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In Burundi, rural communities have gained easier access to judicial services, through mobile “legal clinics” that visit them where they live. Community paralegals provide support to victims of legal abuses and help resolve conflicts within the community.

In Burundi, years of civil conflict, insecurity and the displacement of peoples have exacerbated the pressure over land, with significant effects on agriculture and food security. Land is a key resource for rural livelihoods, and the rivalry over ownership and access to it generates harsh disputes within families and communities, often affecting the entire social balance. In 2005, an IFAD-funded pilot programme, the transitional Programme of Post-Conflict Reconstruction (PTRPC), was launched with the objective, inter-alia, of restoring a sense and practice of justice at the local level, by educating communities about the legal rights and responsibilities of citizens. A major innovation under the programme has been the establishment of “legal clinics”. The legal clinics are run by community members who are trained as paralegals. They offer legal advice to those who experience abuse, and for  the resolution of land tenure conflicts arising between relatives and/or community members. The primary target beneficiaries are rural women with scarce and insecure access to land. An important output of this  innovative approach is the resulting availability of legal counsel to poor and vulnerable people otherwise unable to access such services. The clinic is mobile and the paralegal teams move regularly within the hillside communities providing them with legal services.

In addition to the legal clinics’ listening, orientation and mediation sessions, the programme’s legal support engages in a number of activities, including: the training of paralegals chosen by the communities and activities of information, education and communication aimed at raising awareness among the population about their rights and duties as citizens. For example, the legal clinic teams organize competitions on legal themes in public spaces on market days to sensitize the population about their legal environment. The legal support provided by the programme contributes to the strengthening of local institutions. For instance, the Bashingantahe,traditionally elected to administer justice and resolve local disputes within the hill-based communities, have benefited from legal trainings. Two Bashingantahe together with two women leaders, two younger community representatives, and two representatives of the minority Batwa community (where present), form the team of paralegals operating in each community. The main objective of the legal clinics is to solve conflicts amicably. If the case needs to be brought before a court, the programme provides a lawyer and financial support until the case is resolved. The programme has shown very positive results in empowering women, changing attitudes and behaviours within communities, and resolving local conflicts over land. Moreover, clinics have greatly contributed to protecting and defending women who are victims of rape and violence

Results

• Behaviour and attitudes have changed. Rural inhabitants are now more confident in the legal resolution of disputes and more open to talking about violations they have experienced.
• By early 2012 the project had already trained 990 paralegals chosen by communities from among their members.
• Many women in the hill-based communities feel empowered as a result of having learned about their rights, and have organized themselves into groups to support other women against legal abuses.
• The legal support activities have facilitated the development of trust and collaboration between the community and legal institutions.

Main lessons

• Maintaining a position of neutrality and referencing legal texts have been important in strengthening the credibility of the legal clinics. In a context of diminishing authority of the traditional institution of the Bashingantahe, legal clinics are perceived as new structures oriented toward equity and justice.
• It is important to try to solve the conflict out of court. When the parties bring the conflict before a court they develop increasingly hostile relations that often end up involving and opposing families, neighbours and other members of the community. This has a strong impact on their social environment as a whole.
• When the legal clinic redirects one case to a competent institution other than the court, it is very important to follow up on the outcome. Future implementation of the legal clinics experience will need to improve and define the framework of cooperation with other institutions in order to document all the developments arising from the cases treated.

Main challenges addressed

CHALLENGES	SOLUTIONS	BENEFITS
1) Access to justice for rural communities is very difficult because of the physical distance from legal institutions and limited financial means.	The legal clinic structure has been designed to be mobile. The legal and paralegal teams pay visits to hillside communities, ensuring accessibility to everyone, including the most vulnerable.	Rural community members can now benefit from the legal support provided by a structure that is close to hand. They now have easy access to legal aid without the need for lengthy displacements from their villages.
2) According to traditional thinking land assets are a man’s prerogative. It is common even among women to think that they are excluded from any opportunity of inheriting and owning family land. In addition, people are unaware of legal codes and therefore tend to resolve conflicts using violence.	Women’s rights to land are established by law. The 2005 Constitution recognizes the right to property of every Burundian with no distinction of sex. The programme has promoted awareness among communities of their duties and rights, which are provided alongside literacy classes.	Beneficiaries now feel more confident of their rights and they feel more empowered to act against injustices. What is more, they now understand the importance of registering their land at the Land Registry Office, to prevent violation of their ownership rights.
3) Among rural communities the judge is perceived as somebody with the role of punishing and imprisoning. Therefore there is fear and lack of trust towards this institution and the legal environment in general.	The programme has organized meetings between community members and judges to promote better understanding and collaboration. With the support of the programme, judges have also held juridical training classes for communities in a relaxed and participatory environment.	Community members have been given the opportunity to exchange opinions with magistrates outside the court environment. This exchange has helped develop trust and mutual collaboration.
4) Often verdicts issued by a court are not enforced within the community as a result of lack of monitoring.	The programme scheduled two visits per month by the judges to the communities, taking charge of the costs and the logistic arrangements.	Vulnerable people received visits from the judges directly in their homes. Further visits have been arranged according to specific urgencies and needs, and to ensure that rulings made by courts are being enforced.

Background

The consequences of the civil war that took place in Burundi from 1993 to 2005 have been devastating for the agricultural sector and the subsistence of small-scale farmers. In addition, the availability of fertile land for agriculture has diminished as a result of population growth and erosion from over-cultivation. Rural areas are home to 90 per cent of the Burundian population, most of whom rely on agriculture for their livelihood and are increasingly affected by the lack of available land. Many men died during the war, leaving a large number of extremely vulnerable households headed by women and children with limited access to land and other resources. In this context access to land is crucial to women’s empowerment. Land is the cause of disputes among family members and women are often marginalized and excluded from inheritance. According to customary law, after leaving their father’s household, daughters lose their rights over the family plot. Therefore, girls over the age of 15 are often pushed by their brothers into marriage, even illegal unions, for example with men involved in polygamous relationships. In such cases, women end up without rights to their partner’s land, because their marriage is not legalized. The number of women with no land and no family support is therefore constantly growing, and so is their vulnerability. The PTRPC legal support activities are specifically directed at women. One of the aims of the legal clinics is to create awareness among women about the rights they can legitimately claim according to Burundian national legislation. In addition, the programme provides the necessary tools and juridical support to facilitate conflict resolution by legal means. The project is currently being implemented in the three rural provinces of Bujumbura, Bururi and Ruyigi.

Fostering ownership and sustainability

Communities actively participate in several ways in the implementation of the legal clinics. Community members chosen within and by communities have been trained to perform the work, including listening, mediation and orientation of other community members. These community paralegals, including women leaders, actively promote sensitization on legal issues, take part in the organization of the legal competitions and help organize the magistrates’ visits to the hill communities. Sustainability of these initiatives was fostered by encouraging community paralegals to form associations. As such,  their status as paralegals can now be recognised and they can legitimately continue their activities. In addition, associations can also be used to mobilize resources through advocacy from other partners/donors in the future.. The youth targeting factor fosters the expectation that they will learn and continue to provide services well into the future, as well as share their knowledge.

Replication and scaling up

Some challenges remain and will need to be addressed in future implementation. For example, community resistance to amicable resolution of land conflicts needs to be overcome. It is also important to develop a system for documenting each case, particularly regarding how it develops when redirected to other institutions. Overall, the legal clinics have brought significant benefits to rural communities, and there is considerable potential for replication in the country and elsewhere. At the national level changes in the policy and institutional framework are under way to develop and approve a codified succession law. The PTRPC is collaborating with government institutions, which have made available local staff to support the programme’s legal component. Efforts in this direction indicate that the government takes a favourable view of the scaling up of the legal support activities. Finally, the ministry for gender equality, the Ministère de la promotion de la femme et de l’égalité, has established the CDF, family development committees. These decentralised institutions that benefit from IFAD’s support, are charged with the application of the National Gender Policy (2003) at the community level.