Many Roads to Justice: The Law Related Work of Ford ... - UNDP

3 0 CA S E ST U D I E Sbeen for the fact that they chose issues and aspects of the ‘struggl e ’ that already had great momentum within the mass liberationmovement.” An essential lesson of the pass law cases, saysRichard Abel, was that “judicial victories are embedded in politicalstruggles; they are neither self-realizing nor self-eff e c t u a t i n g ;appellate decisions are the beginning of the fight, not the end.” 8As these dramatic disputes unfolded, Ford’s South Africa staffwas of necessity based at its New York City headquarters throughthe 1980s, 9 but remained heavily engaged with the law programand other activities in South Africa. They would visit frequently,for twenty or more person-weeks per year, often for about threeweeks at a time. Though the Foundation generally prefers itsoverseas programming to be field based, its South Africa stafffound that regular and lengthy visits enabled them to make fundingdecisions with confidence in their judgment and theirg r a n t e e s . 1 0 They would discuss progress and problems withgrantees, explore potential programming opportunities, generallyassess the evolving lay of the land, and encourage grantees asthey labored under trying circumstances.Such encouragement was appreciated by LRC, for example,because the group encountered both government opposition—reliable reports indicated that some officials considered LRC acommunist front and contemplated banning it—and because itsstrategic litigation was the subject of some initial progressivescorn. There were those involved in the antiapartheid strugglewho felt that such work legitimized the courts’ i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e dracism, and opposed LRC’s and CALS’s efforts in this regard. Forexample, the then-exiled opposition lawyer (and currentConstitutional Court Justice) Albie Sachs initially questionedL R C ’s reformist orientation, “because I feared that people wouldsee it as an alternative to the political struggle.” He and manyother skeptics later came to support this work.It would be an overstatement to place NGO lawyers at theheart of the struggle that brought down apartheid. Larger forceswere at play. And other individuals and organizations took greaterrisks. Still, time revealed the value of recognizing the authority ofthe courts in order to help undermine the foundations ofa p a r t h e i d .