THE CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND ADVOCACY
The Center for Justice and Advocacy (CJA) is one of the Centers under Certa Foundation which focuses on contributing to the prevention, response to GBV and the broader promotion of SRHR through a holistic approach that ensure the complete well-being of victims of sexual crimes.
Background
As part of Corporate Social Responsibility, Certa Law, in close collaboration with other national and international organizations, handled and litigated a number of cases related to SRHR and Gender-Based Violence pro bono. Consequently, Certa Foundation was established in order to dedicate focused efforts to accelerate and improve access to justice through legal representation and legal education.
The team’s involvement in litigation of cases related to SRHR and Gender-Based Violence led to the realization that the law is more effective when complemented with a holistic support structure. The Center for Justice and Advocacy thus engages in litigation as a means of enhancing access to prompt and quality justice for women and girls affected by GBV and other SRHR violations while simultaneously affecting a referral mechanism to ensure that they receive medical and psycho-social support.
Vision
A community in which everyone has access to timely and quality justice, medical care as well as psycho-social support regardless of their status.
Mission
The main mission of the center is to protect, promote and preserve Sexual Reproductive Health rights in Rwanda by putting in place interventions aimed at broadening synergy and referral mechanisms to ensure that those affected by GBV and other SRHR violations receive a holistic support package.
Goal
Our goal is to ensure that vulnerable members of the community have access to timely and quality legal aid services, especially women and girls affected by Gender-Based-Violence and those facing criminalization due to reproductive health related crimes.
What We Do
The Center for Justice and Advocacy equips our staff and frontline lawyers with imperative knowledge and tools on sexual reproductive health and rights upon which they rely to assist and represent women and girls in need of access to justice in our focus areas.
The Center for Justice and Advocacy strives to provide intersectional solutions to end violence against women and girls by engaging other national and international organizations and civil society that provide comprehensive sex education, medical care, counseling and socio-economic support.
The Center for Justice and Advocacy creates awareness through community outreach, awareness campaigns in schools, cafe juridique with established lawyers, and a podcast.
The Center for Justice and Advocacy strives to contribute to investigative community-inspired research on the statistics of sexual crimes, nature of registered sexual crimes, factors that influence them, and the conviction rates in order to ultimately inspire the Rwandan criminal justice system’s response to sexual violence.
Through its Legal Aid services, the Center for Justice and Advocacy provides legal representation for victims of sexual violence and guidance during interrogation of women and girls facing criminalization due to sexual reproductive health related crimes.