Throughout the devastating floods in Pakistan this year, the Sindh Legal Advisory Call Centre (SLACC) which is Pakistan’s first and one of a kind toll free helpline; actively provided legal assistance to flood victims and displaced communities.
Operating as a tele-legal service at the forefront of this crisis, the lawyers at SLACC informed the flood victims of their legal rights, while Call Centre remained an integral referral body that connected flood victims to various government and non-governmental organizations working for flood relief. SLACC was established by the Legal Aid Society (LAS) in 2014 and later became a successful public-private partnership in 2018 with the Government of Sindh through the Law Department.
Despite the catastrophe, this public-private partnership with the government makes the people of Pakistan aware of their rights by providing free-of-cost legal advice all year round. When women are forced to evacuate their homes due to emergencies, women are more likely to face multiple forms of violence.
LAS established Friendly Safe Spaces in relief camps to provide psycho-social support to women and girls. LAS are providing awareness on gender-based violence (GBV) response services at the grassroots levels and in areas where women have less understanding of their legal & fundamental human rights.
Apart from this, LAS has strived hard in the year 2022 to connect women, children & transgender persons with the existing justice systems so that they could attain justice on basic human rights matters such as their legal rights to property, prevention from domestic violence, and early marriages.
