Every year International Legal Partnerships (ILP) sends Osgoode students all over the world to intern at various public interest organizations. This past summer we sent students to everywhere from Sierra Leone to Thailand. Some of the interns have taken time to share their summer experiences with the Osgoode community.
Tala Khoury
Project: I worked for a local organization called the Kosovo Law Centre. They were working on a project that was funded by the European Union to promote legal education. KLC was in charge of publishing statutes, court cases from the Supreme Court and the District Courts (equivalent of the Courts of Appeal here), and in depth commentaries on certain areas of the law such as divorce for example.
I spent my summer writing an in depth commentary on religious rights and freedoms in Kosovo and the European Union. Specifically, I concentrated on the constitutionality of banning female students from wearing the hijab (Islamic headscarf) in secondary schools. This report will be published in November.
Highlight: The most rewarding work moment was a publication party that we held to celebrate the publication of nine new books in June. Amongst the attendees were the Minister of Justice, Kosovo judges, EULEX judges, lawyers, and law students.
Challenge: One day the electricity got cut, so we couldn’t do any work for the rest of the day. I was reading a novel by Orhan Pamuk on the hijab in Northern Turkey. My two male colleagues asked me about the plot and so we started talking about religion, women, and politics. I got very upset during the conversation because one of my colleagues argued that women who wear short skirts are “asking for sex.” I felt that he was blaming women for getting raped because a short skirt meant an invitation. It tested my ability to remain calm and diplomatic in a work environment while still defending my beliefs.
Craziest Moment: I can’t pick between two crazy things that happened this summer. The first is that I played the violin with a band performing an Arabic song. The second is that I met a man indicted for war crimes (he was acquitted, but now the charges are being renewed based on new witnesses) at a bar.
Leah Matthews and Erica Stah
Project: We volunteered at Foundation for the Study and Application of Law (FESPAD), a civil liberties association in San Salvador, El Salvador. Our task was to research and write a report on public-private partnerships (P3) to educate the lawyers at FESPAD so that they could contribute the ongoing legislative debate about a bill that would make P3s mandatory for all levels of government considering large infrastructure projects, even in situations where a P3 would be undesirable. So far the debate has shown no evidence of a nuanced, theoretical understanding of P3s. FESPAD wanted to change that, and our job was to help them do it.
Highlight/Challenge: One of the highlights of our time in San Salvador was also one of the most challenging experiences. After writing our report, we presented it to about 50 researchers, members of the public, and media. We were asked to do a radio interview for a popular local station, all in Spanish. It was lots of fun being in the studio and we were thrilled to know that our research was actually making it out into the real world, but talking about anything more complicated than my breakfast plans in Spanish requires trial and error. Sometimes even my breakfast plans are difficult to explain. So I mangled the Spanish language on local radio, but Leah did very well.
Craziest Moment: We got locked out of the Canadian embassy when we tried to deliver a letter on behalf of communities affected by Pacific Rim’s mining exploration activities (Pacific Rim is a Canadian mining company). Basically, El Salvador ignored Pacific Rim’s request for a permit to mine in the country and then declared a ban on all mining activity within its borders. Pacific Rim is now suing El Salvador in the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes for $77 million of “lost profits.” How they could have lost profits when they never mined, and never had permission to mine, is a puzzling notion. Our lockout caused a sensation and we were interviewed for that evening’s daily news. The next day a woman recognized us at our bus stop and said, “Hey, I saw you girls on the news last night! Thanks for sticking up for El Salvador!”
Nav Purewal
Project: I worked for the United Nations Office of Staff Legal Assistance at the UN’s African headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. Our office represented current and former UN employees who were challenging UN administrative decisions in the UN Dispute Tribunal and UN Appeals Tribunal.
Highlight: The highlight was the preparatory work I did for arguing a case before the UN Dispute Tribunal. Unfortunately, scheduling prevented me from actually arguing the case. I also enjoyed the regular global conference calls where we discussed litigation strategy with UN offices in New York, Geneva, Beirut, and Addis Ababa.
Challenge: The most challenging period was when I ran the office – I’d like to think competently – for a week.
Craziest Moment: The craziest thing that happened was being told I was under arrest by a Kenyan military policeman (my fault for forgetting my UN ID at home), and then becoming friends with my erstwhile captor.
Sylvia Kym
Project: The Office of Staff Legal Assistance supports any UN staff member that has a legal issue relating to their work; for example, problems with unfair work treatment, harassment, or failure of the administration to uphold their employment contract, whether it be promotions, medical benefits, etc. The office first attempts to discuss the matter with the appropriate administrative body to resolve the issue and when all other options have been exhausted will proceed to the litigation stage. In my position I did research, using the UN Dispute Tribunal and the UN Appeals Tribunals’ case law, to find rulings or trends that help explain our argument and then write a legal memo using this information. On occasion I was asked to begin drafting what I thought the plausible arguments might be for a case.
Highlight: Personally meeting the Assistant Secretary-General, Head of Ombudsman and Mediation Services who made a trip to our office from the NY headquarters.
Challenge: A difficult client intake when I wasn’t sure if I was asking the right questions, to make sure I would get all the information while not making them uncomfortable.
Craziest Moment: I along with friends I met in Addis went to Harare, a beautiful preserved old city, and while there we fed wild hyenas. There is a “hyena man” outside the city that calls them at night and after putting a twig in our mouth, placed a piece of camel meat on it which the Hyenas ate or he would dangle a piece above our head so they would step on our back to get it. But I think the most eerie part of the experience is the walk through town when the hyenas wander along the streets with you. With so few streetlights, often it’s only their glowing eyes you can see crossing your path.
Kathryn Fox and Naveen Hassan
Project: As interns in the research department at FHRI, we conducted research on multi-party democracy in Uganda. Our research primarily consisted of interviewing academics, politicians, civil society organizations, and a former Supreme Court judge! On top of being crucial to the research project, our interviews with these prominent members of Ugandan society were the best and most interesting way for us to learn about Uganda’s past and present political scene.
During our internship at FHRI, we also worked alongside the organization’s legal aid department and a pro bono lawyer on a case involving 53 treason suspects. We worked closely with the prisoners to ensure that their ordeal since their arrest was being thoroughly documented. We were also tasked with identifying those prisoners who were eligible for bail (ie. due to old age or illness) and ensuring that we had all the necessary information for their bail applications. As members of their legal team, we also accompanied the treason suspects to court on numerous occasions.
Highlight: We had the opportunity to attend a public lecture sponsored by the Bank of Uganda where the main speaker was Joseph Stiglitz and the responder was Mahmood Mamdani – which was a highlight in itself. Additionally, the President of Uganda decided to attend and we witnessed Professor Mamdani openly criticize the President and President’s response to the criticism! However, the highlight of the entire experience was waving to the President as he drove by in his motorcade and then nearly being run over by the his personal travelling commode!
Challenge: Even though there was great value in our work on the treason case, we experienced many personal challenges being involved with the case. Initially, it was difficult to listen to each prisoner’s ordeal since their arrest because we were documenting details of their ordeal since they were arrested; this included detail about how each were tortured before being taken to a police station and processed through the system. As time went on, we developed relationships with each of the prisoners, so our most challenging moment was saying goodbye to the prisoners and explaining to them that we were no longer working on their case. Specifically, one of the prisoners was a Ugandan-Canadian and it was especially difficult to say goodbye to him.
Craziest Moment: The most unreal experience of our lives was swimming with dolphins in the wild… in the Indian Ocean! This happened purely by chance when we were on our way to Mnemba Island (off the coast of Zanzibar) for some snorkelling. Kathryn also went gorilla trekking with her mother and was 5 meters away from the largest silverback in Bwindi National Park!
Oh – and we also went white water rafting down the Nile (twice!). It’s fair to say that we got our butts kicked by the Nile (see picture!).