ABA Center for Global Programs seeks to pivot, expand work in wake of USAID cuts
The ABA Center for Global Programs conducted outreach and public education campaigns to raise awareness of corruption in the criminal justice system in Morocco, reaching more than 1.3 million people between 2014 and 2016. (Photos courtesy of the Center for Global Programs)
On Jan. 20, the ABA Center for Global Programs was prepared to provide legal and psychosocial support to the Mujeres Achí, a group of ethnic-minority women in Guatemala who endured extreme sexual violence during the country’s internal armed conflict in the early 1980s.
These women are demanding justice for the acts of sexual violence and crimes against humanity they say were committed by the Guatemalan army and paramilitaries during this period. They began speaking out about their experiences in 2011, and 30 of them planned to go to trial at the end of January.
But shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that drastically affected the Center for Global Programs’ ability to help the Achí women and thousands of others who experienced human rights violations around the world. It directed a freeze in foreign assistance funding and review of all aid and development work abroad.
The Center for Global Programs, which partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of State to implement much of its international rule of law and human rights programming, had to abruptly stop its work because of the funding freeze.
Lucía Xiloj, a lawyer who was funded by the Center for Global Programs Human Rights for All project, was preparing for the oral and public debate of the Mujeres Achí case at the time.
“The freezing of funds was a great challenge for us, because we had strategic support to work with witnesses and experts to provide psychosocial and legal support to survivors of the armed conflict,” Xiloj said, according to the Center for Global Programs. “We couldn’t do in-depth work without these resources.”
“Now we face obstacles in terms of time and financial resources, which makes it difficult for us to offer more direct support to survivors and witnesses,” Xiloj added.
Impact on foreign aid
In coordination with the organization Action Femmes Sourdes, ABA Center for Global Programs staff were taught French sign language skills to help deaf sexual violence survivors navigate the justice system in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For 35 years, the Center for Global Programs has implemented more than 1,000 initiatives to help advance the rule of law in more than 100 countries.
Through these initiatives, it worked to protect the most vulnerable from gross human rights violations, including by providing legal assistance to victims of human trafficking, child victims of forced labor and individuals facing religious persecution. It also supports lawyers and judges around the globe who are targeted because of their profession.
The Trump administration’s freeze in foreign assistance funding puts many of these people at risk of crime and persecution, says Scott Carlson, the associate executive director of the Center for Global Programs.
The work of the center—which includes the Center for Human Rights, the Rule of Law Initiative, and ABA Representatives and Observers to the United Nations Committee—was largely altered by the funding freeze and the administration’s decision to halt disbursements to U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of State partners for existing grants and contracts, Carlson adds.
“At the time the executive order came out, we had $127 million, approximately, in programs that we won through a competitive process and were in the process of implementing,” Carlson says. “Putting that on pause, and then also not processing old bills for work completed, created quite a bit of a cash crunch. That affected not only the ABA but everyone who works in foreign assistance.”
The ABA, along with seven other U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of State grantees and contractors, filed a lawsuit Feb. 11 challenging the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign assistance funding.
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali of the District of Columbia ruled March 10 that the Trump administration’s “sudden, blanket suspension of congressionally appropriated” foreign aid was likely arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and was likely a violation of the constitutional separation of powers.
“It was a harm to us as long-standing partners with many governments and organizations in different countries, but it was also a big harm to the United States,” Carlson says. “That’s part of the second- and third-order effects that I think a lot of people don’t realize—the good faith of the United States government was called into question by these actions.”
While Ali said the government should pay grant recipients and contractors for work that had been completed, he did not order resurrection of the many foreign assistance contracts that had been canceled. According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration terminated about 10,000 contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development in February.
To mitigate damages, the Center for Global Programs was forced to lay off 170 staff and close 25 offices worldwide, Carlson says. Only two international offices remain open, in Tunisia and Jordan. The entity is 50% smaller in size than it was in January.
How can you help?
ABA ROLI hosted Know Your Rights workshops in Pará, Brazil, to combat forced labor in the region.The Center for Global Programs is now pivoting and planning for the future.
In March, it launched its “Invest in Justice, Build a Better World” fundraising campaign to help continue and expand its operations. It calls on lawyers and legal professionals to support its programs, which in the past included efforts as diverse as raising awareness of corruption in the criminal justice system in Morocco; hosting a know-your-rights workshop in Brazil to prevent slave labor; and teaching sign language skills to help deaf sexual violence survivors in court in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Past ABA president Deborah Enix-Ross spoke about the impact of the Center for Global Programs in a video shared as part of the campaign. Enix-Ross, who is vice chair of the Rule of Law Initiative Board, recounted the time a young lawyer from Albania told her she decided to join the profession after hearing ABA members talk about democracy and the rule of law.
“In her country, lawyers were part of the system that kept people down,” Enix-Ross said in the video. “But after seeing these U.S. lawyers come and talk to her, she not only became a lawyer, she immigrated to the U.S., and now she’s an in-house counsel at one of our finest companies. So whenever we think that this work is not important, it is important, and it does benefit us in the U.S.”
The Center for Global Programs also is seeking to supplement its portfolio with projects that are not funded by the U.S. government. Carlson says funds raised during the campaign will assist with its bids for new grants and contracts.
To donate to the campaign, visit the Center for Global Programs website. The Center for Global Programs is also open to pursuing sponsorship opportunities with organizations and firms, and anyone interested in supporting its work can contact Communications Director Mitty Steele.
See also:
ABA President Bay denounces ‘chaotic’ attacks on the rule of law
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