- Prison Legal Aid Outreach Project (PLAOP): This project was started in 2001 an outreach programme targeting women in detention and those awaiting trial. It was a core activity that ran between 2001 – 2006 and it was funded by WRAPA. It was supported by the findings of a national survey of female inmates in 18 prisons in Nigeria. Specific focus was on the charges against them and their enjoyment of legal representation. The survey showed that over 60% of the women were primarily in prisons for trumped up charges, awaiting trial with no legal representation.
The interventions that followed this survey are:
- 60 women were provided legal representation leading to their freedom after spending various time spans in the prisons, awaiting trials for trumped up charges.
- 23 women were assisted to secure bail through the provision of linkage to their relations some of whom were not aware of the plight of the women.
- 36 women in Niger state who were repatriated from Thailand have been rehabilitated and reconciled with their families upon the completion of their prison terms.
- 18 women in very pathetic situations with their children, pregnancies, deformities or life threatening conditions in Nasarawa, Ekiti, Gombe, Katsina, Kano and Jigawa states had their trials and freedom expedited through WRAPA intervention.
- 45 women serving various terms have been given economic empowerment training in Plateau state prison.
- 39 inmates were released through the intervention of WRAPA working as a member of ANGOI, a coalition working with the Lagos government to decongest prisons through the release of inmates who have been in prison custody for unduly long periods for minor offenses or on with holding charges. WRAPA facilitated the legal processes for their release in collaboration with other NGOs and government.
- Legal Representation: WRAPA was the lead organization in different cases:
- Amina Lawal, the Nigerian woman whose appeal against a death sentence on charges of adultery was upheld by the Katsina State Sharia Court of Appeal in September 2003. With the support of a Shari’a Stakeholders group Amina was provided with legal representation
- WRAPA in collaboration with the Georgetown University Law Clinic provided legal representation in the appeal of Maryama Ya’u Maigwanjo whose right to consent was violated by her father at the point of her first marriage and subsequently at the point of her second marriage upon the breakdown of the first. As at September 2004 all depositions had been made by defense counsels. Maryama’s Constitutional rights to equality and freedom from discrimination must be read to uphold her right to freely choose who to marry or remarry with a third party. In 2007 the appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal was lost, and WRAPA has on behalf of Maryam filed an appeal before the Supreme Court. The case is still on.
- WRAPA in collaboration with the Georgetown University Law Clinic provided Legal representation for a deceased widow and her five daughters who stand the risk of disinheritance by the kith and kin of their deceased husband and father.
- WRAPA in collaboration with Georgetown University Law Clinic provided legal representation for a woman who has appealed a judgment by a Customary court in Makurdi in which she was divorced following an application for divorce by husband on the grounds that she is HIV positive. Her husband further challenged the award of the custody of the children to her based on HIV status. The appeal is hinged on the facts that one, the reason for her positive status as a basis for divorce is discriminatory, cruel and violates her human dignity. WRAPA has represented many more women in court (Pro Bono)
- WRAPA has offered and is still offering pro bono legal representation and counseling for women and girls across the 36 states on different issues standing with its mission to the legal rights of women in private and public spaces; through mobilization, sensitization and the provision of legal and other support services
