Leiden / Boston / Paderborn / Singapore / Beijing – 6 March 2018

Brill, together with Research4Life Partners, launches an online access program to legal research and training for developing countries.

Research4Life has launched a program today to provide free or inexpensive access to legal information and training to promote research in low- and middle-income countries and help strengthen the rule of law. The program, known as GOALI (Global Online Access to Legal Information), was initiated by Brill and developed as part of Research4Life, with academic partners Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School, the Cornell Law School Library, and the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN host organisation.

The program gives users in more than 115 developing countries access to a wide range of essential legal information for their work and studies, which they would not normally be able to obtain. Eligible institutions include governments, universities, law schools, research and not-for-profit institutions.

Some of the key topics covered in the program perfectly reflect Brill Nijhoff’s strengths in the areas of International Law, Human Rights, Humanitarian Law and Labour Law – areas that can help strengthen legal frameworks and institutions in many developing countries. The program will also contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

The program was launched today at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, together with representatives from ILO, Research4Life, Brill, Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School, the Cornell Law School Library, and the International Training Centre of the ILO.

Richelle Van Snellenberg, Head of the ILO Library in Geneva, explains their motivation to spearhead the program from the UN: “By improving access to legal information in developing countries, GOALI will further the ILO’s aims to achieve social justice, support the Sustainable Development Goals, and ultimately make a difference in peoples’ lives. As host of GOALI, the ILO is managing the technical setup and communications for the program. We are excited to join the partnership of Research4Life, with Cornell, Yale, Brill Nijhoff, and ITCILO.”

Liesbeth Kanis, Managing Director Brill Asia and responsible for Brill’s Developing Countries Program, adds: “Brill Nijhoff, as the initiator and founding publisher of the program, is delighted to see the launch of GOALI, since it clearly fills a gap in the area of access to legal information in developing countries. It fits our CSR objectives and our active participation in Research4Life. Brill contributes nearly 160 journals, many of which are in the area of Law, and ebooks, including the International Development Policy book series and the not-for profit Journal of Interrupted Studies. It gives great pleasure to work with the ILO, academic partners Cornell and Yale, and the many other academic publishers who willingly provide access to their legal publications.”

Daniel Dollar, Chair of the Research4Life partnership, highlights: “We are delighted to welcome GOALI as the fifth program of Research4Life, as access to legal research is crucial for developing countries to improve their legal knowledge and practice. We also improved the registration process of our system, so institutions who already registered to other Research4Life programs will automatically receive access to GOALI.”

Institutions registered with other Research4Life programs will automatically receive access to GOALI. Others are encouraged to register on this website.
For more information on GOALI, please visit http://www.ilo.org/goali
For more information on Research4Life, please visit http://www.research4life.org
For information on GOALI contact Edit Horvàth, goali@ilo.org
For information on Brill’s participation contact Liesbeth Kanis, kanis@brill.com or check Brill’s Developing Countries Program.

About Brill
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in Middle East and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, History, Biblical and Religious Studies, Language & Linguistics, Literature & Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Biology, Education, Social Sciences and International Law. With offices in Leiden (NL), Boston (US), Paderborn (GER) Singapore (SG) and Beijing (CN), Brill today publishes over 270 journals and close to 1,400 new books and reference works each year, available in print and online. Brill also markets a large number of primary source research collections and databases. The company’s key customers are academic and research institutions, libraries, and scholars. Brill is a publicly traded company and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam NV. For further information, please visit www.brill.com.

About Research4Life
Research4Life is a public-private partnership of the WHO, FAO, UNEP, WIPO, ILO, Cornell and Yale Universities, the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers and more than 185 international publishers. The goal of Research4Life is to reduce the knowledge gap between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries by providing affordable access to scholarly, professional and research information. The other Research4Life programmes include agriculture, health, environment, science and innovation.

About ILO
The only tripartite UN agency, since 1919 the ILO brings together governments, employers and workers of 187 member States , to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programs promoting decent work for all women and men.

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