First-hand: life stories of those who use the law to support community struggles

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26512/revistainsurgncia.v11i2.57729

Keywords:

Legal empowerment, Access to justice, Emancipatory use of law, Community struggles, Gender justice, Environmental justice

Abstract

This essay examines the experiences of individuals who use the law to support community struggles, emphasizing legal empowerment as a catalyst for transformation. Drawing from personal experiences, it explores how identity, history, and territory shape the commitment to justice as a collective and political endeavor.

Author Biographies

Daniela Zamora Alcaraz, Comunidad Latinoamericana de Empoderamiento Jurídico, Universidad Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, México

Minibio oficial de la Comunidad Latinoamericana de Empoderamiento Jurídico. Cuenta con experiencia en la coordinación de iniciativas nacionales y regionales destinadas a fomentar programas orientados a la prevención de violencia contra mujeres, niñas y adolescentes. Es Licenciada en Relaciones Internacionales con especialidad en Economía Política por Lewis & Clark College (EEUU) y diplomada en Políticas Públicas de Género por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Vinculada a Namati.

Luciana Bercovich, Comunidad Latinoamericana de Empoderamiento Jurídico, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Luciana is a Human Rights attorney from Argentina; she has been working on access to justice and social rights for more than ten years. Currently, she is coordinating the Legal Empowerment Network efforts in Latin America.

Previously, she was Co-Director of ACIJ – Civil Association for Equality and Justice and a member of the Network Guidance Committee. She has a broad experience working on social justice, access to justice and poverty, specify grassroots organizations and social movements, litigation on social rights, accountability and advocacy on social rights.

Luciana was a university professor of Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Argentina, and she has worked as a consultant research with the Center for Economic and Social Rights and the Inter-American Development Bank. She has authored several books, papers, and op-eds about social rights and access to justice.

References

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CHITALKAR, Poorvi. 2024. Fighting the Playbook of Repression with the Playbook of Justice. Open Global Rights. Disponible https://www.openglobalrights.org/fighting-playbook-of-repression-with-playbook-of-justice/. Aceso 18.03.2025, 2024.

DHITAL, Sukti. Reimagining Justice: Human Rights through Legal Empowerment. Open Global Rights. Disponible https://www.openglobalrights.org/Sukti-Dhital/. Aceso 17.03.2025, 2018

México Unido Contra la Delincuencia. Inventario Nacional de lo Militarizado. Disponible https://www.mucd.org.mx/inventarionacional/. Aceso 24.03.2025, 2024.

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RODRÍGUEZ Garavito, César. s/f. Manual del tirano moderno. Dejusticia (blog). Disponible https://www.dejusticia.org/column/manual-del-tirano-moderno/. Aceso 17.03.2025.

SATTERTHWAITE, Meg. 2021. Critical Legal Empowerment for Human Rights. Open Global Rights. Disponiblehttps://www.openglobalrights.org/critical-legal-empowerment-for-human-rights/. Aceso 17.03.2025, 2021.

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Published

30.09.2025

How to Cite

ZAMORA ALCARAZ, Daniela; BERCOVICH, Luciana. First-hand: life stories of those who use the law to support community struggles. InSURgence: rights and social movements journal [InSURgência: revista de direitos e movimentos sociais], Brasília, v. 11, n. 2, p. 533–543, 2025. DOI: 10.26512/revistainsurgncia.v11i2.57729. Disponível em: https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/insurgencia/article/view/57729. Acesso em: 6 jan. 2026.

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2025): Research on People’s Lawyering in Latin America

Section

Generating Themes

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Copyright (c) 2025 InSURgence: rights and social movements journal [InSURgência: revista de direitos e movimentos sociais]

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.

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