JON O’KANE
<Contributor>
The Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) was a way for me to get out of my comfort zone. There were a lot of other options, but I wanted to do something that let me get on the ground and work with people first-hand with a local NGO. It was a great way for me to really immerse myself in a culture and try out something new.
Kampala, Uganda is a hustling, bustling city. It’s got a giant population (over 1.5 million) and the idea of moving to Africa is not the rural experience one might expect. Thanks to a connection through the FHRI and other Osgoode students, I actually spent my time there staying in the Pakistani consular residence, believe it or not.
About half way through my trip, it was announced that there was going to be the first International Criminal Court trial of a member of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The trial was to happen in Gulu, in northern Uganda, and I, being ready to travel and FHRI’s available go-to person in the area, was sent up to be their official observer. I was excited; I was thinking “history is happening; they’re going to get the bad guy.” When I got there, though, it was a bit of a circus; a marching band was playing out front, news cameras were everywhere, and there were serious procedural errors in the trial. I was conflicted, to say the least.
I spent a lot of my time in Uganda traveling in the northern part of the country, meeting with the victims of the LRA and seeing the things they’d suffered. On the other hand, I was there as a monitor for a right to a fair trial. After I came back, I wrote a paper as a part of the International Legal Partnership program, which helped me reconcile some of those feelings, between the longing for peace and the longing for justice. Overall, the summer of 2011 opened my eyes to the practical challenges and excitement of lawyering abroad.
Jon was interviewed by student intern Benjamin Jenkins, a recent graduate of Seneca@York’s broadcast journalism program.