The Open Society Justice Initiative, the Open Society Initiative for East Africa, Namati, and the Nubian Rights Forum submitted this briefing paper to assist the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in its efforts to ensure the implementation of the case of Nubian Minors v. Kenya. In that March 22, 2011 decision, the Committee found Kenya in violation of the African Children’s Rights Charter in the discriminatory rules and practices applied to Nubian children in the recognition of Kenyan nationality.
Three years later, Nubians continue to suffer this discrimination. Nubian children still must provide excessive documentation in support of birth certificate and identity card applications, and Nubians continue to undergo vetting in order to obtain identity cards. This briefing draws on data generated from a community-based paralegal assistance program, which identifies precisely how the government of Kenya continues to fall short in recognizing Kenyan nationality for Nubian children on a non-discriminatory basis.
This report catalogs the proceedings of the Data Management training organized by the JSCO and NAMATI for Paralegals and their Managers under the Legal Empowerment Shared Framework held from 21st & 25th April 2017, at the Ocean View Hotel in Juba, Freetown. The Legal Empowerment Shared Framework Project (LESF) is funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa to increase the provision of primary justice services in communities across Sierra Leone through the use of Paralegals. The LESF Project is implemented in several countries across Africa and South America and in Sierra Leone, six partner institutions are participating in the scheme.
The objective of the training was to introduce and build the capacity of partner paralegals and their managers in the use of the case records forms and the web-based data management platform. This was done to counter varied data and ensure the comprehensive and standardized/uniform collection, collation, analysis and reporting of data generated in communities.
Based on grassroots data from Namati’s right to health work in Mozambique, this policy brief contains practical recommendations for ensuring patient privacy at health facilities. This resource is in Portuguese.
This resource is a recording and summary of a webinar hosted by Namati regarding the structure, uses, and implementation of the “Advocacy: Justice in the SDGs” toolkit.
Namati and SDI’s ‘how to’ guide for Liberian communities. The Community Guide to Protecting Community Lands and Resources provides information and instructions that communities can use to guide their land protection efforts.
Environmental justice paralegals in coastal Uttara Karnataka help clients obtain these permissions so that they can reside on the coast without fear of the law. Namati and the Centre for Policy Research prepared this information brochure, in Kannada – the local language, with the support of the district administration to help local people, including fishing communities, negotiate the legal process on their own.
Council of Minorities and Namati are supporting the first group of community-based paralegals to work in Urdu-speaking camps across five cities in Bangladesh. The paralegals are empowering their fellow Urdu-speakers to understand their rights as citizens and to obtain and use legal identity documents. Paralegals also track each case to build an empirical understanding of how relevant laws are implemented.
This resource is a project overview of the work of these paralegals in Bangladesh.
Manual Namati Direito a Saude Moçambique
A manual in Portuguese for civil society organisations working in Mozambique to help them understand government policies and patient rights around healthcare.
A second edition of this manual can also be found here.
NAMATI prepared this curriculum in response to a request for a two-day training for paralegals and three-day training for court monitors on what to look for in upholding women’s rights to land and property in Sierra Leone. The curriculum focuses on the following major questions:
The curriculum aims to be comprehensive by including information needed for both paralegals and court monitors. Trainers should feel free to tailor the material to the goals of their specific training. For example, for the court monitor training, the facilitator may want to spend more time on Module 1 and little or no time on Module 3.
The course includes discussion questions for the trainer to ask along the way to ensure participants are engaged and absorbing material. At the end of the curriculum, the trainer should break the participants into groups to work through the Practice Scenarios (see Handout 2). They should then present their answers to the class.
Table of Contents:
Overview 2
Module 1. What are the structures and powers of local courts? What is the role of a court monitor? 2
Module 2. What are women’s rights to land in Sierra Leone? 8
Module 3. What is the general role of a paralegal? 16
Handout #1: Land Dispute Resolution in the Provinces 20
Handout #2: Practice Scenarios 21
A brochure published by Namati and partner SiLNoRF is being distributed to communities around Makeni, Sierra Leone, where large-scale land investment deals are increasingly affecting local lives and livelihoods. The brochure provides advice to communities about how to harmonize local boundaries and what to do if an investor approaches.