Victoria’s First Activist Legal Needs Assessment Project

Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) is conducting a statewide legal needs assessment (LNA) to identify and analyze the scope and nature of legal issues faced by people involved in civil, political, environmental, and human rights movements in Victoria.

The 10-month project will use online surveys, focus groups, and data analysis to evaluate the legal needs of Victoria’s large and diverse social change movements.

The Survey is now open!

The statewide activist legal needs survey is now open and can accessed online at https://mals.questionpro.com.au/ALN

If you have participated in public meetings, vigils, pickets, protests, marches, rallies, street stalls, leafleting, banner-hanging, or civil disobedience, we would like to hear about your experience engaging with law enforcement officers and/or the legal system.

The survey is open for all people who are 16 years old or over, and who have lived in Victoria, Australia during the last 5 years.

What’s the project for?

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Victorians participate in social change movement activities.

However, many people who attend public meetings, vigils, pickets, protests, marches, rallies, or engage in activities such as street stalls, leafleting, banner-hanging, or civil disobedience, remain uncertain about their legal rights and responsibilities in interactions with police and the legal system. New state and federal laws affecting protests, and changing practices and approaches by police, councils and other public authorities adds to this unclarity.

Many people face legal repercussions, including fines and charges as a result of their participation in social movement activities and face challenges in understanding and accessing appropriate legal support that can adequately defend and protect their civil and political rights.

This project will address a significant and under-recognised area of legal need in Victoria. It will contribute to the development of more effective approaches to civil, political, and human rights legal education and support.

Why did MALS launch this project?

Over the past 15 years, MALS has identified significant unmet legal need in relation to:

• understanding the rights to plan, and participate in assemblies
• access to clear, accurate, and up-to-date information about the wide range of legal issues that can arise from engaging in social movements
• barriers in accessing legal information and support, particularly for people from racialised or non-English speaking background communities, the disability rights movement, young people and new groups becoming engaged in movement activities for the first time.

What will the project do?

Through this project, MALS will identify and analyse common legal issues faced by communities involved in diverse social movement activities, the type of legal support required, and the barriers to accessing information and assistance.

It will also evaluate the effectiveness of activist rights information provided by government bodies, community legal centres, various human rights organisations, and MALS itself.

The findings will be published and shared widely and aim to:

• inform and strengthen MALS’s community legal education resources, projects, and outreach activities
• Inform and strengthen the legal education, outreach and legal assistance provided by CLCs, law firms and human rights organisations in Victoria.

Key Activities and Phases

The project will collate evidence on the experiences of people engaged in social movements across Victoria, generate evidence-based insights into the types of legal issues communities encounter, the support they require, and the barriers they face in accessing legal information and assistance.

Who is running the project?

MALS is a well established and trusted organisation within Victoria’s activist and legal advocacy communities, with over 100 active members who are involved in working groups focused on research, writing, training and communications. Our board and membership includes barristers, lawyers, and experienced human rights trainers and advocates. We have extensive links with community legal centres, law firms and local, national and global human rights advocacy bodies.

The project is funded by a grant from the Victorian Law Foundation and the MALS project team includes lawyers, academics and members with years of data analysis and community legal research experience.

MALS has provided specialist legal education, support and referral to people engaged in social change movements for over 15 years. We have developed unique, specialist and tailored legal education resources for specific communities based upon identified legal need. MALS has pioneered several innovative legal information tools and outreach methods.

Frontline legal observing over such a long period means that MALS has a detailed understanding of legal issues that arise for different social movement groups and the ways in which laws are applied, misapplied, or misunderstood by law enforcement and public authorities. We will ensure that the project is informed by lived experience, not just legal analysis.

Where can I find out more or get involved?

Subscribe to our regular Activist Legal News and Updates here.

If you are a Victorian based legal practitioner or researcher and would like to contribute insights about activist legal need please contact MALS here

The Activist Legal Needs Survey is now open. We are asking you to share this widely through your social movement networks and asking everyone who has ever taken part in some form of protest activity in Victoria to take the survey.

Stay tuned for updates through MALS social media channels.