Providing Access to Justice
The poor and socially vulnerable can only protect their rights if they can access the judicial mechanisms that serve them. That’s why PILnet works to make systems of justice more effective and accessible by reforming legal aid, by developing pro bono (or volunteer) legal practice around the world and by promoting other innovative approaches to meeting the legal needs of the public.
PILnet works in collaboration with partner organizations to engage ministries of justice in legal aid reform efforts, to provide comparative expertise, and to support the development of legal aid interest groups and coalitions among NGOs, human rights lawyers, judges, and bar association leaders.
PILnet runs four pro bono clearinghouses and assists other clearinghouses in Europe and globally. PILnet assists NGOs to develop legal aid programs and works with universities to establish and strengthen legal aid-providing clinical programs based at law schools.
News
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May 17, 2012
Facing South
Following mounting successes in Budapest, Paris, and Berlin, PILnet’s European Pro Bono Forum is moving south this year to Madrid, Spain, a city and country where pro bono as a concept is still young. But legal social responsibility has been present for centuries and so pro bono has quickly gained support at the highest levels of the legal community. Read more »
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May 4, 2012
Untangling Islamic Law and Women’s Rights
Rawan Mohammed and Siti AminahWhat is the relationship between Islamic law and the rights of women? Does Sharia justify violence against women… or guarantee their protection? Speaking before a capacity audience at PILnet’s New York office on March 22, four PILnet Fellows—all Muslim women with a deep knowledge of Islamic law—addressed these questions and others as they described the legal status and the daily reality of women in their home countries of Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, and Palestine. Read more »
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April 23, 2012
In China, Charting a Course for Public Interest Lawyers
Public interest law is alive and well in China, evidenced by the success of the recent Chinese Style Pro Bono Legal Service Conference, held on Hainan Island 12–13 April 2012. Read more »
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March 9, 2012
PILnet Forum Aims to Advance Public Interest Law in the Middle East and North Africa
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9 March 2012—Building on the events of last spring and the transformations now taking place in many parts of the Middle East and North Africa, PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Law will convene major figures from the region’s human rights and public interest legal communities to address the potential of public interest law to effect social change. Read more »
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February 22, 2012
Al Jazeera Covers PILnet Fellow Huang Xuetao’s Work on Mental Illness in China
In a video report on the inadequacies of mental health care in China, where 173 million are estimated to suffer from mental illness and few receive care, Al Jazeera interviewed 2009 PILnet International Fellow Huang Xuetao for her take on the nation’s treatment of the mentally ill. The president and founder of the Equity and Justice Initiative in Shenzhen, she focuses her work on the rights of persons with mental disabilities and on efforts to combat the practice of forced institutionalization. Read more »
