Empowering the poor through community-based paralegals- By Sonkita Conteh Esq

Introduction

More than half of the world’s population are not satisfactorily protected by law or the
institutions established to govern them.i The poor are in a particularly helpless position- their
rights are routinely violated, they are unable to access formal institutions and are incapable of
speaking out. In Sierra Leone the vast majority of the population do not have access to the
formal justice system.ii They have to rely on informal or traditional institutions which often leave
them vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination. With examples from a number of developing
countries, this article briefly examines the value of the low-cost justice delivery model of
community-based paralegals, in ensuring access to justice for the poor.

Poverty and law

In the Human Poverty Index (HPI)iii, Sierra Leone ranks 128 out of 135 countries.iv The story
behind the statistics makes grim reading: 31% of the population may not survive to the age of
40, 61% of all adults are illiterate, 47% do not use water from an improved source and 30% of
all children under 5 are under weight for their age.v The vast majority of poor people live outside
the protection of the law, their poverty being a reason and consequence of their lack of effective
legal rights.vi They struggle to make ends meet and are forced to devise their own solutions to
the myriad socio-economic challenges they encounter daily.vii In sub-Saharan Africa, between 65
and 90 percent of these poor live in rural areas.viii The conditions faced by the rural poor in
terms of access to education, healthcare, water and sanitation, housing, transport and
communications are much worse than those faced by their urban counterpart.ix With these
formidable challenges and living on less than a dollar a day, it is not hard to imagine why
accessing formal legal structures and services will always be an unattainable luxury for the rural
poor particularly.

A legal system can help promote poverty if it has laws that discriminate against the poor or
which simply ignore their rights, interests or concerns. It is the duty of the state to ensure that
justice is promoted on the basis of equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of status and
location and it will be disingenuous to pretend that because of their penury, the poor do not
have legal problems. On a practical level, making the law work for the poor requires the
adoption of low-cost justice delivery models which takes into account issues such as cost, the
capacity and willingness of the poor to pay for legal services keeping in mind the challenges
faced by formal structures.

Recognition of the link between poverty and law in Sierra Leone

The vision of the government’s Justice Sector Reform Strategy and Investment Plan 2008-2010 is to
have a country ‘where there is safety for people, security of property and access to justice. This is
essentially one of the traditional functions of governments everywhere. Without a functioning
justice system to address conflicts and grievances in an impartial and efficient manner, aggrieved

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persons will increasingly resort to self-help methods to address their justice problems, with very
serious ramifications for an open and peaceful society. Against the backdrop of a cruel civil
conflict that witnessed the almost total collapse of the country’s justice system, the Strategy gives
room for optimism in that it aims to take justice provision to the people, ‘through a number of
bold reforms’ which include considering the establishment of a national community based
paralegal initiative to provide basic legal advice and assistance in partnership with civil society to
the 70% of the population who do not have access to formal justice systems. This will be in
addition to strengthening the quality of justice provided by local courts and chiefs by reinforcing
supervision of these institutions. These are all very laudable goals.

Empowering the poor as a keystone of development

The adoption of a justice sector reform strategy at the local level is a reflection of a growing
international awareness of the importance of access to justice in the fight against poverty.x
Economic solutions by themselves cannot entirely tackle the problem of poverty, or deal
effectively with issues such as ‘deprivation, insecurity, exclusion and voicelessness’ which are
known factors that impoverish people and keep them poor.xi Empowering the poor legally can
help address such concerns.

Legal empowerment is a process through which the poor are protected and enabled to use the
law to advance their rights and interests.xii It recognises that everyone should have to access to
justice and that all the legal rights that are owed to an individual are respected without regard to
that person’s status.xiii It promotes development by giving voice to individuals and communities
at the grassroots level to participate in decision making processes and consolidates good
governance and accountability. xiv Legal empowerment strengthens civil society and capacitates
the poor to defend themselves against violations of their rights rather than helplessly waiting for
someone somewhere to do something. Though legal empowerment of the poor addresses
grassroots needs, its activities at community-level can impact on national laws and institutions.xv

Across the world, legal empowerment efforts have helped to bring communities out of poverty
and given them a sense of purpose and dignity. In Namibia, legal reforms in 1996 created a
framework for community-based management of natural resources which gave locals legal rights
to manage wild life reserves. This resulted in a rejuvenation of the ecosystem, reduction of
poaching activities, substantial increase in wildlife and new livelihood opportunities for the poor
as eco-tourism took off.xvi This is just one example of the many innovative ways by which poor
people can be legally empowered to effect positive changes in their lives and this might be one
of the biggest advantages of legal empowerment- its ability to fit any context or level.

Previous attempts at making the law work for everyone, particularly the poor have been almost
entirely focused on building the capacity of the so-called supply side of justice- government
institutions, mainly courts, with little or no attention paid to building the capacity of users of
justice services who are meant to access these institutions on how to efficiently utilise these
institutions or find other helpful alternatives. Legal empowerment in many ways seeks to rectify
this imbalance and one principally effective and inexpensive way has been through the use of
community-based paralegals.xvii Paralegals can and do carry out a wide range of activities:

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  Community-based paralegals can bring parties together to mediate, take witness
statements and gather information, draft and deliver letters, assist citizens in navigating
structures of authority, and organise communities to address their own justice problems.

 Community-based paralegals can educate communities, individuals and chiefs about laws
governing a particular issue and legal processes

 Well-trained paralegals can provide many of the basic general and criminal services that
clients of legal aid programmes need.

 Community-based paralegals are appropriately located to understand the issues and the
form of intervention most suitable to a specific community or case.

 Community-based paralegals can promote problem-solving and good governance at

community and chiefdom level.

It is no coincidence therefore, that developing countries are increasingly adopting the paralegal
approach to justice service delivery to ensure access to justice for the poor especially those in
rural areas. This model has proven to be substantially effective, far-reaching and flexible and
costs considerably less than for example a lawyer-based model of justice service delivery to
sustain. Also, given the resource constraints of developing nations, a paralegal model might
more easily attract donor support than a lawyer-based model. Further, developing countries
especially in Africa tend to have a bifurcated legal landscape with mostly poor people relying on
traditional or informal institutions to solve their justice problems rather than on the formal one.
A paralegal model has the advantage of plasticity and can work effectively across these systems.
It can enhance the substance and fair application of customary law and make traditional
institutions more accessible.

Where has this worked?

In many developing countries justice services organisations (JSOs) are working with the poor to
enable them gain greater power over their lives.xviii These organisations, through the use of
paralegals, help the poor solve basic problems and overcome administrative barriers.xix JSOs not
only make the rule of law a reality for the poor, but also improve their material circumstances
and empower them to advance their own interest.xx

Malawi

In Malawi, the Paralegal Advisory Services (PAS) has since 2000 been offering paralegal aid in
criminal matters covering 84% of the prison population, 4 police stations and 4 court centres
and providing basic legal education, through clinics, assistance and advice to prisoners. xxi Over
10,000 prisoners have been reached and an independent evaluation found that prisoners had
become more sophisticated in their understanding of the law and court procedure.xxii The
successes of PAS and other NGOs involved in justice service provision have led to several

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developments: the Malawian Law Society is considering including paralegals in a review of the
Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act 1965 and the draft Legal Aid Act 2005 formally
recognises the role of paralegals as competent providers of basic legal advice, legal assistance and
civic education and information about the law.xxiii In partnership with the University of KwaZulu
Natal in South Africa, PAS has developed a two year diploma course for paralegals.

South Africa

Paralegals play a huge and significant part in providing basic legal services to poor South
Africans. Through over 260 Paralegal Advice Offices countrywide, paralegals help people learn
about their rights and in this way give them the confidence to try and sort out their own
problems in the future. They run public education programmes and encourage people to resolve
disputes through methods which do not involve the law courts, such as negotiation and
mediation.xxiv In certain matters, they do referrals to competent authorities for action. Several
NGOs in the justice sector provide training and accreditation for paralegals. The Community
Law and Rural Development Centre for example provide training and support for a network of
56 Paralegal Advice Offices in rural areas. At the end of the training, paralegals receive a diploma
from the University of Natal. Currently, two draft bills on legal practice recognise the role of
paralegals in the South African justice sector.xxv In addition, a consortium of NGOs across five
countries in the sub-region, including Lawyers for Human Rights have formed the Southern
Africa Legal Cluster Assistance Project to lobby and advocate for the legal recognition of
paralegals in southern Africa.

Kenya

For over a decade NGOs have provided rural communities with access to primary justice
services through community-based paralegals. The Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) for
instance promotes access to justice through human rights education and empowers communities
to claim and defend their rights.xxvi In 2000 a coalition of over 20 civil society organisations
undertaking paralegal initiatives including LRF formed the Paralegal Support Network
(PASUNE) to harmonise and standardise paralegal training and coordination. PASUNE has
developed a curriculum for paralegal training and a manual to accompany it. The network is
currently advocating for the enactment of legislation that would recognise and institutionalise
paralegals within the justice sector.xxvii

Moldova

Community-based paralegals are relatively new in the Moldovan legal system although NGOs
had been successfully providing some level of legal aid services in rural areas. Legal aid reform in
2008 saw the recognition of paralegals and specialised non-governmental organisations in the
new legal aid law as primary justice service providers. xxviii The paralegals will serve in the rural
areas, solving basic legal problems in villages, implementing initiatives and teaching the
inhabitants how to assert their rights.xxix The reasoning for the adoption of this mixed model of

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legal aid provision was to ‘increase quality, accessibility and ensure reasonable cost of legal aid
services’.xxx

Sierra Leone

Far flung rural communities continue to benefit from the efforts of NGOs to provide basic
justice services at the local level through community based paralegals or other similar
mechanisms. Timap for Justice a local NGO has, since 2004, provided grassroots justice services
in the Northern and Southern provinces of Sierra Leone and Freetown. Timap employs a
frontline of community-based paralegals who engage in mediation, advocacy, organising, and
education to address concrete instances of injustice. The paralegals are supported and supervised
by two lawyers who also engage in litigation and high-level advocacy sparingly and strategically
to address severe cases which the paralegals are unable to solve on their own. Timap has gained
recognition from independent institutions such as the World Bank and International Crisis
Group for developing a creative, effective methodology for providing justice services in the
difficult and complex context of rural Sierra Leone. The success of this method of justice service
provision is also reflected in government’s desire to partner with Timap for Justice and broader
civil society to make community based paralegals widely available.xxxi Other non-governmental
organisations are also providing justice services in rural areas through community based
paralegals targeting vulnerable groups such as mine workers, women and children. There has
been little effort by NGOs to harmonise, standardise or obtain formal recognition for their
paralegal work in spite of its comparative maturity and resounding success. Paralegals continue
to operate without any accreditation or common standard. However a golden opportunity to
remedy this situation now presents itself in the form of the proposed legal aid framework for
Sierra Leone and organisations involved in primary justice service provision ought to take
advantage of it and canvass for a role within the proposed legal aid framework.

Of note is the fact that even developed countries utilise community based organisations for the
delivery of basic legal aid services to their citizens.xxxii In England, Citizen’s Advice Bureaux and
Community Legal Advice Centres provide a mix of legal services including legal advice,
information and representation, education and community organising. These organisations are
largely staffed by volunteers and receive funding from the government. Similarly in Canada, the
province of Ontario hosts scores of community legal clinics which offer primary civil legal aid
services to indigent persons. Staffed by lawyers and paralegals, these clinics provide eligible
individuals with free legal information, advice and representation. They also engage in legal
education and community development initiatives. In addition, the law schools in Ontario
operate legal clinics where law students- supervised by lawyers- provide legal help to those who
do not qualify for legal aid.

Conclusion

As the government develops a legal aid law in its bid to make justice accessible particularly by
the poor, it is important not to lose sight of the imperative of designing a framework that will
actually work, because ‘...the law on paper is often not enough to change the reality on the
ground’.xxxiii Measures to improve access to justice for the poor should concentrate on

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developing low-cost justice delivery models, like community-based paralegals, which have very
high sustainability chances rather than intricate, costly schemes that may not be easily funded
and have a short lifespan.

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Endnotes

iMaking the Law Work for Everyone Report of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, Vol. 1, 2008, pg.
19.
ii Government of Sierra Leone Justice Sector Reform Strategy and Investment Plan, 2008-2010, pg vi.
Human Development Report 2009. The HPI focuses on the most deprived in various dimensions of poverty and
iii

measures selected indicators of human poverty like severe deprivation in health, lack of access to improved water
source and adult illiteracy among others.
iv Ibid. This translates to a value of 47.7%.

v Ibid
vi Note 1 above, pg. 25.
vii Ibid.
viii
Mahmood Hasan Khan, Rural poverty in developing countries: implications for public policy, Economic Issues No. 26,
March 2001.
ix Ibid.
x See the work of the United Nations Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, note 1 above.

xi Irene Khan, The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights, Amnesty International 2009, pg. 8.

xii
United Nations General Assembly, Legal empowerment of the poor and eradication of poverty, Report of the Secretary-
General, 13 July 2009, pg. 3.
xiii Ibid.
xiv Ibid.
Stephen Golub, Beyond Rule of Law Orthodoxy: the Legal Empowerment Alternative, Rule of Law Series, Democracy and
xv

Rule of Law Project, Carnegie Endowment Working Paper No. 41, October 2003.

xvi Note 1 above, pg. 39.

A paralegal is a person who by virtue of some training or experience has basic knowledge of the law and its
xvii

procedures, knows about conflict resolution processes, is motivated to help people and communities solve their
legal, human rights, administrative and developmental problems, while empowering them to tackle such problems
on their own in the future. See http://www.paralegaladvice.org.za/docs/chap15/02.html.

xviii
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank, Legal Services for the poor: best practices
handbook, 2003.
xix See 12 above.
xx See 12 above.

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xxi
Index of good practices in reducing pre-trial detention [PRI] Paralegal Advisory Service Brochure and Training
Manual.
Adam Stapleton, Energising the criminal justice system, Malawi’s Paralegal Advisory Service Penal Reform International
xxii

available at http://www.id21.org/insights/insights43/insights-iss43-art06.html.

xxiii The draft law is on file with Open Society Justice Initiative.
xxiv See http://www.paralegaladvice.org.za/.
xxv These are the Task Team Legal Practice Bill (2002) and the Law Society of South Africa Bill (2002).

xxvi See http://www.lrf-kenya.org/.

xxvii See http://www.lrf-kenya.org/section.asp?ID=50.

xxviii Law on State Guaranteed Legal Aid, adopted 26 July 2007, it entered into force in 2008.

xxix
Nadejda Hriptievschi National Report: Moldova, International Legal Aid Group Conference, 1-3 April 2009, New
Zealand, pg. 11.

xxx Ibid.

xxxi See 2 above, pg.18.

xxxii See Eric Leikin Comparative Memorandum on Community Legal Centres 2009, on file with author.

xxxiii See 9 above, pg. 8.