Southern Africa Litigation Centre’s Story

In a crowded conference room in Johannesburg, parliamentarians from across the region have been invited by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) to develop standards for legal reform related to prisons. What is clear, is that most individuals in the room have very little experience with the challenges facing prisoners in crowded jails, some of whom have been incarcerated for the crime of being poor and resorting to actions such as begging or sex work. Listening to a former prisoner share their story, some in the room begin to realize that with one bad stroke of luck, they too could have found themselves in a similar situation. And suddenly the idea of raising minimum standards in prisons, or decriminalizing poverty, becomes more compelling.  

The Southern Africa Litigation Centre promotes and advances human rights and the rule of law in Southern Africa, primarily through strategic litigation and capacity-strengthening support to lawyers and grassroots organisations. SALC has brought forward more than 100 cases which have helped eliminate discriminatory laws in Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and other countries in the Southern African states. Based in South Africa and active in 12 countries in the region, SALC works ensure that the rule of law and human rights are respected, protected, promoted and fulfilled.

Engagement with marginalized communities is key. Marginalized people often struggle to be heard and assert their rights—and the courts can be an effective way to shift norms as you can’t protect rights systemically without legislative change. However legal changes are not enough if they are disconnected from what is happening on the ground—the messaging and follow-up are important. That’s why SALC mobilizes and unites individuals and groups, building capacity at the grass roots level and recognizing that fostering community-level support.

In addition, SALC creates opportunities for judges and state representatives—even with those who are on opposite sides of an issue—to hear directly from individuals most impacted by legal discrimination and exclusion as part of their deliberations to create standards for the region. This profound commitment stems from SALC’s abiding faith in people, rooted in evidence that hearing from people firsthand is the greatest way to change mindsets.

New Life Trust Organization’s Story

Women sit around the table, focusing intently on the delicate pieces of metal and gemstones in their hands. A few women discuss a concept for a new design, comparing different traditions from their diverse regions of Afghanistan and the merits of different approaches. Ongoing political, economic, social and humanitarian instability in Afghanistan has severely reduced women’s abilities to earn income and find employment. For many of these women, their engagement with the New Life Trust Organization (NLTO) provides them with a much needed sense of meaning and an opportunity to participate in supporting their families, while simultaneously connecting with and building friendships with others from across the country.

NLTO is one of the few organizations of its kind to operate effectively in Afghanistan. With sensitivity to social and political challenges, NLTO helps diverse women from different parts of the countries find meaningful work producing local handcrafted jewelry, improving social and economic prospects for themselves, their children and families while at the same time making friendships across ethnic lines.

Established in 2023, NLTO empowers women through skills development, entrepreneurship and artistic expression. The organization provides vocational training in goldsmithing, gem-cutting and jewelry design and helps women develop business, English language and basic computer skills. Training and mentoring sessions are conducted in workshop spaces, and childcare is provided.

In a country that is home to 14 ethnic groups, tribal divisions are difficult to bridge. NLTO does it by welcoming women into its programs from a range of ethnicities, including Pashtun, Uzbek, Turkmen, Sayed, Hazara and Tajik. The organization also makes room for women with disabilities. The organization has helped forge powerful connections among program participants since 2023, and more than 60 percent of these women are now active in local markets or managing their own business. Through its social enterprise model, NLTO collaborates with international retail partners to organize exhibitions and provide market access.

Produced using traditional techniques and local resources—such as lapis lazuli—the jewelry helps preserve Afghani culture locally and around the world. Thanks to the opportunities that NLTO provides to participate in the economy, women are transformed into entrepreneurs and community leaders, rekindling the hope and independence they yearn for.

Mais Diferenças’ Story

“We’re not strengthening teachers’ inclusion skills only for children living with disabilities,” says Zirlene Ferreira, a pedagogical coordinator with Mais Diferenças (More Differences). “We’re doing it for the benefit of other children as well, because they will become adults who are free from ableist thinking, and ready to welcome everyone as capable human beings.”

Zirlene is speaking about Mais Diferenças’s Play Project. Play is a partnership with the São Paulo Municipal Department of Education to integrate inclusive pedagogical practices into early childhood education. The aim is to eliminate barriers of exclusion at an early age by establishing play as a way for children of all abilities to interact. Since Brazil has implemented laws requiring schools to mainstream students with disabilities, more than 17,000 Sao Paulo educators have been trained on Play’s approach, and nearly 400,000 students have benefited from its inclusive focus.

Mais Diferenças is a civil society organization that promotes the rights of persons with disabilities. By bringing together individuals with diverse disabilities, rather than focusing on a single impairment, Mais Diferenças fosters mutual learning and a sense of solidarity. In education, Mais Diferenças develops accessible materials to help ensure that educational networks and schools seek to equalize learning opportunities for all.

The organization’s cultural work includes the production of books in multiple accessible formats. Book designers use simple language, image descriptions, Brazilian sign language and other tools to democratize access and introduce thousands of new readers to the joys of reading. Mais Diferenças also helped draft laws that pluralize education rights to include students with disabilities.

Through advocacy, Mais Diferenças influences public policies and legislation that promote the rights of people with disabilities so they can participate fully. The organization participates in forums and rights councils, working closely with public administrators and politicians to create a more inclusive society. For example, it contributed to incorporating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into the Brazilian Constitution. Since its launch in 2005, Mais Diferenças has developed more than 200 projects in inclusive education and culture and made accessible more than 4,000 products, publications and materials. Mais Diferenças’ broad collaborations create space in which to unite people of various abilities. Its ongoing success in reducing societal barriers ensures that increasing numbers of people have equitable opportunities to participate fully in social, cultural and economic life and contribute to a more inclusive society.

Colombia Diversa’s Story

Behind closed doors, members of the Afro-Colombian LGBTIQ+ community meet with faith leaders. There is tension here. Colombia is considered to have one of Latin America’s strongest legal frameworks in defending LGBTIQ+ rights. Unfortunately, protections are not often enforced, and the church, a core centre of community for many Colombians, has not always been welcoming.

The meeting is one of a series hosted through Colombia Diversa’s Building Bridges for Peacebuilding initiative. The aim is to create safe spaces where LGBTIQ+ community members and Christian leaders from different denominations can find collective understanding. The initiative has encouraged some pastors to welcome the participation of marginalized congregations for the first time. For some other church leaders, the initiative builds on their opposition to violence against LGBTQ+ communities as a step toward embracing same-sex marriage.

The largest organization of its kind in the country, Colombia Diversa is founded on recognition of our common humanity as the first step toward understanding. The organization believes democracy is strengthened by differences, and pluralism urges people to go beyond mere tolerance to real inclusion. Its research, advocacy and litigation work has defended the rights of LGBTIQ+ people since 2004. And the organization has helped secure landmark judicial victories, such as the historic decision to include LGBTIQ+ victims in the 2016 Colombian peace agreement, which has helped ensure the testimonies of LGBTIQ+ survivors were heard before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace—the transitional justice mechanism through which combatants who participated in the Colombian armed conflict were investigated and tried.

Partnerships are another way Colombia Diversa increases the participation of marginalized groups in the legal system. The organization has found solidarity in coalitions such as the GPAZ Alliance (Gender in Peace Working Group), which advocates to include gender perspective in peace agreements, and the 1325 Resolution Coalition, which promotes the women, peace and security agenda in Colombia.

Regionally, Colombia Diversa led the building of the LGBTI+ Litigants Network of the Americas to connect communities for co-operation in human rights. On the global stage, the organization has appeared before the United Nations Security Council to shed light on the impact of war on LGBTIQ+ people—the first Security Council briefing on LGBTIQ+ issues in a conflict setting.

For Colombia Diversa, it was just one more step toward its ultimate goal of a pluralist Colombia where diversity is valued and protected, and everyone can live freely and authentically without fear of discrimination or persecution.

Artistic Freedom Initiative’s Story

“Lawyers are not always the most empathetic people in the world, but that was very different with AFI”, said Margarita Kuleva a Russian interdisciplinary artist. “I found lawyers who were very interested in my work.” After becoming a vocal critic of the war in Ukraine, Margarita needed to leave Russia. Now, Margarita is a practicing artist in the NYC area and teaches at NYU Arts & Science and Steinhardt.

She is just one of the thousands of artists from more than 60 countries and in more than 40 disciplines who have been supported by Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI). Since its inception in 2017, AFI has provided pro bono support to over 4000 at-risk artists and family members.

AFI‘s mission is to uphold artistic expression as a core pillar of democracy and artistic freedom as a means for artists to continue to shape, celebrate and preserve the cultural narratives of silenced and marginalized groups. Although there are plenty of organizations that support human rights and free expression, AFI provides a holistic mix of direct legal, immigration and resettlement services to artists at risk of persecution or censorship, combined with in-depth reports to strengthen rights protection mechanisms and actionable policy recommendations to support advocacy.

AFI also amplifies the work of artists in exile. Its Artists for Social Change public arts program, for example, helps artists raise their voices against racism, xenophobia and patriarchy. Artists for Social Change, alongside their Legal and Resettlement programs, work in tandem to open doors for artists to collaborate with US and Europe-based artistic partners.

The organization’s Global Policy & Advocacy team builds on evidence gathered during case work. It publishes country-specific human rights reports that examine how legal mechanisms, funding control and ideological appointments are used to deny artists the opportunity to participate as cultural contributors in their home countries. AFI’s advocacy campaigns deliver actionable policy recommendations for national governments and international bodies, such as the United Nations, that have the power to improve conditions for artists in their home countries.

In a time when it is increasingly risky in many parts of the world to publicly express different viewpoints, AFI protects the vital role of art and artists and works to safeguard the universal right to free creative expression.

Daniel’s Story

In March of 2014, Daniel Webb visited Australia’s offshore detention center on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. As he walked through overcrowded rooms full of guards, he had the impression he was in a prison. One room held more than 100 bunk beds crammed so close together it was almost impossible to squeeze between them. Only days before, 24-year-old Reza Barati was murdered by detention centre staff during protests.

The people Daniel met on Manus Island had travelled to Australia by boat seeking asylum. Before they reached land, however, they were intercepted and detained on offshore detention centres established almost a year before by then-Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In July 2013, Rudd announced that no person seeking asylum by boat would be resettled in Australia. Instead, they would be indefinitely detained on Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea, and on Nauru. The conditions in these detention centres are inhumane, with numerous reports of violence, sexual assault, medical neglect, suicide, self-harm, and more.

The people Daniel met on Manus Island were inspiring. He knew they could make great contributions to Australian society, if only given the chance. One man spoke seven languages, two of which he had taught himself in detention. Another, who didn’t speak a word of English when he was detained, has now written an autobiography in English that is over 1,000 pages long. Daniel met musicians, soccer players, women’s rights advocates, and tradespeople, to name a few. But, above all, these were human beings deserving of dignity and respect.

A lawyer by training, Daniel was awarded the Law Institute of Victoria LIV President’s Award in 2010 for his work in human rights and social justice. In 2014, he joined The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC), an organization that advocates for indigenous rights, LGBTI rights, and other causes related to pluralism. When Daniel joined the HRLC, it was not yet tackling the refugee issue, so he lobbied the board to launch a program defending the human rights of refugees and people seeking asylum, a program he now leads.

To tackle the offshore detention issue in Australia, Daniel has developed an innovative approach that combines legal action, media advocacy, public campaigns and United Nations engagement. Daniel’s work has helped to hold the Australian government accountable for breaches in international law. His work has not stopped there. He realized he needed to change the public perception of people seeking asylum. Australians had to understand that the people detained offshore were not threats, but rather human beings with their own stories, talents and families. In 2016, he coordinated the #LetThemStay campaign, which engaged the hearts and minds of Australians, and mobilized teachers, church leaders, doctors and unions. People protested, wrote letters, and participated in online petitions and telephone campaigns. Polls showed a 17 per cent upswing in favour of letting Daniel’s clients stay in Australia.

Daniel and the lawyers he works with have prevented the deportation of more than 300 people, including 40 babies and 50 children, to Nauru and Manus, and prompted the release from detention of more than 230 people, including families with children. But many of these people continue to be at risk of deportation and he continues his struggle to protect them.

Daniel has demonstrated that the people living in offshore detention centres are not threats to society; they are lost opportunities for Australia. As Daniel explains, “By locking them up indefinitely, we are not only depriving them of their most basic of rights, but also depriving ourselves of all they have to offer our communities.”

Leyner’s Story

Chocó is one of Colombia’s disadvantaged departments. Situated in the north-western region of the country, it is inhabited primarily by Afro-Colombians and Emberá Amerindians, some of the most marginalized and excluded communities in the country. The region’s isolation and lack of government support left it open to decades of violence and exploitation by battling guerrilla and paramilitary forces. The communities in Chocó saw more than 15,000 deaths in Colombia’s 52-year internal conflict.

The municipality of Bojayá, in Chocó, suffered constant violence from both sides. In the spring of 2002, Bojayá’s citizens again found themselves caught in the middle of a battle between the paramilitary group United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and the guerilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Community members, the United Nations, and the Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia had warned the government of the dangers a battle would inflict on nearby civilians. On the morning of May 2, as community members were taking cover in a church and the house of the Augustinian missionaries, the AUC occupied an adjoining school, using the residents as a human shield. What followed was the most brutal attack in Colombia’s 52-year conflict. The FARC guerilla forces bombed the church, killing 79 people, including 48 infants and children. One of the people to survive was Leyner Palacios Asprilla. He emerged to find that 32 of his family members had been killed.

Over a decade later, in 2014, Leyner co-founded the Committee for the Rights of Victims of Bojayá, which represents 11,000 victims of the Colombian conflict. For centuries, because of their poverty and isolation, the communities in the municipality of Bojayá had no voice. Each community would act independently, representing only itself before the government, the FARC or international organizations. Because the Afro-Colombian and Emberá communities were culturally and linguistically distinct, they were often wary of one another. However, Leyner understood that many voices raised together would be louder and more powerful than each voice struggling to be heard alone. He united all of the communities under the common goal of stopping the violence and fighting for their human rights. He organized assemblies with representatives from every community in Bojayá, even the most remote, and encouraged each community to include a female representative. Now, these remote communities have created a collective voice that takes their demand for human rights to the highest levels of government, and around the world.

As a result of his fight for social justice, Leyner was asked to represent Bojayá massacre victims during peace negotiations between guerilla forces and the government. For his role in the process, he was nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. A further result was that the FARC publically acknowledged their role in the 2002 tragedy and, in a private ceremony in a Bojayá church, requested forgiveness.

By bringing communities together in the fight for social justice, Leyner realized how powerful a chorus of diverse voices can be. Today, he continues to demand that Colombia embrace diversity by respecting the rights of all its citizens, particularly its most marginalized.

Lenin’s Story

Growing up in Uttar Pradesh, Lenin Raghuvanshi was troubled by the gender inequality he witnessed in Indian society. As he got older, his awareness of discrimination only grew. While working with bonded labourers in India, Lenin recognized that none of the children bonded in the sari or carpet industries came from an upper caste. He identified caste, a deeply hierarchical and oppressive system of social stratification, as the root of multiple social conflicts and a major barrier to his dream of justice for all.

In 1996, with his wife Shruti Nagvanshi, Lenin co-founded the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), an inclusive social movement that challenges patriarchy and the caste system and advocates for marginalized groups in India. Through a grassroots, neo-Dalit approach, the organization works to unite Indians from all backgrounds, including Dalits (“Untouchables”) and Adivasis (Indigenous and Scheduled Tribes) to dismantle the caste system and champion diversity. Today, PVCHR has 72,000 members working against caste discrimination across five states.

Lenin has been credited with changing the discourse on Dalit politics in India. His efforts have brought the challenges facing India’s marginalized communities to both national and international attention. Lenin’s work extends beyond caste-based discrimination to advocating for the rights of children, women, migrant workers, torture survivors, religious minorities and any other community facing systemic discrimination in India. His initiatives range from folk schools that educate youth about human rights to Jan Mitra Gaon (“people-friendly villages”), a model he implements in conservative slums and villages to strengthen local institutions and to promote non-violence alongside basic human rights. In a country as vast and diverse as India, Lenin’s work to promote inclusion and basic rights for all is complex but essential. Across his varied efforts, Lenin is driven by the knowledge that every life has intrinsic value, and no case is too small. Through championing the inclusion of disenfranchised people across India, Lenin is fighting for the country he loves. He is doing all he can to ensure that rather than be torn apart by its remarkable diversity, India will be strengthened by it.

One of the world’s oldest civilizations, India is on its way to becoming the world’s most populous nation. India is incredibly diverse across multiple areas, including religion, language, caste and tribe. Close to 80 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people are Hindus, but there are also millions of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains. India’s caste system is a social hierarchy dating back some 2,000 years. It categorizes Hindus at birth, dictating their place in society. At the bottom of this constructed hierarchy are Dalits and Adivasis, who together make up nearly a quarter of India’s population. These groups are societal outcasts, facing social and economic marginalization and discrimination. Although India’s constitutional framework recognizes group-differentiated rights, the country has experienced a growing climate of intolerance in recent years, fueled by the rise of right-wing nationalism. There is real concern that India’s inclusive citizenship policies and welfare architecture—championed and built over the past 70 years—are being dismantled, threatening the country’s pluralistic fabric.