Report of The Practitioner’s Forum
9-12 June, 1999, Bangkok – Thailand
The idea for the Legal Aid Practitioner’s Forum originated from the International Human Rights Law Group’s Cambodian Defender’s Project (CDP). Established in 1994, CDP started as a training program for Cambodian activists to become free legal assistance providers to the poor facing criminal prosecutions in Cambodia. The Project has long since expanded to include civil complaints, women’s legal issues, freedom of the press issues, and land disputes.
Rule of law is a politically neutral concept. The question that enveloped that Practitioner’s Forum was this: The rule of what law? Recognizing that law can be a weapon of domination and oppression, or law can be an instrument of social change, participants in the forum talked about “strategic lawyering” – the role that lawyers play in transformative change. Seen in that context, the role of lawyers is to empower the disadvantaged, expand the political space for opposition, remove the obstacles to mobilization of civil society, reform oppressive structures and give a voice to those who have been silenced in communities where oppression reigns.
This booklet was compiled to present a summary of the Legal Aid Practitioner’s Forum in hopes of assisting activists in strategic decisions about the methodology for societal change, as well as to further understandings of the roles activists play in strategic lawyering.
Published in October 2000 by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and International Human Rights Law Group (IHRLG),
151 pages, Language: English. ISBN – 962-8314-10-6 / 962-8314-10-0
For orders and enquiries: Email ahrc@ahrc.asia or call +(852) 2698 6339 +(852) 2698 6339.
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