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Avocats Sans Frontières

Avocats Sans Frontières
LogoASF FR vect.jpg
Founded 1992
Focus Human rights
Location
Area served
Development aid
Method Field interventions, providing access to justice, legal aid and legal assistance
Key people
Francesca Boniotti, Executive Director
Hafida Talhaoui, President of the Board of Directors
Employees
more than 130 full time staff world-wide
Slogan Justice for a fairer world.
Website www.asf.be

Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF), also known as Advocaten Zonder Grenzen, is an international NGO, active in the human rights and development sector. Created in 1992 by a group of Belgian lawyers, ASF’s main objective is the realisation of institutions and mechanisms that facilitate access to independent and fair justice systems that ensure legal security and guarantee fundamental human rights for everyone.

The ambition of the first Lawyers Without Frontiers in 1992 was to lend assistance and/or to defend persons whose rights were not respected in their country, because the cases were ‘sensitive’. Between 1992 and 1996 countless missions for immediate assistance were realised. As part of the project ‘Solidarity and Defence’ (later renamed ‘Lawyer for Lawyer’), lawyers were sent abroad for several weeks to give assistance and/or intervene in sensitive cases.

In 1994 the genocide in Rwanda caused commotion within the international community. Even though ASF was not yet equipped for long-term interventions, it decided to take action anyway. Between 1995 and 1998 different trainings were realised in Arusha, Tanzania, to educate lawyers on the proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Furthermore, there was the problem of a gross lack of lawyers in the country. During the genocide many people died, while others fled. The remaining lawyers could not or did not want to be involved in trials to convict the perpetrators. To answer this problem ASF started the program ‘Rights for Everyone in Rwanda’. To realise this program, ASF opened its first permanent mission abroad in Rwanda.

The necessity to execute a long-term detailed project facilitates ASF’s growth into an international organisation. Besides the initial mission for direct assistance and defence of people, ASF sets itself another goal: to contribute, as an independent actor, to a more just and equitable society, in which the law serves the most vulnerable people.

In this respect, ASF opens new missions in Burundi (1999), Kosovo (2000), the Democratic Republic of Congo (2000), Timor-Leste (2000), Uganda (2007), en Nepal (2010).

Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF), also known as Advocaten Zonder Grenzen (AdZG) is an international non-governmental organization contributing to the creation of fair and equitable societies, in which the law and its institutions serve the most vulnerable groups and individuals. ASF aims to realise this objective through field interventions in the areas of access to justice, legal aid and legal assistance before both national and international jurisdictions, such as the International Criminal Court.


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