Justice for all

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers. Thank you so much for reading, commenting, tweeting, or discussing these issues with me. It genuinely means a lot, and I put time and effort into writing this blog not only because I personally love writing, but also because I love interacting with all of you on a regular basis. So thanks for stopping by!

While you are spending time with your family & friends today, don’t forget about all those out there who don’t have the same privileges. This blog aims to highlight some of the problems we face today - like genocide, conflict, poverty, oppression of women and minorities, malfunctioning justice systems, and human rights violations. But I also try, as much as I can, to talk about the solutions to these problems.

One thing I’ve been doing is fundraising for International Bridges to Justice (IBJ), an amazing human rights NGO working to end torture and reform criminal justice systems in the developing world. In many developing countries that IBJ works in - like India, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, and Cambodia - people don’t have the same legal rights as we do. It’s easy to be arbitrarily detained and tortured in prison, despite being innocent or committing a small crime like stealing a piece of bread. Prison conditions are often harsh, with lack of food, sanitation, or healthcare.

I’d ask you to please take just $10 out of your pocket this Thanksgiving to donate to IBJ. ALL the money you donate will be matched up to $125,000 until December 10. Thanks to all my generous friends & family members, I’ve raised $1,189 already!! Please help me reach my goal of $1500. All the money is going directly to fund grassroots legal reform projects, and WILL make an impact!

Click here to donate! Thanks again & have a wonderful Thanksgiving

A sign on the wall reads: The prison is not behind bars, nor is liberty found in the street. There exist both imprisoned men among the streets and free men in prisons. It is a matter of conscience. (Photo by Michelle Ferng)

This is a topic that has been swirling around in my mind for months, but I’ve never really garnered the courage to write it down coherently. But now, as I embark on a journey to work with International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) in Geneva this summer, this topic is becoming increasingly relevant to my work.

I am passionate about working to end human rights abuses, and I realize that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are two of the most prominent organizations working to raise awareness of human rights violations across the globe. Their work has been indispensable in terms of uncovering the truth of human rights abuses in various countries through intensive research, and in pressuring governments to take action by way of international exposure, letter writing, and petition signing. I think advocacy and raising awareness is absolutely vital if we are to end ongoing violations. After all, if the public doesn’t know about these situations, then how can people take action to end these problems? The popular mobilization and awareness that Amnesty has achieved over the years is truly remarkable. However, I wonder whether advocacy is the most effective method of combating human rights abuses, especially in the long-run.

First, it seems to me that political situations are very difficult to change. Especially, international civil society does not seem to exert significant influence on the political climates in many countries. Even if a huge amount of pressure is placed upon government heads through activities like protests and petitions, how much is this really going to change? And if the international community has heightened awareness of an issue, does this really change things on the ground? For instance, there is a huge amount of awareness within the U.S. and U.K at least regarding the genocide in Darfur. Many organizations like Save Darfur and STAND have mobilized many people and large amounts of money and time in order to raise awareness of the genocide and try to stop it, especially through political pressure and pleas for divestment from Sudan. Many successes have been achieved, most importantly widespread knowledge of the situation and recognition that it is genocide and must be stopped. Yet even after all this, Sudanese President Al-Bashir is still going strong and little has changed over the years. The genocide is continuing. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are yet to take a strong stance on ending the genocide. Has this impressive popular mobilization and heightened awareness done much at all? True, I am pinpointing a specific situation – but it does leave me feeling that there must be more that we can do than raise awareness. Because it simply doesn’t seem enough to me.

Moreover, many human rights advocacy organizations hold large campaigns to free single persons from prison, especially those who were imprisoned for political reasons. But I have to ask: does this really lead to large scale social change? Organizations have campaigned for years and succeeded in freeing political prisoners, but this is only one situation, one person. But does this sort of advocacy force the government to think twice the next time it wants to imprison someone for political (or any other) reasons? I don’t see that happening enough. And what about all the everyday cases, when people are being imprisoned for petty crimes, when the local police is incredibly corrupt, when men and women are tortured unnecessarily, when poor prisoners aren’t granted a lawyer or a fair trial? While a political prisoner is a special case, regular citizens are being punished unfairly everyday and aren’t being recognized by the international community. Does advocacy fail here? Who’s fighting for the unheard prisoners? Too often their voices go unheard, even within international civil society.

Here is when I think a different model needs to be employed in order to effectively fight human rights abuses. We need to improve local justice systems and work with governments, not just against them, in order to reform the criminal justice systems. We have to train local police forces and make them understand that torture is unacceptable, and is not necessary in order to extract information from prisoners. We need to ensure that every poor person has the right to a lawyer and the right to a fair trial. I feel like this bottom-up approach can be truly effective, and combined with advocacy and raising awareness can be very powerful. If we start at the bottom through criminal justice reform in developing countries, we can build up strong legal institutions that will eventually create precedents for not using torture or unfair detainment – which will trickle upwards and prevent the government from detaining political prisoners or exercising their power arbitrarily. IBJ focuses on this approach to grassroots criminal justice reform, and I think it is a unique yet effective method of combating torture.

I think advocacy and activism needs to be combined with action and results. Real systematic change happens on the ground, step-by-step and day by day. One model I like is that of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization which not only has advocacy campaigns but also concrete projects that help people by the day - like the asylum network which assists asylum seekers by documenting forensic evidence of torture and abuse. Another example is Invisible Children, an organization based on a documentary about child soldiers in Northern Uganda. In addition to raising awareness through the documentary, they also have a book drive, build schools, and sell bracelets and give the revenue to the bracelet makers, provide scholarships to children, and have a Savings and Training Initiative which is basically a microfinance scheme. Of course, I don’t think some of their campaigns are the best idea (abduct yourself? really?), but they have a good basic model for combining raising awareness with actual results. I also love Human Rights First, which combines much advocacy and petitioning with projects that represent asylum seekers and help refugees resettle in the U.S.

So ultimately, I’m not saying advocacy is not necessary. I just think that there needs to be so much more if systematic, widespread change is to happen.

Image credit: flicker user bashaspix

In my previous post, I emphasized the need for a focus on rule of law and human rights, rather than simply ‘democracy promotion.’ Well, there is an amazing organization striving to do just that. One of my favorite organizations is International Bridges to Justice, a highly innovative, efficient, and effective organization that has a clear mission: To end torture in the 21st century.

IBJ is truly innovative, because they don’t rely on ‘traditional’ legal methods to fight for justice and to end torture. They don’t only fight cases in court, and they don’t pressure governments to change policy. IBJ has found a really innovative model, which is cost-effective and really seems to make a tangible difference. IBJ focuses on training public defenders and paralegals who will then go on to defend countless powerless victims stuck in their domestic criminal justice systems. Creating a force of public defenders committed to ensuring all citizens legal rights is so empowering, and can be very effective. For instance, after the Khmer Rouge left Cambodia there were fewer than ten lawyers in the entire country! IBJ, along with other organizations, had made huge changes in Cambodia’s criminal justice system since then - just by training public defenders to do their jobs well and passionately. Training public defenders is such a vital & effective - yet simple - way of rebuilding post-conflict justice systems, that it baffles me that no one has employed this approach so efficiently yet.

IBJ also conducts legal rights awareness campaigns in many countries, which has tremendous effects. Normally, I don’t believe that ‘raising awareness’ has a much of an impact as actually doing something, but in this case IBJ has proven me wrong. Their know your rights poster campaign in Rwanda educated so many people about their rights, and proves that awareness is important.

Instead of working against governments by embarrassing and subsequently alienating them, IBJ works with governments to help incorporate legal rights into the language of the national government and policy. IBJ works to ensure that governments understand the importance of legal rights, and consequently work with IBJ to make sure torture is ended. I think IBJ is really onto something here, because ultimately I think we have to work with governments to ensure their commitments to their citizens - not by encouraging them to ’shift’ to democracy or change their ruling style, but to work within their existing framework and encourage leaders to focus on the people. And instead of working against police, IBJ collaborates with police, lawyers, judges and other local criminal justice stakeholders in order to ensure that legal rights are being respected.

And finally, what I love most about IBJ is its entrepreneurial spirit and hope. IBJ knows that torture can be ended in the 21st century - but not without innovative methods. IBJ’s founder, Karen Tse, is a social entrepreneur who combines her knowledge of criminal defense with social enterprise to come up with a unique, exciting and effective model. IBJ has an innovative and inspiring JusticeMakers fellowship program, through which they provide $5,000 seed grants to entrepreneurs focused on improving criminal justice and the rights of prisoners in their local communities, often through grassroots approaches. To me, JusticeMakers embodies the true entrepreneurial spirit of IBJ - it encourages people to work actively to change things in their communities, and to become leaders in criminal justice reform. It gives a voice to the voiceless, and fuels ideas with hope.

I don’t see why “law” has to be a dry field. Law, combined with social enterprise, can be as entrepreneurial, as exciting, as inspiring, and as motivating as any other enterprise - whether in technology, social media, marketing, and so on. Combine human rights with entrepreneurship, and I think the pursuit of justice has the potential to change millions of life - and at the same time, can be one of the most exciting things of all.