Building NGO’s in Zimbabwe
Legal Aid and Human Rights Group: Session 4 Paper Presented by Mr David Coltart, Legal Resources Foundation, Zimbabwe
Empowering People, Civil Associations and Democratic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
12 - 16 August 1991, International Conference Centre, Arusha, Tanzania
INTRODUCTION: Brief History of Legal Aid and Human Rights Groups in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe was colonised 100 years ago and for the bulk of this time has had no legal aid or human rights groups to speak of. Indeed the only credible human rights group prior to Independence in l980 was the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace which was set up in l972. It however was (and still is) primarily human rights group and until the establishment of the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) in l984 there was not a single legal aid NGO in the country. Whilst Zimbabwe boasts a well-organised private legal profession and an outstanding judiciary only a minute privileged group of Zimbabwe’s population can afford to engage lawyers of their choice. The rest of the population have either to go without legal assistance or have had to rely on extremely limited State legal aid. It is not the purpose of this paper to study what legal aid is provided in Zimbabwe outside of NGO’s. Suffice it to say that this type of legal aid is, in practice, limited to people facing capital charges and to certain civil cases such as divorce actions. The vast majority of people would go unrepresented were it not for the work of NGO’s such as the LRF.
LEGAL RESOURCES FOUNDATION