As authorities initially downplayed the gravity of the Covid-19 health crisis, a sense of astonishment prevailed throughout the world at the unprecedented nature and scale of the measures that were later taken. More than half of the world’s population has found itself locked down, with varying economic, social, physical and mental consequences on individuals depending on personal and political context.

Oeganda, gesterkt door zijn recente ervaring met het aanpakken van het ebolavirus, heeft een masterplan ontwikkeld om de verspreiding van COVID-19 tegen te gaan. Preventieve maatregelen werden vanaf 18 maart genomen, zelfs voordat het eerste geval van besmetting geregistreerd werd in het land. Terwijl het eerste geval geregistreerd werd op 22 maart, was het gezondheidspersoneel al in staat van paraatheid en waren preventieve maatregelen zoals het regelmatig wassen van de handen, al door de autoriteiten gepromoot.

Access to justice is a serious problem in the Central African Republic. That is the key finding in a study Avocats sans Frontières has just published. Analysis of the situation on the ground has revealed difficulties in access to lawyers and to a state justice system of adequate quality. Those are the reasons why citizens avoid the formal state system, and instead, turn to local chiefs, religious leaders, non governmental organisations and others. ASF recommends that development agencies draft and implement robust strategies to achieve sustainable improvements. And for them to be successful, these strategies must include all the actors involved, both formal and informal.

In Chad, ASF supports human rights organisations (HROs) with the aim of increasing the impact and scope of their activities. Last March, we went to meet individuals, local authorities, legal actors, and members of HROs, to get their opinions on the work that HROs do. In the interviews, which were carried out in Bongor, Moundou, and Sarh, everyone who was questioned expressed a high level of satisfaction with the activities of HROs.

ASF and eight of its partners formed the Alliance pour la Sécurité et les Libertés, calling on Tunisian deputies not to adopt the bill for the organisation of a state of emergency in its current form. Far from improving security in the country, it endangers people’s rights and freedoms and curtails constitutional protections.

This autumn, ASF presents a portrait of justice in Chad, through interviews with four people who are active in defending human rights in the country. Guerimbaye Midaye is a lawyer in the bar association of Chad. He has been active for almost 30 years within the Ligue Tchadienne des Droits de l’Homme, of which he is now the president. For him, combining his roles as a lawyer and as a human rights defender makes obvious sense. “There is a very strong link between the two.”

This autumn, ASF presents a portrait of justice in Chad, through interviews with four people who are active in defending human rights in the country. Pyrrhus Banadji Boguel is the President of the Collectif des Associations de Défense des Droits de l’Homme (a group of associations for the defence of human rights). A lawyer who has always been driven by the desire to serve his community, he defends human rights in order to “give a voice to people who have none.”

This autumn, ASF presents a portrait of justice in Chad, through interviews with four people who are active in defending human rights in the country.
This week, Delphine Djiraibe, founder of the Public Interest Law Center, talks to us about the fundamental role of paralegals, the first point of contact for people in Chad when they are looking for justice.

This autumn, ASF presents a portrait of justice in Chad, through interviews with four people who are active in defending human rights in the country. This week, Doumra Manassé shares his vision of the role of lawyers and their place in society in Chad. “People see us as civil servants or as traders. We are neither.”

Over the current election period, there have been many constraints on the rights and freedoms of human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists in the DR Congo; this has been a source of political and social tension. Threats, arbitrary arrests, and unwarranted legal action have increased dramatically, indicating growing restrictions on the public sphere. ASF believes that these actors play an indispensable role in any democratic process.