Their first significant win, he says, came in 2003 in the case of Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who an Islamic Court sentenced to death-by-stoning for conceiving a child out of wedlock. When they heard about the case, Paradis’ colleague managed to find the email address of Lawal’s lawyer, who unexpectedly answered their query almost immediately. They asked how they could help.
The Avocats sans frontières team brought a constitutional argument concerning how the Islamic tribunals reintroduced in certain states in the north of the country worked within Nigeria’s constitutional system. A Sharia Court of Appeal overturned Lawal’s conviction, and her case marked the end of death sentences and corporal punishment administered according to Islamic Law in Northern Nigeria, says Paradis.
Since then, Avocats sans frontières Canada has worked with local partners to litigate cases of gross human rights abuses, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture, systemic sexual violence, and forced disappearances. It has also assisted in peace processes and truth and reconciliation commissions.
“It is really law, as a powerful tool for change when it is brought into the hands of those who most deserve to use it, the most discriminated, the most excluded, the poorest among our society,” says Paradis.
Ana Elisa Samayoa is a human rights lawyer at Avocats sans frontières Canada’s Guatemala City office. She worked on a project involving human trafficking in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, which resulted in significant systemic change.
