The Role of Legal Clinics in Promoting Human Rights: The Experience of Nigeria Law School Yenagoa Law Clinic and The Legal Support and Care Centre at GD Goenka University School of Law Gurgaon India

Abstract

Legal clinics are playing a very prominent role in promoting human rights and filling global access to justice gaps through justice education. In turn, they provide access to justice for the poor and marginalized in fulfilment of this social justice mandate. Clinicians realize that human rights and justice education is key to their social justice mission. Apart from adding statements about the importance of justice to their mission statement, clinics have in place programs fundamentally oriented around a vision of justice. Students in clinics play very important roles in achieving their clinics’ social justice mission and goals by sensitizing youths, women, children, inmates and citizens to change thought processes and mold the social fabric needed for a just society, promoting a culture of lawfulness through generating solutions to several social issues that results in good citizenship, improved policies, good governance, access to justice and effective remedies. Generally, the objective of this paper is to share case studies from the Nigerian Law School Yenagoa Legal Clinic, the Legal Support and Care Centre at GD Goenka University and Legal Aid Society at The NorthCap University, Gurugram, Haryana, India of how legal clinics are promoting human rights, access to justice, a culture of lawfulness and sustainable development through their work in communities, schools and prisons. The first section lays a background on the role of law in shaping society, the second focuses on the conceptual and theoretical frameworks. The third section examines the framework that provides the mandate education for justice and human rights. The fourth section assesses the role of law schools and clinics in promoting education for justice, human rights and a culture of lawfulness while the fifth section deals with conclusions and recommendations.