A Summary from South Africa

Last Saturday, I returned from my Helton Fellowship project. My project was to support the work of the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP), a US-based international non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides senior attorneys to work, on a volunteer basis, with human rights organizations around the world, in order to identify human rights organizations in South Africa that could benefit from the pro bono assistance of highly experienced lawyers. The overarching goals were to both increase the opportunities for pro bono assistance and the legal capacity of human rights organizations, while determining what is the best methodology for pro bono work in Africa on human rights issues. This was facilitated by identifying opportunities for sustained relationships where ISLP's experienced lawyers could provide pro bono services that meet the needs of a small number of law-related NGOs in South Africa.

During my stay in South Africa, I met with over twenty human rights NGOs and held discussions concerning the human rights challenges in South and Southern Africa, the needs of organizations in terms of pro bono assistance, and how foreign lawyers can successfully increase the capacity of these human rights organizations to meet the population and organizational needs. The discussions will lead to partnerships between American and British lawyers and South African human rights organizations to address developing human rights issues. Through this experience, I also increased my knowledge of pro bono legal assistance and human rights assistance throughout Africa, in addition to gaining a comprehensive understanding of the South Africa legal system.

The findings of the meetings were that the South African legal community is strong and fully developed, and South Africa’s human rights protections are among the most advanced in the world. A litigious society has already developed to ensure these human rights protections. However, since most of these protections have only existed for just over a decade, new legal issues are arising that have already been addressed in the United States or U.K. and there are lawyers there with decades of experience on these new emerging issues. Interesting human rights constitutional challenges will occur in South Africa regarding land and property rights. In addition, there is a significant interest in South Africa towards protecting the human rights of the citizens of Zimbabwe, South Africa’s neighbor. The NGO community is actively engaged in legal avenues that can attempt to protect a population suffering under the Robert Mugabe regime.