Legal Manager,
North America Thomson Reuters Foundation, USA
Ms. Flavie Fuente is a dual-qualified lawyer in France and England & Wales and holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights from the Universite Paris X. In August 2018, she joined the Thomson Reuters Foundation as the Legal Manager for North America and the Caribbean. She oversees the network of TrustLaw’s members and handles legal pro bono requests from non-profit organizations and social enterprises. Ms. Flavie identifies strategic human rights issues, scopes, and manages the development and publication of legal research for the social sector.
Ms. Flavie and her team regularly host legal workshops and events in collaboration with law firms and corporate partners. Before joining the Foundation, Ms. Fuente worked in London for Advocates for International Development (“A4ID”), a UK charity that empowers lawyers to eradicate poverty, as the Deputy Head of Partnerships and Legal Services. She worked extensively in collaboration with several UN agencies, primarily through the lens of the Sustainable Development Goals. Ms. Fuente also has experience working in Geneva with International Social Service, a non -profit dedicated to promoting children’s rights in the context of international adoption, and immigration and family lawyer in France.
| Event Title: Inclusive Social Development in Achieving the Global Goals 2030 | Date: September 25, 2019 |
SPEECH
Importance of rule of law and democracy to reduce inequalities and implement social development policies
The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters and our focus areas are inclusive economy, media freedom and human rights. A part of our organization is TrustLaw, which is our global pro bono service that connects NGOs and social enterprises with the best law firms and internal legal teams from around the world to support the corporate / business needs on day to day basis, as well as cross-border research to support the change of policies on human rights, corruption, microcredit, health, energy and the environment, among others.
Legal pro bono assistance is vital to guarantee the protection of the rule of law and strengthen democracy. We promote the SDGs through pro bono legal assistance in two main ways:
- legal support as an impact accelerator: we provide daily legal support to non-profit organizations so that they can fully focus on their mission and achieve greater impact
- the law as a change agent: we support advocacy efforts and enable change of laws through our legal research work.
Examples of recent pro bono projects that strengthen the rule of law and reduce inequalities are:
- Critics are not criminals: protect journalists from criminal defamation laws
- Guide “Know your rights” on land rights
- Legal and jurisprudential investigation on the prosecution of crimes of sexual and gender-based violence and terrorism
- Research on laws related to fiscal secrecy.
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