National Legal Aid Clinic for Women

NATIONAL LEGAL AID CLINIC FOR WOMEN

WOMEN’S RIGHTS COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT

SUBMITTED TO THE LAZ-ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

April 2014

A summary report on the operations of the National Legal Aid Clinic for the period January 2013 to December 2013

©2013

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The National Legal Aid Clinic for Women (NLACW) was created in 1990 to provide affordable legal aid to women and children. In 2015, the Clinic will have been in existence for twenty-five years. Thousands of women and children have accessed justice through legal representation, legal advice, psychosocial counselling and legal and human rights education. This executive summary provides a report on the implementation of activities by the NLACW for the year ending 2013.

Implementation of activities by the NLACW have always been guided by strategic plans. The first strategic plan ran for the period 2003-2005. The second plan was developed for the period 2007-2011 but was extended to 2012 to facilitate the smooth completion of activities due to the brief closure of the Clinic in 2010. The second strategy was premised on four strategic objectives namely:

i.  To expand the Clinic’s programmes in order to have increased representation of women and children, and reach some of the needy areas not yet covered;

ii.  To increase the capacity for the Clinic to deliver on the project objectives and build sustainable capacity;

iii.  To increase access to legal representation to marginalized women and children; and

iv.  To enhance the capacity of women and children to fight for their rights and prevent violations from being committed against them.

In 2013 the NLACW launched its third strategic plan for the period 2013-2017. The third strategy builds upon the first and second strategic plans. Key differences include the arrangement of activities into thematic areas. The Clinic is evolving into a multi-faceted program with litigation forming the core as well as the cross cutting theme. In the new strategy, the Clinic has adopted five thematic areas for which legal aid to women and children will be provided. These are:

1.  Access to Justice

2.  Gender Based Violence

3.  HIV/AIDS

4.  Legal Literacy

5.  Advocacy

The NLACW developed the following strategic goals;

Strategic Goals

·  Increased access to justice for the under privileged women and children

·  Increased access to justice for survivors of Gender Based Violence.

·  Increased access to justice among People Living with HIV/AIDS.

·  Increased legal education on women and children’s rights

·  Improved policy and legal environment for women and children’s rights

The program themes were developed to make the Clinic responsive to its environment where Gender-Based Violence and HIV/AIDS are still a major hindrance to women and children realizing their full potential as human beings. The Clinic also aligned its strategic plan to the Zambian Government’s National Development Plan aimed at promoting gender equality and equity by ensuring that it provides supplementary services; access to justice - the need to provide affordable legal services; GBV & HIV/AIDS - respond to the need to halt the abuse and/or deprivation to enjoy human rights fully; legal literacy – increase target group awareness of the law and human rights so that they claim and enforce their rights; and finally, advocacy – advocate for law reform, repealing and/or amending discriminatory laws and if necessary creating new ones.

The Clinic estimates that at the end of the five years, at least one million women and children will have received direct legal services at the Clinic’s three offices in Lusaka, Ndola and Livingstone. Another five million will be reached indirectly through the Clinic outreach campaigns and production of legal educational and communication material.

The implementation of the Clinic 2013-2017 strategic plan started on 1st July, 2013 with core support from the Embassy of Sweden. The total budget for the strategic plan is in the sum of K47,565,411.00 (US $9,147,194) out of which, the Embassy of Sweden has pledged to contribute K19,921,201.00 (US$3,824,235.31) representing 42% of the total budget. The Embassy of Norway has also expressed interest to support the Clinic’s strategic plan for the remaining 4 years since the first year has already lapsed. The Embassy of Norway is yet to confirm the level of support it will provide towards the budget deficit. With the signing of financial agreements at the end of June 2013, the implementation cycle of the Clinic thus changed from January to December of each year to July to June of the following year. Therefore, year one of the new strategy runs from July 2013 to June 2014.

The NLACW will continue to develop proposals which other donors can contribute to. Other sources of funding for the strategic plan will include the LAZ contribution as well as contributions from clients.

2.0 FUNDING

In the reporting period, the Clinic received total funding in the sum of K10,168,721.00 of which K9,450, 060.00 came from the Embassy of Sweden. Other sources of funding to the NLACW in the period under review included Freedom House, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), the Catholic Diocese of Ndola, LAZ contributions and client’s own visitation. The table below shows all funds to the Clinic received between January and December, 2013. In the period under review, LAZ increased their contribution to the Clinic from K100,000.00 in 2012 to K150,000.00 in 2013.

3.0 ADMINISTRATION

The new strategic plan is focused on making the Clinic’s impact felt at both community and national levels. This meant that the clinic had to build institutional capacity in order to achieve the desired results. The current staffs include 31 contract employees and 6 volunteer students and part time-counsellors.

4.0 GOVERNANCE

The Women’s Rights Committee continued to provide oversight on the strategic functioning of the Clinic and towards this end held three (3) meetings, 2 of which were full meetings with one being the Audit and Finance Committee.

The composition of the WRC was also revised in line with the provisions of the governance charter to include members with specialist business experience relevant to the NLACW.

5.0 SUSTAINABILITY

The issue of how the clinic can maintain its operations, services and benefits during its lifetime has always been a problem, this is what led to the brief closure of the clinic in 2010. Since its re-opening in 2011 management’s focus has therefore, not only been to devise ways of making the clinic financially sustainable through developing proposals that attract donor funding but also establishing ways of making the clinic’s programmes sustainable. Thus, the establishment of community paralegal desks in most parts of Zambia especially the far flung areas, is one way of making the Clinic sustainable. Other targeted activities meant to improve the clinic’s sustainability will be the development of the legal aid policy which the Government of the Republic of Zambia through the Legal Aid Board has already embarked upon and which process the NLACW has greatly contributed to.

The NLACW is in the process of developing a sustainability plan, which plan the Embassy of Sweden has since made a precondition for continued funding to the Clinic. The process for development of the sustainability plan will be consultative with LAZ and the WRC.

6.0 PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

6.1 Legal Representation/Legal Advice

The total number of cases recorded at the Clinic’s three offices in 2013 was one thousand three hundred and seventy-one (1,371) compared to the one thousand six hundred and seventy-eight recorded in 2012. This represents a 19% decline overall from 2012 to 2013. The reason for the decline was associated with the delay in the implementation of activities due to delayed receipt of funding from the clinic’s cooperating partners. The types of cases reported to the Clinic include economic abuse (willful neglect to maintain and property grabbing); divorce (the highest cases recorded); Inheritance, land disputes, property settlement and child custody to mention but a few. From the cases filed in court, the clinic received a combined total of ninety-six judgments with a win rate of 85%.

6.2 Psychosocial Counselling

Psychosocial and marital counselling services are key in assisting clients to deal with their often stressful cases. In the period under review, the psychosocial counsellors attended to a total of two hundred and four (204) cases. Cases handled related to wife battery, marital disputes, willful neglect to maintain, property settlement and child custody, to mention but a few.

6.3 Outreach Programmes

One of the objectives of the Clinic is to take legal services to some of the most remote parts of the country where formal legal structures and legal services are almost non-existent. It is also true that some of the poorest communities are furthest from the line of rail. Between January and December, 2013, the Clinic conducted workshops in these rural parts and established 19 paralegal desks in some of the areas empowering local community members to continue providing basic legal advice while ensuring permanent Clinic presence at community level. The establishment of the desks has also strengthened the referral system between the desks and other service providers. Community members have easy access to the community paralegal desks where they can access legal services. When services required are beyond the paralegal officer, he/she refers the cases to relevant service providers such as the police, the courts or social welfare. The linkages created and the strengthened referral system has contributed to the effective management of various cases at community level.

6.3.1 Community and School Workshops, Mobile Clinics

In the period under review, the NLACW conducted a total of nine (9) community workshops, nine (9) mobile clinics and nine (9) school workshops. The workshops and mobile clinics were conducted simultaneously in the following areas and by respective offices: Lusaka Office – Chawama, Kabangwe, Kasama, Mbala, Mpulungu, Mporokoso, Kaputa, and Mansa’s Mantumbusa; Livingstone – Maramba, Choma, Mazabuka, Sesheke, Lukulu; and Ndola in Kaloko Solwezi, Mufumbwe, Zambezi and Chavuma. A total number of 1,350 people were reached through community and school workshops whereas a total of 90 files were opened from mobile legal clinics.

Community workshops are used as important platforms for legal and human rights information dissemination. The mobile clinics on the other hand provide opportunities for community members to present cases and cases requiring legal representation are taken up and handled through the three offices. Through these initiatives, the Clinic is building a critical mass of community members who are aware of their legal rights so that they can seek appropriate services when their rights are violated.

6.3.2 Legal and Human Rights Publications

In the period under review, the Clinic printed a total of 2,000 posters and 1,500 booklets both in English and vernacular. The posters covered four topics: prevention of early marriage; GBV; rape and defilement. The same materials are also distributed at mobile clinics and important international events such as the International Agricultural Show and Trade Fare Shows. The various publications are used to provide important information on legal and human rights for women and children.

7.0 NETWORKING

In the period under review, the Clinic attended a number of networking meetings. The meetings are important for raising the profile of the Clinic with respect to services the Clinic can offer to the partnership. The networking meetings also help clarify roles among implementing partners, strengthening synergies and avoiding duplication and competition. The networking meetings are listed below:

·  Review of the intestate Succession Act

·  Development of a Legal Aid Policy

·  Consultative Workshop regarding the deceased brothers widows marriage

·  Consultative workshop state party reports on(ICCPR)and(ICESCR)

·  Workshop on Parks Maintenance

·  Development of community Based Paralegal Curriculum

·  Task force Meeting-JWOP

·  Civic Education sensitization workshop

·  Curriculum Development framework for community Based paralegals

·  Development of rules of Court under the Anti-Gender Based Violence Act No 1 of 2011

·  Training of Trainer Workshop on advocacy(Habitat for Humanity)

·  Consultative workshop on the simplification and dissemination of the persons with disabilities Act No.6 of 2012

·  Human Rights Monitoring

·  Referral Mechanism for abused woman and Children for survivors of GBV

8.0 CHALLENGES

The major challenge in the reporting period was finding cooperating partners to meet the deficit in the 5year strategic plan.

Other challenges noted related to the lack of office space to accommodate the expanded workforce in line with the strategic plan.

9.0 CONCLUSION

The Clinic has been widely recognized by both state and non-state actors, to be a key stakeholder in the provision of access to justice in Zambia. Although the Clinic has so far only secured support from the Embassy of Sweden in terms of core-support, the Clinic is hopeful that other cooperating partners will come on board to fund the remaining deficit in the strategic plan 2013-2017.

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