Super excited to get a chance to experience assisting people who lack access to legal services in an international setting. A chance to use my Spanish while back in Central America over spring break this March!

Currently, the region suffers from a lack of familiarity of legal procedures, an over-reliance on verbal agreements and poor record keeping; which result in a high number of unresolved legal cases in Global Brigades communities. In order to mitigate the effects of these barriers to justice, the Human Rights program has four main brigade activities: educational workshops and cultural exchanges alongside community-wide legal clinics and family-specific case support.

These components respond to the communities´ need for accessible legal resources, knowledge of legal procedure, and a bridge between customary practices and state legal procedure. By addressing these needs, the program will arm the communities with the tools to overcome barriers to access to justice and leave them with a culture of legal consciousness, and thereby contribute to decreasing the number of unresolved legal cases in the Provinces of Panama Este and Darien, Panama.