EJP Pro Bono promotes human rights through legal research and writing. The Pro Bono team provides support to practitioners, academics and community groups who share the Equal Justice Project's goals of promoting equality, inclusivity and respect for human dignity. Our volunteers are law students who have demonstrated a capacity for high quality legal research and a dedication to protecting human rights. Students in the Pro Bono team gain practical legal experience conducting research for cases and submissions to domestic and international committees.

The Pro Bono team consists of law students, not qualified lawyers, and as such can only provide assistance to licensed practitioners, not clients directly. If you require legal assistance please ask your lawyer to contact us.

Since the inception of EJP Pro Bono, we have carried out numerous research projects for a variety of community groups, practitioners and academics.

For example in 2019, we conducted background research for the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice to feed into the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions. We also provided research assistance to VOYCE-Whakarongo Mai on the support and services available to young people with care experiences transitioning out of state care. This research contributed to their advocacy with the UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing in relation to the precarious housing options for young people transitioning out of care. The Pro Bono team also assisted academics at the University of Auckland on a range of legal issues including feminists interventions and the rights of and services available to asylum seekers and refugees in New Zealand.

In 2018, EJP Pro Bono provided research assistance to Zoë Lawton and Frances Joychild QC on the reporting of sexual harassment to the New Zealand Law Society. We also worked alongside solicitor Hannah Reid to conduct research on modern slavery and voluntourism laws in New Zealand. Over the past few years the Pro Bono team has also produced legal research for the ‘Save Our Unique Landscape’ (SOUL) campaign at Ihumātao.

In previous years, EJP Pro Bono has submitted to the United Nations Committee On the Rights of Children in conjunction with Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa and to the Human Rights Commission on behalf of the National Foundation for the Deaf. The Pro Bono team also assisted with the ground-breaking recent Supreme Court decision Proprietors of Wakatu v Attorney-General [2017] NZSC 17 where they found that the Crown owed fiduciary duties to the customary land owners. In 2016, EJP Pro Bono conducted legal research in relation to the potential discrimination grounds and illegality of the Department of Corrections’ policies with respect to transgender prisoners.

If you have any enquiries relating to the Pro Bono team, please contact Rosa Gavey and Iutita Evans at probono@equaljusticeproject.co.nz.