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Legal assistance (ICLA)
Read caption Forty-year-old Zia Gull has seven children, and her family is so poor that she could not apply for an ID card by herself. NRC helped her obtain the document in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: Enayatullah Azad/NRC

Information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA)

Information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA)
People affected by displacement may be forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods, and often lose enjoyment of a range of rights. They are frequently at risk of multiple displacement, and may face obstacles to finding durable solutions.

People reached in 2018

A total of

1,196,142

people benefitted from our ICLA work

Legal and institutional frameworks, whether statutory, customary or religious, can either provoke or perpetuate displacement and discrimination or serve as instruments of protection and empowerment. People affected by displacement require assistance to understand, interpret and navigate these frameworks.

NRC’s ICLA programmes aim to enable people affected by displacement to claim and exercise their rights and to find lasting solutions. ICLA also aims to prevent displacement for those at risk. ICLA’s activities are in accordance with the IASC Protection Policy. They promote understanding and respect for the rights of affected people and the obligations of duty bearers under international law.

Our expertise in ICLA

Our ICLA activities support people to claim and exercise their rights through information, counselling, legal assistance, collaborative dispute resolution, capacity building and advocacy. ICLA programmes may engage in public interest cases, if this will lead to a direct positive effect for a greater number of individuals or create legal precedents that can generate positive structural changes.

ICLA may use international litigation mechanisms when domestic remedies have been exhausted or are ineffective. ICLA also advocates at all levels, including international bodies, to pursue the goal of promoting respect for the rights of people affected by displacement.

ICLA programmes observe local legal, cultural and social norms without compromising our commitment to promote and respect rights established by international law. This includes the use of judicial or administrative remedies, customary or religious mechanisms, collaborative dispute resolution methodologies, and transitional justice mechanisms.

As women and children may face particular obstacles in accessing their rights, we provide specific assistance to address these.

ICLA focuses on five thematic areas:

  • housing, land and property (HLP) rights
  • legal identity, including obtaining the civil and identity documentation necessary to access rights and services
  • immigration and refugee laws and procedures, including refugee status determination and legal residency
  • government legal procedures and policies for registration of IDPs, when access to rights and services is dependent on such registration
  • employment laws and procedures

ICLA on the ground

Our ICLA teams work in 20 countries around the world. Here are some examples of the difference they make:     

AFGHANISTAN | Finding a new home

Returning to Afghanistan after living 13 years as refugees in Pakistan, the people of the town of Kishinde found their homeland in ruins. With no other options, they travelled to the outskirts and settled on vacant land.

LEBANON | Fleeing your home, living stateless

Where over one million Syrian refugees have escaped the conflict, an estimated 36,000 children born to Syrian parents are at risk of becoming stateless.

UKRAINE | Opening a new legal centre in eastern Ukraine

NRC opens a new legal aid centre in the city of Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine. The centre provides free legal advice to internally displaced people and others affected by the conflict.

Contact Details:

For more information on NRC's ICLA Programmes please contact:


For more information on NRC's work on displaced women's HLP rights, please visit the womenshlp.nrc.no , or contact:

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Hamza is eight years old. During his family's period of being internally displaced, Hamza could not register at any schools because he didn't have a birth certificate. Because of this he cannot get the education he needs to have a brighter future. When NRC started its programme in Al-Mishqafa camp in Lahj, the Information Counseling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) Department in NRC Aden realized how important the issue of losing civil documentation was for the camps residents. The ICLA team decided to start a mass awareness campaign and information sessions to raise awareness of the importance of civil documentation to the life of the individuals in the camp and to all of the citizens of the country. Hamza’s mother was one of those who attended the information session provided by the ICLA team. Hamza and his four brothers and sisters now have their birth certificates. They told the NRC team that they are going to register at schools next year and that they were delighted. Hamza said, “I want to go to school and make new friends. I want to be a doctor in the future. I’m so happy that I finally have a birth certificate so I can be enrolled in school”. The Importance of Birth Certificates: It opens up access to health care. Every year, millions of children die from preventable diseases before they reach the age of five. Unregistered children are often unable to gain access to health care services or pay more for those services than a registered child. A birth certificate means a child can access medical treatment and the vaccinations he or she needs to stay healthy. It means an education. Without birth registration, a child can be kept from participating at school. But with a birth certificate, a child will have the necessary documentation needed to enroll in publicly funded schools. It can provide protection. Without identification, government officials have no documentation of a child’s existence. As a result, the law is incapable of protecting children from crimes and abuse. But effective birth registration protects children and provides them with their legal rights. It can help provide an inheritance. If an unregistered child’s parents pass away, they need to legally prove they are related to inherit their family property. But with birth registration, a child will have the legal proof of their family ties, ensuring they receive what belongs to them. It creates a permanent record of existence. If a disaster strikes and a child is separated from his or her family, a reunion could be next to impossible without proper identification. But with birth registration, government officials can safely unite families and prevent any child from going unaccounted for.
Yemen |

Yemen: the document that changes the future

A single document can determine the future of a displaced family. In Yemen, we provide birth certificates so that children are able to access life-saving health care, protection, education – and have evidence of their own existence.

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Front page of Barriers from Birth report.
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Barriers from birth: Undocumented children in Iraq sentenced to a life on the margins

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