By Stephanie Clarey | Director of Operations
Dear Donors,
We are fifth on our way to achieve our goal of raising $10,000 and we thank you for being with us on this journey.
2 weeks ago, we received good news.
Over the last year, our Founder, Natasha Latiff, was working closely with a human rights lawyer to discover evidence of torture of a political detainee. Although the court decided that the resulting injury was "accidental", the Court still awarded compensation, which was a huge win, and the first for the lawyer to secure.
The victim's family members were in tears on the phone, when the judgment was communicated, one screaming in both happiness, shock, saying "now it is all over." The family had suffered a lot in the last year; their neighbours would hurl the heads of dead animals into their homes (they are vegetarians).
The family extended the perimeter around their home to stop this and we obtained police protection for the family. Eventually, the family had to leave their village; essentially they were exiled from their ancestral community.
We have also re-opened a case of rape; the case was archived after the victim, an 18-year old student, was absent in several court sessions and later withdrew her statement. The investigating prosecutor failed to note the reasons for the victim's withdrawal.
We pushed the Attorney General's Office to assign a new prosecutor to the team and petitioned for the case to be prosecuted since there was sufficient evidence that rape had been committed. We are still trying to get in touch with the victim and other witnesses.
As you can see, casework and representing the best interests of the client and family is a long, difficult and even dangerous process.
Program work centering on women’s access to justice remains the most underfunded. This work is most in demand, and the need for fair and accessible legal services only continues to grow globally.
YOUR donations have direct impact on this work very important work. Thank you and please share this project with others.
Sincerely,
The SAHR Team
Natasha, Sara, Alana, Stephanie
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