by Chris Proctor
Archbishop Desmond Tutu told an invited audience at St Paul’s Cathedral on Monday this week that in the midst of a turbulent and war-ridden world, lawyers have brought a smile to God’s face. “There are times it seems the Almighty himself seems to have mislaid the divine plan”,’ he said. “And then something happens to restore our faith in the human family: like lawyers giving their time for free”.
He was speaking at an event of Advocates for International Development (A4ID), an organisation of lawyers offering free advice because “access to legal rights and protection are key factors in reducing extreme poverty and increasing justice”.
Yet the man who in 1986 chaired South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission still had harsh words for Tony Blair and George Bush who should “apologise to the people of Iraq”. And he told his audience that no “war on terror” could ever succeed.
His solution was not spending “trillions of dollars on defence”, but providing clean drinking water and immunisation against measles that killed 400,000 African children a year.
