CURRENT PROJECTS
Legal Aid
Legal aid forms the core function of the LRF from inception, and the organisation continues to provide the service through different interventions. The Foundation undertakes the following interventions legal assistance, mobile clinics and community outreach, prisons and litigation.
Legal Assistance
The Foundation’s nine legal advice centres situated in all the provinces are an essential component of the legal advice dispensation system of the organisation. LRF paralegals continue to provide legal assistance to hundreds of Zambians on a wide spectrum of legal matters ranging from torture, unlawful detention, land and housing disputes, domestic violence issues, and employment.
Mobile Clinics & Community Outreach
The LRF provides access to justice for the under serviced districts in every province through its paralegals conducting mobile clinics. These clinics serve people in remote areas of the provinces who are unable to come to the major provincial centres for legal aid. Mobile clinics make legal aid services more accessible in a more cost effective manner to the inexhaustible demands of the poor and under privileged.
LRF, besides conducting mobile clinics reaches out to people living in remote parts of the country through the use of national and various community radio stations to continue disseminating information on the law and informing the public on their rights by stating the position of the law and proposing possible remedial measures available.
Prisons
Zambia has 53 prisons spread throughout the country. The LRF conducts regular detention monitoring visits to the prisons around the country to provide legal assistance to remandees and convicts, who include juveniles, refugees, and prohibited immigrants. Refugees and juveniles are treated separately as special cases.
Juveniles
The Foundation assists juveniles detained in prisons as a special case and advocates for alternative options to current judicial sanctions of confinement. The protection of children is of particular importance to the Foundation considering that they are highly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
Detention centres are in appalling conditions which are unhealthy for juveniles; crowded police cells coupled with sharing cells with adult prisoners exposes them to many risks. LRF takes interest in representing juveniles as most of them have no access to legal counsel during court sessions, and a few of them have a parent or guardian present at the proceedings.
Refugees
LRF identifies refugees and asylum seekers in prisons and engages with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees-UNHCR on issues regarding legal assistance to refugees. The Foundation provides legal advice services and representation to refugees before courts in designated refugee camps around the country.
Litigation
The Legal Resources Chambers (LRC) lawyers provide legal representation to the indigent in courts at no cost. The cases that the lawyers handle address human rights violations identified in all strategic interventions taken on by the Foundation; Legal Assistance, Mobile Clinics, Prisons and cross-cutting issues on Gender and HIV/AIDS and Disability Rights. Human Rights Protection remains the key focus area of LRF’s litigation strategy to reassert peoples rights.
LRC undertakes a proactive approach to public interest cases where the outcome will benefit both the litigant and other affected people. The ultimate target for test case litigation is to challenge lacunas in the law to set precedents and contribute to law reforms.
Information & Documentation
Go TopThe Foundation documents and disseminates information on issues related to legal and human rights in general by identifying human rights violations, information gathering, monitoring some basic human rights and freedoms in the context of international laws.
LRF also contributes to a human rights culture that respects the rule of law and human values by educating the public on their rights through publication of a newsletter and legal booklets. The newsletter is distributed freely to the public and a soft copy is uploaded on the LRF website for wider readership. The legal booklets are sold at a minimal fee to the public and are found at all LRF provincial advice centres.
Further, LRF uses community radio stations to disseminate human and legal rights information to the public by airing radio programmes on various selected legal issues that affect the community. This has helped community members to claim and defend their rights in the courts of law or by approaching other appropriate law agencies. .
Capacity Development: Governance & Management
The Governance and Management of the Foundation approach aims to strengthen the organisation in order to effectively carry out its functions. Governance and Management functions include review of corporate governance structures and activities involving the Board, LRF and reviewing management policies.
Through this approach, LRF ensures development and strengthening of its systems, policies and strategies. Building the capacity of staff is vital to meeting the challenges that go with implementing LRF projects.
Research & Advocacy
Go TopThe Foundation will conduct research and carry out series of advocacy actions around cross cutting issues on Gender and HIV/AIDS as special cases to influence public policy and institutions that directly affect people’s rights, targeting political systems or institutions that are not responding to the needs of the people.
HIV/AIDS
The LRF has outlined the right-based approach in combatting issues at the workplace to prevent stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS and to protect the human rights of those infected and affected. Discrimination in the workplace includes HIV testing of job applicants, or persons in employment, breaches of confidentiality regarding HIV related personal information and stigmatisation of workers living or believed to be living with HIV.
Access to medication such as antiretroviral-ARV drugs is one of the fundamental elements for achieving progressively full realisation of the right of everyone to attainable standards of physical and mental health to live positively. .
Gender
LRF identifies crosscutting issues in all legal aid interventions to provide legal assistance to those discriminated against on the basis of gender and advocate for their rights. The struggle for women’s civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights continues. Under international law rights are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent but women remain the most vulnerable to abuse in many spheres, such as being exposed to the risk of contracting HIV and other infectious diseases, polygamy, and some limits imposed on women in matters of inheritance privileges and social disqualification (refusal of the right to education).
Disability Rights
The Foundation provides legal assistance to the minority rights groups and advocates for their rights, in particular persons living with disabilities. The disabled have rights to dignity and equality enshrined in the Bill of Rights. At present the existing laws and poor state administration has perpetuated discrimination and abuse of rights of the disabled.
Staff Capacity Building
Go TopBeyond institution and staff recruitment and retention, LRF also emphasizes adequate and continuous skills based training for its personnel so that they are qualified to enforce and deal with various legal and human rights issues. Project management skills are cardinal to staff in advocacy skills and identification of advocacy issues from the cases they handle.
Networking
The Foundation associates with a number of organisations and existing human rights networks both locally and internationally. Networking activities are encouraged primarily to establish synergies aimed at collaborative advocacy, raising awareness and exchange of information across the globe.
Through its networks LRF participates in project activities which embrace its work in the promotion and protection of human rights through regional projects such as Women’s Rights under Customary Law, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, and HIV/AIDS under the auspices of the Southern African Legal Assistance Network-SALAN whose secretariat is hosted by the Foundation.
The LRF also participates in internships for professionals through Exchange Programmes. The Foundation hosts foreign and local interns who are attached to the organisation for specific periods to have hands on experience in the work of LRF.
LRF is the one of the organisations advocating for the recognition of paralegals on the regional level. As the lead organisation and through a network of organisations sharing a common interest around paralegal work called Paralegal Alliance Network (PAN), a lot of progress has been made towards advocating for paralegal recognition in Zambia.
