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About Us
LAW takes a survivor centred, gender sensitive approach to creative legal strategies in order to improve access to justice and provide legal redress to the most vulnerable in conflict-affected and fragile regions.
At LAW we work towards equality of all before the law and to deliver access to justice to those who need it most – victims and survivors of human rights violations and abuses in conflict-affected and fragile environments. While these people have the greatest need for protection and assistance, they usually have the least access to legal resources. Often such persons may not know that legal assistance exists, and they rarely know what their options are for redress. The result of this has been widespread impunity for serious human rights violations.
One presumption frequently held is that legal action can only be undertaken where there is a functioning judicial system and that its impact is not felt until a legal case is concluded. LAW believes that these presumptions are unfounded. Creative lawyering, combining national and international expertise with a deep understanding of survivor and victim needs and wishes, presents a unique opportunity to provide recognition of the violation suffered to the victim, to bring attention to the situation and to break the cycle of impunity and recurrence.
Our Background
LAW was founded in July 2013 following three expert roundtables with UN agencies, leading human rights and legal I/NGOs, law firms and academics and consultations with over 100 relevant experts globally. This was supported by an in-depth mapping and scoping exercise to review what legal work was being undertaken by organisations on the ground in fragile and conflict affected areas. More than one year of research identified that there was a need for a non-profit organisation which focused on creative avenues for legal redress in fragile and conflict affected areas. It was envisaged that such an organisation would work on the ground, placing survivors and national lawyers in the driving seat and at the same time, linking them to highly innovative lawyers in non-conflict areas.
Antonia Mulvey is the founder of Legal Action Worldwide.
