Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF)
About Company
Our mission
Created in 1992 in Brussels, Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) is an international NGO specializing in promoting access to justice and defending human rights. The organization fights against injustices in our societies and promotes the principle of the rule of law based on human rights .
From Kinshasa to Tunis, from Bangui to Kampala, our teams contribute to:
Develop the power of populations to act ;
Strengthen the capacities of those involved in access to justice (magistrates, clerks, lawyers, paralegals, social workers, community leaders, etc.) to better support litigants ;
Promote legislative reforms for better respect for human rights.
In recent years, ASF has also asserted itself as an organization which has the vocation and is capable of mobilizing, creating links and leading collaborative dynamics between actors who fight to promote access to justice and the defense of human rights.
It is by being part of this desire to develop its action that ASF has developedJustice ExPEERience, a platform that aims to connect actors in the fight for human rights and access to justice around the world.
Our vision
The world is faced with significant threats and authoritarian abuses, which result in a reduction of civic spaces, or even the criminalization of people making demands. This trend is intrinsically linked to a second called “corporate capture”, which sees institutions monopolized by private interests, particularly economic actors. The two trends mutually support each other, favoring the reproduction of dynamics of oppression and domination, both in the internal governance of societies and in the relationships they maintain between them (States and private actors).
Faced with these observations, ASF considers that it is fundamental to affirm the principle of the rule of law based on human rights , by:
Enabling the resolution of conflicts, the reduction of inequalities and the realization of individual rights ;
Encouraging individuals and society to become aware of their responsibility towards structural injustices and their resolution ;
Guaranteeing access to spaces for demands, dialogue and conflict resolution
Reaffirming the accountability of political decision-makers ;
ASF is a grassroots organization:it has a local anchor which is further deepened thanks to the development of partnerships at the community level.
ASF is a learning organization:it seeks to question the impact of its initiatives in order to increase their performance. A monitoring and evaluation policy exists across the organization and several initiatives allow ASF to dynamically and continuously evaluate the relevance, effectiveness and sustainability of its interventions.
ASF is an organization that relies onadvocacy:the experiences generated by field activities (action) and lessons learned (learning) must be communicated to stakeholders and institutional actors in order to influence public policies.
Our activities
All our activities are carried out in partnership with local actors: civil society NGOs, lawyers, bars, local institutions and authorities, paralegals, community leaders, social workers, international institutions, etc.
They are divided into 3 axes:
Provision of legal aid services : organization of legal consultation centers, implementation of legal assistance programs, awareness-raising and education on the law of the population, training of relay people in local communities, etc.
Capacity building : professional training of lawyers; awareness raising and information for justice stakeholders, institutional support for bars for the development of the profession and the establishment of legal aid, training of local organizations in law and procedures, in trial observation , the creation of files or even working with victims, networking activities for the creation of local synergies…
Advocacy : meetings with local or international institutions and authorities, submission of notes and opinions, publications, organization of round tables, etc.
You can consult the official statutes of ASF here (PDF).
Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) has no relation or link with the French association “Avocats Sans Frontières” chaired by Me Gilles-William Goldnadel. The public positions of Me Goldnadel therefore in no way represent those of ASF.
