The Refugee Advises the Lawyer: Community Voices Shaping Better Legal Practice

Refugees are often the subjects of legal processes—but rarely the co-creators of the systems designed to support them. Justice Centre’s latest initiative aims to change that. Through a participatory process, we’re developing professional guidelines shaped by the voices of those with lived experience.  Under our capacity-building strategy, we’ve launched an innovative participatory project that invites refugees to co-develop guidance for legal professionals working in Hong Kong’s asylum system. Too often, policies and training materials are created without the input of those most affected by them. This project aims to change that.  The Your Experience with Lawyers initiative draws inspiration from a growing global movement to embed lived experience in service design and legal practice. Research shows that meaningful community participation leads to more relevant, respectful, and effective support. With support from community consultants—refugees who helped shape the project from design to draft—we have gathered insights through interviews and group discussions exploring people’s past experiences with legal support in the protection process.  Early themes have been powerful and clear: many participants described feeling rushed, unheard, or confused in legal interviews. Some were unsure of the lawyer’s role, or lacked trust in the process altogether. Others pointed to the emotional strain of being met with disbelief, or facing conversations conducted in unfamiliar languages. Alongside these challenges, participants also offered thoughtful, constructive ideas for what respectful, accessible support should look like—from how interviews are introduced to how trust is built over time.  This April, preliminary findings were shared at the ASEAN Research Center (ARC) Conference on Refugee Studies and Forced Displacement 2025 in Kuala Lumpur. In a moving moment, several refugees who had shaped the project dialed in directly to share their reflections—demonstrating not only the value of their contributions, but their role as co-creators in improving the system for others.  This approach offers something new and important to Hong Kong’s protection landscape: a practical model for participatory guideline development that centres lived experience without compromising professional standards. By working alongside community members, we aim to strengthen the quality of legal representation while fostering more human-centred, trauma-aware practice.  The final practice advisory will be released later this year and will form part of our broader legal empowerment and training efforts. We look forward to sharing it—and to continuing to listen, learn, and build together.