Legal Aid in Liberia
In a country with only 300 lawyers for an estimated 3.5 million people, PF Liberia’s Legal Aid programme offers hope to those being held on pre-trial detention illegally. For example, programme volunteers facilitated the release of 117 pre-trial detainees from February to June 2009. The volunteer lawyers and lay people, active in four main prisons, collect data on the prisoners in need of assistance, identify necessary evidence and witnesses for court proceedings, and offer mediation services as an alternative mechanism for processing the case.
To prepare 50 volunteers for the Legal Aid programme, PF Liberia partnered with the Ministry of Justice and the United Nations Mission in Liberia for a training workshop with the theme “Justice that Restores.” Training topics included:
- Introduction to criminal and civil laws as they relate to legal aid services
- International Human Rights Law as it relates to pre-trial detainees
- Restorative justice in post-war Liberia
- The role of legal aid services in the provision of law
- The effect of gender-based violence on society
- Victim offender mediation
Funding for the workshop and subsequent programme was provided by a small grant from the East-West Management Institute.
From interactions with prisoners and victims during the legal aid and mediation work, PF Liberia identified three key factors contributing to ongoing violence in Liberia: land disputes, gender-based violence, and ex-prisoners/youth. In response, PF Liberia is developing a work programme to train community mediators/monitors to provide:
- Community dialogues and awareness-raising events on these topics
- Mediation and other dispute resolution services for the community, including appropriate indigenous mechanisms
- Mediation services for pre-trial detainees and their victims
- Mediation and dispute resolution services to facilitate the reintegration of released detainees into the community
