DRC2018: American Bar Association in Africa

BrianGoma 2018

Every corner of this side of town has an NGO trying to help but it’s really tricky because many aren’t helping and some make it worse. I was interested to see the ABA here. The UN is normally a trusted partner in this kind of work but their work here is really murky. I will write more about that later.  

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Some more about the ABA – The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) is an international development program that promotes justice, economic opportunity and human dignity through the rule of law.

The ABA established the program in 2007 to consolidate its five overseas rule of law programs, including the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI), which it created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

For more than 25 years, and through our work in more than 100 countries, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) and our partners have sought to strengthen legal institutions, to support legal professionals, to foster respect for human rights and to advance public understanding of the law and of citizen rights.

In collaboration with our in-country partners—including government ministries, judges, lawyers, bar associations, law schools, court administrators, legislatures and civil society organizations—we design programs that are responsive to local needs and that prioritize sustainable solutions to pressing rule of law challenges. We employ rigorous and innovative monitoring and evaluation approaches in assessing the quality and effectiveness of our programs.

ABA ROLI has roughly 500 professional staff working in the United States and abroad, including a cadre of short- and long-term volunteers and legal specialists, who in fiscal year 2015 alone contributed $1.2 million inpro bono legal assistance.