PILIWA

The Public Interest Lawyering Initiative for West Africa (PILIWA) is a regional movement of lawyers driven by social justice to serve threatened communities.

ACA is the Coordinating Body for the Public Interest Lawyering Initiative for West Africa (PILIWA), which aims to inspire and train a movement of lawyers that serve communities and assist them to fight for their own vision of the future in the face of pressure from powerful political and economic actors. PILIWA members include individuals and organizations on the front lines of the fight for justice and sustainable development in eight West African countries.

We support public interest lawyers across West Africa in the following ways:

  • Giving grants to hire Legal Fellows and undertake courageous legal actions.
  • Legal research and technical advice on strategic litigation.
  • Convening an annual regional conference of public interest lawyers.
  • Solidarity and support to threatened members of the network.

Grant Programs

PILIWA has two grant programs for its members: Small Grants that jumpstart strategic litigation projects, and Legal Trainee Stipend Support Grants that assist members to hire new legal talent and recruit new lawyers into the practice of public interest law.

Small Grants

PILIWA uses Small Grants to fund cutting-edge legal work, including:

  • Scientific research into the human health impacts gold mining in Ghana and gas flaring in Nigeria
  • Holding the owners of a mining company accountable for environmental, social, and health impacts in Sierra Leone
  • Training and mobilization of a civil society response platform to fight cases of land grabbing in Niger
  • Detailed land mapping and litigation over illegal expropriation in Liberia
  • Fact-finding and case development related to a massacre in a mining town in Guinea

Legal Trainee Stipend Support Grants

The two PILIWA Public Interest Legal Fellows for 2022 are:

  • Yereke Koulemou, a Guinean lawyer posted in Conakry with Meme Droits pour Tous, a legal aid and advocacy organization. Yereke is lobbying the Guinean government to recognize an ECOWAS court order for remuneration to victims of a 2012 massacre. His research into the massacre also supports an ongoing case in Guinean courts to hold the perpetrators accountable.
  • Joseph Odey Alegu, an experienced Nigerian solicitor who previously served on the Presidential Panel to investigate corruption in a government educational institution. Joseph is posted with Chima Williams & Associates in Benin City, Nigeria, where his research and documentation of environmental damage caused by a 2011 oil spill will support strategic litigation on behalf of tens of thousands of fishermen. Joseph advocates for human rights and environmental protections on radio and television programs in Edo State.

Grant Programs

PILIWA has two grant programs for its members: Small Grants that jumpstart strategic litigation projects, and Legal Trainee Stipend Support Grants that assist members to hire new legal talent and recruit new lawyers into the practice of public interest law.

Small Grants

PILIWA uses Small Grants to fund cutting-edge legal work, including:

  • Scientific research into the human health impacts gold mining in Ghana and gas flaring in Nigeria
  • Training and mobilization of a civil society response platform to fight cases of land grabbing in Niger
  • Detailed land mapping and litigation over illegal expropriation in Liberia
  • Fact-finding and case development related to a massacre in a mining town in Guinea

Legal Trainee Stipend Support Grants

The two PILIWA Public Interest Legal Fellows for 2017-18 are:

  • Daniel Fofanah, a graduate of Fourah Bay College Law School in Sierra Leone.  Daniel is posted in Kono District, Sierra Leone with the Network Movement for Justice and Development, where he is helping them to design a legal program and prepare for strategic litigation in the mining sector.
  • Owen Odion Agbonifo-Ezomo, an experienced Nigerian barrister and Ph.D. student in Public Law at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria.  Owen is posted with Chima Williams & Associates in Benin City, Nigeria, where his principal responsibilities entail developing strategic litigation on behalf of tens of thousands of fishermen whose livelihoods were destroyed by a 2011 oil spill.

Technical Advice and Collaborations

PILIWA is supporting the Mano River Union Natural Resource Rights and Governance Platform to develop a regional litigation strategy to counter corporate influence over land and natural resources in West Africa.  PILIWA members are collaborating on novel legal theories to hold states and economic actors accountable for human rights, land rights, and environmental abuse.

These collaborations have been supported by numerous external partners, including:

  • The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA)
  • La Clinique d’expertise juridique et sociale (CEJUS) at the University of Lomé in Togo
  • The Seattle University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic
  • The Sciences Po Law School Clinic in Paris, France
  • HLS Advocates at Harvard Law School
  • The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law
  • Inclusive Development International

Annual PILIWA Conference

PILIWA is first and foremost a professional association – a community of like-minded legal practitioners and advocates who believe that law is meant to serve social justice and the public interest.  At our annual gatherings, participants from the eight PILIWA countries learn about new topics in advocacy, international law, and litigation skills, share experiences, and make collaborative plans.

The inaugural PILIWA conference in 2016 was held in Monrovia, Liberia.  Most recently in 2022, we gathered in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. 

Read our article on the 2022 conference for more information

Solidarity and Support to Threatened Lawyers

Public interest lawyers frequently face threats from powerful state or private actors. When threats are made against its members, PILIWA acts as a public awareness raising network to sound the alarm and take strategic action to protect them. For example, When Alfred Brownell and his staff at Green Advocates International were threatened with wrongful arrest and detention by the Liberian government, the PILIWA network was part of the effort to protect them, raise awareness of their plight, and seek to have the charges against them overturned. PILIWA also led the effort to protect Pastor Evaristus Nicholas, a community organizer who leads his people’s fight for justice in Aggah as the spokesperson for Egbema Voice of Freedom. Pastor Nicholas has been threatened on several occasions by people claiming to work for the Nigerian Agip Oil Company.

Further, in emergency situations PILIWA provides funds for its members and other community rights defenders in the West African countries where we work.