Refugee Legal Aid Resources

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The Nairobi Code

 

Model Rules of Ethics for Legal Advisors in Refugee Cases

 

To view the full code in PDF form, click here

 

Rule 1: SCOPE AND PURPOSE

Rule 2: DEFINITIONS

Rule 3: ADVISOR-CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS

Rule 4: DILIGENCE

Rule 5: Conflicts of interest

Rule 6: Confidentiality

Rule 7: Duty of INTEGRITY

Rule 8: DUTY TO AVOID EXPLOITATION

Annex 1

Model Minimum Standards of Qualifications for Legal Advisors for Refugees

 

Annex 2

Complaint Mechanism as a Feature in a Professional Accountability Structure for Legal Aid Providers

 

About the Nairobi Code

These rules were drafted and approved at the Southern Refugee Legal Aid Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, 28 January to 1 February 2007, which brought together 15 legal aid providers from Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Southeastern Europe and South America, along with several leading authorities on refugee law from Europe and North America.

 

The Nairobi Code grew out of informal discussions in 2006 between UNHCR and legal aid NGOs about the need to establish ethics standards for advisors who assist asylum-seekers in refugee status determination at UNHCR offices. The Code was based in part on a working paper by Asylum Access policy director (and RSDWatch manager) Michael Kagan. These initial proposals were circulated for informal comment by NGOs and UNHCR, and were then revised in Nairobi by a drafting committee before being finally amended and approved on the last day of the conference. Initial drafts were limited in application to UNHCR RSD, but the conference participants believed there was a need to set clearer ethical standards for all refugee-related legal aid.

 

The Model Rules adopted in Nairobi are intended to fill this gap by providing more specific guidance for lawyers offering legal aid to refugees. They do not replace the systems for regulating lawyers that already exist in most countries, and are not on their face binding. Instead, the Nairobi Code is intended as a model of best practice to be adopted voluntarily by legal aid providers.

 

 

BACKGROUND:

Michael Kagan, Working Paper: Setting Standards of Ethics, Competence and Accountability for Legal Aid in the Context of UNHCR RSD (December 2006)

 

 

 

Last updated 12 February 2007

 

 

 

 

RSDWatch.org

An independent source of information about the way the UN refugee agency decides refugee cases.

 

A project of Asylum Access