About the Alternative Law Groups
The Alternative Law Groups, Inc. (ALG) is a coalition of nineteen (19) legal resource non-governmental organizations that adhere to alternative or developmental law.
These organizations have distinct programs for developmental legal assistance primarily concerned with the pursuit of public interest, respect for human rights, and promoting social justice.
The first component entails enhancing the capacity of the poor and marginalized groups to access and use judicial, quasi-judicial, and other mechanisms for addressing their issues and concerns and for protecting and enforcing their rights. The second focuses on pursuing a favorable policy environment that promotes the rights and interests of the poor and marginalized.
ALG members’ operations cover a wide area of concerns involving justice issues of the poor and marginalized groups in the Philippines. These include issues on women, labor, peasants, fisherfolk, children, urban poor, indigenous peoples, persons living with HIV/AIDS, local governance, and the environment.
Collectively, the coalition members’ operations cover the entire country, with some ALG members having nationwide coverage and operating in different areas throughout the Philippines and others focusing their operations on a particular locality or region.
Vision
Mission
History
In the mid-80s, a new batch emerged focusing on non-formal education and training for farmers, workers, urban poor, and indigenous sectors.
By the early 90s, batches of legal NGOs were established each carrying a specific sectoral issue such as environment, women, agrarian reform, and children. With this, the network also formally organized itself into a coalition.
Member Organizations
Ateneo Human Rights Center
Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for Development in Mindanaw, Inc. (BALAOD Mindanaw)
Children’s Legal Bureau, Inc.
Educational Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc
EnGendeRights, Inc.
Environmental Legal Assistance Center
Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc.
Institute of Politics and Governance
Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan
Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc.
Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center–Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth-Philippines, Inc.
Participatory Research Organization of Communities and Education Towards Struggle for Self-Reliance (PROCESS) Foundation-PANAY, Inc.
Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc.
Rainbow Rights Philippines, Incorporated
Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panlegal
Tanggapang Panligal ng Katutubong Pilipino.
Tanggol Kalikasan, Inc.
Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education
Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau
Ateneo Human Rights Center
The Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC) is a university-based institution engaged in the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. With its vision to have a just and humane society and the mission to respect, protect and promote human rights most especially in the Philippines, the AHRC works to achieve its objectives through engagement with communities and partner organizations.
AHRC’s main areas of work include human rights training and education of law students and other sectors; promotion and protection of the rights of marginalized groups, including children, women, migrant workers, and indigenous peoples (through its Child Rights Desk, Women and Migrant Workers Desk, and Indigenous Peoples Desk); development of an ASEAN human rights mechanism; research, publication, curriculum development, legislative advocacy, and policy initiatives on human rights.
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Website: https://ahrc.org.ph
Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for Development in Mindanaw, Inc. (BALAOD Mindanaw)
Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for Development in Mindanaw, Inc. (BALAOD Mindanaw) is a non-stock, non- profit organization that aims to help in the advancement of the legal and justice issues of different marginalized sectors and communities in Mindanao in the context of active peoples’ participation in governance. BALAOD promotes paralegal formation, provides other legal services to marginalized sectors and communities, conducts capability-building interventions on local legislation and dispute resolution, provides a venue for networking and alternative legal assistance for law practitioners, law schools and law students, and facilitates the creation of a favorable policy environment responsive to the needs of marginalized sectors and communities..
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BALAODMindanaw
Children’s Legal Bureau, Inc.
Children’s Legal Bureau, Inc. (CLB) is a Cebu-based non- stock, non-profit organization envisioning a just world for children. CLB is committed to empower communities in promoting justice for children through legal aid, training, advocacy and networking. Its services include providing legal services to abused children and children in conflict with the law, providing paralegal trainings to communities and children, policy development and advocacy related to child’s rights.
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChildrensLegalBureauInc
Educational Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc
Educational Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc. (ERDA) is a non-stock, non-profit organization that was organized to assist children who dropped out of school and who are at risk of dropping out, including children in conflict with the law, children who are engaged in child labor, and those who are on the streets. ERDA supports these children through education, family and community support programs. ERDA continues to advocate for inclusive education and juvenile justice.
Website: https://erdafoundation.ph
EnGendeRights, Inc.
EnGendeRights, Inc. (EnGendeRights) has a long track record in championing the rights to equality and non-discrimination of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons through its domestic and international legal and policy work, research, publication, training, and impact litigation. EnGendeRights has actively advocated for the adoption of laws, policies, and even international conventions and regional human rights mechanisms upholding the rights of women and rights based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE).
Website: https://engenderights.com
Environmental Legal Assistance Center
Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC) is a non- governmental organization that was organized to address the emerging challenge of environment lawyering especially in the rural areas where degradation of the environment is most felt. It aims to protect and assert environmental rights and equitable access to and control of natural resource use by communities in Palawan and the Visayas through effective developmental legal assistance and community-based resource management. ELAC envisions communities that are empowered and self-determining stewards of natural resources.
Website: https://www.elacphilippines.org
Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc.
Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (HLAF) is a non-government and a non-profit organization specifically focused on the protection of the rights of persons deprived of liberty, especially those who are most vulnerable, such as children, elderly, women, sick, and differently-abled. HLAF also advocates for the proper implementation of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act. Its main programs are jail decongestion, restorative action and reintegration of ex-detainees.
Website: http://hlaf.org.ph
Institute of Politics and Governance
Institute of Politics and Governance (IPG) is a civil society organization working for the furtherance of local autonomy and governance in the Philippines. IPG has become a consortium of experts, practitioners, and advocates in the fields of sustainable development, good governance, and progressive public policymaking at the local level. It seeks to enable and synergize stakeholders in pursuing progressive reforms through fair, law-based, and participatory decision-making.
Website: https://ipg.ph
Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan
Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan (KAISAHAN) is a social development organization promoting a sustainable and humane society through the empowerment of marginalized sectors in rural areas, especially among farmers and farm workers, to undertake their own development, participate fully in democratic processes and demand their rightful share in the stewardship of the land and the fruits of their labor. Its mission is to facilitate agrarian reform implementation and sustainable rural development with various stakeholders at the national and local level, especially farmers, farm workers toward the formation of sustainable integrated area development (SIAD) communities.
Website: https://kaisahan.com.ph
Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc.
Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc. (Kanlungan) is a non-stock, non-profit organization that envisions a truly sovereign and democratic Philippine society where labor migration is just an, and not the only, option and where overseas Filipino women and men enjoy the respect of peoples in other societies within the context of a just and egalitarian global order. It is engaged in direct service, advocacy work, research, and policy interventions for Filipino migrant workers who are survivors of human trafficking, illegal recruitment, workplace abuse, and non-payment of wages, as well as their families and their communities.
Website: https://kanlungancentre.blogspot.com
Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center–Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth-Philippines, Inc..
The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) is organized and registered as a non-stock, non-profit, non-partisan, cultural, scientific and research organization. LRC works for the recognition and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and upland rural poor communities to land and environment. The Center seeks to bridge the gap between the informal articulation of the aspirations of these marginalized communities on the one hand, and the formal, technical, bureaucratic and legal language used by the state, on the other.
Website: https://www.lrcksk.org
Participatory Research Organization of Communities and Education Towards Struggle for Self-Reliance (PROCESS) Foundation-PANAY, Inc.
Participatory Research Organization of Communities and Education Towards Struggle for Self-Reliance (PROCESS) Foundation-PANAY, Inc. is a non-government organization operating in Iloilo City, Antique, and other areas in Panay Island. It seeks to empower the grassroots and deprived sectors of society so that they can take control of their own destinies towards a sustainable and ecologically sound environment.
Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc.
Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc. (PEJC) is a non- stock and non-profit corporation promoting environmental justice and actively pushing for the full implementation of Philippine environmental laws, accountability of public officials, and capacity building for citizens for the enjoyment of the fundamental right to a balanced and healthful ecology by the current generation and the generations to come. It is an organization established to provide legal assistance to victims of environmental injustice, conduct policy research on the environment, advocate policy reforms, assist in building local capacities for environmental protection and promote sustainability and protection of human rights.
Website: https://www.pejc.org
Rainbow Rights Philippines, Incorporated.
Rainbow Rights Philippines, Incorporated (R-Rights) is a non-profit organization that envisions a pluralistic and an inclusive society with progressive views on social participation and political representation, where people of the LGBTQIA+ community (and their intersections, i.e. PLHIV and PWD) are recognized as productive members of society and important contributors to nation-building. R-Rights conducts policy advocacy and research; training, education, and capacity-building; publications, resources, and documentation; lobbying, law reform; and campaigns, networking, and media relations.
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/rrightsph
Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panlegal
Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panlegal (SALIGAN) is a legal resource non-government organization engaged in developmental legal work with women, workers and local communities. Founded in 1987, SALIGAN operates in different areas throughout the Philippines, through its main office in Quezon City and its branches in Naga City in the Bicol region and Davao City in Mindanao. SALIGAN’s programs include litigation, legal education, policy reform work, research and publication of popular legal materials, and internship.
Website: https://www.saligan.org
Tanggapang Panligal ng Katutubong Pilipino
Tanggapang Panligal ng Katutubong Pilipino (PANLIPI) is an organization of lawyers and indigenous people’s (IP) advocates that pioneered and continues to engage in development work among indigenous peoples in the Philippines. It was established in 1985 and had since implemented programs for the development of IP communities through: Developmental Legal Assistance, Legal Education and Outreach, Institutional Capability Building, Ancestral Domains Delineation, and Resource Management Planning.
Website: https://panlipi.org
Tanggol Kalikasan, Inc.
Tanggol Kalikasan, Inc. (TK) is a public interest environmental law office which envisions an empowered society that relates with its environment in a just and sustainable manner for the equitable benefit of all Filipinos. Tanggol Kalikasan’s mission is to facilitate the empowerment of communities and institutions to manage their ecosystems through law and other creative mechanisms. Conscious of the power of an organized and informed citizenry, TK’s programs are aimed at encouraging greater citizen’s participation in environmental law enforcement and policy-making in resource allocation.
Website: https://www.tanggolkalikasan.org
Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education
Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education) is an indigenous peoples’ organization born out of the need for heightened advocacy to have the rights of indigenous peoples respected, protected and fulfilled worldwide. It also advocates and works on the elaboration and operationalization of indigenous peoples’ sustainable, self-determined development. Its program areas include enhancing capacities for climate change adaptation and mitigation; effective national implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity; Promotion and implementation of the International Human Rights Law and UNDRIP at the national, regional and global levels; Philippine national program for Indigenous People’s empowerment and sustainable development; and Indigenous People’s Sustainable and Self-Determined Development (IPSSDD).
Website: https://www.tebtebba.org
Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau
Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau (WLB) is a non-government legal organization promoting and fighting for women’s human rights in accordance with feminist and development perspectives and principles. Specifically, its mission is to provide feminist legal services and actively engage in advocacy together with other women’s groups to transform the law and the legal system in furtherance of the right of women to self-determination and the advancement of their dignity, rights and leadership. For most of its 12 years of operations, WLB has been at the forefront of pioneering initiatives to promote and protect women’s human rights in the country.
Website: https://wlbonline.org