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Access to Justice and Human Rights Programs

Background

Lebanese law students participating in the Human Rights Clinical Program exhibited materials from their projects at a year-end forum in Beirut.

Lebanese law students participating in a Human Rights Clinical Program exhibited materials from their projects at a year-end forum in Beirut.

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) promotes access to justice and human rights through a variety of technical assistance programs and publications. Our programs help empower legal professionals and other stakeholders to access justice systems and to assert citizens’ rights. ABA ROLI programs also increase awareness of international human rights standards, while encouraging accountability for human rights violations. ABA ROLI assesses access to justice and human rights legislation vis-à-vis the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and publishes reports.

Our access to justice and human rights programming has two major aspects: promoting access to justice and protecting human rights.

Promoting access to justice. The absence of effective bar associations, along with the lack of financial support and political will on the part of governments, contributes to environments which deny significant portions of the public equal access to legal advice or to the legal system. In response to these problems, ABA ROLI implements programs that strengthen local non-governmental organizations’ capacity to provide legal assistance. Additionally, ABA ROLI facilitates impact litigation, sponsors traveling lawyer programs, supports civil and criminal legal aid programs and pro bono assistance, and advocates for laws that commit states to providing such services.

Protecting human rights. The protection of human rights is a critical element in both the establishment of rule of law and the development of stable democracies. Thus, ABA ROLI establishes legal support networks for human rights workers and publicizes human rights campaigns. By training legal professionals, government officials and students, ABA ROLI strives to create a cadre of local professionals who can uphold internationally recognized human rights principles. ABA ROLI also works to create and strengthen local human rights non-governmental organizations and to develop legal norms that are protective of the rights of individuals.

Program Highlights

Improving access to justice for the most vulnerable members of society

 

Burundi

In the wake of the country’s civil war, the government of Burundi initiated a major disarmament and reintegration program for child soldiers. This program has made significant progress in reducing the number of child soldiers; but unfortunately, many more are still not fully reintegrated in society. We work to enhance the legal system’s capacity to better address the situation. ABA ROLI trains judges, prosecutors and the police to better prepare them for the unique issues that arise in dealing with former child soldiers. ABA ROLI also helps train and fund legal professionals to defend former child soldiers who are awaiting trial on criminal charges stemming from their actions during the civil war. Furthermore, ABA ROLI works to provide former child soldiers with social, educational, vocational, psychological, medical and physical rehabilitation services.

 

Cambodia

ABA ROLI supports the high-impact Public Interest Legal Advocacy Program (PILAP) in Cambodia. PILAP builds cases and brings class action lawsuits to publicize human rights violations, primarily illegal land seizures. Its involvement in high-profile cases has earned significant attention from the media and the international legal development community. For instance, PILAP represented 78 Cambodian families who lived on the island of Koh Pich in their effort to receive just compensation for a proposed redevelopment of their land. Following extensive negotiations, PILAP settled this case for most families in 2005. The move was one of the first collective legal actions in Cambodia to help a community assert its rights to its land.

 

Macedonia

In 2002, a temporary amendment to Macedonia’s Law on Citizenship permitted long-term, stateless residents to apply for citizenship. In 2005–2006, taking advantage of this legislative development, ABA ROLI implemented a program to assist members of Macedonia’s largely stateless Roma population to obtain citizenship. ABA ROLI trained volunteer legal professionals and representatives of local non-governmental organizations to assist in citizenship applications and helped more than 1,000 previously stateless persons file for citizenship.

Increasing local capacity to provide legal services

 

Azerbaijan

To address legal aid needs in Azerbaijan, ABA ROLI created a legal advocacy center (LAC) in 2006. ABA ROLI trains recent law school graduates to work as LAC lawyers, focusing primarily on bringing human rights cases on behalf of indigent persons. The lawyers represent clients in civil disputes concerning family law, immigration, land and pension rights, and employment. They consult clients and prepare applications, appeals, legal memos, motions and complaint letters. So far, LAC has assisted more than 3,000 clients. The center also conducts community trainings and conferences. LAC lawyers have hosted business law training for rural women and constitutional rights and human trafficking trainings to local civil society groups.

 

Moldova

To broaden access to legal services to rural and remote parts of Moldova, ABA ROLI introduced the traveling lawyers program in 2001. Through the program, seven lawyers travel to rural villages once a week and provide free consultations and court representation to indigent clients, focusing on disputes related to employment, family law, land use and government benefits. The lawyers also educate villagers about their legal rights.

 

China

ABA ROLI’s major initiatives in China have supported greater public interest advocacy and citizens’ rights awareness. One of the earliest programs led to China’s first municipal-level regulations on environmental public participation. ABA ROLI support also enabled the launch of networks of volunteer lawyers working on children’s and migrant workers’ rights. ABA ROLI supported the All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) in the inauguration of its Environmental and Resources Law Committee. Together with ACLA’s Criminal Law Committee, we successfully introduced China’s first online skills training courses for criminal defense lawyers and a bar-supported online resource center for lawyers representing death penalty defendants. ABA ROLI activities seek to build indigenous capacity—individual, institutional and structural—to protect citizens’ rights and to promote social justice and good governance. Thus, working closely with local partners to identify and design programs that respond to their priorities, ABA ROLI has contributed to important developments and reforms in the areas of good governance and citizens’ rights advocacy.

Promoting and protecting human rights

 

Lebanon

ABA ROLI has worked with La Sagesse University faculty in Lebanon to develop and implement a course focusing on substantive national and international human rights law, skills training, clinical practice, research and outreach. This program introduces law students to core human rights concepts and their application, with the aim of developing a culture of public interest advocacy. ABA ROLI, in cooperation with Lebanese law professors and legal and human rights experts, developed a curriculum emphasizing interactive teaching techniques such as role play, simulations and moot court exercises. The curriculum also includes a clinical phase during which students provide human rights-related pro bono services. ABA ROLI has also sponsored human rights moot court competitions for La Sagesse law students.

 

Kyrgyzstan

ABA ROLI’s street law-type program teaches law students to provide human rights trainings at secular and Islamic secondary schools. The program seeks to strengthen the rule of law by encouraging secondary school students to become aware of their fundamental rights and their protection, and to develop respect and passion for public interest advocacy. Lessons address topics such as constitutional rights, the Kyrgyz legal system and detainees’ rights. Participants of the street law program have also, through the schools where they teach, provided pro bono representation.

 

Philippines

ABA ROLI leads efforts to combat extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the Philippines through a series of multi-sector summits and targeted forensics training. ABA ROLI is hosting seven regional summits—with participants including non-governmental organization representatives, prosecutors, journalists and human rights activists—to raise awareness of EJKs, to enhance communication and coordination among key groups and to increase understanding of the Writ of Amparo, a legal tool which requires a government agency such as the police or the military to conduct due diligence to ensure that a missing person is not in their custody. In addition to legal training, ABA ROLI has arranged for a top international forensics expert to train Philippine lawyers and civil society members on basic crime scene preservation techniques and effective use of physical evidence.

Assessment Tools

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is one of the most fundamental international expressions of human rights. More than 160 countries have ratified the covenant, which was adopted in 1966 by the United Nations General Assembly. These countries are obligated to ensure that individuals within their jurisdiction enjoy the rights the covenant affords.

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) developed the ICCPR Legal Implementation Index in 2003 and revised it in 2007–2008. The index is a framework for examining the extent to which a state’s laws and policies conform to the ICCPR, as well as the manner in which a state has practically implemented its ICCPR obligations. The index organizes the ICCPR’s protections into several major categories of rights: due process and detention protections, political participation, women’s rights, minority rights, alien rights and children’s rights. ICCPR Index assessments may broadly address a country’s compliance with the entire ICCPR, or may target one or more of the above-listed categories.

ICCPR Index assessments help produce a roadmap for compliance with the covenant. The index may be applied either as a preliminary assessment of a country’s efforts to implement the ICCPR, or as a follow-up on existing programming to assess progress and future needs. By providing a detailed analysis of the status of civil and political rights, the index helps guide governments and civil society leaders towards more effective program development and problem solving.

Contact Information

Publications

ABA ROLI’s Research and Assessments Office designs legal assessment tools, and conducts legislative assessments and compiles reports at the request of host countries. Our access to justice and human rights publications and assessments include:

Click here to view a complete list of our Access to Justice and Human Rights publications.

Multimedia

Audio Presentation

Challenging Injustice: Human Rights and Access to Justice in Cambodia, the Philippines and Uzbekistan

External Resources

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