transitional justice

March 2008 Featured Resource Practitioners - Biographical Information

npearson — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:34:13 -0500

Truth and Reconciliation Processes: Aiding community healing through addressing impunity - March 26 – April 1

New Tactics in Human Rights’ featured online discussion for March will focus on ways in which Truth and Reconciliation processes have and are being implemented to aid community healing. This is an opportunity to connect, discuss and share with New Tactics’ resource people who have served in a variety of roles related to TRC processes. Join us staring March 26 to share your own experiences, insights and questions.

Our featured resource practitions include: (See below for more biographical information on each each practitioner)

Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation process team (Greensboro, North Carolina, USA)

Liberian TRC Diaspora Project team (based at The Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Peru TRC
- Sofia Macher, Former Commissioner, Peru TRC

Sierra Leone
- Neneh Barry, Sierra Leone, TRC witness and accompaniment provider for victims testifying for both the Tribunal and the TRC process

South Africa TRC
- Glenda Wildschut, Former Commissioner, SouthAfrica TRC
- Paul Haupt, Clinical Psychologist, briefer for the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee of the South AfricaTRC

Timor-Leste TRC (CAVR)
- Jose Caetano Guterres, former Truth Commission (CAVR) Senior Staff
- Galuh Wandita, involved with the creation and implementation of the CAVR; and current head of the ICTJ Indonesia and East Timor program.
- Patrick Burgess, former principal legal counsel to the CAVR; former director of the human rights section of UNTAET and UNMISET; and current Asia Director for ICTJ

Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation process team (Greensboro, North Carolina, USA) [PHOTO: The GTCRP organized a 25^th anniversary march in 2004 commemorating the events of November 3^rd, 1979. Over a thousand people marched from the site of the murders in Morningside Homes to the Downtown Greensboro Governmental Plaza.]

GTCRP Team The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Process is a broad community-based initiative that seeks to help Greensboro create a brighter future by earnestly engaging its past, particularly related to the Klan/Nazi killings of November 3^rd, 1979. It is the first attempt in the United States to use the Truth & Reconciliation model to initiate a process whereby a community can resolve painful and divisive aspects of its history in a spirit of truth-seeking, forgiveness, and transformation. This movement has been carried by several groups, but primarily the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project (GTCRP) and the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission (GTRC).

Initiated by the Beloved Community Center and the Greensboro Justice Fund, the Project is shaped and guided by the Local Task Force, a diverse coalition of Greensboro community leaders, and advised by the National Advisory Committee, a distinguished group of individuals from around the nation who provide insight and council to the Project. The Project beginning in 2002 designed, in cooperation with the International Center for Transitional Justice, a democratic selection process which in turn gave birth to the Commission. After two years of public hearings, interviews, and research, the seven commissioners produced a lengthy examination of the context, causes, sequence and consequence of the events of November 3, 1979. The findings of the Commission has served to fuel an extensive community discussion that is currently constructively engaging the confusion, division, and bitter feelings related to the events of November 3, 1979, and hopefully lead to greater understanding, reconciliation, justice, and trust in Greensboro.

Liberian TRC Diaspora Project team, based at The Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [PHOTOS: All taken during statement taking trips to Buduburam Refugee Settlement in Ghana]

Jennifer Prestholdt 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.

Ahmed K. Sirleaf II is a Program Associate focused on coordinating community outreach for the Liberian Truth & Reconciliatoin Project. A human rights advocate and scholar, Ahmed has a special interest in efforts to implement transitional justice initiatives in societies that have experienced severe violence. He holds an M.A. in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes from the University for Peace (United Nations mandated), San Jose, Costa Rica, and a B.A. in Legal Studies from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has studied at the International Center for Transitional Justice with its New York University’s School of Law ’s joint transitional justice Essentials Course training in New York.

Ahmed has served as guest lecturer and co-taught courses in Transitional Justice, International Human Rights and the international practice of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis and Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He has served as panelist, and presented scholarly papers on ADR and Transitional Justice before bodies and institutions such as the Minnesota State Bar Association’s ADR Section and the International Law Students’ Association’s 2006 Fall Conference at Hamline University School of Law.

Laura A. Young is the Wellstone Legal Fellow at The Advocates for Human Rights. Laura received her B.A. from the University of Virginia. She received her J.D. magna cum laude in 2005 from the University of Minnesota Law School and received her Master of Public Health from Emory University in 1999. Laura has worked on criminal law and human rights issues throughout her professional career, specifically violence against women and the death penalty.

She was a domestic violence educator and volunteer trainer at the Women’s Center of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, was employed by the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Project, which provides legal representation to Mexican nationals facing capital punishment in the U.S, and most recently was a judicial clerk for the Hon. Wilhelmina M. Wright of the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Peru TRC

Sofia Macher is a former Commissioner for Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She has been involved in the human rights movement for nearly three decades, including tenures as the first female head of the Peruvian branch of Amnesty International, three consecutive terms with the Executive International Committee of Amnesty International, and a position on the Executive Secretariat of the Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Organizing Committee of Human Rights, a coalition of sixty-five NGO’s dedicated to human rights) when she represented civil society in the negotiations that led to the OEA, the agreement and crucial organism that paved the way for Peru’s democratic transition. Currently, she continues her human rights work as a member of the professional team of the Instituto de Defensa Legal, (Institute for Legal Defense, IDL).

Sofia is the recipient of the 2004 Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America and the 2007 Human Rights Award from the Advocates for Human Rights.

Sierra Leone

Neneh Binta Barrie was born and raised in Sierra Leone. Due to the war (1991 – 2002) she was forced to flee to neighboring Guinea as a refugee and lived in the refugee camps for six years. Whilst in the camps, she was hired by the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) as a psychosocial worker where she was trained on the job to provide mental health support for refugees who were subjected to various forms of human rights violations. Neneh personally testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and during the period when she was working for CVT worked with other witnesses testifying for the TRC.

Neneh rose to the position of Senior Counselor and Training Supervisor, CVT-West Africa. Subsequently, she was hired by The Special Court for Sierra Leone as a Senior Psychosocial Counselor, Witness and Victim Section, to conduct psychosocial assessments of victims of human rights violations who testified before the international war crimes tribunal; identify witnesses who required supplemental psychosocial support and counseling before, during, or after their testimony; as the senior representative of the psychosocial team, regularly attended trial sessions in which vulnerable witnesses were testifying; as well as a wide variety of other roles including advising the Psychologist and other team members about cultural issues and local customs. Neneh is presently a student majoring in psychology with a minor in peace studies at the Fairleigh Dickinson University Metropolitan Campus, Teaneck New Jersey USA.

South Africa TRC

Glenda Wildschut was appointed in 1995 by President Nelson Mandela to serve as a commissioner on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission under the chairmanship of Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, she served on the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee. Until recently, she served as the Director of the Desmond Tutu Leadership Academy. Currently, she is an independent leadership consultant and facilitator, providing an extensive executive coaching programme and works to assist leaders, particularly women in leadership positions, to be more effective in their roles.

Glenda has been involved in human rights advocacy since the early 1980s, working particularly with political prisoners in South Africa and Namibia, their families, exiles and orphaned returnee children. In 1998 she worked at the World Health Organization (WHO) at the Headquarters in Geneva examining the role of health workers in transitional societies. On behalf of the African National Congress (ANC), she co-chaired the placement board that facilitated the integration of all military health personnel into the national defense force (SANDF) and was involved in numerous structures to facilitate the transition to democracy in South Africa including the Transitional Executive Council (TEC). Her special interests are violence, trauma and torture rehabilitation, women and children in armed conflict, health workers and their contribution to post war reconstruction and impunity, truth and reconciliation. Glenda is a registered nurse, midwife, psychiatric nurse (specialising in child and adolescent psychiatry), community nurse practitioner and nurse educator. She is also a mother, sister, daughter and aunt, with interests in the arts, particularly choral music, and she trained as a classical singer. She is a member of the Cape Town Symphony Choir.

Paul Haupt is a Clinical Psychologist. He worked as a briefer for the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, providing emotional support for victims appearing in public hearings (including hearings on human rights violations and amnesty). He has extensive experience in the workings of the commission and has been engaged in the debates surrounding its work and South Africa’s political transition in general.

Paul is a therapist and an independent consultant focusing on organizational and individual transformation and development. Paul is a visiting lecturer at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business where he is the academic director of an Advance Leadership Programme. Previously, Paul was director of perpetrator studies at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town. In this capacity, he conducted more than 80 in-depth interviews among South Africa’s former antagonists from across the political divides. This work aimed to deepen understanding of the motives and perspectives of South Africans engaged in armed political conflict. The findings of this research were published in a book entitled Theater of Violence: Narratives of Protagonists in the South African Conflict (2005) HSRC, the book is available on the HSRC press website at www.hsrcpress.ac.za.

Timor-Leste TRC (CAVR)

Jose Caetano Guterres is a former Truth Commission (CAVR) Senior Staff and currently the Coordinator of ETCRN (East Timor Crisis Reflection Network). He was born in Betulari (a sub village) under the foot of Matebian Mountain in the Eastern part of Timor Leste. He was a member of East Timor Students Solidarity Council for resistance in Timor Leste from 1998 – 1999. Jose was a founding member of SATILOS foundation and became General Secretary of the foundation from 1999 – 2002. In addition, he acted as Board Member of Timor Leste's NGO Forum from 2001 – 2002.

Jose joined the small interim office to prepare the establishment of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) in Timor Leste in 2001. In February 2002 when the Commission was officially formed, he became the Coordinator of the Program Support Division, which was responsible for institutional development, community outreach, media liaison and public information. From May 2004, at the end of Commission, Jose became Coordinator of Archives Team which was responsible for the preservation of CAVR archives. When the Commission was dissolved in December 2005 he continued with the Technical Secretariat Post CAVR (STP-CAVR). From 2005 to March 2008, Jose served STP-CAVR as Manager of the Documentation Center. In addition, in 2006 he founded and became Coordinator of the Coordinating Committee Member of the East Timor Crisis Reflection Network (ETCRN). He has been participating in many international conferences on archives, justice reconciliation and community developments in Italy, Germany, Australia and Cambodia.

Galuh Wandita has worked over the last decade with several local human rights organizations in East Timor and Indonesia. In 2000, she worked as a human rights officer for the United Nations in East Timor, and in 2002 was appointed as the Deputy Director/ Program Manager of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR). After 2003, she continued as Program Manager, and later on joined the Editorial Team for the writing of the Commission’s Final Report.

Before moving to East Timor in 1999, Galuh worked for 10 years with Oxfam, focusing on support for local NGOs working in conflict areas in Eastern Indonesia (Nusa Tenggara Timur, East Timor (then part of Indonesia), Papua, and Kalimantan), with a focus on gender approach to development. In 1999, she worked with East Timorese human rights NGOs, during the crisis around the ballot, monitoring the human rights situation, providing support for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and women victims of violence. Galuh joined the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in 2006 as the head of the Indonesia and East Timor program. In this capacity she has worked with civil society and other stakeholders involved in combating impunity and protecting victims' rights in the two countries. She obtained a BA in Anthropology from Swarthmore College, and completed a Masters in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University.

Patrick Burgess is currently the Asia Director for International Center on Transitional Justice (ICTJ) located in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is an Australian barrister specializing in international human rights and criminal law.

Patrick spent six years continuously working in East Timor between 1999 and 2005. During this time he held the positions of Director of Human Rights for the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNISET), and was Principal Legal Counsel for the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR.)

Patrick has worked in other post-conflict situations in Rwanda, DRC, Yemen, Burundi and Indonesia.

Uncovering the Evidence

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:19 -0500

Uncovering the Evidence

by Luis Fondebrider

Download full notebook in English and a brief summary in Armenian and Russian below.

Forensic science has been a powerful tool in the scientific documentation of human rights violations around the world, and especially in Latin America. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team has been in the forefront of efforts to train human rights NGOs to use forensic tools to advance their investigations, to provide more support for victims and to strengthen the credibility of their work against impunity. EAAF uses independent investigations to mobilize and persuade both local and international audiences. The information obtained can also provide useful evidence for future prosecutions. This notebook addresses how human rights organizations can make optimal use of forensic science to advance their work for justice and against impunity.

Over the last fifteen years, the scientific investigation and documentation of human rights violations has become a valuable tool in the search for truth and justice in societies emerging from periods of political, ethnic and religious violence. Forensic expertise has served human rights investigations led by official justice systems of states, historical truth-seeking processes, international tribunals and commissions and human rights NGOs. A forensic scientist can answer some questions with a certain degree of precision:

Was the person tortured?
What was the cause of death?
Was the death accidental or intentional?
Can the unearthed bodies be positively identified?

Such answers offer victims’ families and the judicial process convincing proof of what happened. In an objective, concrete way, scientific analysis complements the testimony of a witness, a photograph or a document related to an incident. This kind of scientific evidence may prove to be fundamental for a ruling on whether an accused person is innocent or guilty. In cases of rape, for example, it can be crucial to discover traces of semen that can be compared with the genetic pattern of the accused person. In recent years, the application of the forensic sciences has had a significant impact in countries where abuses were committed by the government or agencies connected to it, be it for political or other reasons. Official versions of events, often false, can be contrasted with physical evidence and their analysis. This allows a tribunal to establish, for example, that a group of people was executed, and in fact did not die in an armed encounter. In this tactical notebook we show how families of victims, their communities and the organizations that they form–human rights NGOs–can use the forensic sciences in their struggle for truth and justice and prevent the impunity that those responsible for human rights abuses often enjoy.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Public Audiences

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:11 -0500

Public Audiences: Creating Space to Recognize Victims of Internal Conflict in Peru

By Sofia Macher, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Peru

Download full notebook below.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Peru is one of the most recent experiences of processes of transitional justice, institutionalized with the aim of exploring the truth hidden behind a past characterized by massive abuse of human rights. One of the central activities in this process is the Public Audiences, created with the aim of legitimizing and dignifying the personal experiences of the victims in order to support the therapeutic and recuperative work on their behalf.

The TRC was created by the President of the transitional government in June of 2001. It was made up of 12 commission members, all Peruvians, and duration of two years. It did not count on jurisdictional powers: its mandate was to document the grave violations of human rights committed during the twenty years (1980-2000) of the internal armed conflict. However, the Public Audiences were formal sessions in which a victim or family member of a victim would give an account of what had happened before a group of people that had the ethical authority stemming from the State to listen and express their solidarity and acknowledgement. Unlike other Truth Commissions, the purpose of these sessions was not for investigation, but instead an audience for the restitution of rights, of citizenship, and of dignity for the victim, an audience to listen in respectful silence, lending ears to and giving voice to those who had never before been given such things. All these people were assaulted by the State that had the obligation to protect them, and were later rejected by society. Many of them were displaced to other areas, condemned to fear, to silence that broke with the social support of their own communities. The Public Audiences are, so to speak, a step towards the restitution of this so necessary support. But the audiences also had an effect on society itself. Knowing a personal history, one that is parallel to the official history -- that until that moment everyone had believed and known -- had a much greater impact than the Commission’s final report could have ever had. Having heard hundreds of testimonies from different areas of the country, it put on the table the horror to which no Peruvian could feel unconnected.

This notebook shares the way in which the TRC in Peru implemented its Public Audiences in order to dignify the victims, contributing to the general recuperation of society. Certainly there are similarities with other processes and experiences (South Africa or Nigeria, for example), but there are also new aspects that are important since a new format was created that permitted Peru to begin a process of laying the foundations to generate change in the interior of the State, and also in society itself. The lessons of this experience can be useful for any focused process, more so in reconstructing the psychosocial fabric of the people and the victimized society, than in blaming the perpetrators. It is also helpful here to emphasize the effort of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) to support these learning processes.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Powerful Persuasion

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:10 -0500

Powerful Persuasion

By Emile Short

Download full notebook below.
See Phillipe Duhamel's creative take on this resource at interTactica!

In this notebook, we learn about some of the most difficult human rights violations to eradicate–customary or traditional practices based on deep-seated beliefs, particularly those with a spiritual dimension. One such practice is the Trokosi, in Ghana, a system of servitude that meets the community need for justice and the material and sexual needs of fetish priests. Women and young girls are brought and kept in fetish shrines to atone for sins or crimes allegedly committed by one of their relatives. The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) recognized that legislation outlawing such practices may not be effective and may, in some cases, result in driving a customary practice further underground. Respected leaders–at local and national levels–engaged in direct dialogue with perpetrators, victims, other community leaders, and the community at large to facilitate understanding of the practice, while providing alternatives and avenues for abandoning the practice without losing status. There are many ways in which respected leaders can be enlisted to help community members understand the dynamics of customary or traditional practices, and to address the underlying complexities of such practices in order to transform or change those that violate basic human rights.

Some of the most difficult human rights violations to address are customary or traditional practices based on deep-seated beliefs of a community or people, particularly practices that have a spiritual dimension. In the Trokosi system in Ghana, women and virgin girls are taken without their consent to fetish shrines to atone for sins or alleged crimes committed by family members. They are forced to serve the shrine priests through manual labor, including farming and cooking, and are sexually exploited as well. The practice occurs mainly in remote areas of the Volta Region of Ghana, which is dominated by an ethnic group called the Ewes. Through a coalition effort involving the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ, a constitutional and statutory body), International Needs Ghana (ING, an NGO), the National Commission on Civic Education (another constitutional body), and the traditional leaders from the Ewe communities, we have succeeded in liberating thousands of young women and girls held in this bondage.

Our tactic is to mobilize the support of respected community leaders, such as chiefs, queen mothers, and local governmental officials, using them as resources in seminars and durbars2 on the human rights implications of the practice and recommending voluntary liberation of the victims. After these meetings, we enter direct negotiations with the shrine priests and elders, persuading them to voluntarily end the Trokosi practice. Because they speak the same language and hail from the same communities as the practitioners, the community leaders have played a crucial role in changing the mind-set, beliefs, and behavior of those involved in the human rights abuse. This approach is useful when dealing with cultural or traditional practices based on deeply entrenched beliefs, especially when the practice has a spiritual dimension and practitioners are reluctant to abolish it for fear of incurring the wrath of the gods. Experience combating female genital mutilation taught us that legislation prohibiting traditional and customary practices is ineffective if not preceded by intense public education programs.

In addition, human rights groups must engage in dialogue with practitioners, working to change their mindset and persuade them to voluntarily give up the abusive practice. It can be difficult, however, for human rights groups to achieve such engagement if they are perceived as "outsiders" by the traditional communities. Well-intentioned human rights efforts can easily be construed as an attack on people’s fundamental cultural and religious beliefs. Experience suggests that you cannot change deep-seated beliefs and practices by attacking them, nor can the law be enforced if there is no public cooperation. A different path must be found. We set out to convince practitioners and other stakeholders of the necessity of changing the Trokosi practice. We wanted the communities to see the practice for what it was: an abuse of human rights and an attack on the dignity and humanity of women in their own communities. We also wanted them to recognize that traditions are flexible and can be transformed over time, and that this practice could be changed without offending the gods. Unless we could achieve such an attitudinal change, legislation and enforcement could result in the practice being driven underground, and women and girls continuing to be trapped in this system of bondage.

ING provided support and oversight of the effort, setting up initial meetings with the Trokosi priests, shrine elders, and community chiefs, and arranging the seminars and durbars. I represented the CHRAJ, while the third key participant was Mama Adokua Asigble IV, Queen Mother from the Tefle traditional area and member of the National Commission on Civic Education. This process has taken more than a decade, and has involved a complex series of integrated steps: human rights advocacy and education in the various communities; negotiations with shrine priests and elders; and, for the freed Trokosi women, vocational skills training programs, emancipation ceremonies, and counseling and rehabilitation support. In this notebook we focus on the crucial method of engaging with respected community leaders to gain access, conduct educational programs, negotiate with the shrines, and carry out the emancipation process. According to the estimates of our NGO partner, 3,000 Trokosi women and children have so far been liberated through these efforts. In 1998 we also secured the passage of the "Prohibition of customary servitude" law; this has helped give momentum to the process, despite the fact that no prosecutions have yet taken place under this law.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Making the State Pay

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:08 -0500

Making the State Pay

By Camelia Doru

Download the full notebook below.

In this notebook, we read about the efforts of the ICAR Foundation to mobilize public resources for a socially marginalized group – victims of torture. The Foundation recognized that many citizens had suffered torture during the communist regime, and created an organization to provide treatment and care to the thousands of torture survivors. While there was international support, the Foundation knew that provision of this care was actually the responsibility of the state itself. The notebook outlines ICAR’s effort to pressure the Romanian government to pay for rehabilitation of torture survivors even though it was not willing to officially assume responsibility for past abuses. In effect, ICAR forced the state to begin to fulfill its moral and legal responsibilities as laid out in international and national laws. ICAR’s story provides ideas about how to pressure a state to carry out its obligations to a socially marginalized group and compel it to take a step toward justice.

In October 1991 the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) invited me to Budapest to take part in the first inter-national symposium in Eastern Europe on "Doctors, Ethics and Torture." During this symposium I met people from all over the world, people engaged in providing medical rehabilitation to victims of torture under many different circumstances and often in politically adverse conditions. This experience, along with the support I received from IRCT colleagues, encouraged me to create a non-governmental organization in Romania to address the terrible problem of torture. I knew there would be po-litical resistance, but I also saw that I could count on professional international training, management and financial support. The ICAR Foundation was registered in April 1992. Its name commemorates the Greek mythological figure Icarus, who needed help after successfully escaping from long imprisonment and finding that his wings did not survive the heat of the sun. Our logo contains the wings as a symbolic representation of the Icarus.

We began to search for resources that would allow us to provide services for the thousands of torture survivors in Romania.Throughout the subsequent decade of work, we have found our international colleagues and donors to be crucial. The treatment and care of torture survivors, however, should not depend on the interna-tional community. We believe that this work is the moral and political responsibility of the state itself. What I will describe in this notebook is our long-term strategy to pressure and persuade Romanian local and central governments to start accepting this responsibility.

We opened our first center in 1993 with only three doctors, two supporting staff, and a budget of US$20,000. We saw 85 clients, and our private and international supporters covered all expenses. In 1994 and 1995 our attempts to mobilize public resources began to succeed as we convinced local government officials to provide premises for our operations; we now estimate the value of this local government contribution at over US$100,000 per year. More recently we also obtained government support in prescribing free medicines for our clients – a public contribution worth over US$150,000 per year. By 2002, the ICAR Foundation had grown to three centers with a staff of more than 50. We provide services for 2,000 clients and receive annual international contributions of US$300,000.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

I'll Walk Beside You

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:04 -0500

I’ll Walk Beside You

by Glenda Wildschut and Paul Haupt

Download full notebook below.

In this notebook Glenda Wildschut and Paul Haupt outline the victim accompaniment process for the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that developed the concept of "briefers" to install a victim-friendly process. Victims were provided with the opportunity to testify and be supported before, during and after the process. The TRC selected briefers–chosen from the caring professions, such as ministers, social workers and nurses–from the community to provide this support. The briefers acted as volunteers and were trained to perform various tasks with regard to the entire structural process of the TRC. As a consequence of the sustained, supportive work of the briefers during the entire process, victims better understood their legal, emotional and practical position.

Thus, they felt they owned the process and were able to contribute in an important way by making recommendations about reparations. Briefers could be utilized in many settings–e.g. those involving domestic violence or rape, and tribunals court systems–where vulnerable victims need mediation and support to overcome traumatic experiences and especially in processes that involve perpetrators as well.

Between 1995 and 1998, 21,529 people gave statements to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).1 The thousands of hours of hearings were broadcast publicly and became the most watched programming in South African television history. Testifiers recounted the horrors of 34 years of apartheid and repression, bringing to light the contours of a national trauma, and the details of thousands of individuals’ suffering. Testifying publicly about one’s own personal trauma is itself a terribly difficult experience. The TRC committed itself to creating a process that was friendly and accommodating for victims. Part of this process was a program of "briefing" for people coming forth to testify. Thousands of people were accompanied before, during and after their testimony by volunteers trained in psychosocial support as well as in the legal and practical realities of the hearing process. The goal was to provide the necessary support to make the experience of testifying an empowering one that would help in the victim’s longer-term healing process, rather than contribute to renewed suffering.

The briefing process had positive effects on three different levels. On the individual level, it helped the testifiers overcome their apprehensions, avoid secondary trauma, process their painful past and move on with their lives. On a community level, it helped train community members to assist in the psychosocial healing process of the testifiers, while also bringing whole communities together to process and heal from their mutually shared past experiences. And finally, on a national level, the briefing helped the Truth Commission achieve its goal of creating a victim-friendly process that would promote national healing for a traumatised nation. On each of these levels, there are lessons to be learned that may be applicable in other contexts.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Human Rights Advocacy Utilizing Religious Perspectives and Opinion Leaders

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:03 -0500

by Mashadi Said

Download full notebook below.

The National Working Group for Human Rights Dissemination and Promotion (NWG) in Indonesia developed a human rights education curriculum for all age levels in both public and private schools. In order to create support for such a human rights curriculum that also encompassed religious educational institutions, an effective tactic was to engage key and respected leaders–community and religious leaders as well as teachers–in the development and training of the human rights curriculum.

By taking the time and effort to engage opinion and religious leaders in the process, the NWG was able to develop their critical support and integrate their needs and concerns in order to overcome barriers and challenges to human rights education. To date, 400 opinion leaders including community and religious leaders and teachers as well as 1,000 civics teachers in both government and private schools have been trained by the Department of Education in using the curricula. There have also been 31 provincial committees on human rights that have been set up to provide training and on-going support to the trainers. Guidelines and reference materials have been developed and are soon to be published. These materials address human rights values as in the Indonesian cultural and religious context and designed with the consultation and assistance in order to overcome the perception that human rights values are Western concepts that impinge upon Indonesian cultural and religious values. Instead, the process has lead to a mutual recognition of basic human values.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Familiar Tools, Emerging Issues

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:02 -0500

Familiar Tools, Emerging Issues

by Jennifer Prestholdt

Download full notebook below.

Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights uses traditional human rights monitoring methods to document human rights abuses, but in this notebook we will learn how the group has also made a practice of adapting this methodology to emerging human rights issues. Minnesota Advocates has identified and developed practical and sustainable strategies for adapting human rights monitoring methods to address domestic violence (in Eastern Europe and the U.S.), child survival (in Mexico, Uganda and the U.S.) and transitional justice (in Peru).

With the help of hundreds of volunteers, Minnesota Advocates has monitored human rights conditions and produced more than 50 reports documenting human rights practices in more than 25 countries. Minnesota Advocates uses traditional human rights monitoring methods to document human rights abuses, but has made a practice of adapting the methodology to address cutting-edge human rights issues. The findings on violence against women in Mexico, Nepal, Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have been published in reports that include an analysis of each country’s legislation related to women’s rights and the local law enforcement system, as well as recommendations on how to bring laws and practice into conformity with international human rights obligations.

We have recently adapted the methodology used overseas to help us investigate and document the difficulties that refugee and immigrant women in our own community face in obtaining services and protection from domestic violence. Minnesota Advocates also used traditional human rights monitoring methods to document excessive and preventable child mortality as a human rights violation in three countries, each representing different levels of development: the United States, Mexico and Uganda. We then published a report, Global Child Survival: A Human Rights Priority, using these case studies to illustrate that certain groups of children, minority children for example, suffer systematic violations of their rights. Underlying economic and social factors linked to child survival must be addressed in order to effectively combat high rates of preventable child deaths.

Most recently, we have adapted our methodology to monitor transitional justice mechanisms and processes. Countries such as Peru and Sierra Leone are in the process of transitioning from violence and repression to peace, justice and reconciliation; the growing momentum for transitional justice marks a new era in human rights work. More and more frequently, that shift involves confronting past human rights abuses and making institutional reforms in order to protect human rights. Human rights monitoring is one way to help ensure that transitional justice processes move forward.

Using this tactic of monitoring and reporting, we feel that we have been able to make some significant longterm improvements in human rights. This notebook will discuss how Minnesota Advocates identifies and develops practical and sustainable strategies for adapting human rights monitoring methods to emerging human rights issues. By documenting the tactic in this notebook, we hope to spark some creative applications of common human rights monitoring methods in order to improve human rights in different contexts.

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