From September 2010 to March 2020, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) partnered with leading Malian anti-slavery organization Temedt to combat descent-based slavery through legal aid, legislative reform, and social and economic assistance for former slaves. The program, Combating Descent-based Slavery in Mali, was funded by the US Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Although ABA ROLI’s work in Mali was affected by the country’s March 2012 coup d’état, ABA ROLI and Temedt succeeded in raising the profile of descent-based slavery as a human rights issue in Mali. Through the program, ABA ROLI trained 120 justice sector actors on how to litigate slavery cases and has helped 18 victims file cases seeking compensation from perpetrators of slavery. Additionally, ABA ROLI worked with anti-slavery activists from Mauritania and Niger to help local stakeholders draft an anti-slavery law. ABA ROLI and Temedt provided socioeconomic assistance to victims of slavery and have documented the effect of Mali’s crisis on former slaves.
ABA ROLI also partnered with the Malian National Commission for Human Rights to improve local actors’ capacity to address the problem of slavery. Their collaborative efforts resulted in the adoption of a new law criminalizing the several century-long practice of slavery. Through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and by providing in-court assistance, ABA ROLI’s efforts supported the release of 292 individuals from slavery in the northern regions of Timbuktu and Ménaka, and in the Southeast region of Kayes. Of those freed, 52 were assisted in obtaining citizenship, which allowed them to exercise their most basic civil rights, like the right to vote.
ABA ROLI and the Malian National Institute for the Judicial Training also trained prosecutors, judges, and other legal actors in Bamako, Kayes, Timbuktu, Gao, Yélimané, Diéma, and Nioro du Sahel, on slavery and victim sensitive approaches.