Fidès Nibasumba, BURUNDI

About Fidès

Fidès Nibasumba is a business law professor at the Leadership University of Bujumbura, Burundi, and works in various legal fields in addition to criminal law. She is a Fellow at Burundi Bridges to Justice (BBJ) and has been providing free legal assistance to indigent detainees in this role for years. Fidès also serves as a Mentor for the African Access to Justice Women’s Network.

The Challenge

In Burundi, the cost of legal assistance can be a significant barrier, particularly for women who are not financially independent. Additionally, Burundi’s prisons currently hold more than 100 infants who are there simply because they are too young to be separated from their detained mothers. Thus, providing free legal assistance to detained women with infants and small children also means securing freedom for the children.

The Innovation

As a Fellow, Fidès’ project focused on providing early access to justice through free legal assistance and rights awareness campaigns for detained women and girls in Bujumbura, especially those who have suffered abuse. During the project, Fidès established a network of 25 women lawyers—well beyond the initial goal of 10—committed to providing pro bono legal aid to women in conflict with the law. The Burundi chapter held three meetings throughout the project period, discussing experiences with pro bono legal assistance, professional challenges, potential solutions, and how to write case success stories. The chapter also launched a prison awareness campaign and established a legal clinic for women who have been victims of crime, providing legal aid to a total of 81 accused women. All 56 women represented by chapter-affiliated lawyers in court achieved positive outcomes.