Inadequately developed, resourced and managed legal systems in many of the world’s poorer nations where citizens are often denied basic rights or are uninformed about their rights is an ongoing problem. What many citizens of developed nations take for granted, such as the right to vote in peaceful elections, is a rarity in some developing nations where violence may break out during or after an election, as it did in the Kenyan elections in 2007/08. Protestors may be arrested for no reason at all and then be denied legal access. This happens on a daily basis throughout the developing world.
For that reason there is an urgent need for human rights legal activists worldwide, both student volunteers and qualified professionals, especially in nations where human rights are actively abused.
Lawyers Without Borders
Lawyers Without Borders claims to be “the world’s largest group of volunteer lawyers from around the globe” and lists many opportunities to volunteer abroad including in Liberia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda and Sierra Leone. Essentially, the opportunities are available in sub-Saharan African nations that have (mostly) experienced internal conflict in the past thirty years.
Lawyers Without Borders explains that volunteer work falls into four main areas, namely:
Trial Advocacy Training, Neutral Trial Observation, Community Outreach, and Technical Assistance. These are based around the themes of gender-based violence, human trafficking, civic electoral rights, conflict mediation, mitigation and consensus building, and the rights of the child, among others.
Lawyers Without Borders also reports that all of their former volunteers were able to find work after being able to write on their CVs that they had volunteered their time for a worthy cause abroad in less than comfortable and easy circumstances.
While this is one of the benefits for volunteers, many report that the experience itself was the greatest reward.
Challenges Worldwide
Law And More reports on Challenges Worldwide, an international development charity which recruits and trains volunteers with professional skills to work in the developing world.
Challenges Worldwide writes that they, “typically work with volunteers who have a minimum of 3 years work experience and is always on the look-out for volunteers with backgrounds in: Law, Finance and Accounting, Communications and Marketing, HR, IT, Business Planning and Management and Administration.”
They narrate a case study of a volunteer who traveled to India and spent half of her volunteer day “drafting legal pleadings on a variety of cases, primarily relating to HIV/AIDS and discrimination. The rest of her time was spent organizing and facilitating ‘know your rights’ training sessions and presentations about HIV/AIDS.”
A search of Idealist, one of the most comprehensive data-bases for searching volunteer opportunities, will also provide more insight for legal professionals seeking to volunteer their skills abroad.
Gayle Pescud - Co-founder of G-lish Foundation in Ghana, an award winning non-profit that welcomes volunteers in Africa.
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