USAID, ABA/CEELI Provides Legal Aid to Thousands
Clinical legal education provides law students with practical experience to complement their classroom education. It is also a much needed source of free legal information and assistance to the public because access to justice continues to be a challenge for a majority of the population of Ukraine, where legal literacy is low and legal services are costly.
To help provide legal aid to a broader segment of the population and to give law students practical experience, USAID supports an American Bar Association (ABA) initiative to develop clinical legal education. This past academic year alone USAID-supported student legal clinics assisted over 9,500 people in various legal matters.
 |
With USAID support, ABA/CEELI has delivered countless professional skills training workshops, like this November session for the Volyn Legal Aid Clinic in Lutsk
Photo Credit: ABA/CEELI |
Over the years, USAID, through ABA/CEELI, has assisted more than 30 law schools in developing clinical legal education programs; sponsoring numerous conferences and roundtables on clinical legal education, offering training and exchange programs for students and clinic directors, and awarding 17 different legal clinics with small grants to provide legal assistance and information to the public. USAID’s ABA/CEELI effort has also produced three clinical legal education textbooks that Ukraine’s Ministry of Education has endorsed.
This September, ABA/CEELI once again sponsored a week-long school for legal clinic directors and faculty, and a one-day roundtable to discuss a recent decree of the Ministry of Education, which instructs the heads of all higher educational establishments to create and support legal clinics within law faculties. This decree represents the Government of Ukraine’s recognition of the importance of clinical legal education in law studies, and presents new opportunities for USAID and ABA/CEELI in furthering clinical legal education nationwide.
Since 1992, USAID-funded strengthening rule of law programs in Ukraine have worked on a variety of issues, including creating human rights legal advocacy centers; training judges on new legislation and application of international conventions; establishing regional judicial associations; developing student legal clinics; designing election advocacy and education programs; and implementing a wide range of public legal literacy initiatives.
Back to Top ^ |
