I guess I haven't written about work in a while. That's partially because work was a bit slow for a while, but it's picked up lately, so I figure maybe it's time to write about it.
As I think I've mentioned, my NGO has a number of discrete programs that focus on particular human rights issues. For example, there is an international criminal justice program, an HIV/AIDS program, a pretrial detention program, an LGBT and sex workers program (I don't know how/why those two groups got stuck together), etc. I think all of the interns expected when we applied that we would be located within in specific program for our time here -- I was obviously hoping to be working specifically with the HIV program. However, when I got here I realized pretty quickly that it doesn't work like that. We all get work from all the lawyers, based on our availability and interests.
As it turns out, the HIV/AIDS program really doesn't seem very interested in giving any of the interns much substantive work to do. I think part of it might be that they have a young program lawyer attached to the program, so she gets all the grunt work that would normally fall to someone in my position. Still, I'm disappointed about that, and I wish I had known ahead of time.
Despite the fact that we are not officially assigned to projects, it has sort of shaken out that we each focus most of our time on one particular program. All three of us wanted to work on the ICJ program, and Sandeep and I each were assigned to work on a case for a while. Once Melissa arrived, she sort of supplanted us and has become the go-to ICJ intern. Sandeep has become the only intern who works on regional advocacy and freedom of the media, and I.... well, I've ended up spending a considerable amount of my time working on the disability rights program.
The program is brand new, and the area of law is drastically underdeveloped in Africa -- and internationally, really. There is an international convention, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, that came into effect in 2008. It's so new that there's almost no jurisprudence or interpretation of it yet; the Committee hasn't issued any General Comments, and it's only decided one case under the Optional Protocol (which gives individuals of signatory countries the right to bring complaints directly to the Committee for violations of the Convention). So there's really not a lot of law to work with.
The program lawyer I'm working with had the idea to create a litigation manual for lawyers on the continent -- in a lot of countries outside South Africa, public interest litigation is fairly unknown, and public interest litigation of disability rights is practically unheard of. So the idea was to write up a "how-to" guide that outlines the case law that does exist, as well as the international law under the relevant treaties, to give lawyers a place to start if/when they get a client in front of them facing issues related to discrimination on the basis of disability. I started with the right to education, which was fairly easy, and then moved on to the chapter on sexual and reproductive health -- which is much trickier. It involves issues of forced sterilization of women with disabilities in and outside of institutions, denial of sexual education and services to women with disabilities because of a belief that they either are or should be sexually inactive, all sorts of HIV-related issues, etc.
While I was still researching the second chapter, the program lawyer (Abeda) came to me and asked if I could have it finished by the next day, because she was meeting with the funder on Wednesday, and she was going to ask for $10,000 to publish the manual next year and needed to show the funder what we had. I was like, oh man, no pressure. That was the first night I took work home with me, because I was nowhere close to finishing. I worked like mad for 24 hours to get the chapter done, but I did, and off it went. Granted, when Abeda came back from the meeting, she was enraged because apparently they want the manual completely developed by this September. Abeda had been imagining it would be a yearlong process, but she's going to train some paralegals in Malawi in September, and that meeting has turned into a 20+ person training session on litigating disability rights and is going to involve people from five countries, and they want the manual ready for that.
So, no pressure.
As I think I've mentioned, my NGO has a number of discrete programs that focus on particular human rights issues. For example, there is an international criminal justice program, an HIV/AIDS program, a pretrial detention program, an LGBT and sex workers program (I don't know how/why those two groups got stuck together), etc. I think all of the interns expected when we applied that we would be located within in specific program for our time here -- I was obviously hoping to be working specifically with the HIV program. However, when I got here I realized pretty quickly that it doesn't work like that. We all get work from all the lawyers, based on our availability and interests.
As it turns out, the HIV/AIDS program really doesn't seem very interested in giving any of the interns much substantive work to do. I think part of it might be that they have a young program lawyer attached to the program, so she gets all the grunt work that would normally fall to someone in my position. Still, I'm disappointed about that, and I wish I had known ahead of time.
Despite the fact that we are not officially assigned to projects, it has sort of shaken out that we each focus most of our time on one particular program. All three of us wanted to work on the ICJ program, and Sandeep and I each were assigned to work on a case for a while. Once Melissa arrived, she sort of supplanted us and has become the go-to ICJ intern. Sandeep has become the only intern who works on regional advocacy and freedom of the media, and I.... well, I've ended up spending a considerable amount of my time working on the disability rights program.
The program is brand new, and the area of law is drastically underdeveloped in Africa -- and internationally, really. There is an international convention, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, that came into effect in 2008. It's so new that there's almost no jurisprudence or interpretation of it yet; the Committee hasn't issued any General Comments, and it's only decided one case under the Optional Protocol (which gives individuals of signatory countries the right to bring complaints directly to the Committee for violations of the Convention). So there's really not a lot of law to work with.
The program lawyer I'm working with had the idea to create a litigation manual for lawyers on the continent -- in a lot of countries outside South Africa, public interest litigation is fairly unknown, and public interest litigation of disability rights is practically unheard of. So the idea was to write up a "how-to" guide that outlines the case law that does exist, as well as the international law under the relevant treaties, to give lawyers a place to start if/when they get a client in front of them facing issues related to discrimination on the basis of disability. I started with the right to education, which was fairly easy, and then moved on to the chapter on sexual and reproductive health -- which is much trickier. It involves issues of forced sterilization of women with disabilities in and outside of institutions, denial of sexual education and services to women with disabilities because of a belief that they either are or should be sexually inactive, all sorts of HIV-related issues, etc.
While I was still researching the second chapter, the program lawyer (Abeda) came to me and asked if I could have it finished by the next day, because she was meeting with the funder on Wednesday, and she was going to ask for $10,000 to publish the manual next year and needed to show the funder what we had. I was like, oh man, no pressure. That was the first night I took work home with me, because I was nowhere close to finishing. I worked like mad for 24 hours to get the chapter done, but I did, and off it went. Granted, when Abeda came back from the meeting, she was enraged because apparently they want the manual completely developed by this September. Abeda had been imagining it would be a yearlong process, but she's going to train some paralegals in Malawi in September, and that meeting has turned into a 20+ person training session on litigating disability rights and is going to involve people from five countries, and they want the manual ready for that.
So, no pressure.
Kind of wonderful that you are working on disability related issues given Sarah, etc. And it sounds like a lot of work needs to be done to ensure that those with special needs are treated equally and fairly. Good thing they have you on their team! Really interesting work Katie - and you're certainly "doing good." Look forward to hearing more...ESA Lise
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