The International Legal Foundation | World Justice Challenge 2021 Project Pitch

Hi, my name is Jennifer Smith, and I am the Executive Director of the International Legal Foundation. And my name is Samira Isafzai. I am the Country Director of the International Legal Foundation here in Afghanistan. Around the world, the International Legal Foundation fights to make justice a reality for poor and vulnerable people. We fight to guarantee high-quality legal representation for everyone who has been arrested or detained. We provide criminal defense services, and we build sustainable, effective legal aid institutions. We work to ensure not only positive case outcomes, but also positive life outcomes. That means getting our clients the support they need to get out and stay out of the criminal justice system. Over half of women in the Afghan criminal justice system are charged with so-called moral crimes, facing discrimination and social stigma. Our clients also suffer due to poverty, abuse, drugs, and exploitation. Too often, leaving the criminal justice system means Afghan women and girls are returning to the same dangerous environment that leads them into conflict with the law. Out of prison, women and girls need support to help them return home to their families and communities. That's what the ILRF reentry program is working to provide. Krishna is a wife and mother and just one of our clients who has experienced gender-based discrimination in the criminal justice system. I was Brishna's lawyer. The day after her arrest, I documented marks and abuses all over her body. As she told me her story, she was crying, not because of the horrible rape and abuse. She had suffered at the hands of her cousin. She was crying because her cousin had killed her young son. After already having suffered so much, Brishna was then wrongly accused of adultery and of being an accessory to her son's murder. We fought fiercely for Brishna, taking her case all the way up to the Supreme Court, but she faced discrimination at every level. She was sentenced to 18 years in prison. We finally prevailed when Brishna, along with hundreds of other women and girls, were released as part of a sweeping amnesty decree to reduce overcrowding in prisons amidst COVID-19. Brishna was finally free, but after two years in detention, she was entering the world in a global pandemic with nowhere to go. She faced it from her cousin's family, and the women's shelter I approached would not likely to take in a formerly incarcerated woman. Eventually, we were able to find a safe place for Brishna, but there were hundreds of other women and girls who were being released due to COVID-19, and we knew they were not getting the support they needed for a safe transition home. We brought in legal professionals with comparative expertise from jurisdictions that are providing strong holistic representation. Our entire legal team has now received expert training on gender and trauma-informed legal representation. We are delivering reentry kits with items like hand sanitizer, masks, COVID-19 guidance, personal care products, and cell phones to women exiting prison. And we have strengthened our referral network so we can connect women with the medical, mental health, and social support services they need. Since May 2020, we have provided this holistic support to more than 150 women and girls across the two provinces. But every day, there are more women and girls who need support. Everyone deserves to lead a safe and healthy life with their families and communities. With more resources, we hope to be able to scale this project and strengthen our partnerships so more women and girls can build the futures they want. We are tracking our success and lessons learned so that this holistic approach to legal aid and reentry support can be replicated for women and girls around the world. Thank you for learning more about the International Legal Foundation and our work here in Afghanistan.