Grameen America

In my last post I described my legal internship at Grameen America, an organization dedicated to combating poverty by providing micro-loans to low-income entrepreneurs.

This morning I woke up before the sun rose to attend a borrower meeting in the far off land of Jackson Heights, Queens. The borrower meeting was at 6AM, necessitating waking up around 4AM. Seeing Midtown nearly empty is a strange sight. It had a certain I Am Legend-style feel to it.

The borrower meeting was located in one of the borrower’s homes. About twenty borrowers meet at the woman’s apartment each week to make repayments to a loan officer who visits several borrower groups around the city each day.

Unfortunately, the branch manager had given me the wrong address. I quickly realized this after the family whose doorbell I rung at 6AM was not too pleased to see me. After that fun conversation, and waking up my supervisor to get accurate directions, I discovered the meeting was in the building next door.

I’d seen the set up before, just not in a room with electricity. I was surprised to see the borrower meeting in Queens was strikingly similar to one I’d seen before in the Dominican Republic. The borrowers sat together in a small room, chatting with each other about their businesses, waiting to make their repayments to the loan officer, trying to keep their bored children entertained. One by one they gave their repayments to a loan officer sitting at a table, a large ledger in front of her. The officer would count the money three times, sign off on the ledger, make small talk with the borrower about her business’s progress, and call up the next borrower. Borrowers who made their repayments stood in the hall of the apartment building, waiting for their group-mates to finish business.

I was shocked to see the similarities with microfinance borrower meetings I had witnessed in the Dominican Republic. I imagined cultural differences or at the very least the microfinance institution’s borrower meeting organization would have made the meetings dissimilar, but the meeting ran as I had seen it before.

The only noticeable difference in borrower meetings was the lack of singing at the Queens meeting. The microfinance institution I worked with last summer in the DR was a Christian NGO, so each borrower meeting included a prayer and a song. While Grameen America is not affiliated with any religious organization, I doubt very much the neighbors would have tolerated a chorus so early in the morning.

“Why 6AM?” I asked the loan officer.

“They have no excuse not to be here,” she replied bluntly. “After the meeting the borrowers go off to run their businesses for the day.”

Microfinance in New York vs. Dominican Republic:

Summer is Speeding By

Such busy weeks, I can hardly believe another one has passed.  This week at the Hotline for Migrant Workers we're saying a lot of goodbyes: to Abigail, my fellow legal intern, who is returning to Vancouver; to the head of the organization, who is stepping down after several years; and to two of the teenagers who conducted their national service as volunteers here instead of participating in the Israeli army.  Usually you need more than the desire to choose this alternative route – some national service volunteers get out of the army by proving that they are pacifists or too religious to serve.  The three volunteers in the office this summer have been amazing help, and it will definitely be sad to see everyone go.

In order to make sure that we were in the office for a goodbye party yesterday, Abigail and I went to the prison at 7 am instead of the afternoon as usual.  Unfortunately, the guards were not happy with our early arrival, and almost refused to let us enter.  Eventually we found one department where the guards were more laid back, and were willing to let one or two prisoners out to talk to us as long as we requested them by name.  One of the prisoners wanted to apply for asylum to Australia, and had a copy of the form but didn't know how to fill it out because it was in complicated English, so I was glad that I was able to help.  (It definitely made me think of the work Kelly's doing in New Zealand).

Usually when we get to the prison, all the detainees are out in the yard, a small area with four picnic tables, a fridge and a sink.  In one of the departments, the yard also has a ping-pong table.  It isn't really “outside,” more like an enclosed space with sunlight streaming down, although it is cooler and breezier than the stuffy cells.  Each cell has anywhere from six to sixteen people in bunk beds, with very little extra room to move around.  What we've learned so far from conducting interviews is that during the day the only thing to do is lie in bed and watch television.  There are no books, no educational materials or classes, no music, and no events of any kind.  Prisoners can hold onto their cell phones as long as they are basic, with no internet or camera, and no mp3 capabilities.  They're “outside” for about 5 or 6 hours each day.  This time, most of the prisoners were still in their cells, and it was a much different experience sitting in the deserted, dusty yard, with just one other prisoner.    

Next week, I'm planning to visit the detention center in the South of Israel, close to the border with Egypt.  This is where most refugees who are discovered crossing the border are brought, while their identities are checked.  There is not enough space in the building for prisoners, so there is a tent city set up outside.  I'll write more about this once I see it, but I'm anticipating a very long and difficult day.  

In the meantime, after last week's post, I've been trying to see the nicer side of Israel.  On Friday, two of the other interns and I visited Bethlehem for a day of letting ourselves be normal tourists.  We were in the city during Friday noon prayers and heard the sermon (although only one of us understands any Arabic) and then visited the Church of the Nativity.  Then I spent shabbat (the sabbath) in Jerusalem, which was beautiful and very relaxing.  On Sunday, I participated in a photography competition in the Old City of Jerusalem, and tomorrow, I'm going to see the opera, Carmen, being performed for free in a park in North Tel Aviv.  I've also been noticing the simple day-to-day things about Israel that I admire, such as the fact that every building has a solar water-heater on its roof, and several main streets have bike lanes packed with bicycles.  Israel is also the only country that had more trees in 2000 than in 1900.  The whole country is very conscious of conserving water, as well, since water leads to so many of the region's conflicts.  Every toilet even has two handles – one handle only flushes a little bit, to save water.  

Another positive development is that the Knesset (Israel's parliament) is expected to pass a bill in the near future that would give citizenship – actual, full citizenship – to the children of migrant workers who have grown up here and attended Israeli schools, as long as they entered Israel legally.  It's similar to the DREAM act in the USA that Obama mentioned in his July 1 speech about immigration, that still hasn't passed after many years in Congress.  One problem with Israel's version is that it doesn't extend citizenship to older siblings who came after finishing schooling, only to small children, and their guardians receive residency, not full citizenship.  And the ministers of the Knesset (MKs) have thus far refused to say exactly what will happen to the children of migrant workers who don't get citizenship – until now, they have never detained these children (unlike, for example, the USA and Canada, which I'm learning about).  We're hoping that the government doesn't start to detain children once this chance for becoming legal passes.  The bill doesn't automatically give the eligible families citizenship – they must apply, and because of this, we are going to be VERY busy.  I'm glad that I'll still be around to help, because the Hotline for Migrant Workers is going to be packed.  We're already seeing many more small children around the office than usual.  More updates on this soon!

Kia Ora Week 8: "Because Living in Fear, Isn't Living"

This week the family violence support group, Women's Refuge (www.womensrefuge.org.nz) hosted its annual appeal for awareness and donations. I attended the group's official launch complete with screenings of their new ad campaign entitled, "Because Living in Fear, Isn't Living", speeches by attending members of New Zealand Parliament including the Minister of Justice, the Honorable Simon Power, and a live performance by New Zealand singer songwriter Anika Moa all in the name of garnering community support and enhancing community awareness of just how real the problem of domestic violence in New Zealand is. Women's Refuge estimates that one in three women in New Zealand experience domestic violence. It is also estimated that the rate is substantially higher among the indigenous Maori population, though underreporting complicates the figures. A great emphasis of the campaign is that domestic violence means far more than just physical abuse; it includes verbal, psychological, financial, emotional and many other types of abuse.

The idea that domestic violence compels a constant feeling of living in fear is truly encapsulated through the ad campaigns. Television ads show a kitchen with an infinite number of eggshells and a mother stopped in fear when her child steps on one of them and she hears the father slam down the remote control from the other room and the viewer hears his footsteps inching towards them. Radio ads voice over a stream of consciousness as a woman counts down the five minutes sweating through all of the things she needed to have done to perfection to prepare for her husband coming home from work and then the listener hears the door slam. Posters depict a woman in public places where each person's face appears that of her abusive spouse.

The appeal followed substantial changes effective 1 July 2010 to the Domestic Violence Act of 1995. These changes were significant in that they allowed for the creation of Police Safety Orders ("PSO") which allow police to remove an individual from the home for up to five days and are applicable in cases where there may not be enough evidence to charge the individual with a domestic violence offense but there is still nonetheless strong reason to believe that the individual poses a real threat. This is a step forward for domestic violence law in New Zealand, while at the same time it potentially raises real issues as to what will happen when that individual returns to the home after the five days expire if no further steps are taken to issue protection orders and evidence still lacking for charging the individual with an offense. There are real risks to consider as to whether the violence may escalate as a result of the PSO being issued so it is an area in which police need to exercise great caution and one in which groups like Women's Refuge need to remain active and available to people vulnerable in these situations. Another real issue to consider from the removed person's perspective is where exactly that person is to go if the person is "removed" from the home, because this means that the person cannot return to the home, but this provides no option of where that person should go. For this purpose, the first "men's refuge" was created in Gisborne, New Zealand. Gisborne remains an exception as these services are not widely available or accessible around New Zealand.

Last Week

It was nearly nine when we arrived and the heat, as always, filled the air like an oppressive tyrant. There is a small ante-room for the clerk, who still writes on an antiquated typewriter; a small court room, where there rests the judges bench, the stenographer’s bench, and the witnesses bench; towards the back of the building, the public defenders office lies, where slated windows, which are always open during mediation, provide little privacy; and the quaintest of entrances, oddly enough located at what seems to be the back of the building façade, is lined with rocking chairs indicative of the speed at which the law in Nicaragua moves. This is the courthouse.

Last week, John, Stephanie and I visited the local courthouse where we spoke with both the Municipal judge and the public defender. We spent the majority of the early morning listening to the Judge speak about her role and that of the types of cases she deals with and the later part of the afternoon watching the public defender mediate.

The judge, who is the only judge within the municipality of Matiguas, which is a very large area, presides over issues that would arise in an American small claims courts. She hears disputes regarding domestic violence, border disputes, minor and sometimes severe instances of threats of physical violence, and issues dealing with child support. In doing so, she informed us that since the municipality is so large she has 24 mediators that work under her, whom she herself has trained and who’s expenses she pays out of her pocket. There are four urban mediators and 20 others spread throughout the rural communities, however the judge herself travels roughly once a week to deal with the rural conflicts herself. The 24 mediators, we are told, are respected members of the community, so that when they address a conflict, their decisions carry just as much weight and thereby have a binding effect. The mediators play a large part however; as the costs of travel are very high and often the injured party cannot afford to bring their case before the courthouse. In such instances, the mediators travel out to the farms and address the conflict on the injured parties premises. However, the mediators don’t deal with issues too serious, as those require a higher court.

In the latter part of the morning, I was able to sit in a watch the public defender mediate a conflict between two women. Before the two women arrived, a report had been filed with the alleged facts and upon the beginning of the mediation process, the public defender went over the facts again in order to establish a background. It turned out the woman 1 was formerly married to man 1, with whom they share a child. At one time or another, woman 1 and man 1 separated and woman 1 was given 40 manzanas of land (the Nicaraguan measure of land, similar to an acre). Later, man 1 married woman 2 and had a child with her as well. Ensuing, man 1 took back some of the land he gave to woman 1 for him and woman 2 to live on with their new child. Later, it turns out that woman 1 saw woman 2 early one morning waiting for the bus and physically attacked her and threatened to kill woman 2 with a machete. Following the attack, woman 2 filed a report and thus came to the courthouse to resolve the issue.

The mediation process was filled with shouting and yelling, and many times the public defender had to ask one of the parties to leave so that the other could address her side of the story. At one point, the husband came in and told his side of the story as well. Finally, the mediator gave the ultimatum to the fighting women that they could either solve the matter right there or involve the judge, which would result in more severe resolutions. In the end, the two women agreed to stay away from each other and to not provoke the other. One large issue that seems to present itself however, is whether the signed agreement is all that influential; after all, what is to stop woman 1 from reigniting the issue once far away from the court house. This may be a large limit in the judicial process, but it seems that morally once this sort of document is signed, the signing parties remain true to their word.

Even more interesting, the judge has invited the three of us with her when she travels to the small fincas (farms) to mediate the issues so that we can see her in action and watch the people’s reactions. Later on this week we are going to visit the local jail, where we learned today that until the most recent constitutional draft, alleged perpetrators we jailed until proven innocent; only most recently has Nicaragua adopted an adversarial system where an alleged injurer is only jailed after proven guilty. Until later.

Hotline for MIgrant Workers, mid-summer thoughts.

מה המצב, אחי?

(translation: what's up, bro?)

I'm learning a lot these days, from Hebrew slang to Israeli politics to Jewish history.  My Hebrew keeps improving, although my Israeli friends find it strange that I know the words for police, arrest, passport and refugee, etc, but I still can't remember the words for fork or t-shirt.  Yesterday was Tisha B'Av, a fast day when religious Jews spend the day mourning for the loss of the Temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 AD.  Although I don't personally feel a terrible sense of loss for the Temple, and I actually am glad that Judaism no longer is centered around animal sacrifice, it's still a day that engenders deep thought about Israel and Jewish history.  For me, this meant some serious reflection on what I'm doing here this summer and how it fits in with my view of Israel.

I have visited the detention center where people with immigration problems are held 8 or 9 times now and it only seems to be getting more difficult.  We're trying to do a basic interview with everyone who speaks English, Hebrew or French (since these are the languages that the volunteers know) about the conditions of their arrest and detainment so that we can eventually write up a report on the prison conditions and lobby for changes.  But while we do this, the prisoners also want to tell us about how they got here, life in their home country, and where their families are.  Mostly, they want us to be like lawyers and help get them out of there, and every time I have to say, “I'm so sorry but I can't do that,” it is so painful.  The Hotline for Migrant Workers only has two lawyers though, so they pick cases carefully, usually only taking ones that can set precedent for many other future cases, or particularly egregious ones where the judge is most likely to side with us.

This summer is definitely testing my love for Israel.  I decided to work in Tel Aviv, specifically, because I was thinking about possibly living here one day.  But every day here I get exposed to the more difficult and darker side of the state.  On the one hand, during my time off I get to see the country as a tourist would see it – visiting beaches, the old city of Yafo, the markets and religious sites, which are beautiful.  But I'm also seeing what it's like for non-Jewish people coming here, not as tourists.  There is literally no system in place for them.  Would I really want to take advantage of a system that is designed to benefit people just like me at the expense of so many others?  It would be easy for me to move here, as a Jew, and I would be welcomed by everyone right down to the woman who sells cheese in the shuk who is always asking if I made aliyah yet (which literally means to go up, but figuratively means to move to Israel).  Meanwhile, people who really need Israel to act as a haven for them are imprisoned for years.  However, there is another side of Zionism – seeing a vision of what I want Israel to be, and working to make it match this vision.  In that way, this summer has made me more Zionistic.  I see the problems, but I am not going to give up on the state and move on.  I want to help in whatever way I can.

One really interesting and fun thing that I did last week was visit the Palestinian village of Beit Sahour, just outside of Bethlehem, with a group called Encounter.  Encounter leads organized trips for Jews to visit the West Bank and meet with Palestinian peace activists, but this was different.  Two women who had been involved with Encounter for the last couple years were returning to the USA and wanted to have a goodbye party in a place where their Palestinian friends would be free to go too.  So we met at this park that used to be a Jordanian and then Israeli military outpost, but now is a community center with a restaurant, climbing walls, and a really beautiful view.  One of the Jewish guests brought a bassoon and performed a duet with a Palestinian girl who played flute and is planning to study in a music conservatory next year in France.  It was amazing, and I met some fascinating people, including an elderly Maltese nun who had worked in Bethlehem for 25 years, and a Palestinian woman who, as a teenager, had disguised herself as a boy to go along with her brother and his friends to hang Palestinian flags and spray-paint walls.  Now she and her brother work for peace organizations in the West Bank and are regular speakers on Encounter trips.  

Above: View of the Old City of Yafo (Jaffo) from the beach in Tel Aviv

Below: A cross-cultural duet!

Streets of Kathmandu

The streets of Kathmandu are dirty. The brown stew smooshed under foot and hoof and tire stinks of rot and feces. In Nepal it is illegal to harm a cow in any way, so they roam the streets, mooing cranky moos, staring blankly into the careening stream of motorbikes, taxis, motorbikes, buses, cars, bikes, students in uniforms, ladies in saris, motorbikes, whole families on motorbikes, taxis, me; covered in soot and smut from diesel exhaust. Both sides of almost every street are confined by tall brick walls, topped with even higher spikes or bars or shards of glass. When I first arrived the uncared-for chaos of public life felt oppressive and unwelcoming. It still does. But in the weeks since it’s become clear that the real life of Kathmandu happens off the lawless roads, down any winding path, around any corner, inside any gate. It often goes from the worst place ever to the best and most beautiful in under five minutes.

Almost everyone I have encountered in their personal spaces and communities are proud and gracious, and often take better care of me than anyone outside my family. The spaces outside and in between are left to the dirty dogs, skinny cows, and marauding mini-mobs of the camouflaged Armed Police Force swinging their weapons with familiar ease, seeming like an alien, invading force on the streets of their own country.

Kathmandu is far from being a war zone, but there are machine gun turrets about every 100 meters, guarding banks, houses, barracks, embassies, the old royal palace, the new politicians, the old politicians, and many other things, who knows what. Vicious looking razor wire, barbed wire, broken glass, and other means of slicing flesh uncoil across the tops of walls that line the spaces between the turrets, and armed men stand watch throughout the day and night.


Kathmandu is coming off 10 years of the ‘People’s War’ between the Maoists and the state security forces. The Maoists waged this war in the countryside, appealing to the discrimination suffered in the caste system and the material and social disparity that has plagued Nepal for generations. Both sides committed atrocities, with the Maoists abducting thousands of children to become child soldiers, and the army disappearing, torturing, raping and killing thousands more. The first phase of this fight was won by the Maoist party, and after landslide elections in 2006 the stars of that battle are now legitimately in power, negotiating deals with their former enemies inside the razor wire, outside of public view.

The war ended in November 2006 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The government, an unaccountable autocratic monarchy for many decades, officially became a republic. But other than cosmetic changes like the removal of “Royal” from the names of the army and police, those in power, with the addition of their Maoist counterparts, remain pretty much the same. Many of the Maoists’ demands were incorporated into the CPA, including provisions for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) within four weeks, to account for the disappeared and bring the country back together.

Unfortunately for the victims of the conflict, the Maoists acquired a great deal of patience for justice and revolution once power was won. Any talk of the still-nonexistent TRC revolves around amnesty for war-time offenses. Both sides say that any attempt to hold those in power accountable will throw the peace process into jeopardy. Since they are the ones in charge of keeping the peace and also the ones in control of their still-separate armies, professed ‘fears’ of the peace process derailing are just blatant threats: amnesty or we unleash the hounds.

Apart from the amnesty provision, the draft bill is superficial and incomplete. One important group missing from the mandate is children, who have been raped, killed, abducted, tortured, taken from school, forced to fight and kill, deprived of opportunities for development and learning of livelihoods, displaced, and otherwise abused with impunity. I am working on a project relating to the representation of young people in the transitional justice process, and how child rights activists and young people themselves can advocate for their interests in the fluid and fragile peace process. Hopefully the manual I make will be repackaged into a series of stories and plays to educate and inform young people about their rights and roles in rebuilding the country.

Hopefully this will become available and useful to people before they fade into the background of the negotiations for the future of the country. Most people lived out the People’s War as faceless nonentities, to be used by either party as they pleased. A common story from the conflict goes that members of one or the other party impose themselves into a family’s home by force and intimidation, and the next day some thugs from the other party come to punish them through the torture, abduction, beating, rape, or killing of one or more family members. The interests of the people were irrelevant then, and without quick and concerted action, will remain irrelevant as the battle moves into the back room.

The government is making overtures in the general direction of Truth and Reconciliation, but as of now it amounts to little more than lip service to the national and international legal community and a handy excuse to delay investigations and prosecutions. The battle for power is still ongoing, impunity still reigns, and both sides pose a serious risk to those who deign to seek the justice promised. (See for example the story of Sita Tamang)

The people who have been living here know this; they recognize the familiar faces in power; they can see the local goons still patrolling their streets. One line tossed about by well-meaning organizations over the years is that the truth itself has power, and that may be true, but where actual armies are involved, the truth tellers need to be backed up by actual power, meaning economic and material protection.

Perhaps it is part of the culture, that people take care of their own and leave what’s left to its fate. Government convoys speed through the dirty, pot-holed, death-dealing streets. No mind is paid to make them better. No law is made to make them safe. If the government doesn’t see its role as looking out for the interests of the people who live here on such a basic level, its hard to imagine from where the will to address the causes of the conflict will come, and hard to imagine that Nepal is really so far out of the woods.

While it is very exciting to be here at this time in history where there is an apparent opening for real change, it is a bit discouraging to be working on a post-conflict project while the war continues, for now, behind the razor wires, and the people themselves remain outside.

Human Rights Watch

Well – it will be a tough act to follow all these great updates! New York City just seems somehow less exciting in comparison – something I bet doesn’t get said too often! This summer I’m interning in the New York City offices of Human Rights Watch. I decided to stay in the city for the summer because I spent the year before starting at Fordham in Zambia working with an organization that provided direct services to clients, and so I wanted to see what human rights work looked like from another side.

I’m working on disability rights (see www.hrw.org/en/disability-rights), which is currently housed under the Health and Human Rights Division. Since I’m guessing many of you don’t know too much about disability rights (I certainly didn’t when I started!), I’ll start with a little bit of background. The human rights community as a whole, and Human Rights Watch itself, has only recently become more engaged in disability rights and there is a lot of research and advocacy that needs to happen to address discrimination and human rights violations against persons with disabilities worldwide.

Much of my work draws on the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which reflects a paradigm shift in thinking about disability. Historically, a disability has been seen as something to cure or fix, and a person with a disability seen as an object deserving of charity and welfare. The CRPD instead uses a rights-based approach: persons with disabilities have equal rights and it is society that needs to adapt to remove barriers faced by persons with disabilities. The US signed the CRPD last year, the first international human rights treaty it has signed in nearly a decade!

One interesting thing about the CRPD is that the negotiations featured unprecedented participation from civil society, particularly disabled peoples’ organizations and persons with disabilities themselves, which reflects the motto of the global disability rights movement: “Nothing about us, without us.”

The CRPD doesn’t define disability, but it does describe a person with a disability as someone who has an impairment (physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory) that may limit their full participation in society. Looking at this description, it is clear that while many people think of disability as something that only happens to other people, in reality everyone probably knows someone with a disability. It could be something like a broken leg that requires crutches, or a loss of mobility or agility due to aging, or a learning disability like dyslexia. Even bad eyesight could be a disability, except that we have adapted with glasses and contacts so that it is no longer a barrier. Indeed, the UN estimates that at least 10% of the world’s population lives with a disability (more than 660 million people), with this figure increasing through population growth, medical advances and the natural aging process of large numbers of people. Food for thought!

Human Rights Watch’s current research includes investigations of human rights violations against women and girls with disabilities in northern Uganda and deinstitutionalization in Croatia. In addition to helping out on these reports, I’ve written about HIV/AIDS and persons with disabilities, inclusive education, forced psychiatric treatment and forced sterilizations, making written works accessible to persons with visual disabilities, and specific situations affecting persons with disabilities in Macedonia, Malaysia, Nepal, China, Hungary, and Tanzania.

Interning at Human Rights Watch has been really amazing so far – the people are fabulous, the work has been challenging and interesting, and I am learning new things every day. The office culture is very relaxed and collegial (there has even been hula-hooping!), but everyone is extremely dedicated and passionate about what they are doing. One great thing about Human Rights Watch is that they have a well-developed internship program, so interns get up to speed quickly and are encouraged to get to know what people in different divisions are doing. For example, there is a weekly event where staff members come and speak to the interns about their work (held in the conference room where HRW's Nobel Prize is displayed!), and I have also volunteered at the HRW Film Festival and an awareness event on political prisoners in Burma (see www.hrw.org/en/free-burmas-prisoners).

My challenges have been: 1) writing advocacy documents for the general public instead of for lawyers (legalese has apparently become my default language ... thanks law school!); and 2) that, as mentioned, I came in without knowing much about disability rights so I am learning as I go. I’ve had more than one day where I read for 4 or 5 hours about a specific topic so I could write a page or two about it. (I’m getting quicker though, I hope!)

As a final thought, I’d encourage all of you awesome Leitner interns to look around and consider how your organization is serving persons with disabilities and what you can to improve things – it can be as simple as making your office more physically accessible, printing a version of any materials you produce in a larger font size, or including persons with disabilities in statistics and research projects. It’s pretty simple: including persons with disabilities means including everyone.

Kia Ora Weeks 6 & 7: Community Outreach and Connections

It seems I got a little behind with blogging, so I figure I'll combine my thoughts on weeks 6 and 7. Speaking of which, I'm finding it hard to believe that I have only a few weeks of work left. With that in mind, it has got me thinking what I want to accomplish in the next few weeks.

Last week, our Centre put on a training session for a government agency, New Zealand Qualification Authority, (http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/) that focuses on establishing equivalencies between qualifications that individuals receive abroad and the comparable certification in New Zealand. While they do not focus directly on questions of immigration, related topics do come up in their work. I felt like it was really a neat opportunity to inform on immigration law in way that the attendants at the session could really take something away that could inform their work in a real way. I surprised by the depth that some of the attendants had into certain areas of immigration law while completely lacking knowledge in other areas of the law. I hope that what we were able to provide by the end of the seminar the big picture of immigration law in New Zealand rather than just into particular areas of interest.

I also was able to attend a discussion on a paper by the Human Rights Commission ("HRC") (http://www.hrc.co.nz/home/default.php) on the right to asylum . The paper was an analysis of the current state of how New Zealand upholds the right to asylum and what direction NZ policy should go in the future to meet its obligations with respect to the right to asylum. There were about fifteen people at the forum in Wellington with a couple of others video conferenced in from Christchurch and Auckland. The discussion was especially unique because it was not just a bunch of native New Zealanders sitting around trying to think about how to help individuals from other countries exercise their right to asylum in NZ. Instead, there were a number of former refugees and local refugee community leaders at the meeting. We heard from real voices telling of the struggles that people in this position face. I think that there is a general assumption that once a NZ accepts a refugee that everything is fine from there because that person is not in the dangerous environment from which they were freed. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Allowing a refugee legal status to be in NZ is not enough. There are excellent services and benefit programs available to certain refugees that come under the UNHCR quota for NZ which amounts to about 750 annually, but other refugees who came under regular NZ immigration policy are left entirely without guarantees to these services.

One of the attendants at the discussion shared his story of how hopeful he was coming to NZ as a refugee from Kenya, but then of the devastation and helplessness he felt in NZ as he was compelled to eat out of dumpsters and sleep on the streets with no support. He was not a quota refugee, and so he did not have access to any of the resettlement benefit programs that quota refugees would have. I hope that the discussion paper highlights these inequalities in the treatment of refugees here. It should be commended that NZ accepts refugees, but the right to asylum entails far more support than merely allowing the person to be physically present in NZ legally.

Advocating for Burma at the Global Justice Center

On June 18th, we and our Global Justice Center (GJC) colleagues attended a protest in honor on of Aung San Suu Kyi (there is a slideshow of the event at http://burmapoint.com/index.php). The protest was organized by Amnesty International and Burma Point, and it denounced the military junta in Burma and advocated for Nobel Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom from house arrest. She is a political and human rights leader who has challenged the regime with peaceful means, and who has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years. As candidate for the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the Burmese general election in 1990, she should technically have become Prime Minister, but was kept imprisoned by the junta instead.

After the protest, we attended a panel discussion on Aung San Suu Kyi and the situation in Burma. The President of the GJC, Janet Benshoof, spoke along with Jared Genser of Freedom Now (which "seeks to represent and secure the release of...'prisoners of conscience.'" See http://www.freedom-now.org/over.php), Moe Chan of Burma Point (which advocates for human rights and democracy in Burma. See http://burmapoint.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=12), and T. Kumar of Amnesty International. The moderator, Mr. Kumar, said that Amnesty International has been working on Aung San Suu Kyi's case for 20 years, and that there are also over 2,000 other political prisoners in Burma. This group was gathered, Mr. Kumar said, to send a message not only to the military junta but to its allies, particularly those in the region, without whom the junta could not survive.

Jared Genser agreed that there should be unanimous multi-lateral pressure placed on the junta and added that the UN Security Council should impose an arms embargo on the country and create a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes. The US, UK, Australia, Japan, China, India, among others, should also pressure the junta to hold new and fair elections. Though he is counsel for Aung San Suu Kyi, Mr. Genser emphasized that he was not authorized to speak on her behalf. He reminded the audience of her words, however, to "please use your freedom to promote ours." As to her situation, Mr. Genser notified us that the UN has just issued its sixth judgment that she is being held in contravention of international law. He spoke of the upcoming election in Burma - set to be held towards the end of 2010 - which Aung San Suu Kyi's party (the NLD) will be boycotting. Per Mr. Genser, this election will likely be a repeat of the systematic corruption of the constitution ratification vote that the junta held immediately after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, while the country was in a state of complete crisis. The constitution which was "ratified" in 2008 is severely flawed -- it reserves power almost absolutely to the military, it legalizes military coups, it leaves ethnic groups little to no autonomy over their areas, and it received no input from the NLD or ethnic minorities. Mr. Genser said that the results of the upcoming elections are pre-ordained.

Janet Benshoof said that the upcoming elections are an "important turning point for the global community to end the law-free zone in Burma." She shared her view that there is impunity in Burma unlike in any other country. The Burmese judges who have imprisoned prisoners of conscience have committed crimes against humanity. These judges may use the same excuse as Nazi judges and others used - that they are just following orders - but they are "wielding court orders like weapons of mass destruction," Ms. Benshoof said. There should be no immunity for such judges - they must be arrested if they step foot into the U.S, she also said. In line with this view, Ms. Benshoof said current and past prisoners of conscience are entitled to immediate reparations. The UN should set up a fund so that they can receive reparations without the need for a criminal trial.

The GJC thinks there is a basis to argue that certain parts of common Article 3 have crystallized into peremptory norms (norms from which no country may derogate), established through customary international law. In line with this, the GJC is looking at the gross and systematic violations of common Article 3 by the Burmese constitution. The GJC argues that the international community must treat the constitution, and the upcoming elections with which the regime seeks to validate that constitution, as null and void. Ms. Benshoof likened this move to the Security Council Resolution which declared the South African elections in 1984 null and void due to apartheid. The Security Council must take action on Burma in this respect, per Ms. Benshoof, and it also must be pushed to refer Burma to the International Criminal Court. Since Burma is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, Burma can likely only be subject to the ICC's jurisdiction as a result of a Security Council referral. To this end, members of the Security Council - especially China - must be convinced of the need for such a resolution. This is the objective of the Global Justice Center's main project.

Moe Chan spoke of the precarious nature of Aung San Suu Kyi's situation. The junta has killed many citizens and it might assassinate her at any time, he said. Even if she is freed, her life will be in danger. Mr. Chan told the audience about an attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's convoy, in which 100 NLD members and supporters were killed, as one piece of evidence of the junta's criminal behavior. He explained that Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested under the Burmese criminal code for "subversive acts," when all she did was "talk to people" and run for office. She was last sentenced to 18 months of house arrest, which would be over in November 2010. Mr. Chan urge the U.S., UN, China and other Asian nations to keep up the pressure on the junta to release her according to this time line that the junta itself expressly set.

- Maria-Elena and Jocy

Global Justice from the heart of NYC
Greetings from Jocy and Maria-Elena in New York City, New York, United States. This steel and brick jungle is keeping us quite busy during what reportedly will likely be the warmest year on record: http://climateprogress.org/2010/07/10/nasa-hottest-year-solar-minimum/ . If you're thinking about cooling off in Central Park, think again. (The graph is courtesy of Brett Winton.)



We are legal interns at the Global Justice Center (GJC), a non-profit legal group that works towards legal and effective enforcement of international equality guarantees.



We mainly work on GJC's project on U.S. engagement with international law. In March 2010, the GJC submitted a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in preparation for the Council's first Universal Periodic Review of the United States, which will take place on November 5, 2010. (To read the submission, go to http://www.globaljusticecenter.net/news-events/news/2010/UPR-press-release.html.) The GJC submission challenges the censorship of all abortion related speech imposed on U.S. foreign aid. The restrictions originated in the 1973 Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, and have expanded to all foreign appropriations. The submission highlights the gruesome impact such censorship has on impregnated rape victims in conflict areas, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. The victims are often young girls who are incapable of carrying to term without severe risk to their health or lives.



The GJC is urging the Human Rights Council to find that the U.S. policy of deliberately denying critical abortion care to civilian women who are raped during armed conflict violates erga omnes international humanitarian law mandates, including Common Article 3 and Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions. The principle of non-discrimination is central to the GJC's argument: Men who are targeted for rape during armed conflict presumably may receive all medical care necessary for their injury. Women victims of rape do not. This violates the non-discrimination principles of the Geneva Conventions.



Moreover, the UPR submission is a first step towards a bigger strategy: seeking an Executive Order by President Obama to immediately lift the censorship on humanitarian aid and end the discriminatory treatment now provided to women and girls in conflict areas.



As the U.S. project interns, we have been building the legal arguments supporting this strategy. We drafted a memorandum outlining domestic implementation of international humanitarian law, specifically the Geneva Conventions, via national legislation, agency directives, executive orders, and court decisions. We also outlined the basis for the president's authority in matters of humanitarian law. Another aspect of building the legal arguments is defining the standard by which third party states must provide humanitarian assistance. To this end, we have collected and summarized medical care standards established by the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations.



We are also assisting GJC lawyers on several other projects. The GJC is a member of the United Nations NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (NGOWG). NGOWG is working to achieve full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR 1325), the Beijing Platform on Women, and CEDAW. SCR 1325, passed in 2000, calls for states to address the different impacts of conflict on women and men, and to engage women fully in conflict resolution and peace-building. The GJC, with the NGOWG, has worked on creating specific indicators to guide SCR 1325 implementation. Presently, the GJC's task is to develop a model Security Council "mechanism" of accountability for these indicators.



We drafted a memorandum discussing if and how sanctions might apply for each indicator. It is interesting to think that this research may inform the final shape of an accountability mechanism within the United Nations. We'll keep you updated.




Jocy & Maria-Elena

The Twelfth- it's not over yet

The Parades:

In the past few weeks it seems like the Unionists have left their stamp on every street, every corner. I typically jog past a roundabout every afternoon on my way to the park and for the past few weeks I've ssen it slowly become a center of Unionist pride- even the pavement and light poles are painted red white and blue. In the park I'd run past a field which slowly filled with wooden pallets and discarded furniture- young men in hoodies building the sight of what would become an enormous bonfire. Even as I returned to my own street, the UK/British and Orange flags flew, even outside the children's school. Though these signs are normal for this time of year and there was a miniscule change of violence in my part of the city- it was unmistakeable that Belfast was alert and revving its engine for the events that transpired this past Monday. What is known simply as 'The Twelfth' (referring to the date) erupted right well this year in some sections of Belfast. The Twelfth is the annual time for political/cultural parades (marches) in Northern Ireland. The main focus is on the Orange Order; it is an overtly sectarian group whose march is an outright display of Protestantism guranteed to make waves. The parades tend to bring the sectarian tension to a fever pitch and result in a reaffirmation of territorial control over some sections of the city. This year's marches resulted in more violences than usual and tensions are still high now (Wednesday). The main amount of violence has been focused around West Belfast and the Ardoyne region. These are areas where the line between Catholic controlled and Protestant controlled (insert nationalist or unionist or any division you like) are explict. I expect things will settle soon but it is yet to be seen what the response will be in the next few weeks.


There seems to be an ongoing discussion here about whether or not NI is a post-conflict region. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 marked an end to hostilities but not to hostility. There is a distinct intensity of division here which refuses to fade. I heard a joke on the radio the other day that the one thing Unionists and Nationalists can agree on is coming together in the common cause of hating gay people and immigrants. Haha? The violence is one aspect of what is happening here but it part of a larger conversation about what a post-conflict society would actually look like in Belfast. In this vein, here are two articles I found particularly interesting: Poverty is the backdrop to the riots in Northern Ireland and Belfast peace will come when a shared future is forgedhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/14/belfast-peace-shared-future.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my work focuses on the ongoing process of creating a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. How does one deal with the past and form a shared future through human rights law? I have no doubt that Belfast will be just fine- but it has the potential and the opportunity to be more than fine. I believe a Bill of Rights is part of the process of healing- it can be part of the post-conflict peace that everyone deserves.

Here are some more articles of interest:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/in-pictures-shots-fired-at-police-in-third-night-of-violence-in-belfast-14875566.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0714/breaking3.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10624559

I tried to add some pictures into this post but for some reason it isn't working- pictures can be found here.

Akwaaba (Welcome) to Ghana and HRAC

Like many things in Ghana my internship took a while to get straightened out, but now everything is in order. After arriving in Ghana and going to the orientation for my original internship I realized that the organization, the Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana, was not exactly how they made it seem via email; they intended me to work with school children. Luckily they put me in contact with one of their partner organizations, the Human Rights Advocacy Centre and I was able to switch placements within a week.

HRAC is a human rights advocacy and research center headed by Nana Oye Lithur, a prominent human rights lawyer in Ghana. The main objectives of the office are research into various areas of human rights and client advocacy. Clients come into the office daily when they have some sort of legal problem, someone does an intake interview with them and then Nana reviews the case to determine the next step. Because Nana is the only lawyer in the office and there are limited resources (each client is only charged 5 Ghana Cedis (about $3.50) ) she can only take on a few cases and the rest must be referred to other legal services or the government is urged to take on the case. Although clients are often referred, HRAC maintains contact with the client and monitors the case as it moves through the court. Yesterday I was given my first case (I was assigned one last week but the client ended up changing her mind); a woman who needed a paternity test from the court and was requesting maintenance (child support) from the baby’s father who refused to acknowledge his daughter. I interviewed the woman and created a budget of her monthly expenses to take care of the child. Next, a co-worker and I took her to the juvenile court to file her case. Because the system is slightly different here, the client does not need a lawyer to argue for her requests, it is a decision involving only the two parties and the judge. Although we are not providing her with legal representation I will be following the case and going to court with the client on the day or her hearing.

My main project thus far has been working on a legal audit of laws protecting those living with HIV/AIDS in Ghana for submission to UNAIDS. Thus far my group and I have done the necessary background research and completed questionnaires for interviews; we will be doing interviews with people living with HIV to assess their knowledge of their legal rights. We are also interviewing the groups most vulnerable to HIV (men who have sex with men, commercial sex workers and IV drug users) to assess their knowledge of their rights and get a picture of the discrimination they face and if they are able to seek adequate representation. We have just begun to organize the groups.

Although HIV prevalence is relatively low in Ghana (about 1.9% as of 2009) there is an incredibly high stigma attached to having HIV. Ghana is an extremely religious country (with the majority of the country being Christian, some Muslims and others practicing traditional religion) where HIV can be viewed by some a problem brought on by improper behavior. Compounded with the fact that the most vulnerable groups are also those that are not looked upon favorably by society (being a MSM in Ghana is a crime) people often fear seeking treatment or using the legal system to fight any discrimination they have faced. Although people cannot be removed from their homes for being HIV positive, they cannot be forced to take an HIV test, and a person’s HIV status is supposed to remain confidential these are often not maintained in practice. Part of our research was supposed to include case law, but when we spoke to the Court’s librarian when we traveled to the court to do research (I never thought I would miss our West Law and Lexis databases so much) we were told that he had never seen a case in the court where a person was suing another party because discrimination due to their HIV status. Although our budget is low, (we must pay the participants and can only afford about 4 people from each group) we are hoping to get a better picture of these type of situations.

This is a village court in the Eastern Region where HRAC's Executive Director, Nana Oye Lithur, argued in the defense of a man who allegedly stole three fish from a Tilapia farming company. The company is currently claiming property rights over a much larger portion of the Volta Lake than they actually own and committing various human rights abuses to the community members including preventing their access to the lake and having security guards beat up anyone who breaks their rules.

My first month here has been fairly slow but hopefully things will pick up soon. My posting has been delayed mainly because I use the little time the internet functions at work to research and by the time I get home at night (the traffic in Accra is horrendous) I don’t have the energy to go to an internet café.

While I haven’t developed much of an attachment to Accra, I’ve met so many wonderful people. The best parts of Ghana I’ve seen so far are away from the tourist attractions and in the small villages where the people are eager to share their culture. I’ve been fortunate enough to have several weekends where my friends and I are the only Obrunis (which literally means white skin, but its generally used to refer to any foreigner) around. We even had the opportunity to go to a festival and (tried to) learn the Borborbor, the traditional dance of the Volta region (see picture on the right). Everyday here there is some new adventure, whether it is getting a tro-tro home or celebrating a world cup game (sadly the Black Stars didn’t get as far as they should have, but Ghanaians are still proud of their team) and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.

Medasi (Thanks) for reading!

Working in NY. Preparing my trip to Ecuador

I'm working on several legal aspects of the case. Besides my collaboration with the lawyers in New York, I'm also beginning to prepare my trip to Ecuador, that is going to begin in the next weeks. I'm very happy!

Girls Protection Act

Equality Now (my current internship placement) and Sanctuary for Families (my internship placement from last summer) have partnered together in support of the creation of The Girls Protection Act (H.R. 5137). This important bill is co-sponsored by Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and aims to combat the practice of sending girls out of the United States to undergo female genital mutilation.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is considered by the United States (where it is banned) and international human rights organizations as a harmful traditional practice that includes the removal of part or all of the female genitalia. It has severe physical, emotional, and psychological consequences including life-long pain, infection, hemorrhage, anxiety, stress disorders, sexual dysfunction, difficulties in childbirth, and death, among a multitude of other consequences. It affects an estimated 140 million women and girls throughout the world, with an estimated 3 million girls at risk a year.

In 1997, the United States Department of Health and Human Services estimated that over 168,000 girls and women living in the United States have been, or are at risk of being, subjected to FGM. Oftentimes, girls are sent on their school vacations out of the United States to undergo FGM, and this bill is aimed to combat just such a practice. In 1996, the United States passed a law banning the performance of FGM within the United States, but it did not cover instances where girls were taken outside of the United States in order to undergo FGM, and this bill hopes to fill this gap.

In my second week at Equality Now, I had the opportunity to attend a press conference at the New York Women’s Foundation jointly held by Equality Now and Sanctuary for Families featuring Congressman Crowley and testimony of survivors of FGM from West Africa. This press conference was attended by members of the media, and was aimed to inform the public on the practice of FGM, its health consequences and dangers, its prevalence, and the proposed bill. Equality Now’s Executor Director Taina Bien-Aimé spoke, as well as Senior Staff Attorney of Sanctuary for Families, Archana Pyati. Questions were asked by the media, inquiring into the practice of FGM, which countries it is currently practiced, the reasons and tradition behind it, as well questions surrounding the bill.

The Girls Protection Act of 2010 was introduced on April 26, 2010 and amends the federal criminal code to impose a fine or a five-year prison term, or both, to any citizen or permanent resident who knowingly transport a girl out of the United States under the age of 18 years to undergo FGM. Equality Now is tracking the progress of this bill and is continuing to support the passing of it. As of June 15th, this bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. On June 30th, The New York Times wrote an editorial entitled “Not Anyone’s Daughter” in support of the bill and the quick passing of it. The op-ed may be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/opinion/01thu4.html?scp=1&sq=daughter&st=cse. Links to Equality Now’s press releases on the bill may be found at: http://www.equalitynow.org/english/pressroom/press_releases/usfgmlaw_20100427_en.html and http://www.equalitynow.org/english/pressroom/media_advisory/usfgmlaw_20100603_en.html.

I look forward to writing more on this bill and hopefully will be able to cover the passing of it.

A Better FInish

After a rough start at my internship, the last few weeks have gotten to be considerably better. I had the opportunity to meet with the head and co-founder of the organization and now have substantive assignments to work on. A lot of my works involves researching major cases that are likely to go to the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone, such as a case about a girl who was suspended from school because of allegations of witchcraft. Sierra Leone's legal system was designed using the British system as a prototype, so I find myself learning a lot about British law as well as Sierra Leonean law. All of the frustration that I felt before has gone and now I feel as though I am accomplishing something with my time. Though my time here is short and I will be unable to see the case through until the end, it feels great to know that I am playing a role in what might turn out to be landmark cases.

Grameen America

This summer I’m working for Grameen America, a non-profit microfinance institution based in the United States. Grameen America provides small loans to low-income entrepreneurs (mostly women) to operate small businesses with the goal of helping them lift themselves out of poverty. Grameen provides loans to the people banks won’t lend to, either because they don’t have collateral or because they are “uncreditworthy” from the bank’s perspective. Yet, our 3,500 borrowers have proven their creditworthiness, with an average repayment rate of over 97% since our founding (significantly higher than traditional bank repayment rates).

Our model is based on that of our sister organization, the Grameen Bank. The Grameen Bank was started in the 1970s by Professor Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. After seeing villagers perpetually indebted to local moneylenders, Yunus lent them $27 from his own pocket. Thirty years later, with an astonishing repayment rate of 97%, Yunus has demonstrated that the poor, when given the opportunity, do pay back. For his efforts to combat global poverty, Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

While New York City is not Bangladesh, it is still ripe for microfinance. As in Bangladesh, there are poor people with no job opportunities and no access to credit, especially given the economic climate. The local moneylenders of Bangladesh have been replaced by check cashers, payday lenders, and pawn shops. So far, with 3,500 borrowers and ever-increasing demand, we’re just getting started.



In my capacity, I am helping Grameen America in its statewide expansion. While many developing countries implementing microfinance programs have very vague or informal banking regulations, each state/territory has its own idiosyncratic regulations to comply with. So, how we can start lending in D.C., for example, if D.C. requires special lending licenses and surety bonds? Or, how do we deal with usury laws? Each state has usury laws designed to prevent lenders from charging excessive interest rates and preying on borrowers. However, our organization needs to charge 15% to achieve sustainability and cover its costs. This is because it’s a lot more expensive to administer one-hundred $1,500 loans than a single $150,000 loan, which is generally why banks don’t provide these kinds of loans. So, I have to address these issues, looking at the nuances of state banking law.

Not entirely legally-related, I found that my video-editing skills from my past life have served me well. If you’re interested in learning more about our borrowers, see our YouTube page (http://bit.ly/9TwIFA) where I’ve posted some borrower interviews. My favorite project thus far has been creating a video birthday card for Professor Yunus, who recently turned 70.

Last week, Grameen America held a borrowers market in TriBeCa where dozens of our borrowers showed up to sell their wares to the community. Borrowers sold everything from empanadas to jewelry. It’s really impressive what some of these borrowers have done with $1,500 loans. One borrower, Nicole Gates, started Soul Sister Quisine, a catering business specializing in soul food and really tasty red velvet cupcakes. She used her $1,500 Grameen loan to purchase equipment for a cart so she could sell her food at street fairs. Currently, she’s doing extremely well, having fully repaid her last loan, and is now using a second loan to expand her business.

Kia Ora, Week 5: Multilingual Connections

(Split Apple Rock, Abel Tasman Nat'l Park)

I've been thinking a lot about languages lately. When I was first deciding where I wanted to apply to work this summer, one of my main considerations was that I be in an English-speaking country because I did not want not knowing the local language to limit my ability to assist in legal work. As it turns out, though English is the most widely spoken language here, I have had a most direct exposure to the widest array of languages. It's not just that I pass people on the street speaking something I don't understand as I walk by. I deal with clients, face-to-face every day who do not speak English at all, let alone conversationally.

Most of my work is with refugee clients. They have been fleeing violence, risking their lives to get to refugee camps across borders, starving, homeless and abused. Still, some have managed to learn English through it all. Most of the time though, even if the client can speak rough English, having an interpreter is better because they can be clearer to give full effect to how they are feeling and what the details of their legal issues are in their own language. The beauty of it all is that at the Centre where I work, we have the luxury of calling an interpreting line. We dial the number, request the language our client speaks fluently, set a conference phone on the center of the table, and have any language we want translated on the spot during our interviews.

Even when the client speaks in her own language of which I cannot understand a word, I am sitting there with her and can see by her facial expressions and voice inflection and tears what she is feeling even before the interpreter translates. The languages are beautiful to listen to almost like a song. It's not an awkward, rigid conversation just because there is a phone to relate what is actually happening in the conversation. Instead, we maintain direct eye contact with each other, gesture and explain as if we are understanding the words coming out of each other's mouths. The experience is beautiful.

All of this exposure to foreign language has made me realize just how important it is that I keep improving my own language skills in Spanish. In the States and especially in New York, so many people speak Spanish as their native tongue which means that so many clients will be most comfortable speaking Spanish rather than English, or will not be able to fully express the extent of their issue and feelings about it without being able to communicate in Spanish. It is so important to me that I am able to connect with clients in the most direct, open way possible. I can already tell when I work with some of our Colombian clients how they connect with me in a special way because I can speak Spanish with them and understand their words describing what they have been through and how they want us to help.

(Te Waikoropupu Springs, Takaka, NZ)

Prison visits and court hearings

It's been one month now since I started volunteering with the Hotline for Migrant Workers (hotline.org.il) and Monday I visited the detention center for migrant workers and refugees for the third time. So far, I've spoken to African refugees from Sudan, Eritrea, Chad, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Nigeria and more. After all those years of convincing myself that Spanish was the most practical language to study in school, I'm seriously regretting not having taken some French. But with some cobbled-together version of simplified English and French, I've been conducting interviews about the circumstances of their arrests and the conditions in the prison. Monday, I actually did three interviews in Hebrew which (in my opinion) was super impressive considering that there's no way I could have done that a month ago. We're hoping to get some people out on technicalities (such as being held for more than 3 days before seeing a judge) and to gather information on the arrest and prison conditions in general in order to petition for their improvement.

There have been heartbreaking stories, like 21-year-old boy from Guinea-Bissau who has been in jail since before his 18th birthday and just wants to go back to his mother's family and finish high school, and uncomfortable moments, like, what do you say to an African refugee who tells you that you've touched his feelings and can he just get your phone number to stay in touch? (The male volunteers who come with us never have problems like this!) The worst feeling for me is when the only reason that someone is still in prison is because of bureaucratic red tape – they want to go back home and the Israeli government wants them to as well – but they haven't been released yet and no one at the Hotline or at the prison can explain why.

The other volunteers and I are currently trying to find a way to bring French language books to the prison, which is one of the most commonly requested items. Apparently there is a library somewhere, and once a week a guard is supposed to bring a cart full of books that the prisoners can borrow from, but it has only happened once in anyone's memory. This is especially frustrating considering that volunteers from the Hotline in the past have brought books only to be stashed away in a library that no one has access to.

Leaving the prison each day that I go (and now we are going 2-3 times a week) leaves me feeling drained but still ready to go back again. Yesterday, for a total change of pace, I went to another court hearing, this time, at the District Court in Jerusalem. I always find it kind of hilarious when security guards say, “Neshek???” asking if I'm carrying a weapon. Me?? But once we were in it was very interesting. The case was about whether the Ministry of the Interior would release the protocols for deciding whether a refugee gets asylum. Thus far, they've only approved or denied the case and we were hoping that they would tell us why and what factors they weigh. Unfortunately we only partially won, but the lawyer from the Hotline is going to try again on a slightly different issue now that we have more information.

This week an article came out in the NY Times about Israel and migrant labor that is EXACTLY what the Hotline deals with. In fact, the organization quoted, Kav LaOved, shares a building with us and collaborates with us on many of our campaigns. At least five people sent it to me asking if I'd seen it - but if you haven't read it yet, check it out here.