From law school to the field: Community lawyers in Cameroon

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Summary

The Community Legal Field Worker initiative (CLFW), run by the Centre forEnvironment and Development (CED) in Cameroon, was designed to deal withmajor gaps in capacity to safeguard indigenous rights to land and forests. Thiscapacity gap included weak knowledge amongst urban trained lawyers of the ruralcontext and indigenous rights. A two-year field placement for lawyers committed tooperating as advocates for the communities and trying to obtain the best for them inaccordance with the law, has resulted in some important outcomes and lessons forbuilding future programmes of this type. The improved understanding ofcommunities of their rights and procedures for protecting them was demonstratedby the indigenous Baka’s abstention in local elections, improved recognition ofindigenous chiefs and customary law, stronger representation in local councils andlegal proceedings against Bantu farmers resulting in the return of previously confiscated lands. This paper presents the key steps taken to implement the CLFWtool, the outcomes and lessons learned. 

Authors

Nguiffo, Samuel