About Legal Aid of Cambodia (LAC)
Founded in 1995, LAC is currently the largest non-governmental legal aid organization operating in Cambodia. LAC is the only legal aid organization to maintain a significant and permanent presence in rural areas, where 80% of Cambodia’s poorest population resides.
LAC envisions a just and fair Cambodian society, where everyone enjoys equal rights before the law. LAC’s mission is to provide quality legal aid and human rights education to the poor people of Cambodia. With a commitment to entrench the rule of law within the Cambodian legal system LAC ensures access to justice, promotes respect for the law and human rights and seeks legal and judicial reforms where appropriate.
LAC has four programs that it delivers:
- Child Justice Program;
- Women Justice Program
- Land Law and Natural Resources Program; and
- General Legal Aid Program;
LAC’s program activities focus primarily on education, advocacy, legal representation, and capacity building. The LAC programs also advocate for judicial reforms through workshop discussions amongst legal representatives and judges to identify concerns about the criminal justice system. These concerns are then used to propose meaningful judicial reforms to the government for courts in the target regions.
LAC is active in working with other CSO’s as it continues to play a significant role in fostering the rule of law in Cambodia, primarily through casework, but also by lobbying for law reform, advocacy on human rights, legal training for members of the legal profession and justice community and in other cross-cutting concerned matters. LAC is committed to building the capacity of its lawyers, its partners, its staff, and students to improve the quality of its legal work and its knowledge of law in the rapidly evolving Cambodian legal system.
LAC’s Vision, Mission, and Values
Our Vision
- For a just and fair Cambodian society, where everyone enjoys equal rights before the law.
Our Mission
- To strongly defend the poor and most vulnerable in Cambodia.
- To promote the rule of law by improving knowledge and building capacity in partnership with individuals and the community.
Our Values
Respect and cooperation
We believe that justice comes from respect of law and we actively encourage partnerships and positive engagement to improve the quality of legal services to the poor in our society.
- Responsibility to society
Our actions are underpinned by our commitment to human rights. In this regard, LAC promotes access to legal aid services for the poor and those most vulnerable.
- Pride in our work
We strive for levels of excellence that meet and exceed community expectations and we hold ourselves accountable to the highest legal standards in service delivery and ethical practice.
- Dedication to our beneficiaries
We are here for our beneficiaries. The needs of our beneficiaries are paramount in the planning and delivery of our services to ensure that our entrusted resources from our donors are directed towards meeting individual and community needs in the most effective and efficient manner.