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	Partners in Justice by Susan Farnsworth Global Rights   The civil war in Burundi was still raging when Louis-Marie Nindorera began his tenure at Global Rights ten years ago. Despite the challenges, his vision of a strong and stable civil society in Burundi – where human rights thrive – has propelled Louis Marie to craft pioneering projects with local partners.   In the first program of its kind in Burundi, Louis-Marie is coordinating an effort to bring high-impact strategic litigation to the courts for victims of illegal expropriation of land, gender bias in property rights, and gender-based violence. To be most effective and build human rights capacity, he and his team have partnered with the local organizations, the Women’s Rights Defense Association and the Association of Women Jurists of Burundi to bring four cases to the courts.   One of their cases involves the rape of a three-year old girl in which sexual abuse charges were dropped by the prosecutor because negative forensic evidence – requested by the defendant – obtained two weeks after the rape was given greater weight over positive forensic evidence obtained right after the rape. Local prosecutors routinely fail to pursue sexual abuse charges due to this “technicality.” A change in the practice and policy of Burundi’s prosecutors in weighing evidence of gender-based violence should lead to increased prosecution of these crimes in the future, thereby making a positive impact on impunity.   Most recently, Louis-Marie has led the effort with 12 civil society organizations to advocate for land rights reform, a contentious and strife-ridden issue in Burundi. Just recently, the National Assembly adopted a new land code that would, among other reforms, end arbitrary eviction from land and unfair compensation for seized land. Once the Senate adopts it in June and the Parliament enacts it soon after, Louis-Marie’s next challenge will be to work with local civil society organizations to ensure that the code is enforced.   For more than eleven years Stephanie Bordat and her colleagues, Saida Kouzzi and Houda Benmbarek, have traveled through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia conducting hundreds of trainings, workshops, and conferences to build the capacity of grassroots organizations. Whether it is training local women’s groups on the skills needed to educate illiterate women on their human and legal rights, or introducing innovative marriage contracts to women in remote regions of Algeria and Morocco, Stephanie and her team bring women’s rights to the forefront in some of the most underserved areas of the Maghreb.   For example, in October 2009 the Maghreb team and their local partners organized an unprecedented three-week caravan throughout Morocco to mobilize support for a NGO drafted violence against women legislation. The caravan stopped in 33 cities, towns, and villages. Unlike anything that has been done before, this caravan encouraged women to speak out about domestic violence.   At each and every event, participants told Global Rights at least one story of a woman who had committed suicide to escape from violence.   “For these women and to prevent human rights violations like this in the future, Global Rights will continue to work to end violence against women no matter how far we have to travel, said Stephanie. “We must create societies where the law protects everyone equally, where we have accountability for crimes instead of impunity, where women’s rights are a priority instead of pet rocks.”   Donald Rukare, Global Rights’ Uganda Country Director, knows that the greatest need for legal aid in his country is in the most remote district in Uganda. This is why he does not hesitate to take the twelve hour journey on treacherous roads from Kampala to support Global Rights’ partners in the southwestern district of Bundibugyo.   Donald is well known in Uganda as true human rights activist. For the past fifteen years, he has been a leader in both the human rights and legal fields. He knows first handedly the difficulty of servicing Uganda’s most rural, underprivileged regions.   “There are very few or no lawyers in remote, rural areas in Uganda,” says Donald. “Long distance travel and language barriers make it extremely difficult for lawyers to assist people living outside of large towns and cities. Therefore, it is crucial to train local members of the community on human rights and how to offer basic legal advice and assistance.”   Donald took on the challenge of establishing a legal clinic in Bundibugyo, one of the most isolated regions in Uganda. He works to strengthen the capacity of local civil society organizations and provided the tools needed to help ensure access to justice.   “We bring the justice system to the toughest, most remote areas of Uganda, we do it because everybody in this country, regardless of where they live, deserves to know their human rights and have access to the justice system if and when these rights are denied.”   Mohammad Ishaq Faizi, is the Manager of Programs at Global Rights’ Afghanistan office. After joining Global Rights in 2007, Faizi has helped expand programs to help strengthen the practical skills of new legal and human rights defenders in Afghanistan.   Promoting rule of law, especially women’s rights, has always been a passion for Faizi. Prior to joining Global Rights, he was a practicing defense attorney and legal consultant. Faizi knows first-hand the value of Global Rights’ hands-on training it provides to young law students. While he was a law student at Kabul University, he participated in the Young Lawyers-in-Training Program. “I graduated more practically equipped and better trained as a human rights lawyer. I am happy to help make that training possible for the next generation of lawyers.”   Faizi will work on expanding the Legal Advice Bureaus (LAB), to provide assistance to clients trying to access the formal judicial system.   “In Afghanistan, there is an enormous need for accurate information about legal rights in family law matters, especially for women,” Faizi said. “Without the Legal Advice Bureau, our clients – mostly women – would have virtually no access to information about their rights and how to assert them.”   The Bureau is currently up and running in the Family Court in Kabul. Since its doors opened on October 29, 2009, it has served 1790 clients. Faizi will help to expand the LAB to Mazar, Herat and Nangahar provinces.   In January 2011, Faizi also helped the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association establish their first Family Law Committee. The committee is dedicated to building the skills and capacities of Afghan lawyers to better serve clients in family law matters. “These two institutions go hand in hand. With both the Legal Advice Bureau and the Family Law Committee, clients learn their basic rights and lawyers are properly equipped to defend these rights.”   Carlos Quesada, the Director of the Latin America Programs was very satisfied when the U.N. announced that it was going to declare 2011 as the International Year of People of African Descent. Carlos has been working to combat racial and ethnic discrimination against Latinos of African descent for the last 7 years.   “Having the U.N. declare 2011 the International Year of People of African Descent makes our work with our partners even more urgent because it helps shine a spotlight on the problem of discrimination based on race in Latin America,” said Carlos. “It is an opportunity for us to get governments in the region to recognize once and for all that racial discrimination exists and to act in concrete ways to end it.”   Over the years, Carlos has worked with local partners in countries like Brazil, Peru and Colombia, to help build their capacity to advocate for human rights and to end discrimination based on race. Carlos is working with Global Rights’ partners in Peru to produce a report on the human rights difficulties that Afro-Peruvians face in their communities.   In Brazil, he is working with the Network of Afro-Brazilian Women to produce a report on discrimination against women in the labor market. Carlos is also working with Afro-Colombian communities to raise awareness about the racism and racial discrimination that internally displaced Afro-Colombians face due to internal conflict in the country, and will help partners to pressure the Colombian government to implement a landmark decision by the Constitutional Court (Order 005/2009) on ways to solve discrimination problems faced by Afro-Colombians. Visit the related web page
	Anti-trafficking activists call for Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa by Amanda Kloer CNN Freedom Project   In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where civil war and frequent violence have raged for fourteen years, there have been reports of forgotten children known to some as “falling whistles.” These children have been kidnapped from their homes, schools and friends by rebel groups and turned into child soldiers, bush wives, porters, and human shields – the youngest and smallest of them often too small to hold a man-sized gun.   So instead, the tiniest have been sent into battle armed only with whistles. Their job? To make enough noise to scare the heavily-armed rival troops away. And then, with their small bodies, absorb the first round of bullets.   The story of these young soldiers is only one of the many untold tragedies of the ongoing conflict in Congo. According to the Enough! Project, 45,000 people in Congo die each and every month, mostly from hunger and disease resulting from the ongoing conflict. Over 1 million people have been displaced. But some of the most egregious collateral damage from the conflict has been suffered by women and children.   A 2007 UNICEF report on child trafficking found approximately 200,000 victims in Central and West Africa, and the UN estimates there are approximately 3,500 child soldiers in the Congo today. Children are trafficked from Benin, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Togo, and Cameroon. Many are lured with the promise of jobs or apprenticeships, but are then forced to work on farms or in private homes, conscripted into the militia, or exploited in prostitution.   The gravity of child trafficking in Congo is only eclipsed by the challenges of how to help Congo"s children, when they face death on the battlefield and violence at home. The many organizations working to advocate for peace in Congo often disagree how best to meet those challenges. But one strategy most Congo advocates agree on is this: the key to ending child trafficking in Congo is bringing peace and stability to the country.   Luckily, just six short months from now, there will be an unprecedented opportunity to do just that.   This November, Congo will hold historic elections – only the second since the official end of Africa’s Second World War. These elections could be the first time the country experiences a peaceful transfer of power through the democratic process. If the November elections are free, fair, and represent the choices of the Congolese people, they could establish a powerful pattern of peace and stability in the country. If they aren"t, the likelihood of violence is high.   That"s why a coalition of the leading Congo advocacy organizations, including Falling Whistles, a nonprofit taking its name from the tragedy of young child soldiers, is calling for the U.S. to help ensure the upcoming elections in Congo are free and fair. The coalition says the fastest and cheapest way to do that – and avert a human rights disaster of Holocaust proportions – is to appoint a Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa.   A Special Envoy would be able to raise critical funds from international donors to facilitate fair elections, pressure the Congolese government to enact electoral reforms, and coordinate U.S. and international policy. This Envoy would also help ensure that legislation recently passed to prevent child trafficking, like the Dodd-Frank Act banning the import of conflict minerals and the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament bill, is implemented. And an envoy would be a prominent symbol and tool for peace this coming November.   This call for a Special Envoy is nothing new. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded this appointment six years ago in a bi-partisan bill they co-sponsored as senators. But now that they have the power to implement their own recommendation, they have yet to do so.   So tens of thousands of peace activists have signed an online petition in support of a Special Envoy on Change.org, the world"s fastest-growing social action platform. They are joined by 35 Members of Congress and 6 Senators, who are also demanding swift action.   But time is running out. Unless an envoy is appointed within the next couple of weeks, there won"t be enough time to actually affect the upcoming elections.   (This year CNN will join the fight to end modern-day slavery and shine a spotlight on the horrors of modern-day slavery, amplify the voices of the victims, highlight success stories and help unravel the complicated tangle of criminal enterprises trading in human life). Visit the related web page
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