LEGAL AID PROJECT

LEGAL AID CLINICS

The LRC has its roots in providing free legal council to members of marginalized communities.  The LRC currently maintains a team of ten lawyers who take on cases from the legal aid clinic. These lawyers assist their clients by litigating cases, or by simply providing legal advice. Cases have gone as high as the Ghanaian Supreme Court.  Most notably, LRC lawyers won the landmark Awuni v. Waec case that strengthened the right to education.

The program’s broader goal is both to demystify law for Ghana’s poor communities and promote human rights.  The cases taken on by the LRC also inform the organization’s work in Parliamentary Advocacy.  Through our interactions with our clients, the LRC is provided a unique window into the ways in which law impacts the lives of the poor and the potential that specific reforms have to improve the conditions of marginalized groups.  An example of this was problems with Muslim marriage laws.  Through the numerous cases that came to the LRC from the poor Muslim communities concerning both family and property law, the LRC decided to promote a Muslim marriages bill that would lift certain limitations on the Muslim community.

 The LRC is currently working with the United Nations to confront child labour in Ghana.  Here again, the LRC will contribute legal council to individual clients, and then use the knowledge gained from these experiences to help shape future legislation regarding this difficult issue. 

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