eNotes  -  July 2007

Final Text of the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas Released

Members of the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas drafting committee meet in Brazil. (March 2007)

In June, the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas (PBDA) regional drafting committee completed and approved the final text of the Declaration, concluding an almost two year process that has taken members of the drafting committee to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the United States to discuss the Declaration and pro bono with members of the legal profession. The drafting committee will now begin the process of soliciting signatories with the aim of launching the Declaration in late 2007.

The Declaration promotes a common definition of pro bono and proposes a standard for the amount of time lawyers should devote to providing these legal services. The process has also brought together leaders of the different legal sectors throughout the Americas to discuss shared access to justice challenges and the state of pro bono in the region.

"As a result of the Declaration and the PBDA meetings, we have assembled so many different experiences on pro bono, and we expect to continue this with regional partnerships," said Horacio Bernardes, a member of the drafting committee from Brazil and a partner at Xavier, Bernardes, Bragança in São Paulo. "These partnerships will spread the pro bono philosophy and help to stimulate other relevant debates for Latin America, such as social inclusion and sustainable development."

The idea for the PBDA emerged at the Latin American Strategy Summit, organized by the Vance Center in March 2005 in New York. At the meeting, delegates from across Latin America agreed that it was important to create a clear statement of principles and plan of action for expanding pro bono efforts in the region. Following the Summit, a regional drafting committee was formed to develop the substance of a declaration and prepare the preliminary text.

After a draft text was completed in 2006, the drafting committee worked with the Vance Center to organize a series of conferences and working meetings with members of the legal profession in Latin America to discuss the text. Feedback from these sessions was incorporated into the final text. Attendees also discussed practical strategies for addressing access to justice for poor and marginalized communities within the framework of the PBDA.

"The PBDA provides a forum for the legal profession to discuss pro bono," said Ruti Smithline, an associate at Morrison & Foerster who participated in country meetings in Colombia in February. "The challenge now is to determine ways in which the practice can actually be put into effect."

Pro Bono Moves Forward in Peru and Colombia

Panelists from Chile, Peru and the United States discuss the development of pro bono legal services in the United States and Latin America during the Lima conference.

The PBDA drafting committee has been influential in the last year in furthering the conversation on pro bono in countries with existing pro bono structures like Argentina and Chile. It has also played a role in jump starting the dialogue in countries like Colombia, Mexico and Peru where the legal profession is eager to develop pro bono structures.

In Colombia, the Vance Center has worked with Paula Samper Salazar, the Colombian representative on the PBDA drafting committee and a partner at Gómez-Pinzón Abogados in Bogotá, to encourage similar dialogues between legal professionals and social justice advocates. In February, Ms. Samper, in collaboration with the Vance Center, organized a series of meetings with NGO leaders, deans of law schools, directors of clinical legal programs, private sector lawyers and magistrates of the Constitutional Court of Colombia to discuss pro bono development and the PBDA.

Following these meetings, Cámara de Servicios Legales, a new lawyers association in Bogotá, announced the formation of a pro bono commission and invited Ms. Samper to become its first chair.

"The PBDA process, specifically in Colombia, has produced a whole new interest in pro bono, which will undoubtedly result in articulate efforts to devote more time to it," Ms. Samper said.

"Working with the drafting committee has been a very positive experience," she added.  "We have tried to blend the different legal cultures throughout Latin America to reach one common goal: serving those who most need assistance."

In Peru, the Vance Center collaborated with the human rights organization Instituto de Democracia y Derechos Humanos de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (IDEHPUCP) and the legal publication Revista Themis in January to organize a conference addressing Latin American and U.S. approaches to pro bono as well as the particular challenges and opportunities for developing pro bono in Peru. The Center also worked with Javier de Belaunde, a member of the PBDA drafting committee and a partner at Estudio Echecopar in Lima, to organize a working meeting on the PBDA with members of the Peruvian legal community. The two events were the first of their kind in Peru to facilitate discussion between lawyers from different sectors of the profession on mechanisms for developing and institutionalizing pro bono in Peru.

"There are high expectations with regard to the development of pro bono work within the legal community in Peru, and this is tied to a true desire to contribute to fostering access to justice" Mr. de Belaunde said. "Implementation of the Peruvian pro bono network will be hard work and will require a deep commitment over time from the entire legal community."

The Vance Center also assisted the Peruvian NGO ProÉtica in organizing a roundtable with leaders of NGOs to discuss their role in using pro bono to address the needs of their constituencies and advance their mission. Participating NGOs included Ciudadanos al Día, Comisión Andina de Juristas, Demus, Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana, Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL) and Transparencia Internacional (Peru).

For more information on the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas or the Vance Center's work in Latin America, contact Elise Colomer Grimaldi at ecolomer@nycbar.org.

Read the full text of the Declaration in English and Spanish. The Declaration will be be available in Portuguese later this summer.

The Vance Center wishes to thank LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell for its generous support of
The Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas project.

Martindale-Hubbell^®
 

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