for 14 years. Working closely with local lawyers, Adam, N-Map’s executive director, made this movie to pressure the government to take the case seriously and start talking about possible settlement. The plan worked, and after carefully showing the movie to government officials and the conventional media, the defendants started talking. The movie is currently being used in support of the people of Maroko before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

+ Read the Maroko evictees’ Communication to the African Commission.

granted to Mississippi by the Department of Housing and Urban Development was allocated to low-income and minority communities.

Adam Stofsky, with the assistance of several volunteer and non-profit filmmakers, created “The New Homeless,” to advocate before the Mississippi legislature and the United States Congress for greater resources for poor Gulf Coast communities. The video was made on a bare-bones budget with the partnership of the constituent organizations, and was also used to help fund-raise for the Lawyers’ Committee’s Katrina Legal Relief programs and to organize and motivate client communities. The video is still being using by the Mississippi Center for Justice to train volunteers, mobilize communities, and educate local governments on issues important to low-income communities.

and to generate media for educational and promotional materials for the National Campaign’s future programs. Adam helped Video the Vote plug into the Election Protection network, which responded to calls from citizens nationwide who were experiencing voting problems. The project successfully organized over 1,000 filmmakers, educated them about the rules regarding video at polling places, dispatched them all around the country, and supervised their efforts.

+ See Video the Vote’s promotional trailer.

communities throughout Nigeria to protect their rights to housing, health, a healthy environment, a basic education, and more. Instead of just litigating cases, SERAC approaches every project with three highly integrated models—the Monitoring and Advocacy Program (MAP), the Community Action Program (CAP), the Legal Action Program (LAP), and the recently introduced Policy Advocacy Program (PAP)—to organize and empower local communities, monitor and expose the worst abuses, seek negotiated or legislative remedies whenever possible, and, when necessary, litigate.

SERAC seeks to build awareness about economic, social, and cultural rights and explore strategies for securing their realization. In addition, SERAC aims at broadening individuals’ and communities’ access to, and strengthening their participation in, the design and implementation of social and economic policies and programs that affect them.

pursuing legal cases, and cooperating with human rights and solidarity groups in Haiti and abroad.

The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) is the IJDH’s Haitian partner organization, based in Port-au-Prince. The BAI has helped victims prosecute human rights cases, trained Haitian lawyers and spoken out on justice issues since 1995.

The BAI has pioneered a “victim centered approach” that combines traditional legal strategies with empowerment of victims’ organizations and political advocacy. BAI lawyers argue in court, but also help victims engage judicial and government authorities through media advocacy, writing letters, meeting with officials and even organizing demonstrations. The office helps its clients advocate on a global level as well, through international courts and media appearances, and by helping organize international campaigns in support of its clients. BAI lawyers advocate beyond the confines of their cases in support of the rule of law in Haiti.

The Mississippi Center for Justice opened its doors in 2003, giving Mississippi a critical capacity that it lacked for more than a decade: a homegrown, non-profit public-interest law firm that pursues racial and economic justice through advocacy for systemic change. The Mississippi Center for Justice carries out its mission through a community lawyering approach that advances specific social justice campaigns, in partnership with national and local organizations and community leaders.

The traditional strategies of policy advocacy and litigation are vital components of the Mississippi Center for Justice’s community lawyering tool kit. Likewise, public education, outreach, community organizing, media advocacy, and other forms of communication strategies that comprise successful campaigns are important tools as well. Since its inception, the Center has been at the forefront of policy battles on the state and federal levels, to bring about systemic change that improves the social justice environment for all Mississippians.