The Pro Bono team consists of law students, not qualified lawyers. This means we cannot provide legal advice, but can only assist licensed practitioners.

The Pro Bono team promotes human rights through legal research and writing. The Pro Bono team provides support to practitioners, academics and community groups who share EJP’s mission and goals.

Pro Bono volunteers are law students with a demonstrated capacity for high quality legal research and a dedication to protecting human rights. Volunteers for the Pro Bono team gain practical legal experience conducting research for cases and submissions to domestic and international committees.

You can contact the Pro Bono Co-Managers at probono@equaljusticeproject.co.nz

Examples of previous work:

2019: background research for the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice to feed into the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions.

2019: research for VOYCE-Whakarongo Mai on the support and services available to young people with care experiences transitioning out of state care. This research contributed to their advocacy with the UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing in relation to the precarious housing options for young people transitioning out of care.

2019: assisted academics at the University of Auckland on a range of legal issues including feminists interventions and the rights of and services available to asylum seekers and refugees in New Zealand.

2018: research assistance to Zoë Lawton and Frances Joychild QC on the reporting of sexual harassment to the New Zealand Law Society.

2018: worked alongside solicitor Hannah Reid to conduct research on modern slavery and voluntourism laws in New Zealand.

2018: legal research for the ‘Save Our Unique Landscape’ (SOUL) campaign at Ihumātao.

Prior years: submitted to the United Nations Committee On the Rights of Children in conjunction with Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa and to the Human Rights Commission on behalf of the National Foundation for the Deaf.

Assisted with the ground-breaking New Zealand Supreme Court decision of Proprietors of Wakatu v Attorney-General [2017] NZSC 17, which found the Crown owed fiduciary duties to the customary land owners.

2016: legal research relating to the potential discrimination grounds and illegality of the Department of Corrections’ policies concerning transgender people in prisons.