Detention centres in Chad were overcrowded, with the vast majority of detainees awaiting trial, without legal counsel and sometimes without a case file. The state of the prison system, the ignorance of their rights by the beneficiaries, the lack of training of the judiciary, and the culture of impunity aggravate the conditions of vulnerability of women and children who are regularly victims of serious violations of their rights. Outside the prison environment, they are victims of numerous forms of discrimination and violence. 

The Program for Assistance and Access to Law for Children and Women (PADEF) is the result of work between Avocats Sans Frontières France (ASF France), the Association of Women Lawyers of Chad (AFJT) and the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (ATPDH), which aims to contribute to the strengthening of the rule of law and the judicial system in Chad. The actions carried out in the prisons of N'Djamena, Abéché and Koumra, in our partners' reception and listening centres and in the target communities will target women and children who are detained and/or victims of violence. This project will improve the respect of rules and guarantees in terms of detention, organise the complete management of the files of the most vulnerable women and minors detained and raise awareness among the population and actors in the penal chain about women's and children's rights.

The situation of justice in Chad is characterised in particular by detainees' ignorance of their rights, dysfunctions in the penal chain, the lack of capacity of justice actors, the difficult access of the population to justice, the ineffectiveness of legal aid mechanisms, and the culture of impunity, all of which aggravate the conditions of vulnerability of women and children who are regularly victims of serious violations of their rights and who no longer have confidence in the justice system. Outside the prison environment, they are victims of numerous forms of discrimination and violence. Since its inception, PADEF has reversed this situation by providing legal advice to 1,247 women and minors, including 227 cases, psychological counselling to 325 and medical assistance to 161 beneficiaries.