This week, Refugee Legal was honoured to present at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Global Refugee Forum in Geneva. We were invited to showcase our Special Refugee Legal Clinic Model on an international stage as an example of international best practice. The Forum, informed by the Global Compact on Refugees, aimed to translate the principle of international responsibility-sharing into concrete and bold action, highlighting examples of best practice and calling on States, international agencies, NGOs, the private sector and other stakeholders to make concrete pledges to improve protection of refugees and others forced from their homes globally.
We presented keynote ‘Spotlight Session’- Promoting Partnerships Amongst Diverse Stakeholders in Supporting National Protection Capacity and Provision of Free Legal Assistance. In this session, we presented on how our clinics assist thousands of people seeking asylum to access critical and expert legal help for their refugee protection applications. We highlighted our unique partnership approach that was essential for the success of these clinics. This approach harnessed the profound goodwill, skills and resources, of the ‘private sector’ – what is now 15 corporate pro bono law firm partners - to provide direct and critical legal assistance for people seeking asylum. We demonstrated that we were able to match unprecedented need with unprecedented legal capacity.
Our clinics were commended not only for their ability to provide direct legal assistance to thousands annually, but for having rapidly built and sustained the capacity for legal assistance across the NGO sector in Australia. This had a direct impact on the promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms for people seeking asylum seekers in Australia.
We are proud to have been recognised for our innovative Special Clinic model – a model which protects fundamental rights. A model that at its heart, transforms generalist legal skills – of our corporate pro bono law firm partners – into specialist refugee legal skills, to help thousands of more asylum seekers. This kind of legal assistance is an essential component of ensuring due process and a fair hearing for people applying for protection.
We know that unmet legal need in this area – both nationally and globally – is acute. At the Forum, we pledged, along with other international legal NGO partners, to continue to increase access to free legal assistance and ultimately, to justice for refugees and asylum seekers. We also pledged to share our model and build the capacity of others, where there are similar large scale needs to provide urgent legal assistance.
It is because of your continued support and sustained collaboration with us; that we were able to develop a model – one that has been recognised internationally – with the potential to help many more people globally.
