Haile Selassie First Foundation for Law & Society

10/15/2026

Your Work. Your Name. Your Creation: What Does Intellectual Property Protect?

Whether you're a musician, artist, or author, your creative work has value. Understanding your intellectual property (IP) rights is an important step towards protecting it.

Here's what you should know:
🎵 Master Recording Rights: Rights relating to a particular sound recording, separate from the underlying song or musical composition.

🎼 Publishing Rights: Rights relating to a musical composition, including its lyrics and melody. Ownership and licensing arrangements determine who can authorize its use and receive royalties.

🎨 Copyright: Protects original creative works, such as music, books, photographs, paintings, and other artistic expressions. It can give rights holders control over how their work is used and how they benefit from it.

🏷️ Trademarks: Protect names, symbols, and logos that distinguish the goods or services of a person or organization.

Don't wait until your work is exploited or your royalties go missing.

Keep records of your original works, agreements, ownership transfers, and licensing arrangements. These records can help establish who owns which rights and who is entitled to payment.

At HSFFLS, we believe protecting intellectual property is also about protecting creative legacies, cultural heritage, and the rights of those who create.

Don't wait until your work is exploited or your royalties go missing. If you have an IP issue, rights dispute, or missing royalties you’d like us to check out, we’re happy to review it and point you in the right direction.

Submit it here: https://forms.gle/3MUgB3VTWFaqHv556

10/15/2026

Who we are...

The Haile Selassie First Foundation for Law & Society (HSFFLS) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

We believe that true justice means protecting heritage, defending basic human rights, and building strong, self-sustaining communities.

Here is how your support helps us make a real impact across our core pillars:

🎵 Protecting Artists & Cultural Heritage:
Empowering Rastafari, African, and Pan-African communities to protect, manage, and monetize their creative assets and traditional knowledge. We assist with legal and practical IP guidance to creators and rights holders. Current work includes the Rastafari Elders album project.

⚖️ Civil & Religious Rights Advocacy:
Defending religious liberty, hair/locks rights, and equal justice while tracking civil rights violations and advocating for policy reform.

🕊️ Prince of Peace Conflict Resolution:
Fostering community peace and youth de-escalation through school programs, mediation resources, and practical conflict prevention skills.

📜 Reparations, Repatriation & Restitution:
Advancing reparatory justice, supporting voluntary repatriation pathways, and returning stolen cultural treasures, sacred objects, and archives.

🌱 Rastafari Institutional & Economic Growth:
Building lasting community institutions, including the RASYA youth academy, Ital food certification, natural health programs, and social enterprises.

Together, we are putting law, culture, and community into action.

👉 Want to support our work? Click the link below to learn how you can get involved today!

https://givebutter.com/hsffls

10/13/2026

10/11/2026

The Law Giver (TLG) iNewsletter Issue #7 is out!

In this edition, we highlight the Prime Minister of Barbados, Hon. Mia Mottley, and Ethiopia's President Taye Atske-Selassie, who boldly brought the enduring words of HIM Haile Selassie I 'forward' to the UN General Assembly.

Also inside this issue:
• New research documenting Britain’s slave-trading networks
• Burkina Faso’s new legal framework recognizing traditional dispute-resolution bodies
• A new open resource on African restitution
• Research bringing cases, tools, and community knowledge into view
• New member alert
• How HSFFLS is driving change
• Inspiring community media features

👇 Find the link to Issue #7 in the comments below!

10/08/2026

🕊️ Peace Is a Skill, And Communities Can Learn It

Peace is more than the absence of war or violence. It is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and strengthened within our communities.

Through the HSFFLS Prince of Peace Conflict Resolution Program, we provide public education, community peacebuilding, and training in peaceful dispute resolution, including mediation, negotiation, and facilitated dialogue.

Our work focuses especially on legally underserved communities, including youth and Rastafari communities, helping people develop the tools to address disagreements constructively.

Because true peacebuilding is proactive.

It means equipping individuals and community leaders to recognize tension, de-escalate conflict, and create space for dialogue before disagreements become crises.

Peace doesn't begin after conflict erupts. It begins with the skills we build beforehand.

Visit our website to learn more about peace: www.hsffls.org

10/07/2026

"The possibilities which exist in the United Nations to provide the medium whereby the hungry may be fed, the naked clothed, the ignorant instructed, must be seized on and exploited for the flower of peace is not sustained by poverty and want."

- HIM Haile Selassie I, UN Hqs (NY), Oct. 4, 1963

10/05/2026

What happens when laws and declarations of rights exist, but there is no will to enforce them?

On October 4, 1963, Emperor Haile Selassie I stood before the United Nations and delivered a powerful reminder: human rights, peace, and justice mean little if they remain only words on paper.

His call for “courage and eternal vigilance” remains deeply relevant today.

Law is not fulfilled simply because it has been written, adopted, or declared. It must be interpreted, defended, enforced, and given content and meaning.

At the Haile Selassie Foundation for Law & Society (HSFFLS), we believe law must serve justice, human dignity, and the protection of rights.

What does the law say, and who has the courage to give it meaning?

Follow HSFFLS for more reflections on law, justice, human rights in the lens of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I.

10/02/2026

Restoring Cultural Wealth & Economic Justice ⚖️🎵

Rastafari artists and cultural creators have made enduring contributions to global music and heritage. Yet for decades, many creators, elders, and their families have faced systemic barriers to securing the intellectual property rights and royalties owed to them.

Through the Haile Selassie I First Foundation for Law & Society IP Rights and Royalties Recovery Project, we provide Livicated legal representation to protect intellectual property, reclaim long-withheld royalties, and ensure creators and their descendants receive their rightful inheritance.

Your support directly fuels tangible action:

50% goes to Community Care: Funding a vital medical emergency fund for Rastafari Elders in Jamaica

50% goes to Protecting Heirs: Supporting efforts to locate next of kin, such as the descendants of the late Ras Bigga, so long-unpaid royalties can finally be transferred to their rightful heirs.

Every contribution powers the legal research, advocacy, and rights-recovery work needed to correct historic exploitation and safeguard Rastafari’s cultural legacy for generations to come.

👉🏿 Support the project today and stand with us in advancing economic justice. Details in the comments 👇🏿

10/01/2026

Are You an Attorney Who Wants to Make a Difference?

We at the Haile Selassie Foundation for Law & Society are inviting attorneys and other legal professionals who want to use their knowledge and experience to make a meaningful contribution to justice, human rights, cultural rights, religious freedom, and community development.

Our work includes helping disadvantaged communities understand and protect their rights, supporting cultural and religious freedom, recovering intellectual property and royalties, promoting peaceful resolution of disputes, and advancing the rights and development of the Rastafari community.

We are now welcoming attorneys who would like to get involved in this work and help shape the future of HSFFLS.

You may bring experience in areas such as:

⚖️ Human rights and civil rights
🕊️ Religious freedom and freedom of belief
🌍 Cultural rights and heritage
🎵 Intellectual property and royalties
🤝 Mediation and conflict resolution
📚 Community legal education and advocacy
🌱 Rastafari Community Institutional & Economic Development

You don't have to be involved in every area. What matters is a willingness to contribute your legal knowledge, experience, and part of your time to work that serves people and communities.

If this speaks to you, or you know an attorney who may be interested, we invite you to learn more about becoming part of HSFFLS.

Your knowledge of the law could help protect a right, preserve a heritage, or make a real difference in someone's life.

📩 Interested attorneys can find the membership application form in the comments below.

09/29/2026