Legal Aid Society - LAS

The Legal Aid Society is a not-for-profit organization that has a mission to connect vulnerable and disempowered end users of justice with effective and expedient services for the delivery of justice;

Human Security:

Protecting, Promoting, and Ensuring knowledge of and access to fundamental freedoms/rights.

Access to Justice:

Connecting end-users of the justice system to providers to ensure the expeditious provision of support for legal needs.

Gender & Child Security:

Enabling vulnerable strata of the population to access protections and rights through legal empowerment.

Climate Resilience, Sustainability & Security:

Responding to societal needs aggravated through climate emergencies and establishing foundational knowledge at grass-root levels for mitigation and communal awareness.

OUR AIMS

LEGAL EMPOWERMENT

Goal: To educate, empower, and build the agency of all communities so they’re able to access justice.

Approach: With the belief that unless marginalized, disempowered, and discriminated sections of the society exert their legal rights and enjoy complete protection of the law, the law has no moral and legal standing, communities all across the country are being educated and empowered to know and use the law through a toll-free legal advice helpline & legal clinics.

LEGAL AWARENESS CLINICS

Community legal awareness sessions are conducted across targeted districts where in the first instance, community members in small groups with an emphasis on male and female participation are educated on their legal rights through IEC material in their native languages and then given legal advice through field advocates who accompany the field trainers on these clinics. Legal Awareness clinics are utilized as a sub-component of nearly all thematic streams at LAS such as legal rights for religious minorities, legal property rights for women, and alternative modes for dispute resolution.

LEGAL RIGHTS FOR RELIGIOUS MINORITIES

Goal: Ensuring that Freedom of Religious Belief (FORB) abuses are prevented for minorities in Pakistan, and to promote FORB in Pakistan by strengthening access to justice and rule of law for minorities.

Program Approach: With evidence-based research as one of the core principles, the programmatic approach is to build a holistic understanding of barriers against Access to Justice for RM communities in Sindh, Pakistan. Based on the gaps identified within the justice system, RM communities are legally empowered through education and the provision of legal aid and support.

Legal Aid & Awareness:

Access to justice for religious minority groups is improved through legal aid and awareness clinics which adopt a community-centric approach. Community legal awareness and aid sessions are conducted across targeted districts where in the first instance, community members are educated on their legal rights through IEC material in their native languages by field officers and then given legal aid and advice through field advocates who take cases on their behalf or guide them through the process of a legal case.

SEXUAL & GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Goal: Strengthening the criminal justice system’s response to the investigation and prosecution of SGBV cases by facilitating victims and survivors through victim-centric in-court installations, and working directly with CJS actors to build their capacities.

Using a multi-pronged approach, LAS works with key stakeholders to implement changes within the CJS to encourage effective reporting and investigation of SGBV cases. The multi-pronged approach is applied through research, advocacy, capacity building (training and sensitization of key criminal justice system actors such as the police, investigators, prosecutors, and judges), and litigation.

CHILD RIGHTS AND JUVENILE JUSTICE

Goal: Ensure child rights are secured and juvenile justice is propagated through an increase in diversion and focus on rehabilitative programs for juveniles.

With evidence-based research as one of the core principles, the programs under the thematic area focus on working with various actors within the criminal justice system and community actors to create an environment where child rights are secured and child offenders are not punished but instead rehabilitated.

In the case of upholding child marriage laws, key stakeholders such as community leaders and nikkahkhawans and litigators are trained to be able to uphold the child marriage law restrictions.