W HO WE ARE SERV I N G A N D W HY C AS E ST U DY The Forum for Women, Law and Development is a Nepalese NGO. A national volunteer paralegal movement has existed since the 1990s in Nepal. Birth registration and legal aid are fundamental rights under the Constitution, and over a thousand paralegal committees focus on civil registration, citizenship, and child protection. In addition to helping members of the community access rights, paralegals ensure communities know their rights, conduct social mobilization campaigns (e.g. collecting signatures for petitions), and develop community leadership. In Nepal, in practice, only fathers are allowed to register births, and obstacles arise where they are absent or unsupportive, so the FWLD program has focused on women. This kind of empowerment work challenges traditional values and can put paralegals’ safety at risk. Recognizing the scale of the challenge and its inherent risks, FWLD built into its approach efforts to sensitize and partner with key stakeholders, including local government, as part of a broad-based movement for change. provide proof of their legal identity—and so face challenges accessing rights they ought to be entitled to—are poor people living in developing countries. Legal empowerment promotes vulnerable peoples’ ability to use and shape law to solve their justice problems, and in the process encourages institutions to be more accountable and to change for the better. It is a vital tool to help shape civil registration and legal identity documentation systems that will benefit all people. Legal identity documents that serve as proof of nationality often give individuals access to rights and services. But paralegal programs can go beyond providing assistance towards document acquisition by empowering clients and treating them as equals. A truly empowering project teaches clients how to use processes, rather than simply providing services to them. This way, not only does the community maintain agency, gain knowledge, and develop skills, but clients can share the knowledge they gain with others in their community. Legal empowerment projects are often initiatives of communities themselves. Any new projects should take into account existing efforts. While some projects might include specific activities or programs to promote legal empowerment, such as “know your rights” workshops, the way projects are structured as well as paralegals’ daily interactions with clients should seek to build the capacity and agency of clients and their communities. The following principles are recommended to guide the designers of paralegal projects to ensure that your services are empowering your clients: •T  reat acquisition of legal identity documentation as an important objective, but not necessarily the final goal. This may mean addressing discrimination through education or advocacy. •C  onsider any potential risks or negative effects that documentation of legal identity might have for individuals and communities. Section 5.1 Planning Strategically provides guidance for risk assessment. Communicate clearly both the benefits and risks to clients so they can make informed decisions on engagement with the project or processes to obtain documentation. •S  eek to identify the most vulnerable people within a community, and ensure that the project includes them. •S  eek to create or sustain a community-driven movement for justice and access to rights. • Build community leadership: ensure that affected individuals shape projects, from assessing the need for services and planning strategically to implementing the project and evaluating its success. Distribute copies of laws, regulations, and information about procedures in local languages and provide information sessions and trainings. •U  se tools that emphasize clients’ potential to act independently. Hiring, training, supervision, casework, client follow-up, monitoring, and evaluation should all have this emphasis. 16 | A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y