The League has historically supported African civil society institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) prior to May 1999, when the Africa Program was officially launched to expand the institution's efforts through regional programs. The League's regional initiatives are designed to strengthen the capacity of civil society and local NGOs, in post-conflict and transitional countries, and to defend the defenders of human rights. The Africa Program is supported by the Ford Foundation, Newman's Own Foundation, and the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights, among other private donors. Some highlights of the League's Africa program follow.

In June 1999, the League conducted an assessment on the capacity of Nigerian government judicial institutions and local NGOs working on legal issues to identify the needs and priorities that would form the basis for future collaboration. In July 1999, the Africa Program hosted Lagos State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General Yemi Osinbajo on a visit to New York to meet with colleagues at the Legal Aid Society of New York, the Legal Services Corporation of New York, law firms and human rights attorneys. The visit provided the Attorney General the opportunity to evaluate and discuss programs that could be useful in addressing the challenges facing the Lagos State Ministry of Justice as it attempts to reform a judicial system that has barely survived decades of military dictatorship. It also was the start of the League's collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Justice on numerous initiatives affecting the functioning of the judiciary in Nigeria's most populous state.

In September 1999, the Africa Program released the report, Killer Bills and Decrees: The Sierra Leone Media's Struggle for Survival. The report provided the first in-depth analysis of the nation's nine-year war from the perspective of its impact on the media. In June 2000, the Africa Program established, with local journalists and human rights advocate colleagues, the Center for Media, Education & Technology (CMET), the first Sierra Leone-based NGO dedicated to building the capacity of the media, civil society, NGOs, and educational institutions.

In May 2000, the Africa Program held a conference in Lagos, Nigeria, to provide the first forum for a national dialogue on the implementation of Sharia Law from a constitutional and legal perspective, and to examine its impact on the rights of women. This dialogue took place among legal professionals, Muslims, Christians, legislators, human rights advocates, media professionals, and constitutional law experts to encourage a national discourse beyond the religious arena, one that could encourage consensus-building and address the constitutional challenges of this now national crisis. In August 2000, the Africa Program sponsored a workshop in Abuja for community-based human and women's rights NGOs working on the impact of the newly institutionalized Sharia Law on Nigerian women's rights.

In Sierra Leone, the League is engaged in projects related to the United Nations-sponsored Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and is collaborating with the Sierra Leone Bar Association on legal and judiciary reform. League projects in Sierra Leone also target youth in crisis, with a focus on the reintegration of former child soldiers into society. Youth media, civic education and literacy projects are providing young people with the tools they need to become the architects of their own destiny, while providing them a medium through which they can bring their voices to the national dialogue.

The League is currently implementing a project in Nigeria with the United Nations Development Programme, the National Human Rights Commission and other local partners to establish mobile legal aid clinics that will provide legal aid services for women in rural areas of the North (Zaria State) and the East (Enugu State) and create a pool of women community-based paralegals. Clients in the North are being represented in Sharia (Islamic) courts while those in Enugu are bringing cases to the customary courts.

For more information, contact the Africa Program at: 212-661-0480 ext. 102 or africaresearcher@ilhr.org