I had my first exposure to child pornography this week. I was asked to cataloge the different forms of child pornography confiscated from raids... I thought the file given to me was a bunch of charts and numbers, but soon realized the file contained masses of pornographic images of children.
I am not sure how to react, other than being utterly disgusted.

It really brought to reality what ECPAT is fighting for, and gave so much more meaning to all the lobbying that we have been doing the last month for the passage of the Anti-Child Pornography Act.
I think emotionally, I am still in shock, and it hasn't really sunken in...




One member of the ECPAT staff said it best:
'child pornography is not just pornography with children; it is the documentation of a crime.'

This week I continued my research on judicial training and reform in order to supplement the judicial training knowledge map. The research began with a visit to the publication collection of UNDP's international partners such as that World Bank, SIDA, CIDA, USAID etc. I found certain website more forthcoming and was disappointed with CIDA's website. The publications were either inaccessible or less detailed than outlined in their abstracts.
Other than website troubles, the challenge in updating this knowledge map has been the lack of specific resources. The Judicial Training Center and its projects are new initiatives and as such there are very little scholarly works and feedback on similar projects. Most of the resources focus on judicial reform strategies, which while helpful seem too primitive for use in the Serbian context.

Serbia's unique situation is that it is a country in transition. It has maintained certain infrastructures and programs and in more cases seeks to reform rather than create such infrastructures. At this juncture many recommendations on development are thus given in vain. This makes several UNDP projects, of which the judicial Training Center is a part, pioneering projects in their field, which makes accuracy and sustainability key priorities. Updating the information contained in the Training Guide would have been a natural starting point but for various reasons, this task was not taken up since the initial compilation of the Guide. This suggests to me that while there is a pioneering spirit in the Serbian UNDP office, there may be a lack of human resource to maintain the accuracy of projects. I do believe however that the initial layout of the Guide was also problematic in the sense that it was not at all user-friendly. I am in the midst of creating a new layout with more updated information that I hope will encourage more regular attention and addition to the Guide.

On a completely different note, I had the opportunity last week to visit Rome for a few days. While the city was lovely and I had a great time, I was often asked why I was staying in Serbia for the summer. While working for the UNDP and the ILP experience seemed acceptable to most, the choice of the country seemed for them quite odd. Some were under the impression that the social tensions still manifested themselves openly and violently. While the tensions continue in Serbia, I do believe that a portion of Serbia's struggles stem from the preconceptions that the international community holds with regards to Serbia. This is quite a sore spot for Serbians, who are eager to find out what you thought of them prior to visiting and are even more eager to change your opinion to a more a favorable one.

This change of opinions seems to come gradually. While initially most seem to enjoy the liveliness of Belgrade, a longer stay will reveal the tensions, poverty and power struggles that underlay the society. Those are the tensions that are alleviated slowly, through systematic change. What seems clear to me 2.5 months into my stay here is that while Serbia certainly can use some help in its upgrade, we too must begin to upgrade the way in which we see this country in order to aid in the former project.

This week I wrapped up my research on Capacity Development (CD) in Serbia and completed a draft chapter that will be added to the Judicial Training Centre (JTC) materials. To supplement the CD description that I blogged about last week I have decided to provide more information on Serbia's specific CD experiences in relation to the establishment of the JTC.

Experience with CD strategies has allowed UNDP-Serbia to identify several comparative advantages of its work in the area of institutional development. These include:

• Long- term engagement – Given the complexity of institutional frameworks lengthy engagement is necessary and often preferred for at least five years. In the case of the JTC, support ended only upon formation of self-sustaining capacities.

• Mentor Not Director – UNDP-Serbia’s role is to act as a facilitator; working with partners to assess capacity assets and address gaps with incentive mechanisms. In doing so, local ownership is enhanced and the substitution approach is avoided.

• Phased Approach – This process aims to progress incrementally from individual to institutional development, where each new phase builds on the previous.

• 1st Phase – Individual skills are updated or developed. This provides “quick wins” to gain support of staff and improve the first level of CD.
• • JTC staff was trained in preparation for project activities.

• 2nd Phase – Basic organizational structures and procedures are refined or established.
• • Internal planning processes, human resources and administrative functions were established for facilitated operation of the JTC.

• 3rd Phase – Support functions, such as policy and legislation formulation are executed.
• • The JTC fulfilled core functions, such as judicial training seminars with the support of UNDP–Serbia.

• Comprehensive Action – It is crucial for institutional development to address individual, technical, organizational, and administrative processes, as well as the enabling environment. UNDP-Serbia supported the government and organization to create and reform policy, legal frameworks and government statutes for facilitation of JTC establishment.

• Fostering Partnerships – For CD to be successfully executed, effective cooperation among multiple partners is essential. UNDP-Serbia demonstrated its ability to work as a neutral negotiator for national and international experts, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and for donor partners.

These are just some of the lessons learned from past projects, and the establishment of the JTC in particular. Now it is important that lessons are considered and applied in future policy and project efforts.

For the second time, I went to Kampiringisa (the National Rehabilitation Centre for children convicted of crimes- which doubles as a dumping ground for street children who are rounded up off the street). My supervisor and I went to ask some follow-up questions in order to fill in gaps in the research. This time we were on a mission to find out about the corporal punishment and the street children. Josephine and I sat on the grass under a tree and waited for the children we were to interview.

In Uganda, corporal punishment is outlawed in institutions. However, every child we have interviewed in Kampiringisa insists caning is a common form of punishment. I wanted to know if it was an accepted practice or if there was some rogue vigilante roaming the grounds in search of misbehaving children.... I had my suspicions as to which was more probable.

When I asked the director of the Centre about the use of corporal punishment, he insisted forcefully that it was never used and that it was illegal to partake in such activities. However, the children were experiencing one thing as the administration was proclaiming another. I asked the children we were interviewing why the Director claimed that caning never happened. The children informed me that it was the young social workers and the social work students on placement in Kampiringisa who cane the children. After we finished speaking with the girls, Josephine and I sauntered over to the row of plastic chairs where the on-duty staff members were relaxing. When we asked them about caning, they said that these children are delinquent and need to be caned because there is no other way of getting through to them. They openly admitted to facilitating this illegal punishment. The fact that these employees comfortably admit that they cane the children suggests to me that it is accepted within administration as well. The mystery source of the illegal corporal punishment has been solved, but the reason why the administration turns a blind eye is troubling. I find it hard to believe that someone who has such control in the Centre doesn’t know that caning is used as the most common form of punishment. The fact that caning is accepted makes me wonder what other protections guaranteed to juvenile offenders are being disregarded. One thing that bothers me about our interviews is that administration always hand selects the children we can interview. In the back of my mind, I wonder if maybe the children we don’t get to interview have experienced more human rights abuses.

While it will go into our report that caning is common at Kampiringisa, I would be interested to find out if there is any change in procedure following the publication of our report. It would be nice if our work actually made a difference and wasn’t just one of the many reports published. I have often wondered if what we are doing will change anything.

At Kampiringisa, the young street children (some as young as one or two years old) are assigned to the older girls. The older girls act as surrogate mothers. This is a lot of responsibility for these girls, and it is definitely not ideal to have juvenile offenders caring for vulnerable children who have been dumped on the street. It seems to me that it is easy children to be forgotten and pushed aside in society and there needs to be some advocates working to ensure children get what they deserve and aren’t neglected.

On a side note, two of the girls that Ashley and I interviewed before have escaped from Kampiringisa and have not been found. I wish that I could find them and talk to them again; they are very bright and typical teenage girls.

This past week I went on a safari in Northern Tanzania (Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater). Among the common (giraffes, zebras, hippos, etc) I saw the “big five” which are lions, elephants, leopards, buffalo, and rhinos. It was quite the experience and at one point we were in the middle of a herd of elephants chasing down a pride of lions who were crouching down less than a foot from my car door; it was awesome to see. The animals were very close to the car, and in fact one baboon jumped into our car and stole my chocolate bar and toiletries. However, that was nothing compared to being accosted by a group of men in “no man’s land” in between the Kenyan and Tanzanian borders, but that is a story for another time!

Oli Otya/How are you? I hope that all of you are doing well and from the sounds of it everyone’s fellowships are going fantastically. The past few weeks here in Uganda have been a pretty incredible mix of hard work and some fun play. After my last blog Brooke and I got started with research for the persons with disabilities report and in a few short weeks have managed to interview quite a diverse group of national and local disabled persons organizations as well as community and international based NGOs. Almost all of the people we have met with are themselves disabled and it has been particularly inspirational to see how successful they have been despite growing up in a country that until recently has had very little in the way of formal provisions for disabled individuals. In 2006 Uganda passed the “Persons with Disabilities Act” which, if even half of the provisions were implemented, would make Uganda a veritable “paradise” for disabled individuals. Brooke and I had both felt this way when we first read through the Act and our own feelings were confirmed by every individual we met. Three years after the passing of the bill virtually nothing has changed nor has there been any suggestion that the government intends to make operationalizing the Act a priority. In fact, in one of our interviews we learned that the government is now trying to have the Act repealed, claiming that its terms and language sound too much like international law and too little like domestic legislation. As a result there has been a movement by the Attorney General to declare the Act “not good law”. Fortunately it appears that NUDIPU (that national union for persons with disabilities) and some of the other DPOs have been successful in convincing the Attorney General that the requisite changes may be made via amendment rather than repeal and total rewriting. The situation raises some interesting questions as to the value of legislation like the Disabilities Act which goes so beyond the realistic capacity of the government… is there room for aspirational legislation in development or, in the end, does it have potential to do more harm than good? Definitely something I will continue to think about for the next few weeks and a new area of interest to be packing with me to come home. On top of the research for the PWD report we have also been doing a fair amount of writing and editing to fill in the last little gaps in the Juvenile Justice Report as well as the Human Rights Status Report. After some long days of writing we were able to get a copy of the Juvenile Justice report to FHRI’s executive director this Wednesday. Hopefully he will have a chance to review it while in the UK for a conference this week and if all goes according to plan we will ideally be launching just before Brooke and I come home on August 11th. Much will be dependent on the feedback we get this week, and the launch may need to be postponed until later in August which would be disappointing – our fingers are crossed for a positive response on Wednesday! A personal highlight for me in the past few weeks was my trip to Gulu last Thursday and Friday. For those of you who don’t know Gulu is in the northern part of the country and until about two and a bit years ago was very much a hotbed of military/LRA conflict. The trip was very quick – less than 24 hours –but it was nonetheless very worthwhile. I was able to interview a number of prisoners for the human rights status updates and it was incredible to be able to drive into the town late at night, and without military escort – something that would have been impossible the last time I was here. It is about a 6 hour drive from Kampala to Gulu so it was also a fantastic opportunity to see a good bit of the country.

From an adventure point of view Brooke and I have kept ourselves from going stir crazy in the city with weekend trips to Jinja. I’ve been taking a few kayak lessons and am determined to be able to roll successfully before we leave. As I’m writing right now I’m actually looking over a new section of the nile from Red Chilli’s Rest Camp in Murchison Falls National Park. This is the first trip beyond Kampala and Jinja that I’ve taken and it’s nice to have a bit of a long weekend from work. Brooke has been away on safari this past week and I am going to be taking my week off in the first week of August to go to Mombasa on the Kenyan Coast. It is insanely hard to believe that in three weeks we will be leaving Uganda… I have already warned Brooke that it might require herself and a small army of airport personnel to actually get me on the plane but we will see... If they are successful in this effort we will be seeing all of you shortly. Enjoy the rest of your fellowships – I will definitely send at least one more update before our departure on the 14th.

Cheers,
Ash.

To celebrate our birthdays, Jina and I decided that it would be great to give the girls at the shelter a good old fashioned ‘kid’ birthday party. We bought party hats and balloons and ordered a lot of pizza! It was a great evening. The girls really enjoyed themselves and I must admit it felt good celebrating my birthday vicariously through the ECPAT girls. All the girls were at our celebration except one; Tina (the real name has been replaced). Today, after a long two weeks of writing local ordinances, working with Attorney Tin through edits and organizing university symposiums, I found out just why Tina was not at our party. It was revealed to me that she had escaped the shelter and is suspected of returning to walking the streets of Quezon City, selling herself.

You see the initial reaction that I had felt after arriving at ECPAT and reading the graphic facts of various child trafficking cases has been numbed over the course of the summer. Between the legal work and partying, the lobbying and travelling, I had forgotten that initial tidal wave of overwhelming emotion which I felt when the summer had begun. I sat there motionless as the Ate’s described Tina’s life to me. The cigarette I was smoking became a refuge. I did not know how to react to the reality that was shared with me. Every drag calmed my feelings of discomfort and unease. I did not know how to sit or what to say. The only thing I knew was how to finish that cigarette which now barely rested between my slightly trembling fingers. “The girls only know one way of life” they explained. “They feel like they must put on a show; A mask. That is what they would do for the men that bought them. They had to learn how to fulfill the man’s sexual fantasies and remove themselves from the situation”. Apparently Tina’s mother has tried to take Tina while she was at school and even at the ECPAT shelter. The Ate’s revealed to me that they suspect that Tina was subjected to abuse through incest by her mother’s own hand. They also said they suspect that Tina’s mother was the one who had initially pimped her out to various men. They called Tina a ‘street-walker’. Unlike the other girls who became sex slaves in various bars, Tina walked the streets, sometimes as the subject of a syndicate and sometimes freelance. They explained that street-walkers find it difficult to deal with structure. Apparently Tina would tell other girls that she misses the streets. At that I became aware that they were preparing to set out on a search for Tina. I wished them luck and our conversation ended with them piling into a van and me sitting motionless at a table outside the shelter.

I do not know why this information was revealed to me. It was not the most appealing conversation to get into on a Friday evening as I was leaving for work. On the tricycle ride home Cyndi (my girlfriend who tutors Tina) and I barely spoke. I simply did not know what to say. I assume that Cyndi did not either. I noticed a tear roll down her cheek and that was enough to force me to look and listen to the noise of the traffic filled streets. As we dismounted the tricycle it became apparent to me that I was glad to have been enlightened, again, on the realities of our world. Sometimes when you are fighting for something you need to be reminded of just what that something is. For us that something is Tina. The way she thinks of herself and how she felt it necessary to flee the one place in the world that took care of her. I thought back to Canada and everyone I know. I wondered what they were doing at that very moment. I knew then what I was doing. After spending 8 hours in the sun and chasing after students to sign our petition there we were; covered in sweat, tired and yet at ease. As the summer ends so do the various internships that all of us have participated in. As such we must think to ourselves ‘How much difference does it make?’ I say it makes a hell of a difference, however small that difference may be.

Our time in Zambia is ending and it’s hard to believe we have been here for 2 months now. I feel fortunate to have had the chance to work at ZARAN and experience what challenges an indigenous NGO faces in terms of intenal direction and organization. In its 5 years of operation, the AIDSLaw Clinic at ZARAN has handled over 150 cases of discrimination based on actual or perceived HIV status. Yet, there is no single database that keeps a record of these files. Apparently a consultant was hired to organize a database a year ago but the programme had crashed or was found to be inoperative. Either way, that matter seemed to have slipped away from the priority list of ZARAN.

I remember about a month ago, in one of our weekly reports we mentioned the challenge we are facing in trying to approach the organization with problems that have easy solutions and can add to the efficiency of ZARAN. However, as short-term volunteers who are only here for less than 12 full weeks, we were not sure if our role would allow us to bring these matters to the attention of the staff. One of these problems with easy solution is definitely lack of a database. To my relief, a few days after, during a conversation with the paralegal under which Jamie and I have been working the matter was brought up and she agreed that having a database is indeed necessary and long overdue. Wanting to have somehow contributed to the efficient operation of the clinic and the organization as a whole, I volunteered to help her undertake the impossible task of going through all these files, writing up case reports, organizing them physically and then entering the information in a database. However, similar to the normal pace of life and labor here, this has been coming at a painstakingly slow speed. The challenge of a small NGO such as ZARAN mostly lies in the constant in and out flow of staff and volunteers. It is hoped, however, now that a legal officer has been finally hired, his presence will add more efficiency and consistency to the work of the clinic.

Aside from the stresses of the last few weeks at work, I find myself more comfortable and used to my surroundings. People at work also seem to be more comfortable with us. Which brings me to the next point: gender relations. I posted about this a while ago, impressed at how far Zambian youth seemed to have come in achieving gender equality. Interestingly enough, yesterday at lunch, our research officer, a university graduate who is pursuing his masters in Social Work- married for 5 years with 2 kids, a very intelligent Zambian male- waged a lose-lose war with all the female staff of the office regarding the despicable notion of husbands staying at home and taking care of the kids while the wife is employed.

What I found most entertaining was his image of a man “sweeping”- yes SWEEPING: this unfathomable act that according to Peter would no doubt lead to the demise of the marriage. No matter how much all the females pleaded that this in fact may add more love and appreciation to the wife and the marriage, he stuck by his conclusion that a man engaged in sweeping and cooking essentially loses his masculinity in the eye of his wife, and the wife will eventually find a “real” masculine man at work that she will be attracted to. Of course all us females are unmarried, so Peter wisely advised us to wait until we are married and then see our husband do house chore. Very passionately he added that we would take the sweep out of his hand because of the shame we would be feeling at this sight, and ask him to sit down so we can clean! I felt a small victory however as the female staff added that Peter is very spoiled, being the first born male of the family, probably from an upper-middle class one, who doesn’t make his own bed nor knows how to cook! According to them, at mid twenties, employed and married, he is not yet independent.

It was very interesting to witness this debate as it opened my eyes to a lot of cultural issues that the society is still grappling with, even among the more affluent and educated population. In some ways, these stereotypes about gender roles mirror myths and misconceptions about HIV, and in the same vein that the latter prevent and delay a comprehensive program of HIV/AIDS eradication from having effect, the cultural stereotypes of gender roles delay social progression vis-à-vis women’s equality and gender empowerment.

With any comparative law initiative it is virtually impossible to compare the proverbial "apples to apples" and I am finding the equality legislation, even across liberal democracies with common law jurisdictions, differs substantially based on the societal and cultural make up of each country in purview. And India, in particular, is a special case of looking through the lens of a truly pluralistic society unlike the nuances of Canadian multiculturalism and the American 'melting pot' system of integration which, in my experience, consistently posits each individual as American first and any other nomenclature second.

This past week my focus has been on combing through the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Charter's s. 15 historical context in its 1985 verbiage and the jurisprudence from the last 24 years.

In reviewing the very principles and rationales attached to the remanded original draft of s. 15 the sentiment of the day, the public interest groups of the day, and the committees convened to finalize language for s. 15 sound remarkably like the political and social interests voicing their concerns and opinions about an EOC in India. As such, it is worth presenting the expectations attached to early equality-seeking groups in Canada, the results that have occurred regarding expectations, and most interestingly the key reasons that equality remains at the vanguard of constitutional litigation in Canada.

In 1985, much like the language of the intent of the EOC Bill, the language included in the Charter, particularly the expression "equal benefit of the law" was advocated for in order to insist that the right to equality would apply in respect of the substance as well as the administration of the law in Canada. Note also that Canada became the first democracy to give constitutional status to the equality rights of persons with mental and physical disabilities. The intent behind "equal benefit of the law" was to place upon the state a positive duty to act to remedy pre-existing disadvantage and entrenched systemic inequality (much like the EOC Bill). The Charter was to herald a commitment for more than just prohibiting discrimination - it was to create positive action.

As with the current legal climate in India, there was much discussion over a paradigm shift to solve inequality problems in Canada and many of the reports to Parliamentary committees had the benefit of international law and Canada's commitment to the ICCPR etc., Thus, equality discussions initially focused on civil and political and social and cultural rights in Canada. Of course, the progression of equality rights in Canada was in addition to the minimum standards of social welfare (welfare payments, subsidized housing, public health insurance, legal aid) so the equality discussion was, arguably, more progressive than any discussions occurring in America. And further, one could suggest, America is currently discussing issues like single payer healthcare that Canada decided decades ago. But I digress.

The principal 'take-away' from a review of 24 years of jurisprudence on s. 15 is that equality-seeking public interest groups provided back then, and continue to provide now, the momentum for safeguarding gains in s. 15 rights (including sexual orientation, disability rights, race, and immigration). There has been little true achievement on creating upon the state a positive duty to act in support of s. 15 be it public or private sectors but the constant presence of equality seeking groups as interveners in litigation before the Supreme Court of Canada stands as the preeminent tool for the progression of equality rights in Canada. This denotes the necessary role of litigation and the important place that jurisprudence has in Canada's equality initiatives.

I mention litigation in particular as I am uncertain whether Indian Constitutional jurisprudence has been, or will be, as instrumental in realizing formal and/or substantive equality rights in India. As has been mentioned, constitutional protection under Article 15 has traditionally been as against the state (not private actors). A casual conversation amongst colleagues today hinted that the Indian Supreme Court has really not moved equality issues along at an acceptable rate, in part due to the deference showed lawmakers through the reasonableness standard in law. In fact, one scholar remarked that India has one of the, “most backward looking judicial understandings of discrimination law” (yikes!). He suggests that India’s Supreme Court skirts around strong equality jurisprudence in order to avoid having to strike down unjust gender provisions of religion based family law. However, in reviewing the very recent Naz Foundation decision of the Delhi HC it would appear to me that, should the Supreme Court accept much of the decision there is the chance that the judiciary will, as in Canada, serve an integral role in solidifying equality rights across minority groups in India. If there is no progress at the level of the Supreme Court on equality jurisprudence, it has been suggested in conversation here that the answer to progress lies with political leadership and not the courts.

The important point to note from Canada is the invaluable contribution of numerous public interest groups with a vested interest in advancing s. 15 jurisprudence. These interest groups cover the disabled, women, children, minority groups, language minorities, and issues in poverty law. Moreover, the federal government created the Court Challenges Program to fund s. 15 challenges to federal law, policy, or action. This is a very important point to consider when determining the how the EOC can gain sharper "teeth" in implementing its mandate.

When comparing the EOC Bill with s 15 and the Canadian Human Rights Act it is important to think beyond the government's carrot or stick option but to task lobby groups with pushing the equality agenda and raising issues to the point of being adjudicated and progressed by India's Supreme Court. It is here where I wonder how similar or different Canada and India are regarding the proverbial "people power" that can fuel equality rights. Already I am gaining some insight into the fact that unlike instances in Canadian history, there are few attempts at coalition building in India and the ‘reservation’ (aka affirmative action) system has spawned politics where redistribution is a zero-sum gain. Dalits are pitted against Muslims who are pitted against women etc.,

So the education and comparison continue but the minefields of the caste system, entrenched religious differences and seemingly insurmountable discord among various factions across India, make equality objectives a very complex terrain to navigate.

This week I was bombarded with Capacity Development policy work. I have delved into report after report and power point upon power point on the subject. The intent of this research is to add a capacity development component to the Judicial Training materials that currently exist.

As discussed in class, past foreign aid for development efforts were primarily focused on technical training or “transplanting” western ideas into other countries. These efforts tended to include short –term efforts by experts in particular fields. The particular needs or circumstances of each country were not broadly considered and often billions of dollars were spent on training people without the capacity to carry out the objectives of their projects.

The new Capacity Development (CD) approach places greater emphasis on national ownership over development programs and stresses the need to adapt to local political agendas. All stakeholders should have a say in how projects proceed and communication is regarded as vital to all development initiatives. CD seeks to facilitate implementation of development goals through reinforcing individual, and organizational functioning. This is coupled with the need for an enabling environment with policies and procedures that allow projects to succeed. Rather than circumventing existing systems, CD emphasizes the need to use procedures that are already in place, and if inadequate, to stimulate policy reform for facilitation of project realization.

CD advocates for beginning with a capacity assessment to determine what the existing capacities are and what capacity goals are desired. In doing so the core issues at stake include: institutional arrangements, leadership, knowledge and accountability. When defining a response each of theses issues should be considered and implemented accordingly. Responses should always be tailored to the specific context in which projects are being carried out. Lastly, progression should always be monitored and evaluated to ensure accountability and transparency.

While levels, assessment, process and strategies of CD are vast, this is a small introduction of the aim of CD as an overarching theme of all projects carried out by the UNDP. In building national capacities through individual skills training, facilitation of organizational management systems and advocating for an enabling environment projects and processes become much more sustainable and progress can continue for the long term, beyond the time frame allocated to any one project.

This week I was also given a chance to view my edit work on the Legal Aid Fund Audits in published form. While I played a very minor role, my colleagues were still very encouraging and considered it to be a shared accomplishment between them and I to have completed the reports. It's times like these when you feel good to be part of a team!

Written by Daniel Camenzuli, Shivani Anand and Tim Hudek

So since we’ve been in the Philippines, everyone has been telling us that we MUST go to Palawan…it’s the most beautiful place, paradise on earth, etc, etc. So of course, our curiosities were piqued…we booked our tickets, took a couple days off of work and set off for our island adventure!

Since it is rainy season in southeast asia right now, we checked the weather forecast before we left. Looked like a mix of sun and rain everyday, typical Florida weather, so nothing to be worried about. However, as we kept reading, it looked like El Nido, the little town we’d be staying in was prone to torrential rains at this time of year. We figured it really couldn’t be THAT bad.

Being the budget-minded students that we are, instead of taking the PHP 13000 direct Manila-El Nido flight, we decided to fly to Puerto Princesa, and take a six hour van ride to El Nido instead, costing us a fraction of the price. Upon landing, we actually found a van that would take us to El Nido overnight, and thought it would a great way to save time as we could just sleep throughout the ride. While haggling with the van driver, we met German traveller and his girlfriend who decided to ride with us, thus lowering our costs…hey why not!?!

The thing that we must admit to you however, is that in the Philippines you NEVER, EVER get what you expect (Tim calls this rule 1 of the 3 rules of the Philippines). We started off the journey to El Nido at 1am, cruising on a gentle highway, sound asleep for about all of 15 minutes. However we quickly awoke, mid air (I kid you not), as our van slammed into one massive pothole after another! It quickly became apparent that our path to El Nido changed from a paved highway to a long dirt road through a jungle (We must admit that we are using the term ‘road’ rather loosely; it was more like a narrow clearing of trees). The abrupt gear shifting from our driver, angry comments from Tim to Dan and Shivani for changing plans (we were supposed to stay in Puerto Princesa for the night), and the constant jumping of us out of our seats made for a sleepless night. We must emphasize here that it was not like we were on a dirt road in say, northern Ontario. It was more like a giant picked up our van and decided to play Yahtzee, and we were the dice! Some were convinced that it was a sick and cruel joke that was being played on us and that the cast and crew of PUNKD would be meeting us at the end. Needless to say, that was not the case, and our driver was just an angry man who decided that if he had to stay awake, so did we.

El Nido was quite rainy when we arrived early the next morning, but all we were looking for was a BED at that point. No one had a wink of sleep. We arrived at our bed and breakfast only to learn that it was another trek up a steep hill to our cottages. The only thing that kept us going was the thought of being able to finally sleep for at least a few hours. After a beautiful nap, we awoke to more rain, no electricity (el nido only has electiricy a few select hours of the day), and cold (no, frigid!) showers. We still convinced ourselves that we were having a good time and that things would get better!

The German and his girlfriend joined us for dinner that evening at the local art café, a popular backpackers spot. Meeting new people is always one of the gems of travelling; you make contacts, hear interesting stories, and learn a lot about the way people think from different parts of the world. Our german friend Joshua was no exception, as this would prove to be one of our most interesting evenings in the Philippines thus far!

When travellers mix and mingle in environments like this, conversations tend to range from “what do you do” to “when is the last time you (fill in the blank)”. Our conversation started out pretty normally, and eventually veered towards likes and dislikes. Tim listed off his dislikes (mushrooms, sweet spaghetti, etc) like any normal person, but when we got to Joshua, we quickly learned that his were a bit more substantial (Blacks and Israelis). Soon we found ourselves sliding down a slippery slope with an angry, drunk, drooling Nazi. Not neo-nazi. NAZI. Although he was 27 years old, it was as if he was taken from WW2 and transplanted into today’s society. We were vehemently “educated” on the difference between death camps and concentration camps, and about how German killing machines were created to keep the nazi morale level high. This point was emphasized when Joshua asked, “Do you know how hard it is to exterminate people?” Needless to say, our jaws dropped. He kept emphasising that Dan was not “white” (as Italians do not count as white). At this point, Tim was afraid to reveal his Roma ancestery for fear that he might be persecuted by this crazed man. Joshua also educated us on his family background; he came from a family that was 41 generations of pure Aryan blood. That is, until his mother married his American father, and in his words, “polluted” the lineage. He spoke ill of his “disgusting” mother who was a “hippie” and gave most of her pension to charity, and who was the reason why such a noble lineage was tainted. It was evident that he would have rather not been alive (since his exisence was the result of such pollution), than have his family’s bloodline ruined!

The first day of our excursion was quite rainy so we decided to save the kayaking tour for the next day. Unfortunately, since a typhoon was over El Nido (torrential rains? Umm..about ten times worse!) the next day was pretty much the same. We started our boat ride to the islands early in the morning. The only thing protecting us from the rain was the weak roof of the boat. Of course strong winds managed to tear that roof right off! At this point we were all a bit scared. Heavy rain, strong winds, black clouds, open, choppy water, and at least 1 km from any identifiable land mass stirred up some fear. But our driver had confidence that we would make it. He had a crazed smile either from the adrenaline or the rain slapping him in the face. He eventually decided to put some scuba goggles on...while he was driving. Ok Hue at this point you should tell Jill and Karen that we did not listen!

With just under two weeks to go here in Lusaka, I’ve managed to narrow down my research report to primarily focusing on how Zambia’s regulation of traditional health practitioners (or, lack thereof) can be improved in order to ensure that PLHIV receive the appropriate advice and referrals with respect to antiretroviral therapy. A couple weeks ago I was a little lost in wondering how, if at all, this research could actually have any impact on Zambia; now, though, I’m hopeful that this report (though preliminary) could serve as a useful starting point for ZARAN to take an active role in partnering with traditional health practitioners to gradually change some of the prevalent attitudes and misconceptions concerning HIV/AIDS, through advocacy work and training workshops. The point is essentially this: most Zambians seek out medical treatment from traditional health practitioners, as they are a trusted and easily accessible source of treatment in most communities (especially in areas where modern medicine is not so easily accessible). Therefore, these practitioners could be instrumental in improving the quality of and access to treatment that PLHIV receive...if they are properly informed and trained on the importance of antiretroviral therapy. In order for this to happen, though, misconceptions among these healers need to be eliminated (for example, it must be enforced that there is no cure for AIDS) and government oversight is needed to ensure that traditional health practitioners do indeed handle their HIV positive patients appropriately.

There is a draft bill in Zambia that would call for the regulation of tradition healers and the creation of an official Council to monitor their practices – this bill, though, has been on the shelf in the Ministry of Health for the past fifteen years. One of the major obstacles in having this bill passed is the abundance of discrepancies that exist among traditional health practitioners (for example, “we’ve been using these remedies since our grandparents’ day, why should we have to work with Western doctors and need permission from government?”). Changing these attitudes could be the first step in promoting more cooperation between traditional healers and modern medicine, which could in turn lead to this bill being passed by Parliament, and thereby eventually lead to the creation of an accountable and comprehensive healthcare system which properly utilizes all of Zambia’s personnel to provide treatment to those in need – whether those personnel are allopathic doctors or traditional healers.

This is, of course, quite ambitious and, given the pace of change in Zambia, not entirely likely to happen. It will also hinge mostly on the efforts of ZARAN in taking this initiative (as I am leaving soon), and they have a fairly full agenda for the next few months. Nevertheless, it is better than nothing, and so all that’s left to do now is get going on writing this report!

Moving on, technology has been causing problems for us lately. Random power outages are still frequent enough, but more devastating is that the internet café that we’ve been stealing wireless from for the past 3 weeks (after I met a hacker in Livingstone who gave me a free password) changed their system recently, so now we have to go back to paying for the internet like ordinary honest people. You know that last scene in Goodfellas, when Ray Liotta has moved into a house in the suburbs and has to live life as an ordinary “shlub” without being a mobster? Well, that transition is how Sevda and I now feel without our free (and sort of stolen) internet connection. Lastly, in technology news, my ipod full of about 50gigs worth of music randomly deleted itself for no reason at all…Itunes told me that the ipod has become “corrupted,” which seems only typical given my setting in Southern Africa.

This past weekend, Sevda and I went to our friend’s church here in Lusaka to catch a glimpse of Zambian Christianity at its best. Not that I’m usually much of a religious fan, nor do I ever go to church, but this was a very nice experience – in particular, it was because every single person in this church had an incredible voice, and the entire audience sang together like one big choir throughout the entire sermon. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed peoples’ faith manifest itself so clearly in the form of song, and I’ve got to admit it was very moving and enjoyable. Although Lusaka is full of cinder block walls, barbed wire, and pollution, there are pockets of commendable beauty scattered within this city, and they make being here very worthwhile. Who needs ipods anyways?

My personal goal for the remaining weeks is to collect photos of ridiculous signs. I have a few so far;

This is our last week in Kosovo! Yes, time has gone by so fast.

Our report on international presence in Kosovo is nearly wrapped up. The final draft is complete other than that we are waiting to finalize the policy recommendations that are to be included in the research. Oh! This just in! While I was in the midst of writing this blog, my colleague at the office walked in and informed me about some new developments related to our research. First, there is some new info on EULEX. In our report, we found it questionable that EULEX has been fully deployed in Kosovo since December 2008 but had yet to publish any public reports about their progress and activities here. Well, apparently EULEX was ready to finally publish their progress report last week, however, it has been delayed as Kosovo’s deputy Prime Minister boycotted last week’s meeting between EULEX and local government, thereby disabling local authorization of the document. According to my colleague, this reaction is because local government is concerned about the report’s revelations regarding executive involvement in the judiciary. Uh oh. He also just told me that our report probably will not be published and released until September because such matters don’t receive adequate attention from government and civil society during the summer months as so many people are on vacation.

Anyways, in the meantime, we were thinking about writing a new report on legal education reform in Kosovo, however, the plan lost steam as we ran into a few obstacles. First, when we emailed one of our only contacts for an interview, a law professor at one of the universities here, he informed us that his newly established research organization was pursuing the same project with potential funding from USAID and thus meeting with us would probably be a conflict of interest. Then, we soon realized that a comprehensive report on the topic must consider a wide range of issues and we simply did not have enough time left here to gather all the research. For starters, simple statistics about enrolment and graduation rates are not readily available online.

We did, however, finally get our hands on the Legal Education Reform Index (LERI), a report recently published by the American Bar Association (ABA) in Kosovo. Although we won’t be able to produce a report for GAP ourselves, at least we found comprehensive and reliable data for any further projects that the organization might pursue in the future.

One of our colleagues has expressed some particular concerns over the state of legal education in Kosovo, which the LERI has also highlighted as problematic. First, there are far too many law students relative to the number of professors. According to the LERI, there are approximately 5000 students and only 52 academic staff at the University of Pristina Faculty of Law. A second significant concern is that law courses are primarily theoretical with little opportunity for practical training. Some courses on trial advocacy and legal clinics have been introduced, but are only available to a small number of students. And unlike the Canadian system, there is no articling requirement. Other negative factors, according to the LERI, are faculty compensation, access to legal materials and physical and technological infrastructure.

However, the LERI also found several positive aspects of the legal education system here. There has been a strong commitment towards compliance with the Bologna Declaration and its international quality assurance standards for education, despite the fact that Kosovo has not been allowed to participate as a signatory. Kosovo’s legal education system also scored positively in regards to special admissions measures, faculty hiring, promotion and tenure and university and academic freedom. (Of the 22 factors which the LERI evaluated, Kosovo’s legal education system scored positively on 4 factors, received a neutral correlation on 13 factors and a negative score on 5 factors).

In other exciting Pristina news, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at one of the main government buildings last week. But apparently it’s not a big cause for concern as it didn’t actually explode, or it was successfully put out immediately, without any damages. The explosive was launched by a group of local KLA war veterans that were protesting for higher income and greater government compliance with their rights under the law.

This week began with excitement, as the public interest litigation (PIL) Arlene and I did research on, was going to be heard in High Court. This case dealt with a PLHA who was denied dialysis treatment at a government hospital because he is HIV positive. He then had to get treatment at a private hospital, and incurred considerable out of pocket expenses.

While the PIL is crucial in securing a legal remedy which will be useful to future PLHA in obtaining dialysis treatment, the client himself does not receive compensation. As such, Arlene and I conducted research into whether this client could receive compensation from the Consumer Protection Act Board. Unfortunately, because the hospital which refused treatment was governmental, we found out that the client did not meet the definition of ‘consumer’ and as such, could not avail himself with this act. As such, the client cannot obtain a monetary remedy, though he has incurred considerable debt in procuring a kidney dialysis, when this should have been free in the first place!

The difficulty of practicing law in the health field is that legal intervention is often too late and of little effect by the time the damage is done. One key example is the case of a pregnant woman in Bhopal who was referred from hospital to hospital WHILE she was hemorrhaging, and died as a result.

Because of this limited ability to grant tangible monetary results to the client, families are often very reticent to come forward with their stories. In fact, Arlene and I have been making many calls to various positive networks to find a family who is willing to share their story so that we can file a PIL on maternal mortality, but we have not been successful. Though we have sent out the call for events such as this to be reported to HRLN, no individuals have come forward. This is understandable as the families have already lost a mother/daughter/sister/aunt, fear the public shame which will be associated with a woman’s positive status, and have nothing tangible to gain from the litigation.

In order to break the silence on this issue, Arlene and I have compiled a power point presentation regarding maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS which will be presented at a training session on Maternal Mortality, to be held in Rajasthan next week. Hopefully this presentation will bring this issue further to light with all the positive networks, who will then coordinate at the grass roots level with affected persons, in order to conduct further research on the lived experiences of pregnant women with HIV/AIDS.

s. 377 (cont. again). It doesn’t make sense for me to start a story without finishing it, so as the story continues in India, I’ll continue it here. The decision on s. 377 has been appealed to the Supreme Court of India by, of all people, an astrologer. He is bringing a case declaring s. 377 constitutional and appealing against the Delhi High Court decision. Change in India comes with a battle. The government, at this point, is choosing to abstain from this battle. They have not joined either side as a party. It is said they are unsure of which side they should be joining, and thus, they are not making a decision at this point. The case is to be called in the Supreme Court today (July 20), however, according to the HRLN lawyers, it will likely take 5 or 6 years for this matter to get finalized. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see whether the Supreme Court grants a ‘stay’ to support or go against the Delhi High Court’s decision. It will mean the difference of having “unnatural sex” essentially re-criminalized again. It is an interesting case to follow and I hope to be able to keep informed of its development.

Judiciary. The role of the judiciary in India is strong and arguably, encroaching on parliamentary functions. In particular for cases of public interest litigation, there are relaxed rules of standing for bringing cases and a high degree of judicial deference. However, it is also argued that the level of “social activism” by the judiciary is important in developing countries not just because “judges owe a duty to do justice with a view to creating and moulding a just society, but because a modern judiciary can no longer obtain social and political legitimacy without making a substantial contribution to issues of social justice.” Furthermore, arguably, “judges in all legal systems, when asked to scrutinize a government decision or operation, are engaged in policy analysis and politics. (Reference: The Development of Public Interest Litigation in India. Retrieved July 20, 2009 from http://www.karmayog.org/pil/pil_18893.htm).

Time. When we arrived in India time seemed to pass too slowly. Now, I am amazed by how fast time is passing. I’m finding the weeks here running by too fast and I’m running to keep up with them. India has definitely grown on me and I’m grateful for the experience to be here. I really wish the experience could last longer now. I’ll be happy to return back to Canada as I fly to Calgary to spend time with my family who I don’t often see, but I’ll also be reluctant to leave India. There is a lot to see here, a lot to do, a lot to learn…

Global Project Databases
As mentioned in my last post, we continued with our Legal Empowerment(LE) research this week. We have completed the requested LE databases. In total, five databases were created. The first is the global database which includes projects in all areas of LE. The latter four correspond to each of the four pillars of LE (Access to Justice, Property Rights, Labor Rights and Business Rights). I felt it would be more useful if the projects were organized in this manner so that each pillar can be isolated and considered separately, before consolidating information for future recommendations.

The format for this database was borrowed from the Judicial Training Centre materials provided to us, and included: Country, project name, partners/donors, budgets and project descriptions. The projects were derived from various Thematic Clusters, including Poverty Reduction sectors, Governance departments and Gender development groups, among others. Our next task will be to research how Serbia measures up to the progress of other UNDP countries on the LE front. We will have a meeting with supervisors in the near future to draw conclusions before going ahead with that analysis.

Free Legal Aid Fund
One of the first projects we worked on was the Free Legal Aid Fund. Prior to our arrival, Parisa and I had answered a questionnaire concerning Ontario’s Legal aid legislation. Upon our arrival we received much more information about the project, which is now at its conclusion. At the moment a government Working Group is deciding on recommendations to put forth to assembly for new legislation on legal aid, who can provide it and the type of legal aid that can be covered nationally.

This week I was working with the financial legal advisor for the project on editing audit reports. He led me through some of the background of how this project was assembled. The Free Legal Aid Fund project started out by rallying the usual suspects: Bar Associations, NGOs and Municipalities. Each group was consulted separately and naturally had its concerns over other groups taking on their roles. The reality of the matter is that NGOs have very good networks for communication with certain vulnerable groups, municipalities exercise many administrative social service functions and lawyers are very good court representatives. The goal was to make all these groups understand that they do not stand in opposition, but rather they compliment one another’s work. Once some sort of agreement was reached, and approval was met, the project was off the ground and running. Small grants were awarded to various partners and mounds of data were collected from clients. Information campaigns raised awareness about the free services and clientele grew. This was the pilot project that UNDP members would utilize to reach conclusions and to present to the Working Group. Now we wait.

The first week of research work at the Center for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy has almost passed and a routine has been established. Each of us here in Bangalore has been given separate research tasks and each has been assigned to a directing professor.

My research assignment has been very clearly outlined and direction seems to be readily available. In India there is something called the Equal Opportunities Commission Bill (EOC-Bill) pending approval in the Lok Sabha (aka the House of the People) purportedly within the next 70 days. The Lok Sabha, as I have learned is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India. The maximum number of elected officials is 552.

The EOC Bill is the manifestation of India’s Constitutional commitment to substantive equality intended to take the long-standing initiative of affirmative action (known here as the reservation system) beyond the limits of simply holding seats in public office and seats in public enterprise for designated scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other ‘backwards’ peoples.

Perhaps a little history is in order but my apologies up front for making this particular historical narrative very simplistic. In 2002 there were a series of communal riots between Hindus and Muslims in the Indian State of Gujarat. Stemming from the violence and deaths were several commissioned inquiries. One such inquiry was the Sachar Committee Report headed by Justice Rajindar Sachar. Within that inquiry were recommendations to strengthen equality initiatives in India and prevent discrimination against Muslims. This report was followed by two other reports that expanded the notions of anti-discrimination beyond the Muslim minority. These reports, the Menon Committee Report and the Kundu Committee Report, read together, advocate for the implementation of an oversight body called the Equal Opportunities Commission which would be responsible for generating, collecting, processing and disseminating various kinds of data on equal opportunities issues, implementing incentives and disincentives for anti-discrimination practices across both the public and private sectors and monitoring and auditing the functionality of new laws and policies that would be implemented via the EOC to support the Indian Constitutional Mandate of formal and substantive equality. Whew, run-on sentence!

While India has a number of equality commissions already in place and a plethora of policy and legislation directed at equality for women, children, the disabled, and the historically disadvantaged, the EOC brings to the foreground the concept of empirical data influencing policy. Through the recommendation of the Kundu Committee the EOC is tasked with implementing something called a Diversity Index. This Diversity Index is a mathematical formula tasked with ranking organizations for their level of diversity based on factors such as gender, religion, and caste and tribal dimensions. According to the proposed formula there would be up to seven religions (R1-7), four caste and tribal dimensions (C1-4), and two gender dimensions (G1-2). The Diversity Index would propose the following axioms: 'positive progessivity', independent from irrelevant alternative, deprivational ordering, and long-term equity. If you are confused, join the club. The Diversity Index is truly the only part of the policy puzzle that I think is too fantastical to be properly ascribed in the EOC mandate. The idea would be to provide public and private institutions with a ranking, fall below a particular number and there are consequences that may include drafting and implementing an equality policy and being monitored by the EOC accordingly. More drastic would be the loss of government tenders if the organization fails in reaching a particular Diversity Index measurement. The economic implications are rampant. Opposition to the EOC Bill should include free market advocates, as the ability for the state to meddle in broad areas of the economy is immense.

The EOC Bill, in the short term, will focus predominantly on employment and education although many advocates wish to include housing in the preliminary agenda. Creating equality benchmarks and fair practices codes for all levels of government and the private sector in the aforementioned three (employment, education, housing) fields.

Clearly this is a very aspirational and aggressive government undertaking that aims to, in practice, strong-arm institutions into implementing and fostering equality practices. One thought process being that the rhetoric of past legislative policies and the formal equality espoused by the Constitution have thus far failed to see the kinds of long-term results so desired across the country. Actually, even as I write the words “so desired” I actually question the true extent and nature of the desire for equality as the EOC envisions it. If 52 years of Constitutional hammering at equality initiatives have dramatically failed so many there may be a deficit of political or societal will. In which case, the EOC for all of its beneficial objectives, is poised to forcibly push a massive and diverse country in a particular direction. I’m curious to see how such pushing is received.

The Center here at the Law School is interested in having more public debate about the Bill before its final passing and implementation. After having already drafted an open letter to the Ministry for Minority Affairs (http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/open-letter-on-the-equal-opportunities-commission-bill.html) there is the desire to host a workshop on campus regarding the suggested changes and additions to the draft Bill. In so preparing for the workshop I have been assigned the creation of a ‘backgrounder’ document to outline the historical context of the EOC Bill and the short-term and long-term implications of its passing. More importantly, I have been tasked with a comparative analysis of other common law jurisdictions with similar Commissions. Thus, I will be, no doubt, spending a considerable amount of time researching Canada’s much debated Human Rights Commission and s. 15(1) jurisprudence.

Off to work!

Porsha

ps/ The posted picture of local kids. Future beneficiaries of the EOC Bill??

The one thing that I think I was most surprised with when I arrived in Jakarta was the fact that I felt so safe. This is a massive city, full of some of the wealthiest and poorest individuals in Southeast Asia, but with a glut of surplus labour and having faced security issues in the past, it seemed to me that Jakarta has the situation under control. At the entrace to everybuilding there are guards who will put you through metal detection. Police are around all the major intersections, and there are numerous police posts throughout the city. I've never once felt intimidated or concerned about my safety in the capital - with so much security (and it has to be said, so many witnesses), major crime seems to be relatively well maintained.

Events this morning may change my outlook. Apparently two explosions went off at the Ritz Carleton and the Marriot here in the city. Both are not extremely far from my place, and the BBC is reporting foreigner fatalities. If it turns out that these were attacks instead of accidents (and something tells me two explosions around the same time may hint towards the former), Jakarta may have lost what innocence I had attributed to it.

Needless to say, I'm alright. I do live near the Four Seasons Hotel, but as of right now, I haven't heard anything to say it has been affected. I'm expecting throughout the day that the United Nations will be coordinating communications to all of us on how to act and where to avoid. Based on what my colleagues are saying, I may have to stay away from "foreigner spots" for the rest of my time here... which works for me.

The BBC seems to be on top of the story and updating their reports regularly at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8155084.stm if you want to check in on how things develop.

Thanks to Swine Flu, I was reminded of how small the world really is. What was once a piece of distant news for me in Canada has now become a very real part of my life. Argentina is now the country with the second highest number of swine flu-related deaths and the city of Buenos Aires has been noticeably affected. All theathres, shows, and events have been cancelled or postponed; all schools from primary to university level have been temporarily closed; and last Friday we even got the day off work because it was declared a "santary holiday"!

Besides people walking around in face masks and the general population developing a mild obsession with hand sanitizing gel, life for me has more or less continued as per usual. I wonder, however, whether the same can be said for those living in the city's ghettos, who are likely more at risk of being affected by the outbreak. Malnutrition, cramped living conditions, and lack of adequate sanitation or health care services in certain areas of the city would all contribute to this increased vulnerability.

Needless to say, I hope the government is taking into account all relevant factors when dealing with this epidemic...

During these past few weeks, Dan and I have been thrown into the policy-making process...and I am feeling a little lost. Not only are we trying to come up with draft laws to suggest to government councillors, but we are also right in the middle of the Anti-Child Pornography Bill campaign. We will be visiting a university to collect signatures and raising awareness in the community about the need for and anti-child pornography law. We are also running a fund-raising campaign.

It’s really interesting to see the ‘other’ side of law. In class, we studied jurisprudence and the application of written law to the facts, but here, we are learning about the policy-making process and the various efforts (by NGOs, the community leaders, government persons) to pass a law.

Lawyering in the Philippines is quite different... maybe because the country is made up of 1000+ islands? Everything here takes more time and a lot more effort. FedEx isn’t exactly what it is in Canada. Filing a motion required a 2-h bus ride. Actually getting to court requires a 2h bus ride (AT 4AM.), a 1-h ferry, and a 15-min tricycle. We got to court, and before the witness could even give her testimony, it was lunch time..........So now the hearing is set for the end of July.

Basically, it was a 6-h commute for 15 min of face-time with the judge.
I have a newfound respect for the legal professionals in the Philippines.

Aside from work, we have been travelling every other weekend or so, checking out all the famous areas in the Philippines. Thanks to Dan, we climbed a chocolate mountain... and my legs now look like a clip from a horror movie. There are cuts and scrapes everywhere... as well as a large burn on my calf (but that was my own fault). I don’t have my photos here to upload, but I am sure dan/tim/shivani will be posting them.

I can’t believe this internship is almost half-finished. Definitely dreading going back home.

Delhi 7
As mentioned in Arlene’s blog, s.377 of the Indian Penal Code was struck down for the jurisdiction of Delhi; a move with decriminalizes homosexual intercourse, among other ‘non-natural’ (language used from the wording of the criminal code) sexual acts for those above the age of 18.
At the regular Friday meeting, a member of the HIV/AIDS unit made a presentation regarding the impact of this change for members of the gay community, and those affected with HIV/AIDS alike.
Some points of interest.
1) First, the legal battle to repeal s.377 was not initiated by a mainstream gay rights movement, but the Naz foundation, an AIDS service organization focused on securing treatment and support for people with HIV/AIDS, as well as prevention strategies.
I feel this move succinctly captures the intersection between legal structures and institutions—which are conducive to and justify discrimination towards marginalized populations such as the gay community in India--- and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Criminal offences such as 377 forced MSM (men who have sex with men) to have intercourse away from the attention of the community. That is, men would not invite their partners over to their house for fear of the rumours that may start with their neighbours, and instead have intercourse in high stress and high risk locations such as dark alleyways and parks. These rushed encounters are more condusive to the spread of HIV/AIDS given the lack of protection such as condoms and increased propensity for small wounds etc.
2) Media outlets such as the BBC have sensationalized the issue, implying that homosexuality is decriminalized in all of India, when in fact, the decision only applies to the state of Delhi. As such, although the decision is a great leap forward and holds great promise, it is only benefitting a minority of India’s homosexual population.
3) The response to this change of s.377 has united Hindu, Muslim, and Christian religious organizations and political parties to mobilize against this decision. It will be interesting to see if the Government will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of India since if they lose, this decision will have binding authority in every Indian state. It is a legal gamble which may backfire for the Government or worse, repeal this forward looking decision.
4) As noted by the Friday meeting, the popular response to this change is extremely interesting. One of the members of the HRLN staff was of the opinion that this decision would start a trend in India whereby the youths would take up homosexuality as a fashion trend.
Another lawyer made the ‘slippery slope’ argument that the decriminalization of HIV/AIDS would lead to the decriminalization of bestiality and rape. (!?) This same lawyer also commented that the amendment to s.377 only applied to gay men, and not lesbians (though the language of the act says ‘homosexual persons)
Some other members of the staff engaged in a debate whether homosexuality was a biological trait, or learned behaviour.
There was also a discussion as to whether 95% of the Indian population was heterosexual, or bisexual.
5) My reactions to these discussions was initially one of frustration. I felt that some of the claims were outlandish, discriminatory, and moot (i.e why does it matter if homosexuality is biological or learned behaviour? Human rights inhere in the individual regardless). I engaged in the discussion, noting that language is extremely important, and that phrases such as ‘there is a danger that people will turn homosexual’ and ‘given the fear of homosexuality’ frame the conversation to imply that homosexuality is inherently negative, and that even if it was true that more people would come out of the closet, then this was not negative, but a positive development.
6) As the discussion continued, I saw another side to the story. Just as those individuals were presenting their points of view, other lawyers and staff were steadfast in explaining that the decriminalization of homosexuality cannot be compared to bestiality and rape- as these are sexual acts which lack consent; that the wording of s.377 is not gender specific- that homosexuality is not a fashion trend, nor is it learned from the west. This is the other side of the story, and to be an observer and participant in this discussion was extremely interesting and invigorating. I felt like I really was part of a struggle and was able to position myself in the place of Gay activists in the 80s and 90s in North America.
It was a fascinating learning experience and really highlighted the bravery and leadership of those individuals fighting for human rights as they relate to homosexuality, in this social climate.

It's been a comparatively late start to the fellowship here in Bangalore and my first blog will undoubtedly read more like a travel blog and less like academic discourse. Today, our first day "on the job" has been one of administrative items and settling into the Center's office spaces. Which, as a point of interest, is designed dramatically differently from the other research spaces here on campus. The Center for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy was designed by a local artist using leftover wooden crates and other natural wooden materials to create cubicles made entirely of wood (and smelling of wood). While it reminds me of Canada's Haida art, and smells quite good, a student on campus thought it a travesty of design! Goes to show, different opinions make the world go 'round.

The National Law School is situated on the periphery of the city of Bangalore (or Bengaluru) in the state of Karnataka in southern India. It is a law school that appears to be split 50/50 between male and female students and the competition for top marks at the school is said to be quite immense. Since India has a much, much greater demand for seats at such universities, versus available supply, Emma, Charlie and I are now living and working amongst the best and the brightest students from all over India.

From what I can gather, all of the students live on campus in dormitories, girls separated from the boys. This law degree is a joint undergraduate and law degree and is comprised of five years of study, three semesters each year of three months each. Each semester is comprised of four classes. Each class appears to share the same grading structure, 5% for attendance, 35% for a paper/presentation project and 65% for a final exam in each subject matter.

Unlike Osgoode, whereby first year is a mandatory curriculum, here at the National Law School, years one through four are mandatory curriculum and only in year five do the students choose their own courses. Along with set class selections, the students are required to do field work (think, OPIR) hours from years two through five. There is an awful lot of hard work over undertaken over the five year program.

Upon graduation, the corporate law jobs are the most coveted. These jobs are, however, difficult to come by. The top corporate firm pays 1 lakh per month (100,000Rs = approximately $2,500CDN). It's difficult to put that figure into perspective here in India without providing some costs of living but that sort of insight, I must save for a later date as I am unaware of rental costs, transportation, food etc.,

First year students at the law school come at the age of 18 (for the most part). One cannot be admitted past the age of 21 unless you are a foreign student in which case the cut off for admissions is 25. Clearly there is no such thing as a mature student category.

Over the past two days I have had some interesting discussions with several of the young women who have come from various regions across India to attend school here. Most are homesick. The diversity of students across ethnic backgrounds is really interesting, there is much, much less diversity across economic backgrounds. Unquestionably, law students come from predominantly well-off families in India. This stands in some contrast to engineers and even doctors as these professional designations are in part, or in whole, funded by the Indian government. As such, no matter your economic situation, you are admitted based on grades, grades, grades. I believe the best schools are in a position to accept only those students with 98% in all secondary school classes.

I have not officially started my particular research project on diversity and equality legislation. Today I did meet my direct supervisor and am expecting to be directed further this afternoon. Each of us here is working for a different professor so each project will unfold accordingly.

The primary language on this campus is English. All classes are taught in English and all business and socializing is conducted in English.

The aesthetic of the campus evokes memories of Osgoode - for it's absolute lack of imagination and style! As with Osgoode, the buildings are square, and two toned. The residences are as aesthetically pleasing as Assiniboine. What saves this campus from being rather boring is the foilage. The trees, plants, and ground cover are positively tropical in style and colour. I was unprepared to feel as though I was in Hawaii. Having spent some time in the mountain region of India and also in Delhi, I didn't expect the humidity, mild weather, and dark and light and bright greens and colours that exist here in Bangalore. It's dramatically different from the other (albeit few) places I have been fortunate enough to see in the three weeks prior to arriving on campus.

Of course, what tropical experience is complete without tropical bugs?! Emma and I have been sharing a room not only together but with some hard shelled, antennae tweaking, big friendly cockroaches. We wage mini battles daily to kill the one or two critters that enter the bathroom. As of this morning, we've discovered their entrance point and have stuffed it with s.o.s steel wool to prevent re-entry. I've taken to dramatic measures and have included moth balls in the arsenal. But, beyond this one cringe worthy item in the living space, the time on campus has been great so far and I expect it to continue being great. It's such an informative place to be. Simply to have conversations with the students here about their politics, the school's teaching methodologies, the quality of education and job prospects is very enlightening.

As mentioned, prior to arriving on campus, each of us did some independent travel. After visiting with our fellow students in Delhi for a few days, I headed north to a town called Chandigarh that is the supposed equivalent of London, Ontario in terms of per capita income. It's claimed to be the wealthiest per person city in all of India. It certainly may have more parks, wider streets, and bigger houses (think Florida) but it is devoid of true personality and lacks any sort of soul (think Florida). My reason for visiting was to spend time with an old friend who has lived and worked in Chandigarh for four years. She has a fancy title whereby she works both for the BC Government and also the University of the Fraser Valley doing international student recruitment for UFV's Chandigarh campus.

Following a stint in suburban India, it was time for a mountain getaway to Dharamsala and Upper Bhagsu, summer home to the Dalai Lama. For an extra special undertaking, I attended the Dalai Lama's 74th birthday party at the temple in McLeod Ganj. While the Dalai Lama himself was not in attendance, some dignitaries were including the Dalai Lama's second-in-charge. The second most holy of buddhists. The mountain region is extremely Tibetan, rather than Indian. It is a very popular location for Indian tourists in addition to foreigners.

Always curious about education all around the world, I've attached a picture of Tibetan school kids from Upper Bhagsu in the Dharamsala region in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Maybe one or more of these kids will make their way to the National Law School in Bangalore!

s. 377 (cont’d). Since the decision to amend s. 377 by the Delhi High Court was so monumental it was the topic of our Friday meeting at work this week. The Friday meeting is generally a presentation on a key topic of interest. This was definitely not a meeting to be missed. What ensued after the presentation on the amendment – which to further clarify decriminalizes sex (of any sort) between two consenting adults (i.e. above 18) and is thus seen as a huge support of gay rights – was a discussion about the amendment. While we are working with educated persons who support human rights, there are people who do not support gay rights and it is constantly spoken about as a problem, disease, issue. One of the points of discussion was the fear that Indians feel generally about the amendment of the India Penal Code (IPC). There is a commotion caused in the media and apparently a large portion of the society is fearful that since homosexuality is essentially decriminalized that all of a sudden there will be a higher proportion of gays in India. Like all sorts of people will be “converting” to homosexuality. This seems to be an “issue.” The presenter stated that likely it is not that more people will “become” gay just that the numbers of known gay persons may rise as people are able to “express” their homosexuality without fear of criminal repercussion. I found my voice in this meeting. I stated that the “fear” is the problem and the issue, not homosexuality. The persons in this organization that speak negatively about homosexuality are just perpetuating this fear and the Indian society needs to change its way of thinking, starting with the educated and with those who supposedly work to support human rights. (As a note, not all people at HRLN were vocal or opposed or “fearful” of the amendment, just several outspoken people). Along with discussing the whole change that needs to occur for acceptance in Indian society I also addressed this “fear” that people think that all of a sudden all these Indians will become gay. In more words and a much more tactful manner, I said “so what?” So what does it matter if more Indians express their homosexuality. If 20, 30, 40, 50 percent of the population is homosexual. I didn’t express it in this manner and I tried to make my point clear using more words but the underlying point in general is addressing this fear that Indian society has of homosexuality and gay rights.

I respect the culture of India and I understand the struggle for progression for some human rights. I also know that there was a time when Canada was very against gay rights and I even belong to a religion that is opposed. However, as a person I am very much for gay rights and for anything that supports people’s ability to express themselves. Someone even made the comparison to “like well, then should we allow other types of ‘unnatural sex’ like rape”. In my view this comment was unacceptable. The key to the provision that was passed (as stressed by another HRLN member working in reproductive rights) is that the act is consensual. I was appalled by someone even using this comparison. Change comes slowly and I expect it to be a long fight in India still for gay rights. There is a whole attitudinal shift that needs to occur and these shifts seem to come slowly in India. While the caste system has been “officially” abolished it is still largely prevalent in India. The only thing is that the only way that change can come (even slowly) is if people continue to support the cause and if there are possible messages that permeate society in order to combat the negative attitudes and concerns. Another piece of the discussion centered on “how” someone “becomes” gay which has also been a recurring topic in these conversations. Someone stated that it has been “proven” that it is biological. Sunil Gupta (a man who works to support gay rights openly and vocally) stated in a workshop earlier: “…That it does not matter how I am gay or how I am HIV positive, just that I am sitting here before you and I am.” We all are. And with the exception of harming other persons we should be allowed to be.

The Taj Mahal. While generally I’ve been writing about work at HRLN I wanted to write just a bit about our weekend trip because I can honestly say that I saw one of the most beautiful and incredible sights that I have seen in my entire life: The Taj Mahal. It was amazing. I can hardly put into words how beautiful it was and if you follow the original story, how much it spoke to love. In short, the story is that the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj in loving memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during childbirth of their fourteenth child. Shah Jahan was grief-stricken over her death and built this as a tomb for her. It is said that he lived his remaining days at Agra fort and pined away for her with his view of the Taj. When he passed away he was buried in the mausoleum next to his wife.

We got up super early to see the Taj as the ladies wanted to wear saris to the Taj. It was quite a 4:30 AM event trying to wrap us up in saris and I could never quite get the darn folds on my shoulder right (though the rest I think went fairly well (though frustrating!)). It seems that we were one of the sights to see at the Taj as we were asked constantly by the Indian tourists if they could take pictures with us and the Taj. We’re often asked to be in pictures here (or sometimes not asked, but people just take pictures without permission). In fact, at the Taj it was nice because we were all dressed up in our saris and people were very polite about asking. But we went to the zoo a few weeks ago and I honestly felt like we were the most interesting “zoo animals” there; people were trying to sneak more pictures of us then they were of the zoo animals!

Just to end the Taj Mahal story, while words and pictures cannot even close to capture the beauty in person, I thought I found online the following poem (Original Source: Mahajan, Vidya Dhar (1970). Muslim Rule In India. p. 200) that it is said that Shah Jahan wrote himself about the Taj Mahal that he built for his favorite wife.

“Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display the creators’ glory.”

A New Judicial Reform Knowledge Map

This last week, I submitted what I thought was the final product for a turn guide knowledge map- a resource manual for the various judicial reform and training centre projects in various regions of the world. I then learned that since the guide had not been previously updated, an overhaul would be more beneficial.
This new task will entail looking at the publications of global partners like the World Bank, USAID and others on the initiation and progress of judicial reform and training centres. I also suggested a new layout for this knowledge map which entails categorizing these new-found articles, documents and publications into world regions in which the judicial reform projects take place.
Our supervisor liked this idea and we have set up a meeting to discuss the progress in a couple of weeks.

I believe that this new construction of the knowledge map will be more user-friendly, a characteristic that was definitely lacking in the original. Considering the importance of this project, I was surprised that this resource was not more regularly updated. Indeed, the Turn Guide is an unique initiative in the region and Serbia has been at the forefront when it comes to the application of Judicial Reform and the Judicial Training Centre.
I am hoping that this new set-up will be more regularly updated in the future.

Empowerment Business
Meanwhile, our work in completing the global database on the various legal empowerment projects continued. The projects are quite similar with the majority focussing on the business and access to justice pillars. This is beneficial as the UNDP office in Serbia would like particular attention paid to the business pillar.
Most of the projects under this pillar entail contributions aimed at starting and maintaining small enterprises. Some merely include financing while others are more hands-on in providing training to small business owners and entrepreneurs. These latter projects seem more fruitful since they are teaching the actual skills that make an enterprise thrive.

Refining this global database is the task for this upcoming week. I believe this will allows us to gain a better understanding of which types of projects will be successful in the Serbian context.

Particular projects aside, Marlene and I have passed the midpoint of our placement in Serbia and reflecting on the past 6 weeks, I believe we have learned alot about the work and social atmosphere of the country. Part of this atmosphere is the slow progress of projects and at times the lack of communication and attention paid to tasks. This often lead to delays. For example, it was not until this week that the actual requirements of the Turn Guide knowledge map project was explained.
While this was initially frustrating for me, with my "North American" way of thinking, I soon re-framed the situation and am now looking forward to starting this defined task.

Looking back at my previous post, I may have been a little too optimistic about the changes I seemed to have perceived here in Zambia with respect to cultural norms and gender roles. Granted that among the younger generation, there is indeed much more awareness, openness and understanding of the cultural constructions of gender and sexuality, in reality, there are still many, MANY misconceptions and misinformation about something as widespread as HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

Only a few days after writing my earlier post, Jamie and I attended the International Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) day festivities. There we met a friend of ours who is a peer educator and a very active member of UNZA (University of Zambia) HIV/AIDS response office. Harboring the assumption that all young and educated Zambians are thus actively involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS, I was shocked to hear from our friend that despite being on the forefront of various marches, campaigns and other activities, there is to this date not a single person at UNZA campus who has openly admitted that he/she is HIV+. The first and only case was a student a few years back who is sometimes referred to as a hero and sometimes as a sham, a faker who only wanted money and fame (!) UNZA itself provides VCT services and admittedly many many students get tested and of course in a country where HIV prevalence is 16%, there is bound to be a few positive results. These students, however, never come out in public and openly admit and discuss their status. The problem, as my friend put it, is that these students conceive of HIV/AIDS as a "poor person's disease". Ignorance and silence feed into one another in a vicious cycle such that based on these misinformed perceptions, students refuse to admit their status. As a result, those who are HIV+ rarely know another friend or classmate who is also HIV+. According to my friend, this is one of the biggest obstacles in fighting the stigma and also in keeping a healthy attitude upon finding out one's HIV status. He spoke of a 4th year Law student who allegedly committed suicide after doing a VCT on campus and supposedly testing positive.

Learning about these things, I now try to be more critical about people's attitudes and their apparent ease and openness to discuss HIV/AIDS. This past week was a perfect example of how despite education and information, underlying perceptions and prejudices persist at every level of society. As part of their advocacy work, ZARAN had organized a workshop for the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), where representatives of around 30 different unions attended a 3 day workshop on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in the Workplace. I have to admit, I was quite entertained specially on the first day with questions and comments from this group of highly educated and socially aware individuals. What surprised me most in that setting was the belief that HIV can be cured. The point that to this date there is no cure for HIV/AIDS had to be stressed over and over again. There was also a lot of misinformation about the mode of HIV transmission. Despite explaining the almost zero possibility of contracting HIV from mere contact in the absence of visible and open wound, some participants stuck to their stubborn view that when it comes to having domestic workers who are HIV+ and children at home, human rights should be sacrificed for the protection of the child. It was very frustrating to see that in their view, no amount of education and information could safeguard against innocent children catching HIV, which almost made the point of our workshop- focused heavily on information dissemination and education- obsolete and lost on some of the participants.

This common thread of ignorance and misinformation runs through a lot of other sectors/ issues in society. Last week I met with the Clinical Services Manager of a well-known NGO called Marie Stopes International(MSI), active in over 40 developing countries and providing safe abortion among other reproductive health services. The abortions they perform here in Zambia are "legal" in a sense that they follow the requirements of the Termination of Pregnancy Act, which allows for abortion based on medical grounds, and asks for the consent of 3 medical practitioners, one of whom must be specialized in the area in which the woman is seeking the abortion based on..... Imagine these vague requirements, on top of a form that has to be filled and signed by these 3 doctors and submitted to the Ministry of Health, and still imagine.. that there is a provision in the act allowing a doctor to refuse to perform an abortion based on "conscientious objection". Not quite the smooth process that you expect to be provided with when you have already made the very difficult choice of having an abortion. So the law, stigma, Christianity, and so many other factors stand in the way of having a safe abortion in Zambia. I met with this doctor at MSI who is famed for being an outspoken activist for safe and legal abortion in Zambia. He used to work at Lusaka's biggest public hospital (University Teaching Hospital) at the gynecology ward for 8 years, and told me horrifying stories of an average of 100-200 women who would DAILY crowd the halls of the hospital to seek help due to complications of "incomplete" and illegal abortions. Some of these women still have pieces of wood or stick stuck in their vagina, others take battery acid, others resort to traditional womb massaging that in fact bursts the uterus instead of inducing an abortion.

What struck me as most odd however, was that according to Dr. Kamanga, not just these women and the public in general, but even so many of the health practitioners and POLICE force don't know that abortion is "legal" in Zambia (well, "legal" as was described above). What is interesting is that there are 3 provisions in the Penal Code that provide severe penalties for procuring "unlawful" abortion. As Dr. Kamanga put it, "the police know the law very well, and don't know the law at all"- meaning that they memorize the penal code and know every possible offence and provision in the code but do not know about other laws that have been enacted. Also, to his recollection, none of these 100-200 women who daily seek help as a result of "unlawful abortion" get prosecuted, neither are the ones who provide them with services. The police only get involved when someone actually informs them of a girl/woman having an abortion, and by the time the police bring the "offender" to the hospital to verify that, there is almost no sign of the procedure (considering that everything went well) and thus no evidence to prosecute. I am planning to spend a day at UTH to observe and maybe get a chance to speak to a few of these women.


For a brighter note on the fun side of our experience here, please refer to Jamie's post below! It suffices to say that we made a pact each (which we are very likely not going to keep) to see the remaining 6 natural wonders of the world- after the breathtaking sight of Victoria Falls. Oh and, we did jump off the Zimbabwe-Zambia bridge over Zambezi. It was my first and Jamie's second official "the hell with you, life!" move and it felt great. Although, I didn't really jump so much as I was elegantly "pushed-off" the bridge by the friendly operator (or 'sexist' shall we say??) who clearly assumed me, a girl, could not possibly muster up the guts to freely jump to my demise.

Tomorrow we are re-visiting the mighty Zambezi (the fourth largest river in Africa) for a weekend of canoeing and safari in Chirundu, Lower Zambezi. I wish everyone an awesome weekend, good health, and happiness- wherever you are.

I first want to make a few very important introductions. Two new interns have joined us at GAP from U of T! Todd and Yaroslav are graduate students at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (say that 10 times fast) and having them in the office has been really great.

We all decided to go on a day trip to Prizren last weekend, a smaller town in South-Western Kosovo. One of the more beautiful towns in Kosovo, and seen as considerably more traditional than Pristina, we had the opportunity to experience Kosovo outside the relative modernity of the capital. As one of the most religious cities in the country, Prizren certainly looked the part. An enormous mosque was situated in the very center of the city, while smaller mosques were visible in every direction. Despite the fact that minarets (tall towers attached to mosques) are found in Pristina as well, I had never heard the call for prayer before I arrived in Prizren (although I do know that they can be heard in some parts of Pristina). This led me wonder how this apparent religiosity fit with the staunch assertions of Kosovar secularism.

Approximately 90% of the Kosovo population is Muslim, but very clearly a secularized brand of Islam. Or in the words of Ilmi Kasniqi, an imam at one of five mosques in the town of Gjilan, “Our Islam is “lite” – like Coke Lite or Marlboro Light cigarettes.” Approximately 9% of the population is Catholic, as well as a small minority of Orthodox Serbs found in the North and enclaves throughout the country. (Source)

While there is friction between the Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians, it is consistently noted that while the division is along ethnic lines, religion is not a contributing factor in the conflict between these two groups, although the Serbs claim that Kosovo is the "heartland of Serb spiritual heritage" as there are several medieval Serb monasteries throughout the country. (Source) Both the Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians have also engaged in reciprocal vandalism of each other's religious sites. For example, Serb forces during the war destroyed virtually all the Islamic libraries and archives in Kosovo (see photo to the left, found here) and the Albanians retaliated by destroying Orthodox churches. (Source) There is no visible tension between the Catholic and Muslim Albanians. In fact, a cathedral is currently being built in the very center of Pristina. According to Blerim Latifi, a local sociologist, this relaxed attitude towards religion is due to the fact that “nationalism and communism have combined to reduce the importance of religion in people’s lives”.

While Kosovo can only be lauded for creating an environment where multiple religions can live together peacefully, there could also be a more nefarious aspect to religiosity in Kosovo. Most of this stems from Kosovo’s desire for EU integration and the importance of perceived secularism in the process. It is argued, for example, that the building of the Catholic cathedral in the center of the capital, where less than 10% of the population is Catholic, is simply a form of political pandering to the West. (Source) It is thus contended that the building of the cathedral is an attempt to demonstrate a cultural shift towards Western values via Catholicism. Dom Dode Gjergji, the Bishop of the Catholic Church in Kosovo, referred to this phenomenon as “cultural baptism”. Interestingly, the United States has attempted to emphasize the fact that the majority of Kosovars are Muslim in order to demonstrate that their wars in the Middle East are politically, as opposed to religiously, motivated. (Source) (Photo to the right is of the inside of the Catholic Church, also situated in Prizren, found here).

This is of course a very limited consideration of the factors that may affect the role of religion in Kosovo. The fact that Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe may also be a factor. It is also suggested that the presence of multiple international organizations in the country might have led people to hide their Islamic identity in order to avoid upsetting the international community. (Source) Nevertheless, it is clear that there is a separation between church and state in Kosovo that has enabled various religions factions to live in relative harmony. The hope is that freedom of religion only be enhanced in the future and that it not be manipulated for political purposes.

Things are moving along well as of late – work is picking up, Sevda and I have settled comfortably into our roles at ZARAN, the office finally hired a real lawyer (!), we’ve found some more activities in Lusaka to keep us busy outside of the office, and we’ve done some more great traveling throughout the country.

Earlier this week I met with Dr. Rodwell Vongo, who is the president of the Traditional Healers and Practitioners Association of Zambia (THAPAZ). This organization is the closest thing to a governing body that exists in Zambia to regulate its over 40,000 members of spiritualists, herbalists, traditional birth attendants, and divinists. In Zambia, 80% of the population uses some form of traditional medicine or treatment, and so there is a major void in the country’s healthcare regulation considering that there is no official branch of government to overlook the practices of these healers. Dr. Vongo was kind enough to invite me to his private farm on the outskirts of Lusaka where we discussed in depth the position of THAPAZ on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating individuals with HIV/AIDS; although it is the position of many traditional healers (including, thankfully, the president of THAPAZ) that ARVs are the best available treatment for HIV/AIDS, Dr. Vongo reluctantly admitted that many healers still are skeptical of the drugs, and as a result may advise their patients not to take ARVs or to forego their proper treatment regimens. Furthermore, he explained that despite the Association’s best efforts to monitor its members’ behavior, without extensive funding or serious government attention, there is little that can be done to ensure that individuals with HIV/AIDS who seek out traditional health practitioners will receive accurate information about the efficacy of ARVs. With access to proper healthcare limited in Zambia, traditional health practitioners play a vital role in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS; however, in order for this to be effective there needs to be coordination between Western medicine and traditional health practitioners, and beyond that there needs to be proper regulation of detrimental and negative practices. Dr. Vongo explained to me that, “All of the positive help that has been provided by traditional healers gets undone and overshadowed when incidents arise where healers advise their patients to forego antiretroviral therapy.” This subject is a major focus of my research for ZARAN, and thus meeting with this esteemed and accomplished individual was a very informative and significant occasion.

Our other work at ZARAN has been fairly dynamic. This week Sevda and I attended a workshop hosted by ZARAN to inform and educate trade union officials of the rights of their employees with respect to HIV status and discrimination. As we have seen elsewhere in Zambia, misconceptions about HIV were quite prevalent at the workshop. I’ve also been continuing to work on my false cure claim case (see last blog) despite having limited legal capacity and also running into large obstacles in seeking the cooperation and assistance of the police to provide information about the case. I can confidently say that certain police officials in Lusaka lie through their teeth and have no shame about doing so. Next week I will be meeting with Transparency International Zambia to discuss the entire matter, and I am excited to finally (hopefully) make some progress on this.

Outside, it’s been getting colder and colder in Lusaka! It’s comparable to mid-autumn Toronto weather I’d say, which isn’t too bad, but also it’s like “come on, we’re in Africa, what gives!” Nevertheless, the chilly weather did not stop us from taking advantage of last weekend’s “Hero’s Day” long weekend to take an amazing trip down to Livingstone, home of the mighty Victoria Falls (biggest in the world, eat your heart out Niagara!). Also known as “the smoke that thunders,” this massive spectacle was truly a sight to be seen, which is why I even ventured back to the falls at night to witness their glory under a full moon. Being the intelligent law students that we are, Sevda and I decided it was only prudent to jump off of a 111 metre high bridge over the Zambezi river (which borders Zambia and Zimbabwe) with nothing attached to us but some towels around our legs and a bungee cord wrapped around them. It was the logical thing to do. Other logical activities included a delightful (and blurry) “booze cruise” along the Zambezi (complete with hippos, elephants, and an open bar), and white water rafting down some of the world’s best rapids. Livingstone is a very touristy place, which normally might annoy me somewhat, but I’ve noticed that in Zambia the majority of foreigners here are all doing some interesting or commendable project/research (as opposed to other destinations I’ve been where the majority of travelers are just drunk brits); so, aside from the adrenaline activities, the weekend was also full of interesting and memorable characters, ranging from Peace Corps volunteers to a stereotypical chimpanzee scientist (complete with a mad-scientist beard and an eclectic vocabulary).

That’s all for now…it’s lunch time!

Commission & Pillars
This week, amidst the continuous rainfall of July, we have been very focused on gathering information regarding legal empowerment of the poor. The commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor was mandated to research and report on how laws could be used both to protect and give economic opportunity to the poor. A number of working groups were established for Access to Justice, Property Rights, Labour Rights and Business Rights. These are known as the four pillars of legal empowerment. We have been asked to research how other countries have implemented the pillars in their projects. Once that information is gathered each of us will be assigned two pillars and will formulate reports on Serbia's current status as far as the pillars stand and what best practices have been pursued in other country offices that may be helpful for this legal system. Special emphsis shall be given to projects that are under way in our region including countries like Armenia, Belarus and Bosnia-Herzegovina, among others.

Our contribution
I created a global database so that we could organize projects by country. It was often found that most countries around the world implement one of the four pillars. However, the projects do not fully encompass one pillar or another. Projects usually have more specific focuses. For example, in the Access to Justice category we would find some projects pertaining to minimizing corruption of the judiciary and others pertaining to maximizing public information campaigns of legal rights. No one country has taken on a single pillar at once or all four pillars within the same project. I agree that it is wise to decompose legal empowerment into a cluster of projects for a number of reasons. First, it is difficult to gain approval for large scale projects and it may not be feasible or realistic to want to accomplish all four pillars at once. Second, multiple projects have the advantage of creating more partnerships with different ministries and donors that are interested in supporting some, but not all, of the legal empowerment initiatives. This also makes it easier to coordinate donors and gain approval. Since the UNDP in Serbia has formed a positive partnership with the government, to the extent that some staff work both at Parliament and at the UNDP office, it is important to maintain and strengthen cooperation. This means setting an agenda that is mutually beneficial and workable for both parties.

Roma Settlements
Last weekend I traveled to Romania to visit a friend's grandparents. As the train crossed the Sava River to the Novi Grad (New Belgrade) side of town I caught my first glimpse of how the Roma people live in Serbia. Below the tracks I saw what looked like a half-cleared landfill with a vast array of rotting metallic roofs over a community of shacks. The slum was below a billboard that said "Welcome to Belgrade". Children ran about and clothes hung from make-shift 'laundry' wires. I was completely dumb founded to discover that this community was only 10 minutes from my apartment and the city centre. I had no idea that it existed so close to home or that the conditions were in such peril. I plan to make a return visit with colleagues from the office who interact with the people on a regualar basis. It should be a very enlightening experience.

I need to explain to you a little about the setup at Ateno. The human rights office is at the end of a hallway and there is not enough room there for both Shivani and I. This mean that I work several offices down in the thesis centre which I prefer because it is a lot quieter and the air conditioning is way colder (18° v. 23°). The downside to this is that I am a little out of the loop; Shivani works 3 feet away from our boss and therefore is able to get more instruction in small increments where as I try to get big chunks apply them back in the thesis centre. This has not been a major problem until this week when I misunderstood who the audience for our ASEAN research is. I thought that we were supposed to be making a summary of how each of the ASEAN nations view human rights and comply with human rights treaties, this was incorrect. What we are supposed to be doing is making a persuasive document to convince different parties that ASEAN countries would easily be amenable to a human rights monitoring mechanism. Although this means that the work I have been doing for the last week will eventually become a small footnote at the end of the document, I am now looking forward to my work because I prefer writing a persuasive document, it is like the factum v. the open memo.

In addition to working in an office that fights corruption, all of the interns here have decided to start fighting corruption on a personal level as well. There is a campaign here called “Ako Mismo” which basically translates into “I Will”. The campaign is directed at getting people living in the Philippines so start respecting the rule of law at a small level with hopes that it will translate into a broader shift in the country. To join the campaign you go to the website and you make a pledge to do something such as “I will not run red lights.” You then wear specialised dog-tags to show that you are committed to a less corrupt Philippines. It is kind of like Lent except it does not end and you give up something illegal. There are lots of things that I could give up that won’t really make a difference since I don’t do them already so I decided to make a real commitment and that is to stop buying pirated DVD’s. I realise that this does not sound like much but I not really much of a bad ass so this is probably the worst corruption I have been involved in.

We have only been here for a few months but we already have a standing appointment at one of the local bars. It is called RJ Bar and on Tuesday night the same band always plays Rockeoke. We have been there enough that they point out their “Canadian friends” and the host now speaks in English instead of Tagalog. I love it because I am a terrible singer but because I can sing with a North American accent they think I am a good singer. It is a popular hangout for a lot of the Ateno law students so we get an opportunity so socialise with them as well. Based on their reactions I think is a little weird for them to see us in this situation though; normally they see us with the professor in the class room looking very dressed up and they go from this to seeing us very “relaxed” and singing at the top of our lungs.

The ILP exec should be proud, all of their interns in the Philippines are cutting work early today to make a flight to Palawan. I will blog when I am back.

July in Manila has been quite eventful!! We just came back from a visit to Bohol. Bohol is a beautiful province in the middle of the Philippines, and is famous for it’s chocolate hills, a collection of conical hills that a small area. Legend has it that the town being plagued by a giant carabao, who ate all of their crops. Finally having had enough, the townsfolk took all of their spoiled food and placed it in such a way that the carabao would not miss it. Sure enough, the carabao ate it, but his stomach couldn't handle the spoiled food, so he defecated, leaving behind him a mound of feces, until he had emptied his stomach of the food. The feces then dried, forming the Chocolate Hills.

 But wait, this one is even better……There was a Gluttonous giant named Dano that ate everything in his path. One day he came to a plain. He saw a beautiful young woman named Eng. To win her affection, he needed to lose weight. So he excreted everything he ate. In the end, his fecal matter covered the land and he won Eng's affection. Enough said!

We felt that the best way to see, feel, and experience the province was on motorbikes. This is why I love the Phils. Something that would take at least 6 months of written tests, lessons, and drivers test in Canada is equivalent to a 3 minute quick and dirty lesson in the Philippines. Driving through the hills was amazing! Dan even convinced us that we had to climb an actual hill…which honestly, is WAY easier than it looks. However, with the help of a few local kids and teens, and with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (LITERALLY) we made our way up the hill (which btw has an incline of at least 75 degrees!). I am embarrassed to say that these kids, IN THEIR FLIP FLOPS, could have lapped me 10 times over. I’m either incredibly out of shape, or they are just super human.

After the climb, one of the teens took us to her village and her house to meet her family. After talking to her for a while, we learned that she should be in her first year of high school, but is not attending because of financial difficulties. This really struck a chord with me because she is the very person that mountains of legislation that we’ve been reading over the past couple months is supposed to help and protect. Statistics say that the Philippines has one of the highest literacy rates in southeast Asia, but what good is this when many of these children don’t have further education to supplement it. It is one matter when these children don’t want to attend secondary school in order to carry forward with the family’s farm or learn the trade of their family’s business, but it is a completely different matter when the child has hopes and dreams of being successful, only to be held back by the lack of financial means. Legislation dictates free schooling for ALL children up to the end of secondary school, so where is the disconnect? I think it is time for the President and her band of clowns to take responsibility and provide some accountability of the situation.

Work on the textbook for the child rights class has concluded, and Tim and I are now assigned to working on a report that will be targeted toward the participating member countries of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). ASEAN is in the midst of proposing the creation of a human rights body that will monitor the member countries. Although all of these nations are already members of the UN and signatories to many human rights conventions and treaties, regional human rights mechanisms are beneficial in ensuring that international human rights laws are observed and implemented by the countries who have agreed to them, and to ensure that member states address human rights concerns in their respective areas of jurisdiction. This purpose of this report is to demonstrate that all the ASEAN member countries are capable of signing to and being monitored by a regional human rights body.

It is interesting to note that on paper, there are many countries who have acceded to or at least signed most human rights conventions, and then there are those who have left the majority of them unsigned. How accurate of a depiction is this of the true human rights landscape of the nation? If an alien was to come to earth and choose a country to live on based on how many treaties and conventions both these countries has signed, let’s just say that Cambodia would win hands down, and the United States...well, they would be at the back of the bus..no..they'd be hangin off the back fender. Hmmmmmmmmm………. Happy 4th!

Labels: Chocolate Hills

Delhi Week 5 and 6

Having been adequately exposed to social activism, legal education, and training camps, we were pleased to learn that court was back in session after its holidays.
We accompanied the director of HRLN to Supreme Court, and a senior lawyer to High Court. Noting the estimate that the Indian judicial system is backlogged by 52 years, I was shocked at the break neck speed at which the cases where heard.
But first, the setting must be described. After a dubious security search (metal detectors went off when I went through the security gate, presumably because of the bobby pins in my hair) but the security guards just rushed me through. I wasn’t however, allowed to bring in my bottle of water. Once inside the compound, we were faced with a monochromatic sea of men and women, as lawyers are only allowed to wear black and white. Donning the traditional robe common to previous British colonies, the lawyers moved around the lush compound, the women wearing blazers over the traditional salwar kameeze.

Once I was frisked by the female security guard behind a draped enclosure, we went inside the visitors’ gallery. The average length of a case was maybe 2 minutes maximum. While counsel is arguing their case, the room is filled with the other 40-50 lawyers waiting for their case to be head. The courtroom is an endless shuffle of lawyers.

The movement, the whispers, the constant opening of the door provides for the worst acoustics from the visitors’ gallery. I could barely hear the submissions, and only fared a little better with the judge’s response. In addition, the cases moved at a break neck speed.

I was surprised by the tone of some lawyers. In a Canadian court room, the lawyer’s tone of voice, hand gestures, and loud decibel would be considered rude. In fact, it seemed like the lawyers were screaming at the judges, and would interrupt them when the judges tried to speak or asked questions.

We came across a family law case. The facts are as follows: the father, who had gone to jail for domestic abuse, and had failed at various attempts to gain guardianship of his son, was once again petitioning for guardianship through this mother, the child’s grandmother. This was his 17th attempt at gaining custody, and the case had back and forth from Delhi to Lucknow. It was a convoluted case, and obviously fraught with emotions.

Yet the judges simply suggested that the father and mother talk and try to work it out, and were given two weeks to do this. I did not know what to think at this point. On one hand, it seems like a collaborative, mediation based outcome would be best for all parties. On the flipside, it seemed dubious that a mediation lacking a third party intervener would provide a solution after the criminal charge, 17 failed guardianship applications, and the matter reaching the Supreme Court. I couldn’t decide if the judges were dismissive, or recognized that an authoritative decision handed down by the court would have little effect on the situation given the petitioner’s penchant for litigation.

The next day we went to High Court and sat in the court room of what can only be described as the Indian Judge Judy. She was quick, efficient, and had absolutely no tolerance for any late comers, or time-delaying tactics employed by the lawyers. She queried a government lawyer who had not received instructions from her client: ‘why is your client so astute with some matters and lax with others? Do they have selective amnesia?’

Interestingly, she reacted differently to the case presented with HRLN which involved the government’s refusal to rehabilitate slum dwellers who had been kicked off a right of way, to be used for the commonwealth games. Noting that the litigants were homeless while the government and HRLN counsel would together draft a map of the contested property, she gave a follow-up court date of late July, when the court was booking for October.

It was really empowering to see a female judge in action. When we were at the supreme court, we did see many female law students and lawyers, but they all seemed to be under the age of 35. Clearly, the feminization of the law is a new phenomenon in India, but a promising one.

Ps: Speaking of gender……this week, my internet connection was cut off by my provider. Although I signed up for a $20 10gb plan per month, they wanted to charge me $150. After several calls led nowhere, I went to the central office to complain. I explained that I had only used 9gb and thus, should only pay $20. They gave me the run around…told me my internet would be back up in 3 hours. When I went back to the office on Monday to complain once again, they told me that I now owed them $300. Yes, they were trying to charge me for internet usage which occurred DURING THE TIME they had cut off my internet.

The sad thing is that I feel that as a female, I am not being listened to, especially if I ask, and not demand things. I decided to take an authoritative stance with the internet guy. The result? He emailed customer service, asking them to re-instate my internet because the customer was ‘hyper’. In that office, men get ‘upset’, women get ‘hyper’. Sigh.

According to the CIA World Factbook, the population of Kosovo is comprised of 88% Albanians, 7% Serbs, and 5% other (Bosniak, Gorani, Roma, Turk, Ashkali, Egyptian).

With Kosovo’s declaration of independence, there was significant concern over the rights of minorities within the new borders, namely the rights of Serb minorities. The Ahtisaari Plan, and the succeeding Kosovo Constitution, foresaw this concern and thus created a blueprint for a multi-ethnic state. The Kosovo Constitution includes extensive guarantees for the rights of minorities while stressing the values of equality and anti-discrimination. For example, it recognizes both Albanian and Serbian as official languages, with Turkish, Bosnian and Roma languages as official languages at the municipal level. In addition to basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, Chapter III of the Constitution focuses on the Rights of Communities and their Members, which includes rights related to preservation of cultural identity as well as the right to representation in the institutions of local government.

Despite all these guarantees for minorities, however, the multi-ethnic state that Kosovo’s Constitution envisions seems far from the reality on the ground thus far. As you can see from the map of ethnic composition posted above*, the population is quite segregated by ethnicity, with a significant number of Serbs concentrated in northern Kosovo, an area that is connected by land to Serbia. Kosovo Serbs receive funding from the Serbian government and have been resistant to integration in local Kosovo institutions. Some regard Northern Kosovo as de facto under administration of the Serbian government.

Some of the reasons for this are probably far more complex and deep-rooted than I can sincerely understand or explain since the region has such a long history of ethnic tension. But on a more macro-political level, perhaps the reasons are more clear. Instinctively, attention must be focused on the will of local government, or lack thereof, to fulfill their commitments towards multi-ethnicity. I cannot informatively comment on whether or not such a will exists. However, it does seem to me that any willingness of Kosovo’s government, be it formal or substantive, is precluded by strong political resistance from Serbia. The Serbian government has consistently opposed Kosovo Serbs’ integration in Kosovo institutions. And it is reportedly not due to dissatisfaction with the rights and treatments of Kosovo Serbs, rather because integration would imply a support for Kosovo’s independence, thereby undermining Serbia’s territorial integrity. An indicative example is recent news on Kosovo’s upcoming local elections. According to a SETimes.com article, Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu “invited Kosovo Serbs to participate in the local elections, as an important element in the country's political process” and “requested international assistance to encourage Kosovo Serb participation”. However, the Serbian government has reportedly called upon Kosovo Serbs not to vote since it would be an indirect recognition of Kosovo’s independence, which it regards as a violation of international law.

It has been suggested that a focus on decentralization is the way forward for both sides. The Ahtisaari Plan proposes a highly decentralized state in which municipalities have significant control over their own administration. For example, the Serb-dominated North Mitrovica would have control over higher education and health care. It remains unclear to me whether local government is sincerely willing to implement such decentralization measures and if so, whether Kosovo Serbs (regardless of Serbian government’s pressure) are willing to embrace it. It would be interesting to go to Serb-dominated areas and find out what they really think although I don’t know if we will actually have the opportunity for that while we are here.

I think it is necessary to finally note that concerns over minority rights in Kosovo have disproportionately focused on the rights of Serbs while often disregarding the other minority groups that exist here. It’s quite an unjust reality. The Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities are a visible minority and it is quite clear that they suffer from discrimination and relatively poor standards of living. Roma people will never be seen sipping espresso in one of Pristina’s cafes rather on the sidewalks of those cafes, panhandling or squeegeeing for money. Apparently the Kosovo Government is aware of the need for protection of minority communities as evidenced by the Strategy for Integration of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in the Republic of Kosovo 2009-2015, published by the local government last year. According to an OSCE report published in April 2009, however, substantive equality and integration of these communities, at least in the field of education rights, is currently lagging.

*map courtesy of the OSCE mission in Kosovo, in their report entitled "Kosovo non-majority communities within the primary and secondary educational systems"

* photo of a Roma refugee family, above, courtesy of Darren McCollester for the Pulitzer Centre, found here.

Amendment to s. 377. I promised to keep updated on the case before the courts of India regarding s. 377 of the India Penal Code (IPC). On July 3, 2009 the Delhi high court delivered a “historic judgement to amend a 149-year-old colonial-era law… and (to) decriminalize private consensual sex between adults of the same sex.” The court declared that s. 377 of the IPC because it criminalized certain consensual sexual acts of adults in private violated “fundamental rights to personal liberty (Article 21 of the Constitution) and equality (Article 14) and prohibition of discrimination (Article 15). (Source: Times of India, July 2, 2009). While this judgement only pertains to the interpretation of the IPC in Delhi, it is a definite step in the right direction for gay rights in India and has provoked extreme controversy. The law is on the brink of change in India; however, people’s attitudes towards homosexuality may not be ready to accept this change. There is widespread discrimination towards homosexuals in India (which is somewhat ironic in a country where the men are generally quite affectionate towards each other), and it will take a lot more than a decision of the Delhi high court to bring about an attitudinal shift.

Supreme Court of India. On Monday, Jen, Nigel, Jasdeep, and I went to the Supreme Court of India. The original Constitution of India, 1950, envisaged a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and 7 puisne Judges, leaving it to Parliament to increase this number as desired (Source: http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/new_s/constitution.htm). There is currently (July 2009) one Chief Justice of India and 22 sitting judges. (Source: http://www.indlii.org). The judges sit in separate sessions so a lawyer could be arguing to only one Supreme Court Judge at a time. I think what struck me most from this visit was the docket load of the Supreme Court and the speed with which most cases were passed through. There were piles of cases in front of each Supreme Court judge and most cases we saw were plowed through with no delay. I’m sure this is different for more complex cases, but this was my experience in the day spent in the courts.

There were also one or two surprises on my part for the cases that made it to the Supreme Court level. One case in particular was a family/custody case and it made me question the appeal system to the Supreme Court in India. However, there is indeed a formal appeal process in place similar to that in Canada (e.g. question of law; constitutional issues; criminal cases that meet certain criteria).

I have yet to visit the Supreme Court of Canada and it is now on my to-do list for when I’m back home as it is more difficult to make comparisons of the actual court visit without having sat in the courts in Canada.

Delhi High Court. On Tuesday, Jen and I also visited the Delhi High Court as an HRLN lawyer was arguing a case on the destruction of slum lands. There were 18 families living on public lands that were bought by a corporation and destroyed. These people were not provided with any “rehabilitation” or compensation. They are now living on the streets with their homes destroyed. Again, this goes back to the concept of what is a home and of property laws in India. The government is arguing that the people were living on a right of way (e.g. street) and therefore, it was not their land. The judge that oversaw the land cases that morning was like the “Judge Judy” of India. She was fast, hard, and made tough decisions. She also made sure that the parties involved were following due civil procedures, and it was interesting to see the application of first year Legal Process. She put down one lawyer for having “selective amnesia” (i.e. falling due process at certain times and not at others), she wouldn’t postpone if someone wasn’t in the court room at the right time, and she was firm in her decisions. The only time she softened just a little was for the public interest case that we were presenting. She passed over the case initially and revisited it at the end of that session and her demeanor changed somewhat. While the cases were all land disputes they ranged from some inane argument about whether a property had a basement to the slum dispute that HRLN was arguing.

We had a second case to see in the afternoon through the HIV/AIDS initiative on the availability of opportunistic infection (OI) drugs for those living with HIV/AIDS. We moved to the court that oversees public interest litigation for this matter. The cases took longer in this court to argue and unfortunately, closing time for the court came before the HRLN case was heard. We may be back to court again.

Hey everyone!
Ok so Jina and I had a long and heartfelt discussion about the cockroach war that’s happening here in Quezon City. After some deliberation we decided that since cockroaches cannot kill me…(or so we assume) one for their team simply means a cockroach making skin contact! Interestingly, after going to the gym…(I know) I was having a shower. When I took some shampoo from the rack I rattled it just slightly. It was then when they made their move. A cockroach flew out and slammed into my shoulder then fell to the ground kamikaze style! I freaked out and ran out of the shower like a pre-pubescent girl only to find that my yelp drew some attention. So there I was standing outside the shower naked looking like a big baby. It is hard to say but I think we need to chalk one up for them…if not for making contact then for completely embarrassing me.

Ok so as for work things are going great here. Perhaps the most interesting thing I want to share with you all though is about our trip to witness the questioning of Sara (her real name has been changed for privacy reasons). Sara is a child who was molested by the vice mayor of Calapan. The questioning of Sara was interesting to say the least. Before hand one of the Ate’s at ECPAT explained to me that “the leaders of this movement (the movement against child sexual exploitation) are not the politicians, not the police, and not even us. It is the young victimized children who have the courage to share their story and expose the perpetrators.” This revelation became more apparent when the prosecutor asked for the removal of the public for the duration of Sara’s questioning. This caused tension in the court room and the defence attorney began insisting that everyone be removed, including Jina and I and ECPAT. Sara, having met us minutes before the questioning began, stood in front of the court and insisted that it was up to her who stays. That being said she explained that the entire front row was her support group and that we should remain. The lead defence became quite frustrated at this point. In a deep and intimidating voice he asked Sara, “How many people do you need here for support?” The power imbalance was quite obvious. There stood an older man, the attorney nonetheless, of the man who molested her. Yet this did not seem to intimidate Sara. She simply nodded and in a faint, yet affirmative voice said, “They stay.” I then realized that the movement was in fact led by countless children. Strangers to each other, yet standing together and collectively saying, “You exploited me and I am not letting you get away with it!”

Apart from work I thought I would also share some cultural experiences. This blog will be about the cab drivers here in Quezon. I now, after some time here, have come to understand that most cab drivers will rip you off every chance they get. I have been taken the wrong way. Some cab drivers have told me that it is an extra 50 pesos because of traffic and every stop (me picking up Jina) qualifies them to restart the meter! Others say they have no change! I have done my best to let them know that I know what is going on. I started by saying ‘salamat po’ (thank you sir) – this did not work. Now I literally direct them through the streets (its surprising how quickly you learn the streets when you know everyone that gives you a lift is trying to take your cash). Perhaps the most interesting story is that of last night. We decided to meet Tim and Shivani for dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant the cab the driver looked at me and said “200” (the price). I asked what the meter said. He replied “200”. I looked over from the back seat and the meter was not there. I asked him, “Did you forget to start the meter?” He said, “200”. I then realized that I was not looking at the meter but the radio. As my eyes moved down I noticed a cloth covering some device. I said to him “move that”. His response…I bet you can all guess was… “200! 200! ” Now, getting irritated I told him to move the cloth. He did and there was the missing meter; although it read 150 and not 200! I gave him 150 and left. Apparently I am a parrot and if you throw a cloth over my head I will think it is night and go to sleep.

As for leisure, the group of us, Tim, Shivani, Jina, my girlfriend Cyndi and I (Tim calls us Friendship Five) went to Bohol for the weekend. It was great. On our second day there we went on a motorbike tour of the island. Tim and I decided to drive the bikes because the girls had some trouble riding…Jina! Shivani you were no better ;) We visited the Tarsier (smallest primate alive) Sanctuary, the hanging bridge and of course the famous chocolate hills. The tourist attraction is built on the highest hill. I did not like it at all. There was a road that led up to it and all that jazz! I hate tourists! It was then when I asked the guide to bring us to a particular hill that I had spotted on the way. He did and we climbed it ourselves. I named it Dan`s Hill. It was a great experience. Some local children led us up the 75 degree hill. It was basically us pulling ourselves up by the roots of the high grass that covers the hill. Apart from some cuts and scrapes we viewed the scenery as nature has intended - with a dire need for water, a bit of bloodshed and sweat and most of all a sense of accomplishment! I cannot wait to see what other adventures this summer has in store for us all here in Manila.

So I realise that this is only my second blog but really, who has time to blog when you are working this hard during the day and having so much fun at night? Last week Shivani and I just finished the major component of the work we were doing with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This means that we have finished writing all the chapters that Ateno needed us to write and the text is now being sent for review before it get published for this years students to use. As of right now, our work for the class should be limited to in class sessions such as guest lecturing on Articles of the Convention or giving the current Canadian perspective on different areas of child rights. For example, later this month the class will be having a “right to life” debate where we will present the way that Canada currently deals with abortion.

For the remainder of our internship we will be spending most of our time working on the ASEAN human rights monitoring mechanism. Ateno and the Philippines wants this mechanism to “have teeth” and have a higher standard of human rights while at the same time reflecting that it will focus on ASEAN countries. The difficulty is that many ASEAN countries have a lower than average view of human rights meaning that any human rights monitoring body with teeth would not be supported by ASEAN members. We have been assigned the research that Ateno hopes will remedy this problem. The idea is to find as much common ground amongst ASEAN nations as possible and use it as a starting point for any future mechanism. Shivani and I are each taking half of the ASEAN countries and are compiling documents that will show which countries support which rights the most and by how much. We are looking at which human rights treaties these countries have ratified, their reports, the reports from the various committees and any third party information that is available. The final result of our research will be used to determine how to make a human rights monitoring body that is has more power than those bodies that already exist and is also acceptable to ASEAN nations.

So that covers the work portion, how about the fun? This last weekend was possibly the best in the Philippines so far. We went to Bohol for the weekend where Dan arranged a tour with a local guide. The guide picked us up on motorcycles/dirt bikes at 8:30 at which point Dan and I got a 10 minute lesson which was all that was required to drive this bike all around the island for the next 11 hours. I found this particularly funny because I have watched friends in Canada struggle under motorcycle licensing and regulation for 6 months before they were allowed to do what we were allowed to do after 10 minutes of training. The guide took us all of the most exciting places on the island starting with the Tarsier Sanctuary. For those that don’t know the tarsier is a small mammal that only lives in a few South East Asian Nations. It turns out that tarsiers do not survive in captivity and do not like being touched by humans so at the sanctuary we got to see them in their natural environment without hurting them. Later that day we crossed the Loboc River on a hanging bridge which was not that exciting but on the other side there was a guy that would de-husk a coconut with his teeth in 15 seconds which was amazing and definitely worth the ₱100 donation. The best part of the day was when we actually saw the Chocolate Hills. They have built a tourist site at the tallest one and we went up there to take pictures but driving up a paved road to get to the top was not enough of an experience for Dan so he and the tour guide found another, undeveloped hill and we climbed to the top. Since I am from Manitoba I hate any sort of an incline and would actually prefer if the world was flat so this was quite an experience for me. The hill was probably at a 70° incline and we had to pull outselves up by the grass that was growing out of the hill. However, with the help of some local children (who ran circles around us and climbed the hill in flip-flops) we made it to the top and it was incredible. After that we stayed with the children for a bit, met their families, learned about their lives and gave them a couple pesos for their help getting us up the hill. This was the second day in the Philippines that is currently vying for the most incredible day of my life.

Shivani is leaving soon so we are trying to get in as much as we can before she goes. Next weekend is a long weekend in Palawan and the weekend after that should be white water rafting to see the rice terraces. I look forward to my last month here and look forward to telling you all about it.

Two meetings early in this week showed the frustrations that exist when preparing for long-term social programs in Serbia in particular.

The Donor Challenge
During the second UNDP General Meeting in a week that we have attended, Mr. Infante quickly gathered information on the current status of the major projects of each Cluster. I noticed that various Cluster leaders were eager to share more about their projects but given the time, were limited to describing the status of their projects as running smoothly or barred for various reasons. One of these reasons seems to be the lack of firm committment from donors, whether they may be the government or otherwise. The current position of Serbia and its efforts to enter the EU frustrate its ties with bilateral donors, which may no longer regard Serbia as a viable long-term partner and tend to pull their (often neccessary) finances before Serbia actually does make progress in its EU accession.
If it is not Serbia external ties that frustrate projects, it is the internal bureaucracy of Serbia itself. The Local Development Cluster's projects seem the most stalled by the government's inadequacy to present firm answers and funds for projects. This Cluster's work centers on aid from the bottom- up and seems an essential part of the empowerment of the poor.

Part of the government's inabilities to pass and act on new legislations aimed at social change and improvement seems to be the ever-changing political landscape of Serbia. This reality was one feared by the various stakeholders at the National Assembly meeting this last Tuesday.

Quickened Pace Wanted
The National Assembly open debate centred on human rights issues regarding refugees and internally displaced persons as well as a draft law that provided protection for these groups through housing placements.

It was very interesting and overwhelming to be at this meeting for several reasons. The first regarded the experience and expertise that permeated the panel which included Ms. Popovic, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Serbia; Mr. Kotsalainen, who head the UNHCR in Serbia; Mr. Kalin, the representative of the UN Secretary- General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and finally Mr. Gnocchi of the European Commission to Serbia. Each discussed the nature of the problem of refugees and internally displaced persons, which given the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia has been a growing issue in Serbia. The government's efforts in alleviating this problem has been frustrated itself by military strife in the past decades to the point that a good proportion of these groups remain unregistered and socially, politically unprotected.

Once this problem was unpacked by the panel, the discussions that grew from the discussion period seemed to unearth a new frustration amongst the attendees. Their feelings can be described as a fear that while recognition of the problem is important, so much time has been spent on this matter that its solutions will need to be quickly implemented should the stakeholders want to have any realistic hope of their success.

This sentiment especially permeated the comments towards the 21 new articles of the Draft legislation aimed at improving the living arrangements of refugees and displaced persons. The attendees and stakeholders were adament that the Draft law needed to be passed quickly in order to have it be helpful at all to its intended beneficiaries. While the panel was more cautious and suggested patience in order for the Draft law to be refined, the attendees were more anxious that should more time be spent on tuning the law, it may not pass before a government change, in which case there is no guarantee for governmental support on the legislation.

This said, it was interesting that while the attendees were suggesting quickened passing of the law, they also wanted to make additions to it. This struck me as a very frustrating balance that seems to be embedded in the inistitutions here whether at the level of international organizations, NGOs, donors or otherwise and it revolves around the lack of predictability in the political realm of Serbia.

As such, projects seem to be frustrated by the actions of frustrated actors aiming to strike the balance that they believe from their perpective will be the most beneficial.

While this post may seem negative, there is a huge positive to be taken out and that is that against this environment, projects are initiated, continued and concluded which portrays the still overall hopeful sentiment in Serbia's institutions. These institutions remain confident that their continued efforts will eventually combine with timing to present more concrete results for Serbia.

This week we had another meeting-filled schedule. We started off with another general meeting with the Resident Coordinator and then moved on to an assembly discussion on draft laws for poverty reduction.

UN General Meeting
Mr. Infante gathered us to hear from cluster leaders and other staff members about what current accomplishments or impediments the programs and operations departments are facing. For the most part there was good news on orchestrating projects and receiving results. However as with most organizations gaining approval from higher bodies within a country can be a very difficult and time-consuming task. This is particularly an issue when attempting to coordinate donors and when change of management within the many levels of cooperation can alter the support.

One important note, that I think is worth mentioning, is that organizations go into countries and make an initial assessment of priorities within the host country about how they will proceed. Mr. Infante made it very clear that such assessments need to be kept up to date so that they reflect the current status of the country. In addition, given that Serbia’s position on Kosovo is unlikely to change in the near future (see here), a strategy that will recognize both positions as they currently stand is crucial for future development.

National Assembly: Draft Legislation for Poverty Reduction
We were graciously invited to sit in the National Assembly on a meeting regarding Human Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons and, in particular, regarding a draft law that deals with housing opportunities.

We were pleased to find that the Deputy Speaker of Parliament(Judita Popovic), the Head of UNHCR in Serbia(Lennart Kotsalainen), the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (Mr. Kalin) and the Head of the Political Section of the Delegation of the European Commission to Serbia (Thomas Gnocchi) were all on the panel. It was a tremendous honour to here them speak.

The assembly was structured in two parts. First there was a presentation of the current situation in Serbia. Second, there was discussion on the adequacy of the draft legislation and how it could be improved upon. During the initial description phase the magnitude of the refugee situation became very clear to me. Given the nearly 20 years of strife up to this point there are refugees from many of the surrounding countries that still do not have appropriate documentation or adequate housing. People were exiled, and continue to struggle a decade after the wars subsisted. These people live in limbo, some with status have a certain degree of rights and others live with no access to legal remedy. It was clear from the dialogue with the public representatives of various refugee associations that basic needs such as electricity and housing were still not met and that what the people really wanted was to finish the talks and implement the law. A similar situation can be depicted for the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and Roma population in Serbia. While there is legislation on social housing, the people do not perceive their needs as met in an adequate manner.

In the second half of the discussion 21 new articles were put forth with the intention of making housing or leasing more widely accessible. It was the expert on the panel that identified that the new laws for refugees must be complimentary with the current “social housing” legislation. The affects one may have on the other are an important consideration, especially given that refugees may claim that they have their own laws to abide by. Refugee representatives replied that laws should be as inclusive as possible, rather than making divisions between low and high –income refugee families. In addition, they expressed the need for help in acquiring their own housing, to empower them in sustaining their livelihoods and to adopt laws as soon as possible.

Bottom Line: Reintegration has been insufficient thus far. Laws need to be inclusive and speak to the actual needs of the people. Enough talk; laws may look good on paper, but they must be implemented as soon as possible.

You know you’re in an Asian country when the most fantastic food you’ve ever had is in an outdoor alleyway restaurant. It’s become standard to dine alongside roosters, roaches, a rat (that I swear was the size of a small cat), LOTS of bats (which, contrary to popular belief – or my belief at least – DO NOT see a head of human hair and think it is their nest), and cats? Regardless, the food is unbelievable. If you know me, you know that I am definitely not kidding because: 1)  I am deathly scared of all creatures mentioned above (minus the rooster), and the food HAS TO be out of this world in order for me to ever get close to that zoo.  2)  I normally don’t love Thai food. In fact, I usually go out of my way to not eat it.                  

That being said, this food is full of flavours I didn’t even know existed. I think they must serve this food in heaven. If not, they better start. I don’t even know why they bother trying to make Thai food in Canada. Why do we bother even serving food in Canada? This stuff is INCREDIBLE!

The last few weeks have been amazing! We’ve done everything from taking a very long and WET hike up a volcano (walking through rivers in my sneakers is not thing anymore!) and swimming in the crater!, smoking Montecristos and drinking scotch (I may have a new favourite

hobby?), learning the fine art of haggling with Filipino shop owners, and singing karaoke. Not just any karaoke though…karaoke with a live band!! Yes, here you can fulfil your secret dream of having your own REAL rock band (not that wii business). The funny thing is, going to play karaoke here is like stepping into an episode of American Idol. I kid you not! For some reason, Filipinos are genetically blessed with great voices. So karaoke is really a showcasing of beautiful talent rather than making a fool of yourself like it is back home. Which means that karaoke will be nothing but a spectator sport for me for the rest of this trip!

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