American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), DRC

The American Bar Association's Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROll) is an international development program that promotes the rule of law by working with in-country partners to build sustainable institutions and societies that deliver justice.

Since 2008, ABA ROLI has had programming in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. ABA ROLI has worked on more than 25 former programs in eastern DRC, and currently operates three programs in North Kivu, South Kivu, Maniema, Tanganyika, Ituri, and Haut Katanga. ABA ROLI’s work in the DRC is generously supported by the U.S. government, private foundations, foreign governments, and individual donors. 

Through these programs, ABA ROLI:

• Operates legal aid clinics that have provided legal counseling to nearly 30,000 survivors and helped file more than 12,000 cases with local civilian and military authorities, resulting in over 2,000 trials and 1,454 convictions;

• Helps to enhance civilian protection through early warning systems in remote areas;

• Conducts media campaigns to raise awareness in local communities about sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)and available resources;

• Provides capacity-building support and training to justice sector actors and local civil society organizations, including more than 3,492 trained justice sector officials, lawyers, psychologists, and paralegals; 

• Promotes female representation in the legal profession through scholarships and internships to young female law students.

• Supports the facilitation of mobile courts that allow the Congolese justice system to hold trials in remote locations;

• Aided the investigation and prosecution of SGBV cases through mobile investigation teams and the digitization of court records;

• Helped improve conditions in prisons and detention centers;

• Worked to protect the legal rights of children in conflict with the law;

• Protected the rights of communities adversely affected by industrial mining by using a network of paralegals that can help protect their rights.