The Future of ILF-Afghanistan: 2007 - 2009

In the next two years, ILF-Afghanistan has three primary objectives:

• Continue to provide high-quality legal aid services for poor men, woman and children in Afghanistan;
• Complete its nationalization process; and
• Become officially recognized as the primary public defender in Afghanistsan.

(i) The continued provision of legal aid services
ILF-Afghanistan's primary activity will remain the provision of criminal defense services for the indigent.  Such services are not only important to the individuals represented.  They also have repercussions on the criminal justice system at large, the development of democratic system of government, and security in general as the threat of arbitrary incarceration can be extremely destabilizing

(ii) The nationalization process
Since 2006, the ILF has been paving the way for the complete nationalization of ILF-Afghanistan. This process began with the transfer from the International Fellow to senior Afghan attorneys of supervision and training responsibilities.  ILF-Afghanistan’s senior national attorneys are now in charge of direct supervision and training of its legal and administrative staff.  After four years of mentoring by international experts, these trained and dedicated attorneys are ready to assume the task of ensuring that ILF-Afghanistan continues to provide quality legal services for the poor people of Afghanistan. 

The next phase of the nationalization process has two parts.  First, the ILF has worked to secure funding from international donors to enable the national staff to focus on supervision and maintenance of quality representation.  This funding has been secured until June 2009.  In May 2007, the Canadian government agreed to fund the project for the next two years with a contribution of 2.9 Million Canadian dollars. 

Second, the ILF has set up an Afghan board of directors who will progressively take over the functions of the ILF board in New York. The full process is scheduled to take 24 months.  In September 2006, three prominent Afghans agreed to join the board: Ms. Safia Seddiqi, a lawyer, elected member of the Afghan parliament, and also a Canadian citizen who returned to Afghanistan; Professor Ashraf Rasooli, a lawyer and advisor to the Minister of Justice and First Vice-President; and Dr Mohammad Arif, Senior Program Coordinator at Checchi, a USAID contractor. The ILF and Ibrahim Hassan, ILF-A Country Director, also have seats on the board. 

(iii) Becoming Afghanistan’s primary public defender office
Article 31 of the Afghan Constitution provides that, from the moment of arrest, the Afghan government should appoint lawyers for poor people. Throughout the last four years, there have been discussions on the structure of the future legal aid system of Afghanistan. 

There are essentially three options for the delivery of criminal defense or legal aid services: (1) a government-run public defender’s office, where the lawyers are government employees; (2) the assignment of private counsel, where private lawyers receive a fee from the state to represent the indigent; and (3) an independent private NGO contracted by the state to provide the constitutionally mandated service, where the lawyers are salaried employees, minimizing the potential for corruption and maximizing the quality of the service.  Although the provision of counsel is a constitutional right that must be provided by the state, see Afghan Const. Art. 31, this service need not be provided by state employees.  The state need only ensure financially that such a service is provided. 

The ILF and ILF-Afghanistan believes that the best option in the short and medium term is the adoption of a system that includes independent legal aid providers under contract with the government.  

ILF-Afghanistan is well-placed and willing to take on the role of being an independent, private NGO under contract with the government. It could do so in a cost-effective way having already built up the infrastructure in offices throughout the country.  By providing representation to 40 to 65% of indigent defendants, ILF-Afghanistan already strengthens respect for basic human rights in Afghanistan for men, women, and juveniles and ensures an increase sense of security among the poor often at risk of arbitrary incarceration.

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