Arizona State University (Law) Human Rights Brigade March 2015 Panama

Start Date: Mar 8, 2015 12:00 AM
End Date: Jan 26, 2017 12:00 AM

The Law Society for Human Rights at Arizona State University College of Law is hosting its first annual 7-day human rights brigade to Panama this spring break, 2015.

Volunteers will primarily work with rural communities that are under-resourced and largely unaware of their own legal rights. Throughout the week, volunteers shadow Panamanian lawyers to provide pro-bono legal consulting to rural communities.

A free legal clinic provides opportunities for volunteers to not only receive experience with Panamanian legal professionals but also experience first-hand the obstacles to justice and the culture of legal misinformation in rural communities. Volunteers also work to provide capacity building and education-based workshops on various legal concepts to empower communities through education.

Additionally, volunteers continue shadowing Panamanian lawyers while they gather important information to initiate the process of resolving family legal cases, many of which have been stalled in Panama's legal system through institutional inefficiencies and the prohibitive high costs of legal services.