Eleanor Thompson
Eleanor Thompson is a public interest lawyer who is passionate about supporting people to use their power and innovative solutions to address social injustices.
For nearly two decades, her work has largely focused on addressing systemic legal and socio-economic injustices, faced by Sierra Leoneans, other Africans, and Black American communities, and stemming from colonial or anti-Black legacies. Her desire to use the law as a tool to address social injustices was sparked by a harrowing adolescent encounter with a child soldier in Sierra Leone, which spurred her efforts at community, national, and international levels toward addressing human rights violations, socio-economic inequalities, and grave international crimes.
In the United States, her research and advocacy briefs on juvenile arrest trends and youth offender demographics in Washington, D.C., were heard by legislators with oversight of the D.C. Police and led to incremental juvenile justice policy changes in D.C.
In Uganda, she worked with former child soldiers on their psychosocial rehabilitation through creative arts and reintegration as well as literacy and numeracy skills development. She also supported global civil society efforts to bring perpetrators of international crimes involving children to justice.
In Sierra Leone, she provided direct legal assistance to communities across the country in land negotiations with investors. That work led to fairer, more favourable terms for the communities, including strong environmental and social protections, which help avert land-based conflicts. She was also a co-drafter of Sierra Leone’s progressive new land laws that create more equitable and democratic frameworks for decision-making on land.
As a human rights litigator, she has represented public interest plaintiffs before regional human rights courts to seek accountability and redress for victims of police shootings, and to overturn colonial-era loitering laws used to disproportionately target the poor.
Eleanor is licensed to practice law in the United States (New York State and the District of Columbia) and Sierra Leone.