Providing Legal Aid and Assistance

Primarily, the Centre provides legal aid in the form of counselling and advice to the poor and those who cannot afford to hire lawyers to handle their legal issues. Those in need of legal aid visit the office of the Centre situated at House No. 33 Karume Street, Kijangwani in Unguja or receive legal aid/assistance from the Centre’ s recognized Paralegals who are found in all electoral constituencies of Zanzibar. In addition, some of the staff of the Centre who are admitted into the Roll as Advocates in Zanzibar provide legal representation in the courts of law for deserving cases which have satisfied the Centre’s criteria for taking legal matters to court.

Promoting Rule of Law and Good Governance

During the 31 years of its existence, the Centre has grown in strength and works tirelessly to achieve its  intended aims and objectives in line with the vision and mission of the Centre.

In order to achieve these aims and objectives to ensure that behavioural changes are guaranteed, the Centre strives to ensure that all the people of Zanzibar have a basic understanding of legal and human rights principles and can act on them in order to build a society based on rule of law, good governance and the observance of human rights norms.

Establishment and Status of the Centre

The Zanzibar Legal Services Centre (ZLSC) was established in 1992 as a nongovernmental, voluntary, independent, Non partisan and non – profit making organisation aimed at providing legal aid services to the poor women, and children, the disabled, marginalised and other vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of the Zanzibari society. The Centre also aims to popularise knowledge on the law and human rights and to produce publications in all areas of legal concern to the people of Zanzibar.