Supporting Justice Defenders Worldwide
Our program worked with human rights defenders (HRDs) worldwide who faced ongoing harassment, threats, and criminal charges in retaliation for their legitimate human rights work through pro bono legal support and trial monitoring. Across the world, we coordinated technical legal assistance in support of more than 2,000 at-risk human rights defenders, including lawyers, journalists, judges, labor unionists, and citizen-advocates enduring reprisals for their legitimate human rights work in over 77 countries. Its effective approaches have led to an over 83% success rate in achieving acquittal, access to a lawyer, improved detention conditions and sentencing, and improved compliance with international law and standards.
Addressing Women’s Economic Security Globally
Our work focused on closing gaps in national legal frameworks and promoting policy reforms to ensure women’s economic participation and equality across Guatemala, Mexico, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia. In Indonesia, we conducted research on workplace sexual harassment and access to justice, developed a policy brief to strengthen government response to this issue, and trained over 1,500 judges and court staff and 26 labor union representatives to improve case management.
Professionalizing the Judicial Sector in the Central African Republic
Over five years, we addressed the immediate needs of victims and vulnerable populations in the Central African Republic (CAR) through the provision of legal aid clinics in Bangui, Bour, Berberati, Bangassou, and Tongolo. Through these clinics, the attorneys provided direct legal assistance, mediation, psycho-social service referrals, and case follow-up. These efforts were complemented on a macro level through activities that strengthened CAR judicial actors’ ability to effectively administer justice and civil society organizations’ (CSOs) capacity to advocate for increased access to justice for vulnerable populations.
Strengthening Human Rights Protections in Libya
Our program sought to strengthen HRDs protections through support to CSOs, human rights activists, and journalists. With the shrinking civil society space, and with CSOs forced underground, bar associations were uniquely positioned to support HRDs in Libya with legal assistance. We supported the non-profit SMEX in the creation of their digital help desk, which provides assistance in response to requests arising from digital safety concerns, threats, or attacks. Under this work, SMEX’s HelpDesk supported over a hundred cases.
Building A Strong Legal Profession in the Maldives
Since its founding in 2019, we have supported the Bar Council of the Maldives (BCM)—the independent regulator and association of lawyers in the Maldives. In partnership with the BCM, we developed and rolled out standards for admission to the legal profession, including administering a bar examination for the first time in 2022. In October 2024, the BCM administered the third annual bar examination. The 2024 exam was administered with minimal external support, a key indicator of our program’s success in building BCM’s capacity to develop and administer bar exams and other admissions standards. More than 120 lawyers have been admitted to the Bar by meeting the two criteria set by the 2019 Legal Profession Act, including passing the bar exam and completing a licensing training under the BCM’s oversight.