Information by Country
Information by Country
Africa
The 9th Advocates Africa Conference was held 9-14 August in Abuja, Nigeria, hosted by the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria (CLASFON). Over 500 advocates and family members attended from across the continent, including from Ethipia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, Togo, Mali, and Nigeria, among other nations. With the theme Jubilee Africa, Intergirty & Restoration, the conference was an exciting time of fellowship and excellent legal workshops and speakers. To see a few photos from the conference click here (coming soon). Additional photos of the conference and video of may become available from CLASFON.
In 1999 a group of Lawyers from Africa met in the United States and started a network which at the time was called African Christian Lawyers Network (ACLN). By 2005 the network had grown with contacts in over 35 countries in Africa. In the same year at a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa ACLN changed its name to Advocates Africa electing its first Board and adopting a constitution.
Advocates Africa has grown to a 43 country strong network of Christian lawyers, advocates, judicial officers and law students organized into national associations.
With the financial assistance from Advocates International, members of Advocates Africa have positively and effectively influenced the destiny of the nations of Africa through constructive programs that mobilize and empower civil society. They have engaged with people at grass-roots level to provide legal education and training on issues of democracy, human rights, good governance, rule of law etc., while at the same time participating in developing and influencing political and legal systems in both the public and private sectors.
Current Projects
THE GAMBIA: In May 2010, Nigeria’s Dr. Bankole Sodipo, the President of Advocates Africa, and Ethiopian Misgana Kifle, coordinator for Advocates Africa, attended the 47th session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights held in The Gambia. In addition to many excellent networking opportunities with delegates from 53 nations, they were able to present Advocates Africa’s position on the family.
KENYA: The 250-member Kenyan Christian Lawyers Fellowship has been very active in the Kenyan Constitutional Review Process addressing such crucial issues as the definition of marriage, family and when life begins.
ETHIOPIA: The 200-member Ethiopian Christian Lawyers Fellowship successfully addressed proposed laws affecting churches that would have injected the State into the internal workings of churches and their financial decisions. The proposed law also sought to limit revenues received by churches and missions from outside Ethiopia to 10% of the church budget, which would have cut off a major source of funds for many ministries.
SENEGAL: Advocates Africa is active in relief/aid activities in many areas including a program assisting the health and education of 5,000 street children in Senegal each year.
RWANDA: In partnership with World Vision, Lawyers of Hope in Rwanda launched a 3‑year legal education project and opened a legal aid clinic with special focus on orphans.
North America
U.S. Court Cases Advocates has recently been involved in:
Sherley et al. v. US
Sam Casey, AI General Counsel, is acting as co-counsel in the stem cell case, suing NIH over their funding guidelines for embryonic stem cell research.
NOVA v. Edmonson et al. II
AI is providing legal assistance to the Special Attorney General in Oklahoma in defense of a recent law requiring an ultrasound before an abortion procedure.
CT et al. v. US
AI is working in conjunction with ADF defending federal laws protecting Health Care Right of Conscience.
CLS v. Martinez
AI provided legal assistance to the Christian Legal Society in the CLS v. Martinez Supreme Court case. Christian Legal Society was defending its right, as a group on a public university campus, to require club leaders to agree to a statement of faith.
Here you will find the list of countries Advocates International has connections to subdivided by region. Please note that wherever you see the global map below on our site you are only two clicks away from any of the country pages. Simply click the country you want to learn more about on the map and then click the document icon that appears on the country when the map zooms in.
We are constantly working to bring more and more information to you in these country pages. Currently there are links to every country's constitution in their page as well as a link to general information about that country, we hope to bring you more including Advocate's Profiles for each of our country representatives very soon.
If you know of any information that should be added to these pages, and you are a registered user you may post a note here to let us know.
Oceania
Advocates Oceania has lived in the hearts of leaders such as Mark Mudri and Sue-Ellen Hollyock for some years, but their desire to see a formal group became a reality when a dozen Christian lawyers, law students and advocates went to Washington DC for the Global Convocation. The first official meeting of Advocates Oceania occurred then. Though almost all were based at the time in Adelaide or Brisbane, the Lord in His intriguing way has scattered that group to capital cities and regional centres throughout the nation carrying the Advocates vision. The same dozen remain currently involved and supporting the Advocates vision whilst there are numerous Christian lawyer groups throughout the nation to connect with into the future.
The pressing issues in Australia are similar to those faced in other Western countries – pro-choice movements on abortion and euthanasia, governments swayed by the pro-gay agenda and issues arising from the advance of Islam in Australia. However, increasingly religious persecution is occurring with Christians being arrested for preaching in cities or peacefully protesting at abortion clinics, or getting in trouble with government authorities for distributing Bibles.
Our major accomplishments to date have been to successfully defend arrested street preachers and youth leaders, promote and run a major pro-life event in Adelaide in partnership with the Justice Foundation in the USA and influence policy making and votes on euthanasia.
Current Projects
To establish a regional Advocates headquarters and provide some staff resources to promote and network Advocates regionally
To build links with other Christian lawyers and advocates in the region to capture the Advocates vision and support Advocates Oceania
Work with a Pacific Island nation to establish a Godly financial regime that will provide stimulus for their limited economy and establish Biblical economic principles in regional trade
Identify young law students and become a sending organisation despatching them to our Advocates brothers and sisters around the world to ignite their passion for justice in the world
Asia
Advocates Asia 2011 Conference Report!
August 25 through 27 were especially blessed days for those of us who attended the eleventh annual Advocates Asia (“AA”) conference in Seoul, Korea. Christian advocates from 21 countries throughout Asia (and a few other countries) met, worshipped, shared and learned together. The conference theme of “Liberty to the Captives,” was especially poignant as we met only miles away from North Korea, where tens of thousands of our Christian brothers and sisters are being systematically worked, starved and tortured to death in “death camps” which we learned were more hellish than we could ever have imagined. We heard an appalling report from Cheol-Hwan Kang, a Christian newspaper reporter from Seoul who is one of only a few persons to escape North Korea and from such a prison camp alive. Another highlight was the comprehensive discussion of ways in which we might support and protect Christians in Muslim Countries in which persecution of Christians has been so prevalent.
Still another highlight of our AA conference were country reports from the participants. This year’s reports were as enthralling and disturbing as ever. Advocates from (among other countries) Nepal, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Korea, Russia, Singapore and several Central Asian countries reported on what God is doing. One of our most active country groups is the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (“CLAAS”) in Pakistan, a country in which the Barnabas Fund just announced that an estimated 700 young Pakistani Christian girls annually are kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam and marry their captors. Our CLAAS lawyers had an especially challenging year during which two senior Pakistani officials (the governor of the largest Pakistani state and the only non-Muslim cabinet member) were assassinated for their support for a presidential pardon for one of CLAAS’s clients who was accused of blaspheming Mohammed and threatened with a sentence of death.
The thing most of us may remember best is the beyond-the-call-of-duty hospitality provided by our hosts, the Hallelujah Church and Advocates Korea. More than 70 students, professors and recent graduates from Handong International Law School (“HILS”) attended the conference and about 30 of them served as volunteer helpers and/or worship team leaders. Dean Eric Enlow made this possible by postponing the school’s semester for a week. What a blessing!
Our host country also provided some of the finest speakers AA has ever had, including Korea’s former Minister of Justice and the current Chief Justice of Korea’s Supreme Court—the former president of Advocates Korea.
Among others at the conference were visitors from the United States and Europe. If you are interested in an eye-opening, horizon-broadening and potentially life-changing experience, plan on joining us for our twelfth annual AA conference in Singapore or Indonesia next year.
Best Regards,
Min Choon Lee Tim Klenk
Chairman of Advocates Asia AI Board Member
Europe
Advocates Europe was registered in Gurnsey, UK in 2001 and re-registered in Bulgaria in 2009. It has over 400 members with contacts in 35 countries around Europe. AE focuses mainly on combating corruption and human trafficking, but also on religious freedom, pro-life, and family issues.
Current Projects
BULGARIA: We celebrated a major victory in January 2010 when the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of 800 plaintiffs in the six-year litigation against the State of Bulgaria seeking the return of 107 church properties illegally confiscated by police in 2004. But our colleague, Latcho Popov, now faces major new hurdles in proving damages because the State of Bulgaria is stonewalling access to the 107 buildings that hold the files with the relevant documents needed to prove the damages suffered by his clients.
ROMANIA: Significant property rights involving a Christian university are at issue. Advocates Europe has helped colleagues in Romania seeking court resolution of a dispute regarding property purchased by the school after communism fell in 1989. Later the State gave it to the original owners who had lost the property when the communists confiscated it.
SWEDEN: Advocates in Sweden, working alongside Virginia-based Home Schooling Legal Defense Association, are helping a family whose 7-year old home-schooled son was whisked off an airplane in July 2009 by Swedish police minutes before departure to India, the mother’s birthplace. Parental rights have been grossly abused in this case.
ALBANIA: AI’s Board member, Roger Sherrard, returned to Tirana for his 40th visit since 1992 as he continues to work with Albanian and European leaders on a model program on the rule of law and integrity in the courts, government, business and other institutions.
KOSOVO: On June 3, 2010 church buildings in Pristine, Kosovo, were vandalized. Advocates Europe appealed to Kosovo’s authorities to take action against the vandals.
TURKEY: In April 2010, in meetings once again led by Advocates Europe’s President, Latcho Popov, 32 delegates from 22 nations convened in Istanbul, Turkey, for the 7th European Religious Liberty Forum focusing on major persecution issues facing believers in Europe, especially in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Turkey.
ITALY: An Italian court ordered the removal of all religious symbols, such as crucifixes, from public school buildings. The case has been appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) where colleagues from ten nations within Advocates Europe have joined the Italian appeal. ECHR decisions generally bind all 53 European nations.
Latin America
Advocates Latin America started with the Christian Legal Society of Peru, founded in 2001 by Alfonso Wieland, leader of the Peruvian organization “Peace and Hope,” business lawyer Carlos Carrasco, law professor Vilma “Nina” Balmaceda, and Carlos Zelada.
After being challenged by Sam Ericsson to bring together the Christian lawyers of Latin America, Nina Balmaceda helped organize the First Latin American Convention for Christian Lawyers in Ica, Peru in August 2001. The 100 Christian lawyers who attended then founded the Latin American Christian Lawyers Network (RLAAC), the Latin American arm of Advocates International (ALA).
In October 2007, with the support of Handong International Law School (HILS), the ALA offered the first formal module of ALA/RLAAC’s International Certification Program in International Law at Guayaquil University.
Current Projects
MEXICO: In May 2010, nearly 100 advocates from a dozen Latin American nations attended the 9th Advocates Latin America (ALA) Regional Conference in Acapulco, Mexico. The theme of the conference was “Rule of Law in Latin America: Perspectives for the 21st Century.” AI President Sam Ericsson was a keynote speaker. The conference elected a superb Board of Directors, including Gerardo Amarilla as the ALA President. Gerardo is the first evangelical Deputy ever elected to the National Congress in Uruguay.
URUGUAY: In Uruguay, pro-abortion forces funded by Planned Parenthood published two books attacking the decision by Uruguay’s former President to veto an abortion on demand law. ALA lawyers are working with the Institute of Christian Advocates of Uruguay in writing a book to counter the book paid for by the abortion industry.
ARGENTINA: In collaboration with ALA colleagues, our Argentinean Advocates submitted to the National Congress a bill strengthening Argentina’s laws on adoption.
EL SALVADOR: In El Salvador, our national advocates have been engaged in strengthening laws protecting the institution of family and marriage.