Representatives from Lawyers Without Borders were invited to speak today at the 2006 UN High Level Meeting on AIDS about the failure of many countries to enforce the inheritance rights of children who have lost parents to the disease. Volunteers from Shearman & Sterling, McDermott Will & Emery, White & Case and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton were asked to discuss the failure of legal systems in several countries to protect and enforce the inheritance rights of uninfected children.

"Thousands of children are losing their family lands because their parents' last will and testaments cannot be executed while the child is a minor," said Mark Renner of the law firm Shearman & Sterling and volunteer with Lawyers Without Borders. "The children and their farms are being left in the care of others until they are old enough to care for the land, however many never see that day," said Renner.

Stories of orphaned children being sold into prostitution or indentured servitude when a distant relative steals the land are all too common. Lawyers Without Borders volunteers have been working with local officials to rebuild legal systems for the enforcement of wills and other inheritance contracts.

"AIDS has already crippled civil society in too many countries," said Lucy Martinez of White & Case. "Without a system to enforce property rights, many of these children are being sold into dangerous situations where the likelihood of contracting HIV/ AIDS is significantly higher, creating a dangerous downward spiral."

Lawyers Without Borders, in conjunction with Africare, is spearheading the Children Inheritance Research Project (CHIRP), aimed at providing pro bono legal training and assistance to Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique in an effort to combat this problem.

The 2006 UN High Level Meeting on AIDS is being held at UN headquarters in New York from May 31 to June 1. Organized to address the international response to the AIDS epidemic, the meeting features a series of panel discussions and roundtables on topics critical to Member States and the near 800 civil society groups granted accreditation for the meeting.

About Lawyers Without Borders - Founded in 2000, Lawyers Without Borders is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) focused solely on protecting the integrity of Rule of Law through pro bono service. Working with 800 lawyer members worldwide, LWOB is engaged in efforts to restore rule of law in post-conflict countries and support lawyers at risk in political hot spots around the globe.

For more information, log onto www.lawyerswithoutborders.org.

Contact Walek & Associates Steve Schwartz, 212-590-0534 steve@walek.com