Our Year in Review: 2025 at the Vance Center

This year has been quite a journey: for our organization, our clients, and the broader international community. Urgent questions of human rights, the state of democracy, the rule of law, and the role of the legal profession have demanded our resources and expertise, and many of the Vance Center’s legal services are more in demand than ever before.

Even as we responded to new clients, requests, and projects, we stayed true to our mission. Through the twists and turns of 2025, we found new ways to provide pro bono support for civil society organizations and activate a global network of lawyers committed to justice.

We also wrapped up 2025 with a fresh look. In July, we introduced our refreshed visual identity, with new elements, livelier colors, and a renewed approach to showcasing our impact.

This year reminded us that we, just like our civil society clients, are resilient. We’ll keep adapting to emerging challenges and needs, and building a strong legal profession that ensures access to justice for all.

Read on for some highlights from a full year of challenges and growth at the Vance Center.

Strengthening the Rule of Law and Essential Institutions

Human Rights and Rule of Law in Africa: Rule of law issues across the continent took center stage this year. We supported a partner in Kenya with an ambitious human rights documentation training, hosted a lively discussion with experts on military trials and rule of law in Uganda, and joined high-level conversations on strengthening democratic foundations and the rule of law, including an UNGA side event, the inaugural African Bar Association Presidents’ Summit in Kenya, and the 85th African Commission Session in The Gambia. 

Vance Center Associate Executive Director Jaime Chávez Alor (third from right) moderates a panel on judicial independence in Latin America during the World Law Congress. Photo credit: Vance Center

An Independent Judiciary: Despite a pause in some critical funding following U.S. foreign aid cuts in early 2025, we continued working closely with judges’ associations in Latin America and beyond to uphold their essential role as key anti-corruption actors and safeguards for democracy. With FECAJUD, we co-hosted a two-day workshop for Central American judges and legal experts from across Central America and organized panel discussions and meetings on judicial independence at the World Law Congress in May. We also produced practical reports on key topics, including assessing judicial independence in Central America and analyzing the important relationship between judicial independence and economic development.  

Spotlight: Strategic Litigation

Our work to defend judges went beyond convenings and trainings to shape some of our key litigation efforts in 2025. We filed two petitions to the IACHR on behalf of a group of Mexican federal judges outlining how the recent judicial reforms violated their rights and urging the Commission to take action. We submitted amicus briefs to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a case of forced sterilization in Peru, and to Guatemala’s Constitutional Court arguing for the constitutionality of a new policy on beneficial ownership disclosure by government contractors. We also welcomed decisions in several cases to which we submitted briefs: an Inter-American Court decision on the Court’s jurisdiction to hear cases concerning human rights violations in Venezuela that occurred after the country’s 2013 withdrawal from the American Convention on Human Rights, and a Peruvian Supreme Court decision granting an NGO legal standing to represent victims in a case before the Court. We have ambitious plans to keep expanding our strategic litigation efforts in 2026 and hope to be able to celebrate our contributions to more positive court decisions. 

Combating Corruption: This year, we officially joined the Global Civil Society Coalition for the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and jumped into action, boosting our ongoing anti-corruption work to an even higher level as we filed amicus briefs, participated in events, and contributed to policy documents and reports. In late 2025, the Institutional Integrity program staff joined a series of events in New York, Miami, and online as part of the Stronger Together initiative. The events, culminating with the Conference of the States Parties to the UNCAC in December, highlighted the need to align human rights principles and anti-corruption frameworks and emphasize the role of victims in pursuing justice in these cases. 

Associate Executive Director Jaime Chávez Alor participated in Civil Society Preparatory Day ahead of the UN Anti-Corruption Conference in Doha, Qatar, in December 2025. Photo credit: Vance Center

Defending Civic Space and Press Freedom

Civic space: We responded to concerns about shrinking civic space around the globe by doing what we do best: mobilizing lawyers and experts in our international network to support CSOs with advice and legal services. Through statements from the New York City Bar Association, we expressed concern about laws restricting civic space in Peru, Zimbabwe, and El Salvador. With the Pro Bono Network of the Americas, we hosted webinars and produced resources to help civil society groups navigate new requirements in El Salvador, Peru, and Paraguay, and organized a practical workshop at the Central America Donors Forum to help CSOs understand how to access the pro bono legal services they need. Attorneys from our Human Rights and Access to Justice Program also joined partner organizations for an IACHR hearing on the new Peruvian law.

Press Freedom: The Vance Center confronted growing threats to press freedom both domestically and internationally. At events from Italy to Malaysia to St. Louis, we connected with independent news producers, journalists in exile, and journalist support organizations to understand their needs and helping them understand and address legal risks. Lawyers for Reporters, which provides pro bono legal services to independent, local and mission-driven news organizations across the U.S., expanded its staff even further and added dozens of new clients and resources, including services to help clients identify compliance concerns and safely report on law enforcement activity and public protests. Through our work with Reporters Shield, we coordinated provision of legal training to journalists on defamation and related legal risks and provision of legal risk assessments of planned stories. We also identified and vetted lawyers eligible to represent members in legal proceedings that qualify for Reporters Shield benefits.  

Spotlight: José Rubén Zamora

Three years after his arrest, we continued the international fight for justice for our client, Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora. With a group of international organizations, we submitted an amicus brief to Guatemala’s Supreme Court arguing for the court to grant his return to house arrest, and later called on the Court to grant an appeal ordering a retrial. Through it all, as Zamora’s local legal team faced threats and harassment, we remained by his side, following every twist and turn and keeping the international community informed about this complex, emblematic case for due process and press freedom. 

Championing Fundamental Human and Environmental Rights 

Immigrant Rights: The Keep Families Together initiative assisted dozens of migrant children and families to obtain the legal documentation they need to secure immigration relief in the U.S. In 2025, we responded to more than 180 requests for support from 45 countries.

Spotlight: Justice and Visibility for Incarcerated Women

Network members offer insights on sustained movement building during a panel at the Women in Prison Network Global Convening in Bogotá, Colombia, in November. Photo credit: Vance Center

This year brought advances for our Women in Prison Network, with several major events and a series of networking webinars. In March, we joined advocates from the around the world to spotlight the urgent need for gender-responsive criminal justice reforms in two events during the 69th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. In November, we hosted the second Global Convening of the Network in Bogotá, Colombia. The convening brought together more than 80 advocates, practitioners, academics, and women with lived experience from around the world for three days of presentations, deep conversation, and building new partnerships, leaving us with plenty of ideas and inspiration for the coming year. 

Climate Justice: Our Environment Program approached climate justice at all levels, from the grassroots to international fora. We welcomed two major advisory opinions from international courts that helped move the needle on states’ obligations regarding climate change and human rights. In July, the Inter-American Court issued Advisory Opinion No. 32, for which we submitted an amicus brief in 2024. Later that month, the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on international human rights and climate change cited our research, produced with a consortium of partner law firms, on climate jurisprudence in 193 jurisdictions. Outside the courts, our staff attorneys attended COP30 in Belém, Brazil, and we collaborated with partners on a standing-room-only panel during Climate Week NYC focused on climate justice in the courts. 

Promoting Public Interest Law and an Inclusive Legal Profession

Pro Bono Practice Development: We continued pursuing opportunities to mobilize lawyers for justice and expand a culture of pro bono worldwide. We met with bar association leaders in Kenya and Nigeria to discuss new ideas for collaboration, analyzed the state of pro bono in Latin America in our annual survey with Latin Lawyer, and connected with longtime friends as we celebrated decades of cooperation at the 25th anniversary of Fundación Pro Bono Chile.

A Diverse Profession: A series of events alongside the regional IBA Forum in March highlighted pro bono leadership in action, gender equity, and LGBTQ+ rights. Our annual Women in the Profession breakfast explored the relationship between legal tech innovation and gender equity, and a special event co-hosted with Pro Bono Network partners and law firms addressed LGBTQ+ rights in the Americas and how the legal community can advance them.

Supporting Public Interest Law Careers: We welcomed the third cohort of Access to Justice practitioners, supporting early-career public interest lawyers pursuing projects focused on vulnerable populations in Argentina and gender-based violence in Mexico.

Growing our Capacity and Team

Funding Support: Even as the funding landscape experienced dramatic changes and losses this year, impacting several of our programs, we also celebrated new and renewed funding from supporters including William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Humanity United, Ford Foundation, Joyce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Pilot House Philanthropy, and Skyline Foundation. This generous support has enabled us to expand our work for public interest reporting clients and across all four practice areas in Africa, with much more to come in 2026. 

New Staff: This was another big year for staff growth. From June through November, we added a new person per month to our team. We’ve expanded our capacity in pro bono programs, public interest reporting, Lawyers for Reporters, and Africa Initiatives.