Namati CEO, Vivek Maru, and Rights and Resources Initiative Coordinator, Andy White, argue that community land rights and protection are crucial to sustainable development. As it stands now, these rights are ommitted from the Rio+20 Conference Resolution, putting billions of vulnerable people further at risk.
Sierra Leone’s parliament has just enacted one of the most progressive legal aid laws in Africa—with an innovative approach to providing access to justice for all that will reinforce the rule of law in a society still scarred by the brutal civil war that ended in 2002.
Namati Sierra Leone director Sonkita Conteh and Open Society Justice Initiative’s Lotta Teale explain the importance of the bill, which calls for a scale up of paralegal services.
Under Mozambique’s Constitution and Land Law (1997), communities may legally govern their lands and natural resources according to customary norms and practices, so long as local customs do not contradict national law. However, rising land scarcity and associated increases in land value are leading some families to “reinterpret” custom as sanctioning the dispossession of widows from their marital lands. This Lesson from the Field describes how Centro Terra Viva (CTV) and Namati support communities to strengthen women’s land rights within customary systems and harmonize local practices with national and human rights law. The publication also describes CTV’s efforts to involve Customary Tribunals and local dispute-resolution authorities in efforts to ensure the implementation and enforcement of community rules designed to protect women’s land rights.
The Centre for Policy Research – Namati Environmental Justice Program has recently completed a study titled CZMAs and Coastal Environments: Two Decades of Regulating Land Use Change on India’s Coastline. The study analyses the structure, functioning and performance of CZMAs. After three years of detailed and in-depth research, this report is now available as the first study on the performance of CZMAs.
The study:
The report:
In an op-ed published at Project Syndicate, Namati CEO Vivek Maru argues that legal empowerment is crucial for taking forward two of the great human endeavors since World War II: the movement for human rights and the quest for development. The essay begins at Ramlila Grounds, the site of some of the largest protests in India’s recent history, and closes with a call for a global legal empowerment fund.
Our movement for legal empowerment is thriving on every continent in the world. But too often we work alone, without benefit of the advice or feedback of others. Let’s do something about that.
We’re excited to introduce a new opportunity to meet and learn from each other in person: a Learning Exchange Program for members of our global network.
We are looking for practitioners at any level – grassroots advocates, heads of organizations – who would like to spend time living with and learning from veteran legal empowerment organizations.
Application Deadline is February 15th, 2015 for the first round of learning exchanges, generously hosted by the National Alliance for the Development of Community Advice Offices in South Africa and the Alternative Law Groups in the Philippines. The exchanges will take place in March and April 2015. All major travel and lodging costs will be covered by the program.
For more information on these exchanges visit: grassrootsjusticenetwork.org/opportunities-for-network-members/learning-exchange. Send completed applications and any questions via email to: exchanges@namati.org.
In the past, we have seen how fruitful these visits can be. During a pilot exchange for grassroots justice groups from Myanmar and China to Indonesia, pictured above, our network members shared experiences, interviewed staff and community paralegals, and reviewed strategic growth plans. Among other things, participants came away with a better understanding of how to forge productive relationships with local governments – techniques that they are now testing at home.
Through our learning exchanges, we hope to give more network members the opportunity to gain insights and inspiration from each other.
Aportar a la inclusión digital, el uso crítico de la tecnología desde una perspectiva de Derechos Humanos y el desarrollo sostenible en Bolivia a través de acciones de investigación, diálogo y promoción de políticas públicas.
Ser una organización sostenible, independiente e innovadora de referencia en la promoción de la inclusión digital y el uso crítico de las tecnologías en Bolivia.
Namati’s Daniel Sesay has written a memoir of his decade as a community-based paralegal in Sierra Leone. Using case studies and stories he explains clearly the multiple, flexible and innovative ways in which grassroots advocates can bring justice to places and people that lawyers and the law don’t usually reach. He describes how paralegals interact with traditional, customary justice systems, with local courts and with branches of government, such as the police and military. In particular he explains the role of basic justice in stabilising a post-conflict country like Sierra Leone.