Lawyers

Against

Poverty

Annual

Report

2018

Dear Friends,

We write this on 10 December 2018, which marks seventy

years since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights (the UDHR) on the same day in 1948.

The UDHR accorded all human beings the right to “a standard

of living adequate for health and well-being…including food,

clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social

services.” Yet in 2018 there are billions of individuals across

the world living in poverty, on the edge of survival.

2018 also brought the highest levels of forcible displacement

on record: 68.5 million individuals worldwide were forced to

leave their homes as a result of state fragility, conflict and

violence. 25.4 and 3.1 million crossed a border as asylum

seekers and refugees respectively and 40 million were IDPs.

Equally troubling is that many nations continue to maintain

laws that are fundamentally discriminatory: 41 recognise only

a man as the head of a household; 27 still require women to

obey their husbands; and 24 require women to obtain consent

from a male family member in order to work.

But there is hope. The Guardian reported recently that since 2014, 15

countries have increased the age at which someone can marry; 14 have

brought in legislation to criminalise intimate partner violence; and 3

have banned FGM. And in its annual review of the state of the world’s

human rights, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Kumi Naidoo,

declared that 2018 “was a year defined by women’s resistance.”

At Lawyers Against Poverty, we are as committed as ever to our vision

of a just world without poverty. In May, we shared with members the

wonderful news that we received a favourable decision in Mary Sunday

v Nigeria, a case we supported on behalf of a victim of domestic

violence. In September, we launched our initiative focused on

supporting refugees overseas and in the UK.

Our members voted to support two significant donations from our

Justice Fund in 2018: £15,000 to the Equal Rights Trust and the Human

Rights Commission of Pakistan to support their work in the area of

equality and non-discrimination; and £15,000 to Oxfam in Greece’s

Legal Aid Project in Lesvos to launch a legal information dissemination

scheme and fund a Greek asylum lawyer from January to May 2019.

We welcomed a number of new members and our network now consists

of over 100 lawyers committed to using the law in order to eradicate

poverty. As we reflect on 2018, we want to extend the warmest thanks

to all of them. We look forward to working together in 2019.

Best regards,

Kirsty and Richard, Chairs of Lawyers Against Poverty

£15,000

to the Equal Rights

Trust and the Human

Rights Commission of

Pakistan __________________________________

The £15,000 donation from our Justice Fund was used to leverage

matched funding of £285,000 from the EU. This will be used by the

Equal Rights Trust and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan to:

• Increase the capacity of civil society lawyers to advise

victims of discrimination in Pakistan.

• Establish and strengthen the mechanisms through which the

individuals in need of such advice may access it safely.

£15,000

to Oxfam in Greece’s

Legal Aid Project __________________________________

In November 2018, our members voted in favour of making a

donation from the Justice Fund of £15,000 to Oxfam in Greece in

order to support their work in aid of asylum seekers on the island of

Lesvos. This will be used to:

• Launch a legal information dissemination scheme in order

to ensure that information on seeking sanctuary under the

asylum system is made accessible and comprehensible to

newly arrived asylum seekers of all nationalities, who are

likely otherwise to struggle to understand the complex and

ever-changing rules and what services may be available to

assist them.

• Fund a Greek asylum lawyer with an organisation called

European Lawyers in Lesvos (ELIL) in order to ensure early

and meaningful access to free and independent legal advice

for asylum seekers in advance of their asylum interviews and

assistance with reunification applications under the Dublin

Regulation (as well as for detainees and unaccompanied

minors wrongly registered as adults).

Between January and May 2019, Oxfam in Greece is aiming to

distribute 8,000 leaflets to newly arrived asylum seekers. In the

same time, the additional lawyer in ELIL’s team will be able to assist

around 800 individuals, including unaccompanied minors.

GRAN

TS

REFUGEE RIGHTS:

OUR WORKING GROUP IN 2018 In September 2018, we launched an initiative intended to increase

awareness of refugee rights issues among the wider legal community

and encourage collaborative action to support refugees overseas as

well as in the UK.

• Legal Insight Training: We believe that a necessary consequence

of giving refuge is ensuring that refugees receive effective

support. Working in close collaboration with an organisation

called Refugee Resource, our team of lawyers in late 2017

designed and delivered a trio of legal insight training sessions to

around 15 women refugees living in Oxford. The sessions covered

employment, criminal and family law and were intended to

empower and support the women in their efforts to move

forwards and live as valuable and (most importantly) valued

members of society in the UK. We are now working to create

new sessions for more refugees in London and other locations.

• Work Experience: Many refugees resettled in the UK will find

themselves destitute, traumatised and without readily available

employment opportunities. We are encouraging organisations to

create work experience schemes for refugees in order to enable

them meaningfully to use their skills and establish themselves in

their chosen field of employment in the UK.

• Fundraising: We are working with volunteers and students to

organise events to raise awareness of refugee rights issues as

well as funds to donate to European Lawyers in Lesvos and the

Greek Council for Refugees in order to ensure the continued

delivery of free and expert advice and social assistance to

asylum seekers arriving onto the island of Lesvos.

REFU

GEES

An Evening with Lawyers Against

Poverty:

What Can We Do to Help Refugees? In October 2018, Lawyers Against Poverty hosted a discussion at Simmons

& Simmons on what lawyers can do in aid of refugees. We heard from:

• Alexandra Xanthaki, Research Director at Brunel Law School, who

established an initiative whereby students can offer their assistance

as volunteers to refugees in Athens, within a refugee camp and a

community centre for women and children

• Philip Worthington, Managing Director of European Lawyers in

Lesvos, which works to ensure early and meaningful access to free

and independent advice and assistance to asylum seekers arriving

onto the island of Lesvos in Greece

• Jared Ficklin, Director of the University of Liverpool’s Law Clinic,

who shared with us his account of the refugee camp in Lesvos (Moria)

where it is the slow and entirely opaque system for seeking

sanctuary, instead of the overcrowded and squalid conditions, that

creates the worst feelings of despair among those stranded there

• Adrian Henderson, Leader of LAP’s Refugee Thematic Group, which

worked in close collaboration with an organisation called Refugee

Resource to design and deliver a trio of legal insight training sessions

for refugees living in Oxford

WOMEN’S RIGHTS:

OUR WORKING GROUP IN 2018

Mary Sunday v Nigeria: In May 2018, the Court of Justice of the

Economic Community of West African States (the Court) handed

down its decision in Mary Sunday v Nigeria, a case initiated against

Nigeria by the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa

(the IHRDA) and the Women Advocates Research and Documentation

Centre (the WARDC) on behalf of a woman called Mary Sunday, who

suffered severe injuries and burns after an attack by her fiancé, and

supported with funding from Lawyers Against Poverty.

Counsel claimed that state authorities had failed effectively,

impartially and independently to investigate the allegations and

prosecute the perpetrator, a serving police officer, which

constituted a violation of the victim’s rights under the African

Charter and the Maputo Protocol. In January 2017, the Court ruled

against the preliminary objections relating to standing and

justiciability, finding that the IHRDA and the WARDC were eligible to

commence an action on behalf of an individual victim and that the

case raised not merely a matter under the national law of Nigeria

but issues susceptible to scrutiny under regional human rights law.

The Court held that Nigeria had violated Mary’s right to an effective

remedy under Article 7 of the African Charter and awarded

compensation of 15 million Naira. However, it was silent on the

structural remedies sought, including psychosocial support for Mary

and other victims of domestic violence, and did not find a breach on

the basis that violence against women is a form of discrimination.

Nonetheless, it was a significant victory for women’s rights in the

region and a cause our members supported whole-heartedly.

Action 4 Justice: Our working group continues to contribute content

to Action 4 Justice in the area of marriage and reproductive rights.

WO

MEN

Advancing the Rights of Women

through Strategic Litigation and

Other Tools

In November 2018, Lawyers Against Poverty hosted a discussion on

the tools we can use most effectively to advance and assert

women’s rights. We heard from Naomi Passman and Emily Blower,

members of our women’s rights working group, who introduced the

idea that gender equality is more than a moral consideration:

creating the conditions that enable women to thrive is necessary for

sustainable development.

Gaye Sowe, Executive Director of the IHRDA and counsel on record

in Mary Sunday v Nigeria, made us a video in which he considered

the challenges of mounting strategic litigation, including the cost

and reluctance of some courts to award the structural remedies

needed to address the issue of violence against women. Even so, he

concluded that it is a very valuable means of securing change in the

law and advancing the rights of women across the continent.

Next we heard from Meghan Campbell, Deputy Director of the

Oxford Human Rights Hub and Lecturer at Birmingham University

Law School, who considered the value of the inquiry procedure

under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

as a means of identifying severe and widespread violations of

women’s rights and remedying structural discrimination.

Laura Gyte, Campaigns Legal Adviser at Oxfam GB, considered

CEDAW in the context of poverty, economic inequality and tax

avoidance. Tax avoidance, she said, creates significance

ramifications for gender justice as the realisation of women’s rights

requires expenditure on public services such as education, water,

electricity, transportation and health.

JUST LAWYERS:

ARE YOU JUST A LAWYER OR A

JUST LAWYER? In June 2018, Lawyers Against Poverty launched a new initiative for

in-house lawyers to help them discover how to make a difference in

their organisation and more widely in society and to encourage them

to be a Just Lawyer instead of Just a Lawyer. The website consists of

ideas, information, resources and case studies and focuses on

encouraging in-house lawyers to:

• Make a difference in their ORGANISATION by resolving

ethical dilemmas in a just as well as a commercial manner,

ensuring high standards of compliance and accountability

and creating a culture of doing “the right thing”.

• Be a Just Lawyer in SOCIETY by using their skills to create

closer and more supportive community environments and

increase access to justice at the local level.

• Make the PROFESSION more just by working to increase

diversity among lawyers, overturn negative stereotypes and

raise awareness among students and other lawyers on the

importance of serving the interests of justice.

• Take ACTION as a Just Lawyer in many ways, including by

twinning with an international lawyer, undertaking pro bono

or becoming a trustee of a charity.

TWINNING

“Twinning” is our initiative that connects members with lawyers in

other countries, offering an opportunity to create and maintain close

relations, support lawyers with fewer resources and gain an insight

into some of the challenges lawyers encounter in other jurisdictions.

Thus far we have brought twins together in Tajikistan, Uganda and

the UK. In August 2018, a set of twins – one working in the IP team

at Gowling WLG in London and the other at a firm in Kampala – were

able to meet one another face-to-face in London for the first time.

They had been in touch for around 18 months via regular video calls,

when they would discuss work and other shared interests, becoming

close friends. Both considered the experience extremely valuable –

and intend to meet again in Uganda in 2019.

JU

ST L

AW

YERS

AN

D T

WIN

NIN

G

Many thanks to all of our

members for supporting our

work and donating to our

Justice Fund in 2018

We look forward to working

together in 2019, using the law

to eradicate poverty in

countries across the world

Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Oxford OX4 2JY

W: Lawyersagainstpoverty.org

T: LawyersvPoverty / I: lawyersvpoverty

Ph: Adam Patterson, Nana Kofi Acquah, Tommy Trenchard (All Oxfam)