I feel as though this summer I've taken an entire course in economic, social, and cultural rights. While Adrian and I were originally asked to do our reserach on educational equality, we realized very quickly that in order to get to that point, we had to understand the greater context of the issue at hand. This involved not only understanding the right to education, but the justiciability of economic, social, and cultural rights in general. It was difficult to come to terms with the fact that so much of our time was spent on understanding the content, measurability, and process of enforcement of those rights, and not much of that research will be helpful to the organization in and of itself since it is only the background against which they so their work. However, it was extrememly important for us to understand this very current and contentious topic in order to conduct further analysis and I know that that knowledge was reflected in the rest of our work.

In addition to learning about socio-economic rights, we also learned about the budgetary process and the various ways in which it can, does, and should affect those righrts. The way I see it, budgets are one of the more significant ways that governments can give effect to their international, national, and local obligations with respect to those rights.

From that starting point, Adrian and I started to examine the right to education specifically. This entailed understanding (a) the content of the right to education, (b) ways in which it can be measured (i.e. measuring the status of the right to education in a particular geographic context by using relevant indicators), and (c) how budgets can be drafted in order to comply with the content of that right, by taking into account the aforementioned analysis regarding the status of that right and allocating accordingly.

We looked at various case studies/initiatives in this field and complied ideas suggestions regarding each of those three stages. The hope is that this report will be useful for the organization when designing future advocacy and/or litigation strategies in this field. They will be able to draw on the information and the lessons learned from other initiatives around the world in order to strengthen their own efforts.

By way of conclusion, I can confidently say that I learned a lot while compliing this report and, as I said before, I feel as through I have taken an entire course this summer on the realization of economic, social, and cultural rights. I have discovered that this is an areas of law that interests me greatly and one which I intent to pursue further. I have also strengthened my understanding of the role of economics, or rather budgets, play in the fulfillment of those rights. It is wonderful to know that the information I learned this summer will influence and affect the choices I make regarding my intended career path and future advocacy strategies. I hope the same can be said for future steps taken by my host organization. I thank ILP and my host organization for allowing me this opportuntiy!

I can’t believe 10 weeks has flown by so quickly! I am finally enroute to Toronto after a lengthy overnight layover in Tokyo…what a fantastic city!

My last day at the human rights center was ridiculously busy. Since flooding last Friday cancelled all classes, today’s child rights class consisted of two parts; the right to life debate, and a panel of guests speaking on their experiences with child rights in the Philippines.

Back in early June, our team decided to have the students of the class prepare for and participate in a Right to Life debate that would span about an hour. For the debate, the “government” was proposing the decriminalisation of abortion, while the opposition would argue against this position. I was initially apprehensive about this topic considering Ateneo is a Catholic university headed by the most powerful Jesuit priests in the country (one who was a professor for the Child Rights course as well). Atty. Sison-Arroyo explained that although the school may not necessarily endorse the position on pro-choice, this was a matter of academic freedom, and at the end, just some healthy debate. Makes sense when you put it that way!

The actual debate was very interesting. Both sides presented good arguments, although it was unanimous among the judges (Atty. Sison-Arroyo, Tim, John, and myself), that the arguments produced by the students on the government side were much stronger, and that the opposition simply did not profess anything novel or out of the ordinary. An interesting point to note was that NONE of the sides ventured over whether the fetus should be considered as a child or not. Instead, this fact was simply taken for granted. It seems as if the Catholic upbringing of all the students allowed for some bias on this matter, as they really couldn’t imagine this to be otherwise, whereas in North America, this is usually the initial point of contention between pro-choicers and right to lifers.  Overall, I was pretty pleased with the way the debate went. It allowed the student to critically think about and analyze a controversial topic that is normally swept under the rug, and understand a point of view that is not normally accepted in Philippine society. (Interestingly enough, after the debate, the students debating on the government’s side claimed to have felt ‘dirty’ for arguing in favour of something so wrong…..)

Tim and I finished off the right to life topic by presenting the legal stance of abortion from a Canadian perspective. We outlined the history of the debate, starting from the 60s all the way to the milestone case of Morgentaler that opened the doors to accessible abortion. Just a simple lecture that when I look back at this now (knowing the little tidbit of information about the students above), I am positive that most of the students must have been slightly appalled at the liberalism granted to such a contentious act. Overall, I can’t say that I’m embarrassed that Canada has the abortion laws that they do, but presenting these facts to a group of people (including a priest), that so clearly don’t agree with that viewpoint is more than a little daunting!

Looking back at my experience at the human rights center, and in the Philippines in general, I have to say that I have learned a lot! A lot about the rule of law, life in a developing country, and about myself! When researching for the Child Rights textbook, I was exposed to the plethora of laws that the Philippines had, especially concerning the protection of children. Initially, I felt that this was really promising because why would a country create laws it didn’t care to implement? My experiences throughout the following weeks lead me to reality and to the truth. Firstly, many children are not benefiting from the laws that are created for them. Although statistics show that almost all children in the Philippines have some form of education, most of this is at the primary level. While travelling in more remote areas, we came across children and young adults who were not enrolled in school due to financial difficulties. These situations are what made me question the real motives and effectiveness of the laws that are enacted to eliminate such situations; laws enacted that provide free and compulsory education to all, regardless of financial background. If this is indeed one of the goals of enacting such laws, then there obviously needs to be more accountability to ensure that its benefits are being reached to all those who wish to take advantage. Second, it is important to remember, that although Western outlooks may stress the importance of certain values, it is unfair to hold a country, where life and standards are very different, to our own standards. As a very mild example, although children may not be enrolled in school, it is not fair to automatically assume that the child is being disadvantaged and mistreated. Developing societies depend on different forms of labour, industry, and income. Although agrarian society has nearly disappeared in the western world, it is fruitful and abundant in other societies. Future generations need to be trained and taught to upkeep these industries, which are just as important as those requiring a formal education.  The bottom line is that it is very easy to judge the values, morals, and ways of life of a person, whether it’s your neighbour or someone across the world. Until you sit down and talk to them and really put yourselves in their shoes, you cannot make judgement on their rights and wrongs. Take the time to understand someone else’s story!

I am only three working days away from leaving the National Law School in Bangalore. It has been a far too brief experience in India, a mere nine weeks including travel experiences prior to setting foot in the south of India. I had the good fortune of experiencing India's Independence Day celebrations on Saturday, August 15. India at 62 years of independence. The national paper saw fit to take a representative sample of Indian intellectuals and ask for their reflections on India at 62. The commentary I find very interesting as it reflects some of the debate that I have had within the Centre for Social Exclusion. There is no lack of pride, self-analysis, or self-deprecating humour when it comes to Indians reflecting on their (relatively) young and monstrous democracy. In the Centre there is open debate about how little progress has been made in the fight for equality amongst all citizens and the pervasive blemish of the caste system. The debate tends to centre itself on the validity of perpetuating the very language of caste in the fight for equality versus removing such language from the Indian lexicon and moving forward in a manner that, I feel, has been advocated by the United States - the notion of race blindness. But in India's case, caste blindness. As my research has recently taken me into American law, my limited knowledge suggests that race blindness fails to account for the complex and lengthy social narrative that underlies the very existence of African Americans in the USA. Whilst the theory behind all men created equal is good (in theory) in practice the disparities of social and economic empowerment are perpetuated without redress when one holds fast to the idea of pure individual meritocracy. Unlike the USA, India has been explicit in identifying and addressing, historical social inequities and moving forward to even the stakes in public life. Debate continues on the merits of identification politics.

But back to the representative sample of Indian intellectuals. Some of the more interesting observations came regarding the pride of place that India has within liberal democracies in the world. It is by far the largest, and perhaps by far the most unruly, but as one commentator observed, it has recently proved itself to be an informed, working democracy with an enormous voter turnout and a degree of political savvy that should be praised in such a youthful country (youthful from the perspective of 1947, not youthful in the historical capacity). Many comments criticized the continued high numbers of poor and illiterate people and remarked that Ghandi's objective of Antodaya (welfare of the last citizen of India) is not a priority in this country. Gandhi said, "the best test of a civilized society is the way in which it treats its most vulnerable and weakest members." The rapid rise of a middle class in India is both praised and lamented. Lamented, in part, for its rush to consumerism. A surprising number of comments in the paper included reference to law and various laws that came to represent India's aggressive attempts at distributing opportunity and creating equality across religion, caste, language, and ethnic barriers. I found invocation of the law surprising as most of the comments were drawn from authors, artists, scientists, and professors. Clearly, as I have seen and heard elsewhere, India's constitution and legislation are visible within the national psyche.

There is a common thread of discussion here regarding the balance between economic power (a la the west) and spiritual and mental well-being and the necessity of not losing sight of the latter in the quest for the former. A French ex-pat living in the hills of Tamil Nadu remarked that she felt India will guide the world in a new way of living prosperously with each other and with the planet. She was adamant that no better example existed for co-existence amongst species, flora, and fauna than the enlightened parts of this country.

It has been an interesting couple of months in this country. It appears to defy laws of physics in its day-to-day chaos and yet there is an underlying serenity that I hope never fades away.

Wrapping up Legal Empowerment
We’ve come to the last few days of our fellowship here in Serbia. This week has been one large review. As I stated in my last blog, our final two submissions have revolved around condensing our Global Legal Empowerment (LE) Database and formulating recommendations.

The purpose of condensing the original database was to extract projects that were purely LE initiatives. That is to say, extract projects that encompass all four pillars of LE. However, given that Making the Law Work for Everyone, the Commission’s final report, was only released on 3 June 2008, LE is a relatively new area of interest. This offers UNDP Serbia the opportunity to be a pioneer in the field and guide the government to embrace more inclusive and human rights oriented policies. With that said, there is still a great deal to be learned from other projects that address elements of legal empowerment. It has been our aim to draw from both the commission's report and global projects to help generate a starting point.

In order to formulate our recommendations we drew upon project patterns and successes of other countries in each pillar of LE. We coupled that with our limited knowledge of the Serbian system and put forth a number of strategies that would advance the rights of vulnerable groups, if tailored to the specific needs of the local context in which they are to be implemented. If there is one thing that I have learned to appreciate most, it is that legal empowerment is not a one stop shop. No one project, no single policy reform and no pillar can stand alone. Nor can the pillars be implemented without assessing the local needs of the country. If legal empowerment can ever stand a chance there must be commitment toward a common goal and projects must be adaptable to meet needs of stakeholders. All in all, embarking on a LE initiative is a complex and long-term commitment. With the right attitude, the ability to sustain partnerships, and the willingness to support local needs and goals, it is a challenge worth taking.

Take off…
The past three months have just flown by. It feels as though I have just gotten used to my surroundings, and here we are, ready to head home. I have taken away a great deal from my time in Serbia. I have expanded my knowledge on specific international legal topics. I have learned about a new country, its history, its culture and its people. Lastly, I have learned about myself and how I have changed. What an invaluable experience ☺

Legal Empowerment- Observations

It's hard to believe that my three months in Serbia will be behind me in only a few days. The projects are, of course, being completed. Marlene and I are in the midst of completing the condensed version of the Legal Empowerment (LE) database as well as outlining certain strategies that can be adopted in the Serbian context. While creating the condensed version of the database, we found it difficult to find purely LE initiatives (except for LEAD in Indonesia) given that LE and its particular pillars are newly introduced to the international community. Moreover the complexity of the pillars make it very difficult to have an all-encompassing project. Rather most countries, whether in acknowledgement of the pillars or not, have the tenets of the LE pillars as project objectives. Some countries have opted to focus more on one or two pillars while others have projects that cover all the pillars. This shows the need to concentrate on the context in which the pillars are being implanted. It is with this thought that Marlene and I, based on the information we researched for the past few months, formulated conclusions, lessons learned and strategies for Serbia.



Judicial Training Manual- Feedback

The Judicial Training manual is now updated. I was happy to have tripled the size of the knowledge map which at the beginning of the project seemed less than impressive. What was surprising was the enthusiasm of my supervisor. Perhaps I'm too used to the Canadian work culture where work is usually commended by a mere "well done" or "I was happy with your efforts...." or other such variations, but in Serbia even the slightest productivity seems to bring praises, so when I submitted the new layout of the knowledge map, my supervisor's response was more than enthusiastic. Knowing that the manual is soon to be shared with more than just the UNDP office in Serbia and its resources will be used by legal professionals from across the Balkans is a very pleasant feeling.



Changing Perceptions

Speaking of pleasant experiences, the past three months in Belgrade...and the Balkans in general have definitely been an eye-opening adventure. While the tensions are clear, what has been overwhelming is the sense that Serbians are very eager to put the past behind them and to change what they call misconceptions about their country and its people. International opinion of the region is valued and our colleagues and locals in general have been very forthcoming with information about Serbia, its current situation, its past glories and where they believe the country is going, though in the latter category there are very mixed feelings. The new law that allows more free travel to Serbians (no visa requirements) to EU countries has also been a very welcomed change. Though there is still some doubt on whether the legislation will actually in practice follow through with its promises, there is no doubt that travelling abroad with less restrictions will be beneficial. Serbians will be better able to observe the legal and political practices of other states, and assess whether certain pillars are transferable.



Living in and learning about a different culture and system will be itself a rewarding experience.



I am sure the ILP fellows this year will agree with the above statement. Looking forward to hearing more about your times abroad back in Canada this fall.



Dobar Dan (good day) from Belgrade!

Ashley and I completed a needs assessment in regards to persons with disabilities, and during this phase, we interviewed the Executive Director of Mental Health Uganda. This is an issue that I feel strongly about, and after sitting learning about the status of mental health in Uganda, I am slightly mortified, although Ashley, who bore the brunt of my post-interview rant may think slightly isn’t a strong enough word. The most common diagnoses in Uganda in regards to mental health are schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This doesn’t compute with the most common diagnoses found in society. Although it very well could be that people don’t seek treatment until it is significantly noticeable (like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder), I have an alternate theory. Unfortunately, the medical professionals who are making diagnoses are doctors or nurses who have taken a basic training course and are armed with the DSM-IV (the manual we use in North America for diagnosing mental health issues). In Canada, psychologists must get a 4 yr honours with thesis degree in psychology and then a 2 year masters degree at which point they can diagnosis under someone’s supervision. Only after completing a doctorate in psychology is a person qualified to diagnosis mental health issues on their own. I realize that for logistical reasons they must be more lax in Uganda, however that doesn’t take away from the fact that there are ethical issues surrounding the misdiagnosing of people, a lot of negative social stigma surrounding people with mental disabilities, and many misconceptions. Unfortunately, a misdiagnosis of a mental disorder can follow a person and I have seen this in action here. It bothers me that people who are not adequately trained seem to hand out these diagnoses like candy. Some people believe that it is spirits possessing people and that is why they have mental issues. These issues are sidelined in the fight for persons with disabilities and even within our own publication on persons with disability, the focus is on physical disabilities rather than mental disabilities. I hope that in the future I can come back and advocate for change in this aspect of society.