Greetings from suprisingly-sunny Belfast!

I arrived in Belfast on June 4th and began working at the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ). I am living with a wonderful housemate in an area of east Belfast called Ballyhackamore and I am very happy here! I spent the first week or so adjusting to the time change (+5hrs), resting after a whirlwind (and amazing) trip to Tanzania with the Crowley program, finging my way around town, and getting settled into my job.

Working at CAJ has been a real pleasure so far. The people in Northern Ireland (NI) are sweet and friendly beyond belief and are quick to help with anything I need. My main task at CAJ is to work on their campaign for a Bill of Rights for NI. A Bill of Rights was promised in the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in 1998 at the close of the Troubles. It's been a long and difficult road for the proposed Bill of Rights sense then and NI is still left out in the cold without this important constitutional safeguard. Britain doesn't have a Bill of Rights either- so it goes without a written constitution- but from a strictly US perspective a Bill of Rights is a foundational document that not only protects citizens from the government and from each other, but also defines the values of the society. This is particularly important for a post-conflict, and still divided, society. As it stands now, the recent consultation on a Bill of Rights put out by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) is a giant step backwards for the campaign and has caused great distress and frustration in the community and voluntary sector. So this issue will be my focus for this summer...

On a different note, I had the great pleasure of being in Derry for the release of Saville's Bloody Sunday Report. The day was imbued with not only a potent sense of history and memory, but also with the current tensions and painst that linger over thirty plus years of intimacy with conflict. The momen I'm guessing everyone will continue to talk about is when the victims' familites, who read and were briefed on the report summary before the rest of the public, reached their hands out the windows of the church above the waiting crowd and gave the thumbs-up...the crowd of thousands erupted into shouts of joy and ecstatic applause. Essentially the report stated that there was absolutely no justification for the shooting of civilians by the British on Bloody Sunday--the key words being that the shootings were unjustified and unjustifable. I recommend reading up on this particular even and inquiry for anyone interested in issues surrounding societies in post-conflict situations and "dealign with the past."

Overall my time in Belfast has been wonderful so far. I'm really enjoying living here, getting the needed break from NYC (sorry--but it's true!) and gaining some great perspective on NI. I promise to update this blog more frequently...safe travels everyone and happy summer!

Mambo!

Almost a month has passed since I first arrived in the Arusha airport and was whisked away to the town center in a UN van full of interns and armed guards carrying AK-47s. I have quickly become accustomed to the lizards in my shower and bumpy dirt roads, and am even picking up Swahili, although it took longer to grow used to my restricted mobility and independence due to how dangerous Arusha has become.
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Work has been busy on the Karemera case. Last week I was able to sit in court, this time on the other side of the soundproof viewing window, beside the bench in full robe. It turned out to be quite an interesting day to sit in on, as Peter Robinson made his return to raise the contempt issue, and Colonel Théoneste Bagosora appeared to begin his much awaited testimony as defense witness. Bagasora was the former directeur du cabinet in Rwanda's Ministry of Defense in June 1992 and, as the highest authority in the Defense Ministry after the assassination of President Habyarimana, was a key figure in the orchestration of the 1994 massacres in Rwanda. According to Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire, former Force Commander of the UN Assistance Mission to Rwanda, Bagosora was the “kingpin” behind the genocide, a Hutu extremist who "controlled - as well as anyone could - the genocidal militia." It was Bagosora who introduced Dallaire to the militia leaders in Rwanda, after which Dallaire famously wrote that he had “shaken hands with the devil,” in his book “Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.” Bagosora was convicted by the ICTR in 2008 for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and sentenced to life imprisonment. His case is currently on appeal. Sitting directly in front of Bagosora, just a few feet away, I made eye contact with “either the coldest fish in Africa or the ghost of Machiavelli,” as he was described by Dallaire, a large man impeccably dressed with a nearly expressionless face. I listened to his version of the buildup to the genocide, which he claimed was spontaneous, in line with his defense team’s argument that the Prosecution in his trial failed to prove that the killings were organized and therefore constituted genocide. He spoke in terms of RPF invasion and civil war, and blamed President Kagame for the assassination of President Habyarimana and for the subsequent RPF breach of the Arusha Accords. Reading defense witness transcripts and hearing testimonies like that of Bagosora, the story of Rwanda becomes less clear to me than I had thought it was.
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Before I began my internship, I saw the Rwandan genocide in terms of black and white. Black and white because defining events as crimes works to establish and enforce international legal boundaries, and enables the international community to explain its own failure to stop violations of the crimes prohibited. Black and white because laws reflect the desire to establish a rational causal narrative in the aftermath of gross violence, and trials set out to create such an account to interpret, explain and record the atrocities, and yet must greatly simplify, favoring some voices over others and reducing and repackaging testimony, in order to achieve justice. Black and white because the prosecution of individuals, individual reductionism, can narrow the field of focus, limiting the wider blame and de-contextualizing the crime from its political and institutional roots. However, the more work that I do here at the ICTR, the more transcripts and testimonies that I am exposed to, the more I begin to see what occurred in Rwanda in a million different shades of gray. Gray because I cannot ignore how the naming of the crime of genocide and the prosecution of individuals in criminal trials recreates the past in a sense. Gray because historical narratives are not merely discovered but are at least partially constructed, a process reflective of power and interests and socio-political demands.
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Within these shades of gray, I remember an article I read by Nigel Eltringham, “Debating the Rwandan Genocide,” which cites Roger Smith’s five-part typology and offers an overview of the key motives propagated by perpetrators of genocide, several of which are often-times at work in any given case. According to Smith, genocide may be retributive, monopolistic, utilitarian, institutional, and/or ideological. Just last week I listened to an attorney working in the OTP recount his recent trip to Rwanda; he met a genocide survivor who was raped by so many men that at one point it no longer made sense to her to count. She told him that her child, now about 16 years old, has one thousand fathers. Faced with countless stories like this, it would be tempting to dismiss the violence in Rwanda as the result of pure evil if I were not also faced with stories that speak of compliance with orders to rape and kill out of fear for life and the life of families and loved ones. I find Smith’s categories helpful as I delve further into the Rwandan crisis to understand what happened there any why. Using Smith’s archetypes, the case of Rwanda can be seen to embody elements that were retributive, with the Hutu seeking revenge when their superior role was threatened by the Tutsi, a group seen to have historically subjugated them. It was monopolistic and institutional; the ruling elite was intent on maintaining political hegemony through the slaughter of Tutsi as a group. It was also utilitarian if interpreted as Gerard Prunier has as “among other things, a fight for good jobs, administrative control and economic advantage.” Thus in the Rwandan context, it is important to remember that there was a clear pragmatic component, that also mixed with the ideological or transcendental element which was the focus on racial purity. It is these pragmatic elements and the socio-political context, as with all crimes, which make criminal law and the prosecution of individuals so much more complex. With attention to these various elements, I attempt to reconcile the two sides of the Rwandan story I am faced with here.
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Aside from my work at the ICTR, I get to see a little more of Tanzania each weekend. Last Friday I attended a fundraising event at the Tanzania Millennium Hand Foundation- Tamhiha. Tamiha Foundation is an NGO which provides shelter for widows, most of whom are HIV positive, and orphans. Within the framework of the millennium goals, its twin aims are to train the widows in job skills and microfinance, and to find sponsors for the children’s primary education. During the event, I toured the foundation grounds and orphanage, visited with the women and children, and watched traditional African dance performances. It costs only $ 30 to maintain one child for one month at the orphanage, and sponsoring a child’s primary education is only about $ 600 per year, yet the Tamiha Foundation struggles to find funding.
http://www.tamiha.org/

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On Saturday I went on a day Safari. I was picked up at 7 am in a Landrover and began the drive to Nrongoro with a Nigerian lawyer who works at Shearman and Sterling LLP in NYC and is here for three months as part of a pro-bono program that the firm runs with the OTP. The Nrongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 112 miles outside of Arusha, initially created by the British in 1951. The Nrongoro Crater is a vast volcanic crater that formed between 2-3 million years ago, home to most of the animal species common to East Africa. After our drive through the forest and descent into the edenic crater, we were able to see lions, cheetahs, wildebeests, hippopotamuses, zebras, buffalos, ostriches, flamingos, rhinos, warthogs, Thomson gazelles, and baboons.



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On our way back down the crater slope, we stopped by a Maasai village composed of a circle of 12 huts with a market in the middle and a kindergarten nearby. The Maasai is a pastoralist tribe that migrated to Kenya and Tanzania from Northern Africa between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, during which time they acquired their reputation as fierce warriors. The Maasai lived in the Nrongoro area until they were evicted by the British in the 1950s, but have since been permitted by the Tanzanian government to live and graze cattle there. Maasai society is patriarchal and centers around cattle, the primary source of sustenance and symbol of status and wealth. The tribe is one of Africa’s most well-known, as they have claimed rights to game reserves frequented by tourists in parts of Kenya and Tanzania, and are regarded as photogenic by travelers due in part to the intricate jewelry, Shúkà sheets, and bright colors they are known to wear. The particular Maasai village that we visited has embraced cultural tourism as a means of revenue generation. The chief greeted us in English, which he learned during his five years studying in Moshi and Arusha, and introduced us to his village, encouraging us to join in adumu or aigus, the welcome and jumping dances and song. He then ushered us inside his small home, which was made of wood, sticks, and grass and covered in cow dung for waterproofing. The homes are small, but the families eat, sleep and shelter small cattle there. I was surprised at his openness to questions from us as he described family and marriage customs in the tribe. Men are allowed to marry multiple wives, and marriages and bride-prices are arranged by the parents on both sides. The chief took us to the village market, where each family sells jewelry and crafts. He also took us to the kindergarten to observe instruction, which was given in Maa, Swahili, and English.


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This is a busy week at the ICTR as Bagosora continues his testimony, and I am eager to get downstairs to court to listen in on his cross-examination.
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Until soon,
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Kimber

For more Rwanda in the news: http://www.economist.com/node/16439016?story_id=16439016&fsrc=nlw|wwp|06-24-2010|politics_this_week

First Stop -- Ghana

Germans are remarkably efficient. While at the airport in Frankfurt, en route to Ghana, there was an unnamed “security threat.” A whole wing of the airport was cordoned off by immaculately dressed, tall white police officers. Security tape was erected, the area thoroughly secured and parsed, and within minutes it was back to business as usual.

I arrived in Accra the next day. The contrast was stark. The time it took me to email an attachment – three hours – felt impossibly slow. The glacial speed this country can move at tests the nerves of anyone who is accustomed to immediacy. Just as the wait at the photocopy centre was about to get the better of my nerves, the women assisting me dawned a heart-warming grin, illuminating the room and quelling any frustration that had been fomenting.

Ghanaians are a peaceful people. Over the last two decades they have lived in a relatively stable democracy. Without fail, every Ghanaian I met was overwhelmingly kind. It sounds trite to make sweeping generalisations about the disposition of an entire country, but I really have no reason to think otherwise. Relations amongst Africans and the outside world, however, have been perpetually strained during the colonial and post-colonial era. The Ghanaian sensibility though, which emanates with every glistening smile, has, I think, helped this nation to cope with its plight. One of our professors, Kwame Frimpong, brought the shambok to our first class. This is a long wooden staff, used traditionally for corporal punishment. While corporal punishment has been officially outlawed in Ghana, the practice still exists in rural areas where Common Law holds less sway, and justice is often meted out according to traditional practices. The complexities of the tension between Customary Practice and Common Law was the first topic of study in Comparative Constitutional Law. Rather than introduce the human rights dilemmas arising from corporal punishment through stilted scholarship, Professor Frimpong, in his inimical way, used humour, and jokingly threatened us with the shambok if we didn’t behave. His intention was not to make light of a serious matter, but rather, to tease out the complexities of the ethical issues arising from corporal punishment.

Religion too, plays an important role in Ghanaian society. The devout fervency in which Ghanaians practice Christianity is marveling. Given Christianity’s dubious historical roots in Africa, I find it fascinating that it didn’t crumble under the fall of colonialism. In fact, quite the opposite has occurred. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, Georgina Wood, to commemorate the beginning of her third year on the bench, invited our class to a church service. Her Ladyship, as I later learned was the correct way to address her, cordially extended a number of invitations to our class to meet her, and some of the other justices on the Supreme Court. The service was used primarily as a means for Her Ladyship to thank God for her extraordinary accomplishments (many scholars attribute her work in reforming the Supreme Court as playing an integral role in the county’s prosperity). During the service we witnessed the central role music and dance play in Ghanaian religious practice. Like glistening smiles and playful humour, the infectious movement caused by music engenders hope. It is this hope, and the understanding that all people deserve the chance to have something to reasonably hope for, that informs her court, and allows for the moral crossroads of law and religion to positively affect justice.

Music and dance are also fundamental to the traditional cultural and spiritual practices of Ghanaians. We visited a small village in the Eastern region of Ghana called Akropong. Here we had the honour of meeting another Chief Justice, Nana, the Chief of Akropong. As we congregated at the palace in Akropong, the talking drum led a six-piece percussion ensemble in culling the needed quorum for our introduction to Nana and the village elders. Nana, which means both chief and grandchild, plays the multifaceted role of spiritual leader, political advisor, and legal arbiter. Ghana’s legal system incorporates traditional Customary Law, which has been the practice of villagers for centuries, into Common Law. Both systems inform each other. Championing human rights for instance, is not part of the Customary conception of justice, and my fellow Ghanaian students were perplexed by the occidental obsession with defending the rights of the convicted. The rights of all people matter deeply though, both philosophically and practically, and nowhere is this better exemplified than the Castles in Cape Coast.

Cape Coast is located in the Central Region of Ghana, hovering the Gulf of Guinea. The Castles are to African Americans, what the concentrations Camps of Eastern Europe are to Jews. They represent humanity at its worst. What we are capable of when human rights are derailed to the point where we equivocate about whom we should grant them to. The Castles were the starting point for the vast majority of Africans brought to North and South America, to work as slaves. Millions died on their journey across the Atlantic, and those who did survive became the first generation of what is the single greatest socio-economic scourge in the United States. The Castles now represent a symbol of hope though. People can now return through the gate of no return, and honour those who never had this privilege.

The next stop is Nepal, whose vast landscape and unknown political future makes it a destination of intrigue the world over. I hope to have much to report over the next ten weeks during my Leitner internship.

Gettin´ Busy (finalmente)

After meeting the conflict resolution program director on Monday, Nick, Steph and I finally moved out of Managua and in the direction of the rural community we will call home for the rest of the summer. Rio Blanco´s blossoming conflict resolution program is now in its capacity building stage so the prospective mediators are engaged in daily training sessions while finishing touches are being put on the office space that will be used to house the mediations.

After much pestering and cajoling on my part, I managed to convince our office to let me tag along with one of our field officers as he motorcycled to rural fincas, or farms, to meet with clients serviced by Nitlapan. We left on his trusty steed bright and early at 8am and didn´t make it back til 7pm.

When Nitlapan advertises itself as a provider of rural legal services, it means very, very rural. We drove for about an hour and a half into the countryside, parked when we ran out of road, and then proceeded to hike hours from finca to finca to meet with the clients.

While my work centers on the conflict resolution program, Nitlapan provides a range of programs from helping rural farmers secure land titles to providing micro-loans with more favorable interest rates than those offered by banks. On this visit I was able to see the breadth of Nitlapan´s activities in action. The field officer I was tailing, Mario, presented one woman with the deed to the land her family has called home and farmed for decades.

Nitlapan helped her create a strong case and compelling application to finally be granted title, an emotional moment this picture fails to capture as she did not seem too comfortable being photographed.

At other farms Mario, an agricultural engineer, assessed the effectiveness of the use of the loan money and offered technical advice to the farmers to improve efficiency. While Mario conducted his business, I was charged with interviewing the farmers and their families to assess the nature of conflicts that may eventually appear before the conflict resolution mediators.

This served the dual purpose of helping the mediators anticipate the types of problems that they will likely face while also advertising the existence of the program, a task made very difficult given how spread out the communities are (evidenced by this pic which has a machete wielding young farmer guiding us on the one hour hike to the next finca in search of a client who was not there!).

Since we have not made our final move to the Rio Blanco offices, my interviewing was not guided by the questionnaire that supposedly exists. Rather, the interviews were informal conversations during which I fielded questions about the program and listened to the problems facing the families. A common theme that emerged was land disputes between neighbors. Litigating these in the courts was inconvenient both for the distance the parties in conflict had to travel and for the wait time before a decision was rendered (anywhere from 3-10 years). I was repeatedly told that given these constraints the parties often resorted to violence. Clearly the need for this conflict resolution to get underway sooner rather than later is tied to much more than my desire to get busy.

Nick, Steph and I will be making our final move to the small town of Rio Blanco on Monday and our days (we are told) will consist of travelling to fincas and interviewing the families. One take away from my interviewing experiences this week are that we should delicately find a way to interview the husbands and wives (and children) in isolation from each other. This was not easy to do this week and as such the topic of domestic abuse did not arise, even though Nitlapan officers are adamant that this is a serious problem. Perhaps having Steph along for the interviews will make speaking to the women alone easier.

I have to head to the end of the week briefing but hopefully next time I write it´ll be from Rio Blanco!

Til then,

John

Human Rights and Customary Law

I came to Sierra Leone planning to assist the Centre for Safe Motherhood, Youth, and Child Outreach in advocacy for community by-laws outlawing female circumcision before the age of 18.  The project built on the work we started through the Walter Leitner Human Rights Clinic, working in three chiefdoms in the Kambia District.  We saw potential in Magbema and Tonko-Limba to pass these laws, sending a message to the reluctant national government.  As is typical in any internship, my work plan has adjusted slightly, but I'm very pleased with how much I'm seeing and learning.

First, for some background:  Female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation (FGM), is performed around the world, mostly in Africa and Asia.  It is also practiced by immigrant communities in Europe and the United States.  The effects, both physical and emotional, can be devastating and long-lasting, ranging from infection to complications in child birth to death.  Sierra Leone has been described as "ground zero" for anti-FGM advocacy, due to the prevalence of the practice and the national government's silence on the subject.  Approximately 90-95% of women have undergone FGM, mostly as initiation into the bondo, the all-female secret society.  Traditionally, girls went to the bondo to become women-- learning skills for their household, getting dressed in fine clothing, and being circumcised; but over time, the educational aspects have fallen away, leaving only the cutting.  Because the bondo is outside the control of non-members, whether men, government, or foreigners, local politicians have remained silent on FGM.  No national laws have been passed against the practice, and when the Child Rights Act was debated in 2007, the clause addressing FGM was removed after a closed debate.  Politicians will pay for the initiation of girls to win community support, rather than see their campaign derailed by being perceived as opposing the bondo.  As a result, women and children who wish to resist FGM have only the protection of human rights treaties and careful interpretation.

Meeting with Community Members in Kukuna

In spite of the government's response, public opinion has begun to turn against FGM.  Due in large part to human rights sensitization by organizations such as CESMYCO, many communities have expressed their desire to end the practice.  However, the soweis, traditional bondo leaders, speak of their need for alternative employment.  Initiation fees can be $100-200 per girl, in a country where average income is around $100/month.  CESMYCO is addressing this concern by training initiators for Alternative Employment, such as providing seedlings so grounds of women can harvest rice.  As such, there are opportunities to address the legal problem at a local level.  

Under Sierra Leone's constitution, people are governed through the national laws, enforced by the High Court and police, and customary law, promulgated and enforced by the chief and local courts.  Most people, particularly in the villages, rely on the traditional justice system, rather than national laws or human rights treaties.  In recent years, chiefs in Sierra Leone have passed community by-laws addressing human rights violations, such as forced marriage and child labour, guided by the provisions of CEDAW and the CRC.  Some communities, both here and across Africa, have used the opportunity to outlaw FGM, either entirely or at a young age.  Usually these by-laws are more effective since they have been supported by the community and they can be used to advocate for a stronger national response.

With this background, my work this summer is focusing more broadly on the status of women and children's rights in customary law.  I am conducting interviews in communities and in Freetown to research the current by-laws and recent changes.  Through this project, I am seeing how some chiefdoms have incorporated human rights standards, making them directly applicable to the population.  By the end of the summer, I will draw together a report analyzing the gaps in by-laws as compared to human rights and national laws, as well as strategies to advocate for more progressive by-laws.  Since CESMYCO does not currently have a lawyer on staff, I hope the document will guide their efforts to incorporate legal approaches to eradicating FGM.

In my free time, I've been exploring Salone's many beaches.

Although my work can be variable- busy one day, then put on hold by waiting for power- I have found the experience is what I put into it.  As long as I am prepared for the unpredictable and remain focused on the bigger picture, I am able to motivate myself to keep going.  Additionally, I've been able to enjoy my time in Freetown and my brief trips upcountry.  Since the rains will be starting in July (although we've had some incredible thunderstorms), we try to get outside as much as possible-- going to the beach or hiking a nearby mountain.  And, of course, I have been following the World Cup; it would be impossible not to.  I'm going to disagree with Jessica on this point-- at least for this World Cup, there is nowhere quite like Africa.  Although Sierra Leone is not competing, every bar, radio, or television is broadcasting every game, and the quickest way to make friends in a shared taxi is to ask everyone who their team is.  Though most of the African teams will not advance beyond the group stage, we are all holding out hope in Ghana and looking for a home continent victory.

My trip To Bunce Island

Part of my reason for wanting to come to Sierra Leone and work for the summer was its rich history; particularly the history that is found in Freetown. Freetown received its name because it is where the British brought the "Black Loyalists" who assisted them fighting in the US Revolutionary War. Choosing Freetown as the site to settle the former slaves was not a decision that was made "by chance." For many many years Sierra Leone had been the hub of the slave trade. This past weekend I went to Bunce Island, Sierra Leone's Slave Port, to see its rich history.

There are a few things that make Bunce Island unique from many of the other slave castles. First, and very significant to American History is that at the other Slave Castles (ie Cape Coast in Ghana), only about 4% of the slaves ended up in America. However, this was not the case for Bunce, where the majority of the slaves were taken to what is now the United States. These slaves were settled primarily in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. In fact, if you go to the Gullah Islands of South Carolina, you will hear the peopl speaking Krio, the language spoken in Sierra Leone.

When we arrived at Bunce, we were extremely fortunate because the world's leading expert on the history of the island, Professor Joseph Opala, was shooting a documentary there with NBC. We got the best imaginable tour. The slave compound on the island was not preserved the way that the other slave forts are, but the island is also not inhabited, so many of the ruins are fairly well preserved. It was like walking into a time capsule. What an amazing site.

My trip there reminded me that there is so much to see and experience here and I should take advantage of as much of it as possible.

Kia Ora, Week 3: Families torn apart by Family Reunification policy

He was granted residence and then citizenship in New Zealand. A prize case of escaping desperate life threatening circumstances, fleeing from Somalia to eastern Ethiopia, and eventually making it to NZ through immigration policy. Two of his brothers went missing and are presumed dead. The four nieces all went missing and are presumed to have been sold into sex slavery or dead. His one remaining brother was watching over three of his nephews. Last week his phone rang. The caller told him that his brother was now dead. These three nephews, aged 8-10 are somewhere in Addis Ababa. He wants to bring them to New Zealand to safety. But in terms of NZ immigration policy, they're not a "family" so that won't be so easy. Also, he came to NZ under the wrong policy if he wanted any chance of bringing his family over with him.

This week I have felt especially touched by our clients that I have met but realized there will not be a way within New Zealand immigration policy to help them. I knew that it would come to this in certain, maybe many, cases, and it is sometimes simple to think about immigration policy as this abstract concept that in the United States becomes an issue of politics and in New Zealand becomes an issue for the Minister of Immigration, Hon. Jonathan Coleman, and Immigration New Zealand ("INZ") having basically free reign from Parliament to do what they wish with policy.

There were previously two ways to come to NZ as a refugee:

1) UNHCR Quota

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees ("UNHCR") advises New Zealand on the countries from which NZ should accept the most refugees. The Minister and INZ have set the quota at 750 refugees to be accepted annually, and they pick and choose which countries they want to prioritize: http://www.refugeeservices.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/955/Nationalities_to_2008

See the link above for a breakdown of these priority countries.

Refugees who entered NZ under the quota are eligible to sponsor their family members left behind to make it to NZ under a special family reunification residence policy.

2) INZ Humanitarian Policy

This is the policy the client I discussed early used. Prior to October 2001, New Zealand had a "Humanitarian Category" under their Residence policy where they basically accepted more people where "severe humanitarian conditions exist" and the individual had a close family connection to New Zealand. Many people came to New Zealand under the benefits of this policy. At the time, refugees who entered NZ under the Humanitarian policy were eligible to sponsor their family members left behind to make it to NZ under a separate family reunification residence policy. In October 2001, the Humanitarian option of entry was eliminated. Unless the person managed to get a spot in the quota of 750, there is no place for her in New Zealand. This also meant that there was no family reunification option if a refugee entered under the Humanitarian policy.

Refugees fear for their lives, their safety, their health, their most basic needs, their families. They are desperate for help, and it is a beautiful thing that New Zealand, by the urging of the UNHCR, accepts refugees. A desperate person in this situation is not thinking about picking and choosing which policy they apply to officially enter the country under, but through their current policy this is essentially what New Zealand says these people should have been doing.

If you entered under policy one, you have a chance at living together as family again. If you entered under policy two, your family will be never be together again.

Try explaining that to your client. Or, actually, think about how it would feel to be that client.