law librarians whose institutions are represented by AALL, meaning public law school and federal, state and county law libraries that are open to the public, may find Pew Internet's research takeways relevant.

A big hat tip to beSpacific's May 6, 2013 post. [JH]

For the "New Normal": Copyright in the Digital Era: Building Evidence for Policy

Hat tip to Gary Price for calling attention on LJ InfoDocket to the recently released National Research Council's Copyright in the Digital Era: Building Evidence for Policy (National Academy Press, 2013). From the Report's blurb:

Copyright in the Digital Era: Building Evidence for Policy examines a range of questions regarding copyright policy by using a variety of methods, such as case studies, international and sectoral comparisons, and experiments and surveys. This report is especially critical in light of digital age developments that may, for example, change the incentive calculus for various actors in the copyright system, impact the costs of voluntary copyright transactions, pose new enforcement challenges, and change the optimal balance between copyright protection and exceptions.

You can download a free copy in PDF format for personal use from the link embedded in the Report's title (above). Thanks Gary! [JH]

Predators of Freedom of Information

On World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2013, Reporters Without Borders released its annual Press Freedom Index.

After the “Arab springs” and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last year’s index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a return to a more usual configuration.

The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term.

Quoting from the Introduction to the 2013 Press Freedom Index.

Reporters Without Borders also released an updated list of Predators of Freedom of Information The list identifies  39 "presidents, politicians, religious leaders, militias and criminal organizations that censor, imprison, kidnap, torture and kill journalists and other news providers. Powerful, dangerous and violent, these predators consider themselves above the law." [JH]

Digital Rights Activism in 2012

For EFF, Jillian C. York writes "[A]ctivism for digital rights saw great successes—and innovations—in 2012. While not every campaign was as successful in quashing efforts to restrict rights, it was nonetheless a great year worldwide for digital activism." See York's 2012 in Review: Digital Rights Activism Around the World for some highlights. [JH]

EFF's Guide to CDA 230

"CDA 230 is crucial to the free flow of expression online. While the rest of the Communications Decency Act, an attempt by the government to regulate indecent content online, was found unconstitutional by the courts, Section 230 survived," writes EFF's Adi Kamdar.

To better inform everyone on the Internet of the importance of this law, we have created an extensive guide to CDA 230. We feel that it is crucial for everyone to familiarize themselves the fundamental laws protecting free speech online, whether you're a lawyer, innovator, student, entrepreneur, policymaker, or simply an Internet user.

Here's EFF's Guide to CDA 230: The Most Important Law Protecting Online Speech. [JH]

Who's Monitoring Your eBook Reading Habits?

In Who's Tracking Your Reading Habits? An E-Book Buyer's Guide to Privacy, 2012 Edition, EFF's Cindy Cohn and Parker Higgins write

In nearly all cases, reading e-books means giving up more privacy than browsing through a physical bookstore or library, or reading a paper book in your own home. Here, we've examined the policies of Google Books, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, Sony, Overdrive, Indiebound, Internet Archive, and Adobe Content Server for answers to the following questions:

• Can they keep track of searches for books?
• Can they monitor what you're reading and how you're reading it after purchase and link that information back to you? Can they do that when the e-book is obtained elsewhere?
• What compatibility does the device have with books not purchased from an associated eBook store?
• Do they keep a record of book purchases? Can they track book purchases or acquisitions made from other sources?
• With whom can they share the information collected in non-aggregated form?
• Do they have mechanisms for customers to access, correct, or delete the information?
• Can they share information outside the company without the customer's consent?

The authors add "[i]n many cases, these answers were frustratingly vague and long-winded." See EFF's The E-Reader Privacy Chart, 2012 Edition for the results. In the context of course management systems, see Mark Giangrande's Professor Big Brother Is Watching. [JH]

Beckman Center Report on eBooks and eLending in Libraries

O'Brien, Gasser and Palfrey prepared a briefing document entitled E-Books in Libraries (July 1, 2012) [SSRN] for a library eLending workshop. Here's an excerpt from the abstract: 

Beginning with a brief overview of the history and the current state of the e-book publishing market, the document traces the structure of the licensing practices and business models used by distributors to make e-books available in libraries, and identifies select challenges facing libraries and publishers. Where possible, we have made an effort to incorporate stakeholder perspectives and real-world examples to connect analysis to the actual questions, issues, and challenges that arise in practice. The document concludes with a number of informative resources – including news articles, whitepapers, stakeholder and trade association reports, and other online sources – that might inform future conversations, investigations, pilot projects, and best practices in this space.

The topics presented in this briefing come at an important moment for the publishing industry, and in particular the e-book market, both of which have been rapidly evolving over the last several years. These changes are, in turn, affecting the models used by publishers’ horizontal and vertical business partners, such as libraries and distributors. While we have endeavored to provide accurate information within this document, the dynamic flux of the industry can make it difficult to accurately capture a comprehensive snapshot of its current state. For instance, during the course of our initial research we found that some information published as recently as September 2011 had already become outdated; other salient information is not made publicly available for competitive reasons. Please note that we consider this to be a working document, which we hope to develop further as information changes and the issues evolve.

Highly recommended. [JH]

E-Textbook Study Shows Promising But Mixed Results For Mass Use

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a study conducted by Internet2 that had tested the use of e-textbooks by students at major universities.  The faculty and students used textbooks provided by McGraw-Hill and Courseload to deliver the content to students.  Students were charged a materials fee rather than requiring them to purchase a book.  The major findings of the study included:

• Only a minority of users elected to purchase a paper copy (12%).
• The lower cost of an eTextbook was considered the most important factor for students considering future purchase of an eText.
• The portability of eTexts also ranked very high as a factor leading to future purchase.
• Other important factors in future eText purchases included that it should be accessible without an internet connection and available throughout a student’s academic career, not just for a semester.
• Difficult readability of the text (e.g., difficult zoom feature) was mentioned numerous times by students as well as lack of native functionality on tablets such as the iPad.
• Faculty, for the most part, did not report using the enhanced eText features (sharing notes, tracking students, question/answer, additional links, etc.) and indicated the need for additional training.
• Because faculty did not use the enhanced features students saw little benefit from the eText platform’s capability of promoting collaboration with other students or with the professor.

The report seems to indicate that the implementation of e-textbooks still has a way to go before students are completely comfortable with them.  As much as the students were enthusiastic about saving money and taking advantage of the perceived convenience of e-textbooks, everyone has to buy into the concept to make the delivery system work.  We’ve all heard how online textbooks can utilize interactive and collaborative features for a class.  It seems as if most faculty members in the study did not use these features which left the student users wanting.  This may have been a training issue.  One other major point is that despite being available on multiple platforms and devices, the smallest of these, smart phones, were less than optimal devices for content delivery.  Of course, we wouldn’t know any of this without actually testing the impact of content, utility, and delivery systems on real students in real courses.    

The full study is available here, and worth a read by anyone contemplating using e-textbooks in a production environment.  [MG]

Forecasting the Near-Term Future of Big Data Use

Pew Research Center's Internet Project conducted a non-random survey on the future of Big Data that "asked digital stakeholders to weigh two scenarios for 2020, select the one most likely to evolve, and elaborate on the choice. One sketched out a relatively positive future where Big Data are drawn together in ways that will improve social, political, and economic intelligence. The other expressed the view that Big Data could cause more problems than it solves between now and 2020." For details, see The Future of Big Data. [JH]

A Global Environmental Impact Assessment: The Happy Planet Index

From the New Economics Foundation's executive summary for The Happy Planet Index:

There is a growing global consensus that we need new measures of progress. It is critical that these measures clearly reflect what we value – something the current approach fails to do.

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) measures what matters. It tells us how well nations are doing in terms of supporting their inhabitants to live good lives now, while ensuring that others can do the same in the future, i.e. sustainable well-being for all.

The third global HPI report reveals that this is largely still an unhappy planet – with both high and low-income countries facing many challenges on their way to meeting this same overall goal. But it also demonstrates that good lives do not have to cost the Earth – that the countries where well-being is highest are not always the ones that have the biggest environmental impact.

Hat tip to beSpacific. [JH]

The Role of Antitrust in Protecting Competition, Innovation, and Consumers as the Digital Revolution Matures

From the abstract of The Role of Antitrust in Protecting Competition, Innovation, and Consumers as the Digital Revolution Matures: The Case against the Universal-EMI Merger and E-Book Price Fixing (June 2012) by Mark Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America Fellow, Donald McGannon Communications Research Center, Fordham University and Jodie Griffin, Staff Attorney, Public Knowledge:

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the proposed merger between Universal Music Group (UMG) and EMI by applying the standards and methods outlined in the recently revised Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission Merger Guidelines. It shows that the UMG‐EMI merger is “an unfair method of competition” that constitutes “an unreasonable restraint of trade” because it will “substantially lessen competition” and is “likely to enhance market power.” Simply put, the postmerger firm will have a strong incentive and increased ability to exercise market power, particularly in undermining, delaying, or distorting new digital distribution business models, in a market that has been a tight oligopoly for over a decade.

The merger creates a highly concentrated market by eliminating one of only four major record labels and results in an increase in concentration that is five times the level that the DOJ/FTC identify as a cause of concern. The recent history of anticompetitive, anti‐consumer conduct by this tight oligopoly and the role of EMI as a maverick in the digital era compound the anticompetitive effects of the merger and significantly increase the likelihood that the merger will not only result in higher prices but also undermine incipient competition.

Claims that piracy will prevent the abuse of market power are directly refuted by evidence on consumer purchasing behavior, estimates of elasticities of demand by academics, and marketing research conducted by the music industry. The analysis demonstrates that the industry has
chronically and grossly overestimated the role of copyright infringement in the development of digital distribution. Correcting this misrepresentation of the extent of infringement is necessary to ensure that policymakers have a proper understanding of the full benefits of digital technologies.

The strong parallels between the impact of the merger on the development of digital disintermediation in the music sector and the recent case brought by the Department of Justice against e‐book publishers highlight the economic efficiency and consumer benefit from the digital distribution of goods and services. The anticompetitive tactics of the dominant, incumbent, physical space firms remind us that these firms will stop at nothing to delay change and preserve their dominance. Antitrust authorities and others must use the full range of tools available to protect competition, innovation, and consumers and ensure that consumers and the economy enjoy the full benefits of the development of digital technologies.

[JH]

Digital Book Publishing in the Association of American University Presses Community: Survey findings from 80 members

"AAUP conducts a semi-regular survey of members on the subject of digital strategies in their book publishing programs. The survey gathers data on the extent to which various models, formats, channels, and digital workflows are being adopted by AAUP members, and takes the temperature of the membership on what issues are of greatest concern and topics on which professional development or information resources might be of greatest interest." See Spring 2012 Digital Book Publishing Survey. Previous survey reports for Spring 2011 and Winter 2009-2010 here. Jennifer Howard provides a summary of the 2012 reported data on Wired Campus. [JH]

Now You See It, Now You Don't, Part III: Link Rot for Resources at the Government Domain Level

Over 37% of the web sources in the Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group's sample have disappeared from their original URLs since 2008 according to the Group's recent report. Here's just one illustration:

Government Domain Level Cumulative Link Rot Rates
Year	dot-gov	dot-state.__.us
2008	10%	10.8%
2009	13%	15.8%
2010	25%	32.1%
2011	31%	30.4%
2012	36%	33.8%

For much more information, see "Link Rot" and Legal Resources on the Web: A 2012 Analysis.

Endnote. Links to Parts I and II of this three part LLB "Now You See It, Now You Don't" series:

• Part I: Free Legal Research Services on the Web
• Part II: The Coming Vaporization of Classic WEXIS

[JH]

Findings from Law Library Benchmarks Survey

From Research and Markets' press release for its Law Library Benchmarks, 2012-13 Ed.:

The study looks closely at the budgets, spending, technology acquisition, web use and other practices by law libraries in the USA and Canada. Data is broken out by size and type of law library and for law libraries in the USA and Canada.

Just some of the study's many findings are that:

- 50% of libraries in the United States and 30.43% of those in Canada feel that the space allocated to their library will decrease in three years time.

- Libraries in the sample spent a mean of $3,462 on online databases per lawyer employed in 2011 and a maximum of $20,835. Libraries in the United States spent a mean of $3,883, while those in Canada spent about $2,647.

- University libraries spent a mean of $1,141,321 on salaries, more than twice the mean $487,504 spent by government and courthouse libraries and more than four times the $243,054 spent by law firm libraries.

- In 2011, 41.33% of libraries in the sample increased their overall library budget.

- Law firm librarians in the sample spend a mean of 9.03 staff hours per week in finding new clients for the firm.

- Materials budgets are expected to decline in real terms in 2012.

- Libraries in the sample spent a mean of $5,892 on salaries per lawyer in their organization.

- Print resources still accounted for 53.65% of the materials budget for the libraries in the sample though only 42.5% for law firm libraries.

- 3.8% of the libraries sampled used the cloud service DropBox for cloud computing services.

- Libraries with less than 100 lawyers in their organization spent a mean of $32,027 on scholarly journals.

- Print subscriptions to magazines and newspapers cost libraries in the sample a mean of $68,998 in 2011.

[JH]

Pew Interent to Research the Changing Landscape of Library Services in First Comprehensive Examination of Reading Habits Since the Rise of eBooks

Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project is conducting the frist comprehensive examination of the reading habits of the general population in the digital era since eBooks came into prominence. The first installment in this Gates Foundation-funded research was pubished in a report dated April 5, 2012. Titled, "The rise of e-reading," Pew reports on the findings of its survey results in detail. The report can be downloaded in PDF here and can be viewed online here.

Key findings include:

• A fifth of American adults have read an e-book in the past year and the number of e-book readers grew after a major increase in ownership of e-book reading devices and tablet computers during the holiday gift-giving season.
• The average reader of e-books says she has read 24 books (the mean number) in the past 12 months, compared with an average of 15 books by a non-e-book consumer.
• 30% of those who read e-content say they now spend more time reading, and owners of tablets and e-book readers particularly stand out as reading more now.
• The prevalence of e-book reading is markedly growing, but printed books still dominate the world of book readers.
• E-book reading happens across an array of devices, including smartphones.
• In a head-to-head competition, people prefer e-books to printed books when they want speedy access and portability, but print wins out when people are reading to children and sharing books with others.

The Role of Commercial eBooks in Public Libraries. "The rise of e-reading" report is part of the first phase of Pew's research project. "Subsequent reports will cover how librarians and patrons perceive the situation with e-books and other digital content, and how people in different kinds of communities (urban, suburban, and rural) compare in their reading habits. Further down the line, this research will cover the changing landscape of library services."

Later in this first phase of the work, we will survey librarians and library patrons about the role of e-books in libraries. In the second phase of the work later in 2012, we will conduct focus groups with librarians and patrons about the changing scope of services being offered and being contemplated in libraries. We will supplement that work with a national survey of the general public about the evolving role of libraries in communities. In the third phase of the work in 2013, we will conduct a large national survey of library users and non-users.

Once completed, I think Pew's research will provide an empirical foundation for public libraries and the trade publishing industry which may be useful to move forward. Certainly ALA's promise to detailed circulation data to the general trade industry may help those publishers who do not offer eBooks for lending by providing some information for crafting a pricing matrix. Pew's research could put that specific issue in a broader context.

The Changing Landscape of Law Library Services Because of Commercial Enhanced Law eBooks. I do not believe Pew's research will attempt to isolate the use of specialized eBooks by professionals in the context of work-related needs. However, I believe legal information professionals, institutional and individual consumers of professional eBooks may find the findings of Pew's research studies useful albeit not directly on point.

We are not yet at the stage where our vendors' enhanced law eBooks has risen to the prominence seen in general trade titles. That's because our vendors have been behind the curve in bringing to market this new form of publication where the e in eBooks stands for enhanced. But they are catching up and are beginning to compete with each other; enhanced law eBooks are here.

Our major vendors target the private sector first because that is where the $$$ is. That's why on my schedule of possible programs to attend at Boston 2012, one of the few sessions I marked with a check mark instead of a question mark is Law Firm Libraries: Your E-book Future Has Arrived, (Monday July 23, 2012 1:15pm - 2:15pm at HCC-Room 306) Organizers and presenters include two large law firm librarians and representatives from Thomson Reuters and Lexis.

This a session I hope all law library market sector buying representatives consider attending. I seriously doubt the organizers intended to exclude the "rest of us." It is just that firm libraries will be the first adopters of enhanced law eBooks. The rest of us will benefit now and in the future from the law firm perspective.

Quoting from this program's description:

Visions of attorneys waving their Kindles and iPads in front of our faces demanding e-books have begun to haunt our dreams. So many questions come to mind: What will the functionality be like? How will updates work? Will our attorneys want both print and e-book, and what will that do to our budgets? What happens when an attorney leaves, along with e-book content paid for by the firm? A panel of two firm librarians who have conducted e-book trials, and two vendors will talk about the experience, as well as what vendors are doing with regard to functionality, pricing, and administration.

[JH] 

United Nations E-Government Survey 2012

From the announcement for the United Nations E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People:

The United Nations E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People was completed in December 2011 and launched in February 2012. The 2012 edition of the survey was prepared in a context of multiple challenges of an open, responsive and collaborative government for the people. The report examines the institutional framework for e-government and finds that the presence of a national coordinating authority can help overcome internal barriers and focus minds on integrated responses to citizen concerns – an important lesson for sustainable development actors. The Survey also argues that e-government provides administrators with powerful tools for grappling with problems of social equity and the digital divide. The caveat is that governments must find effective channels of communication that fit national circumstances while also taking steps to increase usage of online and mobile services in order to realize their full benefit to citizens.

Links to the complete survey, the Executive Summary and individual chapters, listed below, are avaiable here.

Chapter 1: World e-government rankings 

Chapter 2: Progress in online service delivery 

Chapter 3: Taking a whole-of-government approach 

Chapter 4: Supporting multichannel service delivery 

Chapter 5: Bridging the digital divide by reaching out to vulnerable populations 

Chapter 6: Expanding usage to realize the full benefits of e-government

[JH] 

"Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011"; US drops 20 positions in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, 2011/2012 Rankings

In the press release for its annual ranking of countries based on an assessment of country-by-country freedom of the press track records, Reporters Without Borders reports:

This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world. Many media paid dearly for their coverage of democratic aspirations or opposition movements. Control of news and information continued to tempt governments and to be a question of survival for totalitarian and repressive regimes. The past year also highlighted the leading role played by netizens in producing and disseminating news.

Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them.

Do note that the United States' position in the annual index fell some 20 positions to 47th, sharing that "pride of place" with Argentina and Romania. Why?

The crackdown on protest movements and the accompanying excesses took their toll on journalists. In the space of two months in the United States, more than 25 were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation.

Quoting from the World Press Freedom Index 2011/2012. The moral of the US story is, perhaps, be very, very careful when trying to report on protests against the 1%. [JH]

Law School Transparency's Class of 2010 Placement Data Disclosure Findings Raise Red Flag on Need for Oversight

From the Executive Summary of the Winter 2012 Transparency Index Report (January 2012) by Law School Transparency:

As a new year unfolds and the debate about legal education reform continues, efforts in furtherance of law school transparency remain critical. While transparency of law schools’ post-graduation employment data will not solve all of legal education’s problems, it can put pressure on the current law school model and thereby act as a catalyst for broader legal education reform. This is true whether it occurs through the process of seeking transparency or because of the information that such disclosure ultimately reveals.

Having had their long-standing practice of withholding basic consumer information called into question, law schools have responded with new attempts at disclosure in advance of the ABA’s new requirements. Adequate disclosure should be easy to achieve; law schools have possessed ample information, in an easy publishable format, for many months. But as the findings of this report show, the vast majority of U.S. law schools are still hiding critical information from their applicants.

This report reflects LST’s analysis of the class of 2010 employment information available on ABA-approved law school websites in early January 2012. The Winter 2012 Index reveals a continued pattern of consumer-disoriented activity. Our chief findings are as follows:

• 27% (54/197) do not provide any evaluable information on their websites for class of 2010 employment outcomes. Of those 54 schools, 22 do not provide any employment information on their website whatsoever. The other 32 schools demonstrate a pattern of consumer-disoriented behavior.
• 51% of schools fail to indicate how many graduates actually responded to their survey. Response rates provide applicants with a way to gauge the usefulness of survey results, a sort of back-of-the-envelope margin of error. Without the rate, schools can advertise employment rates north of 95% without explaining that the true employment rate is unknown, and likely lower.
• Only 26% of law schools indicate how many graduates worked in legal jobs. 11% indicate how many were in full-time legal jobs. Just 1% indicate how many were in full-time, long-term legal jobs.
• 17% of schools indicate how many graduates were employed in full-time vs. part-time jobs. 10% indicate how many were employed in long-term vs. short-term jobs. 10% of schools report how many graduates were employed in school-funded jobs.
• 49% of schools provide at least some salary information, but the vast majority of those schools (78%) provide the information in ways that mislead the reader.

Taken together, these and other findings illustrate how law schools have been slow to react to calls for disclosure, with some schools conjuring ways to repackage employment data to maintain their images. Our findings play into a larger dialogue about law schools and their continued secrecy against a backdrop of stories about admissions data fraud, class action lawsuits, and ever-rising education costs. These findings raise a red flag as to whether schools are capable of making needed changes to the current, unsustainable law school model without being compelled to through government oversight or other external forces.

See also the Live Transparency Index on the Law School Transparency website. [JH]

TRUSTe's 2011 Website Privacy Index

From the press release:

In the 2011 Website Edition of its Privacy Index, TRUSTe analyzed the privacy policies of the top 100 U.S. websites (as ranked by Alexa Sept. 2011) to evaluate privacy practices by measuring key policy attributes, as well as the type of disclosures contained in them. TRUSTe found that while nearly 100 percent of websites today include a privacy policy, existing policies are highly complex, lengthy and written in language that is confusing for the average person to understand. Additionally, the vast majority of privacy policies are not readily transparent regarding third-party usage of data or consumer choices.

...

The privacy index findings include current online trends, such as:

• 72 percent of the websites analyzed say that they allow third-party tracking on their sites;
• 36 percent say that they collect users' location data; and
• 31 percent say that they share user-provided data with third parties.

However, in regards to consumer disclosures, many websites still fall short:

• 93 percent of the websites do not disclose how long they keep customer data on file; and
• 68 percent do not explain how a user can delete an account.

View the TRUSTe 2011 Privacy Index: Website Edition.

Hat tip to beSpacific. [JH]

Progress of the World’s Women: UN Report on Achieving Women’s Equality is a Fundamental Human Right and a Social and Economic Imperative

From the foreword of UN Women's Progress of the World’s Women 2011–2012: In Pursuit of Justice by Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women:

As the first major UN Women report, this edition of Progress of the World’s Women reminds us of the remarkable advances that have been made over the past century in the quest for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Even within one generation we have witnessed a transformation in women’s legal rights, which means that today, 125 countries have outlawed domestic violence, 115 guarantee equal property rights and women’s voice in decision-making is stronger than ever before. Today, 28 countries have reached or surpassed the 30 percent mark for women’s representation in parliament, putting women in the driving seat to forge further change.

Progress of the World’s Women 2011–2012: In Pursuit of Justice shows that where laws and justice systems work well, they can provide an essential mechanism for women to realize their human rights. However, it also underscores the fact that, despite widespread guarantees of equality, the reality for many millions of women is that justice remains out of reach.

The report highlights the practical barriers that women – particularly the poorest and most excluded – face in negotiating justice systems and the innovative approaches that governments and civil society are pioneering to overcome them. It explores the ways in which women are reconciling guarantees of their rights with the realities of living within plural legal systems. And it highlights the severe challenges that women face in accessing justice in the aftermath of conflict, as well as the enormous opportunities for change that can emerge in these most difficult times.

...

This edition of Progress of the World’s Women builds on the work of colleagues across the United Nations system in highlighting women’s part in strengthening the rule of law and outlines a vision for the future in which women and men, worldwide, can work side-by-side to make gender equality and women’s empowerment a reality.

UN Women is the United Nation's entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women. For more, visit the UN Women website.

Hat tip to beSpacific. [JH]