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Send to friendBelow you will find the exceptional featured resource practitioners participating in the Engaging Pro-Bono Lawyers dialogue from May 27 - June 3, 2009. If you would like to contact one of these practitioners, you may click on the names that provide a hyperlink to their New Tactics personal biography account. Please click on the 'contact' tab to send a message to their email.
Regina (Gina) Germain is Legal Director of the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center. At RMSC, she oversees a network of over 100 volunteer lawyers and law students who represent RMSC clients in asylum claims before the Department of Homeland Security, before the Denver Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration Appeals, and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She has 20 years of asylum and refugee law experience. In addition to her work at RMSC, she is the author of the Asylum Primer: A Practical Guide to U.S. Asylum Law and Procedure available at www.ailapubs.org and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver College of Law where she teaches Asylum Law.
The Advocates for Human Rights
Jennifer is the Deputy Director of The Advocates for Human Rights. She has a B.A. in
political science from Yale and a M.A.L.D. from the Fletcher School of
Law and Diplomacy, where she studied international human rights law and
international refugee policy. She graduated cum laude from the
University of Minnesota Law School in 1996.
Jennifer has worked on refugee and asylum issues for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland. She has also interned for the Reebok Human Rights Program and the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination Against and Protection of Minorities. Prior to becoming Deputy Director of The Advocates for Human Rights, Jennifer practiced asylum law for five years as the Director of the Refugee and Immigrant Program. As The Advocates’ Deputy Director, she assists in fundraising for and directing organizational operations. She also supervises the development and administration of special projects dealing with emerging human rights issues, including the International Human Rights Monitoring Project. Jennifer is an adjunct faculty member at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where she teaches International Human Rights Law.
Colleen R. Beebe is the Director of Education at The Advocates.
Formerly the Executive and Deputy Director of the Immigrant Law Center
of Minnesota, Ms. Beebe is an attorney with expertise in immigration
matters, having worked on refugee and immigrant issues for over 20
years as an advocate, paralegal and lawyer. A graduate of the
University of Minnesota and cum laude graduate of Hamline University
School of Law, she is also an Adjunct Professor at Hamline University
School of Law and has been an adjunct at the University of Minnesota
Law School, teaching on the inter-American human rights system.
Bilingual in Spanish and English, Ms. Beebe has lived and traveled
extensively in Latin America. She has worked for Lutheran Social
Service of Minnesota and has volunteered with Fundación Social in
Bogotá, Colombia, Comunidad Kairós and Centro de Estudios Legales y
Sociales (CELS) in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Paz y Esperanza in Lima
and Ayacucho, Peru. Ms. Beebe has also volunteered with the Minnesota
Overground Railroad, the Colombia Support Group of Minnesota and is
co-founder and board president of Peace and Hope Partnership
International, a local human rights non-profit that exists to support
the work of faith-based human rights groups in the Americas. She has
also served as a board member of the Minnesota Justice Foundation and
the Hispanic Academic Support Services. She helped to found and
coordinates the Park Avenue Foundation/Volunteer Lawyers Network
Walk-in Legal Clinic, a joint project with The Advocates for Human
Rights. She also helped to found and is president of the faith-based
human rights organization, Peace and Hope Partnership International.
Rosalyn S. Park is the Research Director for The Advocates for Human Rights. She received her J.D. cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School and her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to her current position at The Advocates, she worked as a Staff Attorney in the Women’s Human Rights Program and Special Projects. Rosalyn has assisted in conducting fact-finding missions in Bulgaria, Tajikistan and Sierra Leone. She has co-authored several publications and is a frequent guest lecturer in the community. Before beginning work with The Advocates, Rosalyn interned with Anti-Slavery International in London as an Upper Midwest International Human Rights Fellow. She is admitted to practice in Minnesota.
Entila Zyba works for the Albanian Disability Rights Foundation (ADRF),
an Albanian NGO exercising its activity on disability area, since 1994,
initially as OXFAM disability program in Albania, and registered in
1996 as an independent local NGO. The philosophy of ADRF is based upon
the social model of disability and human rights based. Entila has a Law degree and an MA in 'European Studies.'
The program Entila is directly responsible for is “Free legal Aid for people with disability and their family members” supported by the Swedish Helsinki for human rights (SHC). Through this program ADRF provide advice and legal assistance, case presentation in front of Public Administration or Court, direct work with individuals and groups of PWD to acquaint them with laws and bylaws and rights they are entitled to by national legislation and international convention, assistance to ADRF advocacy group in the process of legislation improvement and implementation. Entila is also involved in also in writing study reports and different lobby activities to improve Albanian legislation on disability rights.
Sardar Bagishbekov has been working for four years with Freedom House,
Human Rights Defender Support project, funded by USAID. From March 2007
he is also responsible for implementation of a regional program to
combat torture in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, funded by the
European Commission. In 2006 he has been selected as the Executive
Director of the HRDs network Golos Svobody (Voice of Freedom). He
previously was the Chairperson of the Association of Young Lawyers in
Kyrgyzstan, worked in Kyrgyzstan with the UNHCR project on refugees. As
a result of his previous work experience and education, he commands
knowledge of organizational capacity development, human rights
situation in Kyrgyzstan and in the region, and project development and
management. He possesses a vast network of contacts in the government,
parliament, local NGOs and international organizations in the country.
As the Executive Director, he works to promote the Golos Svobody and
its projects, develop new projects and do fund raising for the new
Network Organization.
Dewa Mavhinga is a 29 year old Zimbabwean Human Rights Lawyer with extensive experience in pro bono work. Dewa holds a Bachelor of Laws Honours Degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a Masters degree in International Human Rights Law from Essex University, United Kingdom. Dewa was first involved in pro bono work as a law student at the University of Zimbabwe where he participated in the University legal aid clinic which gave pro bono legal advice to people who could not afford legal presentation around the capital of Harare.
From 2001 Dewa helped set up novel pro bono scheme for a women’s rights organization (Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association) – the mobile legal aid clinic. This involved driving to rural areas twice a month to offer legal aid services to needy rural communities. The scheme has since become successful, and now replicated in several provinces of the country. Dewa also consults extensively for international human rights organizations working on Zimbabwe and has toured several European universities as human rights law guest lecturer on Zimbabwe.
Elisabeth Baraka is the Projects Officer at Advocates for International Development. She is responsible for managing A4ID's broker service and the relationships with its Development Partners and Legal Partners. Before joining A4ID, Elisabeth worked as a lawyer for many years and as the Co-ordinator of a multi-partner pro bono project at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Sydney. She has a Master of International and Community Development, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons in Psychology).
Nyaradzo Muzah is a Zimbabwean national who has permanent residence status in South Africa. She obtained a Bachelor of Laws Honours Degree from the University of Zimbabwe in June 2002 and worked in private practice. During the melee around the land issue and the political meltdown from 2000 onwards in Zimbabwe, many people were tortured, killed and harassed. She became a Trustee of the Media Lawyers Network, a group of lawyers who gave urgent legal assistance to journalists who were unlawfully detained or harassed. She also actively engaged in community education programmes on basic rights such as the right to freedom of expression and the right to free and fair elections. At the peak of the land issue, she was one of the few lawyers who risked representing white commercial farmers in opposing compulsory acquisitions. In July 2006, she was forced into exile due to these professional activities which were unfortunately viewed by some as politically incorrect in the combustible environment. She has become a Board member of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, an association working for the protection and promotion of the human rights of exiled Zimbabweans. Recently, the Zimbabwe Legal Professionals Association was formed and she was elected chairperson. Since October 2008, she works in the Refugee and Migrant Rights Project of Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria. Her work includes interpreting, implementing and advancing the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees, currently a very vulnerable group in South Africa. Nyaradzo is currently studying for a Masters in Human Rights and Constitutional Practice with the University of Pretoria.
Eric Lockwood is a member of the Instituto Pro Bono team, working in the area of institutional development. A dual citizen of Brazil and the United States, Eric was born and raised in the Boston area and practiced immigration law in Boston before moving to São Paulo, Brazil in March 2008. As an immigration attorney, he represented noncitizens in family-based, employment-based, and deportation defense cases. In November 2006, he volunteered at the American Civil Liberties Union in Boston on a case involving lawful permanent residents who were improperly denied driver’s licenses by the Registry of Motor Vehicles. In early 2008, also as a volunteer, he conducted legal research for a Haitian detainee seeking relief under the U.N. Convention against Torture and country conditions research for a Brazilian transgendered individual seeking withholding of removal. Upon arriving in São Paulo, Eric began an internship at the human rights non-governmental organization, Conectas Direitos Humanos, researching the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as of domestic courts abroad. 
Rex Fernandez works for the national counsel of Karapatan, a human rights group, with chapters and partners throughout the country. Karapatan has been villified and demonized by the present government. Karapatan has been in the forefront in exposing and documenting extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. Rex is also a member of the Task Force Torture - a group of human rights persons active in the popularizing anti-torture campaigns.
