Legislation is usually designed to protect society's most vulnerable, yet those most at risk of human rights violations often have the least awareness of these laws and the most limited means to use them. In Latin America, White & Case's pro bono projects underscore our dedication to promoting justice, equality and the rule of law for all, in a region where these principles are often challenged by poverty, political instability and institutional barriers.

There is a healthy culture around pro bono at the Firm, with no shortage of partners and associates who want to get involved. In 2023, we logged 105,550 pro bono hours in total, with more than 1,900 hours in Latin America.

In recent years this has entailed, for example, upholding the fundamental human rights of children with incarcerated parents, providing constitutional protection for asylum seekers and ensuring access to justice for journalists.

The work of charitable organizations such as White & Case partner Appleseed México, the Vance Center for International Justice and the Thomson Reuters Foundation's TrustLaw is pivotal in either directly serving clients or connecting them with those who can.

There are tremendous tensions in Latin America, where people exhausted by inequality and crime—which worsened with the pandemic—are pushing back against inefficiency, excessive bureaucracy and arbitrariness. What connects all of our pro bono projects is the idea of making sure these people are heard and protected.

Setting precedents for migrants’ rights

In January 2019, the Trump administration enacted the Migrant Protection Protocols—better known as the "Remain in Mexico" policy—which ruled that migrants from all over the world seeking asylum in the US must stay in Mexico until their application was approved. That's when Appleseed stepped in.

Local NGO IMUMI, or Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, had filed an "amparo"—a request for constitutional protection—on behalf of those thousands of migrants. Since the case was complex and required specialized attention, Appleseed worked with White & Case to get it before the country's Supreme Court and to obtain a favorable resolution. Many of these people were fleeing war and persecution in their home countries and had effectively been stranded at the US-Mexico border, with neither government taking responsibility for them.

This left these already vulnerable individuals at risk of extreme physical harm: During the two years that the policy was in place, NGO Human Rights First identified more than 1,500 publicly reported cases of kidnappings, murder, torture, rape and other violent attacks. More than 71,000 migrants were subject to the policy during this time.

"These people had come from all over the world—even from Asia-Pacific, Africa—and they had the right paperwork, but these asylum hearings can take months or even years," says Maru Cortazar, executive director at Appleseed México.

Amparos typically protect an individual or company, but lawyers in this case innovatively argued that NGOs represented the collective rights of those affected by the controversial policy. That particular tool had not been used in this context before, and in a heavily precedent-based legal system, that was a great motivator: the idea of creating law to represent collective rights.

The Mexican Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the amparo, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the existing system was a violation of migrants' human rights and obstructed their access to justice.

President Biden overturned the "Remain in Mexico" policy, but the amparo stays in place if it is reinstated in future, solidifying the Mexican government's obligations to asylum seekers. The precedent it has set is incredibly important and may be used in other cases, adds Cortazar. "We demonstrated that a nonprofit organization can speak on behalf of people who don't have the support or ability to defend themselves," she says.

Protecting children with incarcerated mothers

In Guatemala, our work has centered on the dozens of young children—most under the age of four, others as old as 12—who reside in prison with their mothers. Many more regularly visit a parent in prison. Jaime Chávez Alor, associate executive director at the Vance Center, says the treatment of these children can be abhorrent. In extreme cases, it may involve physical or sexual abuse, but more common is general neglect, particularly around health and nutrition.

"This was a hugely important, urgent matter—the consequences for the human rights of children residing in prison with their mothers were serious, and imminent," says Chávez Alor. "If these fundamental rights are not upheld in the first years of a child's life, you can't repair that."

Working with White & Case and the Guatemalan organization Colectivo Artesana, the Vance Center filed a request with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for precautionary measures to protect these children.

The initial work involved local and international research on the problem, which was extensive. Since 2021, 35 cases of malnutrition in children living in three Guatemalan prisons have been reported, despite the existence of legislation dictating that detention centers must provide adequate spaces for these women and their children. "Babies and toddlers have specific nutrition needs, and prison is not famous for providing the most nutritious meals, so that was one of the standards we recommended," adds Chávez Alor.

The result was a national protocol, established by the Guatemalan Court for Children and Adolescents, focused on nutrition and freedom from sexual violence. The requested precautionary measures seek to maintain this protocol and to prevent its cancellation.

Advocating for formerly imprisoned women

A further Vance Center project focused on women's right to reintegration following their release from prison. Formerly incarcerated women in Latin America face a multitude of obstacles: social stigma and discrimination, an absence of professional training and pre-release preparation, limited or no access to fairly paid job opportunities, financial and educational discrimination, and the loss of family ties.

All of these factors make women more vulnerable—more likely to take on dangerous, exploitative work, less likely to report unsafe working conditions and more at risk of gender-based violence.

"When the man in a family goes to prison, the rest of the family modifies their lives around that," says Chávez Alor. "When the woman in a family goes to prison, she's forgotten." The Vance Center's Women in Prison project aims to raise awareness of the difficulties women face both during their incarceration and for years after their release, which these women call a "double sentence": one at the hands of a judge, another at the hands of society.

In a March 2024 hearing at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, DC—the first of its kind—affected women were able to speak freely about the issues they have faced. "We had a few women who had to participate remotely, because the fact that they are formerly incarcerated meant they couldn't get a visa, and that was so powerful—it really hammered home the point of it all," says Chávez Alor.

Speaking during the hearing, Colectivo Artesana's Andrea Barrios said that women face a double stigma upon completion of their sentences. She cited a survey of 200 formerly incarcerated women, which found that more than half were unable to find work after leaving prison, 26 percent were working in the informal labor market, and the remainder were considering migrating to the US to find work.

Educating journalists about their rights

Another key judicial theme across Latin America is the treatment of journalists. Every year, hundreds of journalists around the world are attacked, imprisoned or killed while simply doing their job, and so the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) prepares and distributes essential guides for reporters.

The CPJ identified a particular risk to journalists in the run-up to the 2024 elections in Mexico, which has historically been identified as one of the most dangerous countries to be a journalist, particularly for those who cover political corruption, drug trafficking or human rights abuses. The heightened political tensions and involvement of criminal groups in the electoral process further increases the dangers journalists face.

TrustLaw, the global pro bono network of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has worked with the CPJ on a number of these "know your rights" guides, most recently in Mexico, in collaboration with White & Case lawyers. It has previously published similar guides for journalists in Brazil, India and the US.

Sometimes the risks identified are physical or cyber-attacks, but legal threats and censorship are becoming more common, says María Candela Zunino, legal manager for Latin America at TrustLaw.

The guide offers essential information for journalists in case of arrest, advice on covering protests, contact details for local organizations that provide legal support, and a summary of the documents and devices police are legally allowed to seize. "It provides both practical steps to ensure journalists' safety during and after protests, and an outline of the legal procedures if a crime is deemed to have been committed," says Candela Zunino.

Doing our part

White & Case lawyers have spent countless hours on these and many other matters, and we consider the ability to practice pro bono to be both an important responsibility and a significant perk of our careers. As a global firm, we have tremendous resources at our disposal to help us do as much good as we can, both in Latin America and wherever we work.

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