Very often, lawyers feel isolated - and overwhelmed by their responsibility of people’s fundamental freedom. Bringing them together helps build the movement for legal rights in their country and around the world. The global movement for legal rights will be given a kick-start over the coming weeks, as IBJ Asia and Africa Fellows gather for a 10-day Summit in Singapore, where IBJ has recently laid the foundations of the Justice Training Center.
From August 8th to August 14th, eight IBJ Country Fellows from Burundi, Cambodia, China, India, Rwanda and Zimbabwe will meet to discuss a path towards their ideal of justice, receive training in criminal defense and learn from each other’s experience. The Fellows will be invited to explore their personal stories, reflect upon their motivations for pursuing a legal career and imagine an ideal justice system in their country, beyond the discouraging circumstances they sometimes face. They will then receive motivational training in legal techniques, including case strategy development and trial advocacy. These sessions will equip the Fellows with the leadership qualities they need to organize the legal community in their countries and achieve their vision for justice. Experienced Singaporean defense attorneys will engage in discussions with the Fellows to share insights about their role in the criminal justice process and their ways to overcome challenges.
Above: Bonding moments between the Fellows and IBJ Staff last year at the Fellows Summit (Photo by Sanjeewa Liyanage)
The Country Fellows will be joined in their discussions by the eleven 2010 Asia JusticeMakers Fellows from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The JusticeMakers will give short presentations on their projects, including the challenges they face and their strategies for achieving their project objectives. The intensive, six day event will include cross-disciplinary training in areas including criminal defence skills, leadership, public speaking and negotiation skills, giving them the opportunity to strengthen the skills that will be vital to the success of their projects. Additionally, the JusticeMakers fellows will participate in sessions on fundraising, fostering motivation and harnessing volunteer resources, to arm them with the tools they need to achieve their long-term visions for criminal justice. The JusticeMakers will also be hosted by the International Relations Committee of the Law Society of Singapore, who will lead a discussion on ‘The Work of International Bridges to Justice in Developing Countries’ with the participation of Philip Jeyaretnam, one the 2010 Asia JusticeMakers Competition Judges.
Above: One of the 2010 JusticeMakers, Rasul Jafarov from Azerbaijan (center), holds a press conference to announce the start of his project which aims to educate prisoners on their right to counsel and early release.
August 12th will mark the official welcome of the 2010 Asia JusticeMakers into IBJ Fellows Community. For the occasion, the Singaporean legal, business and diplomatic community is invited to attend a gala which will be hosted the same evening.
On December 4, 2009, International Bridges to Justices’ China offices participated in the annual Rule of Law Promotion Day. The goal is to increase awareness of the legal rights provided to Chinese citizens. Since 2003, IBJ has partnered with the Peking University School of Law and the All-China Lawyers’ Association’s Constitutional and Human Rights Law Committee to launch extensive legal rights awareness campaigns on December 4th of each year.
This year, the legal education campaigns were aimed at informing the most vulnerable groups in society of their procedural rights in criminal cases, focused primarily on permanent rural residents, returning migrant workers, and their children. In partnership with local law firms and law students, staff from IBJ’s headquarters in Beijing facilitated a series of different events, which happened in 12 locations all over China.
Two days before December 4th, staff from IBJ’s Southeast Regional Defender Resource Center in Wuhan, in conjunction with Wuhan University law students and the Center for the Protection of the Rights of Disadvantaged Citizens, engaged with participants at an employment fair in Wuhan. Standing under the banner “All People Have Equal Opportunities”, the students and lawyers spoke with everyone who passed the tables. They addressed questions from workers on how to get employers to pay their salaries, discrimination in hiring and insurance for work-related injuries.
On December 4th, IBJ’s Wuhan staff engaged local players in the justice system in a discussion that featured a migrant rights lawyer and a disabilities rights lawyer. At this event, lawyers from private firms, professors, judges, police officers and students discussed the pertinent legal issues faced by migrant workers. Their discussion highlighted the powerlessness of migrant workers when companies refuse to the pay them, because these workers do not have official contracts. Additionally, when migrant workers sustain work related injuries, they are not covered by their company’s insurance. Even in the rare instance when migrant worker receives compensation in court, it is hard for judges to enforce the ruling.
On the same day, staff from the IBJ’s China National Defender Resource Center joined lawyers from Beijing Impact Law Firm, professors from Beida University and Central University of Finance and Economics organized a legal rights awareness event in Inner Mongolia. In the capital of Hohhot, they visited a juvenile detention facility and organized a discussion with local officials and legal aid lawyers on the legal issues faced by the children of migrants.
On December 5th, South East Defense Resource Center staff visited a local legal aid center in the countryside about two hours from their office in Wuhan with two law students. This local legal aid center, which has one lawyer and four legal aid workers, mediate disputes for the local people, include issues of divorce, property and personal injury claims. During their visits, the law students and SEDRC staff engaged in discussion with the staff and handed out IBJ’s brochures on legal rights, which generated a great deal of interest in groups of local migrant workers.
IBJ’s Northwest Regional Defender Resource Center in Xi’an also held several events in celebration of Rule of Law Promotion Day. On December 4, IBJ’s Xi’an office worked with law students from Northwest University of Politics and Law, Beijing Law School educated 200 workers about their rights through public consulting tables. Agricultural workers were primarily concerned with the issue of broken salary contracts - there was a case of a woman who claimed that her brother was owed 200,000 RMB by his company. Another common issue was work related injuries. At this event, IBJ was able to network with local law firms in order to talk about criminal cases.
Through the successful events of the December 4th Rule of Law Day, IBJ’s China offices continue to establish partnership with local universities and law firms in order to spread awareness about the legal rights all over China.
September 7, 2009 saw the founding of IBJ’s South Defender Resource Center of China (“SEDRC”) in Wuhan, south of China. The opening ceremony was held in the Law School of Wuhan University, which is one of the most famous law schools in China. The center - located at this law school - is dedicated to improve the level of legal aid, juvenile defendants’ rights protection, especially in the southern China.
Karan Tse, CEO of IBJ, envisions that the new center will expand IBJ’s influence in the whole of China, since we already have the China headquarters in Beijing and another center in the northwest city, Xi’an. Yongping Xiao, dean of the law school, also gave a speech, he cited that the founding of SEDRC and the cooperation between the center and the law school have three impacts:
It boosts the pursuit of social justice;
It creates a platform for resource sharing and serving the society;
Through the SEDRC, IBJ and the Law School of Wuhan University can deeply collaborate to push the progress of rule by law in China.
James Taylor, director of IBJ China, introduced IBJ’s programs in China, one by one, giving every attendant a clear image of IBJ. Then the director of the new resource center, Leslie Rosenberg, gave a short speech as well. She said that justice is in the process, it’s not only about the result. We are on this process of building bridges to fairness.
At this ceremony two new staff to IBJ were introduced. They are Xiaomin Zhou and Yawen Luo. Xiaomin has a PhD from Wuhan University. Yawen mentioned that, to her, IBJ means not only “International Bridges to Justice” but also “I Believe in Justice”. Other IBJ staff and interns included James Gronquist, Kimberly Ambrose, Jennifer Tsai, Xiaomin Zhang, Yujin Liu, Yun Zhang, Hao Zhao, Jigang Luo.
SEDRC is the result of two years of preparation and intends to systematically aid the development of the criminal justice system in southeast China. It will strive to increase criminal defense lawyers’ capacity to provide competent and effective defense to indigent accused persons and safeguard their lawful rights under the law. SEDRC is dedicated to promote access to counsel, ensure effective assistance of counsel, improve access to experts and investigatory services, foster a community of practice, increase rights awareness, and promote juvenile justice reform.
After the ceremony, IBJ held a roundtable, discussing juvenile rights protection, with approximate 20 legal aid lawyers, judges, prosecutors, law school professors and government officials attending. All of the participants expressed their experience, thoughts, and suggestions regarding juvenile rights protection in their own practice.
James Gronquist introduced IBJ’s juvenile justice programs in China. Hao Zhao, IBJ’s staff in Xi’an office introduced IBJ’s programs in the northwest China. Ao Li, who’s a clinical professor, suggested that clinical courses should aim at fostering future lawyers for China. A prosecutor of Wuhan named Elan Pan said the juvenile court should combine education, rehabilitation and reform together, and the prosecutors ought to investigate the juvenile offenders’ family, society and education background integrally and carefully enough during the pre-prosecute investigation. Chunsheng Li and Guohua Pan and some other legal aid lawyers introduced the most impressive cases they had represented ever.
In addition, a student representative who had taken clinical courses also spoke at the roundtable. He gave an introduction to his study and his experience during his clinical courses. Attendants refelcted that he showed that a seed of public interest has been planted. Participants cited that such roundtables help them to understand their work through other perspectives thus giving them a whole view of the juvenile legal aid in their area.
The following article was originally published in the December 2008 issue of the Montana Lawyer magazine:
In January of this year I had the good fortune to travel to Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of the Mansfield Center at The University of Montana to meet with Karen Tse, the CEO and founder of International Bridges to Justice (IBJ). Karen is a graduate of UCLA Law School and Harvard Divinity School, a former public defender, and the 2008 recipient of the ABA’s International Human Rights Award. We reached an agreement with IBJ to assist in developing criminal defense clinics in law schools in China. Clinical legal education is still new to China, and criminal defense clinics are even newer. Our current project has 8 participating Chinese law schools, and we will expand the project to 16 schools by the middle of next year. The project is being conducted in conjunction with the Chinese Committee on Clinical Legal Education, the umbrella organization for clinical education in China. Over the next few months, I will describe some of the problems and challenges to legal reform in China, and to the best of my ability give you my perspective on what it’s like for a practitioner from Montana to be participating in that reform.
Attorney Mu Hongying gave up a successful private practice in 2002 to dedicate herself fully to helping those who need her most: the poor and rural residents of her county. One of the few brave lawyers pioneering a model indigent defense practice for indigent defense, Attorney Mu is undaunted by the challenge of reforming a criminal justice system that — despite having a solid legal framework on paper — in practice grants defendants few rights.
During one of the interactive sessions, Attorney Mu inspired the assembled training participants with her recent zealous defense of a 15 year old boy. Impoverished, the boy’s family was unable send him to school. To pass the time, the boy began aimlessly playing games at internet cafés. One day, the boy had no money to play and impulsively took a cell phone belonging to another teenager in the café. Subsequently, he was caught running out of the café and detained for many months until trial. During his entire incarceration, his parents never once visited him, leaving the boy feeling depressed and hopeless.
Deeply committed, Attorney Mu visited the boy at the detention center many times. Through this, she learned much about the boy’s life, including how remorseful he was for his conduct. Thereafter, Attorney Mu met with the boy’s parents and persuaded them to talk with their son and provide better support. Because of Attorney Mu’s efforts, the parents began visiting the boy. Ultima-tely, Attorney Mu convinced the court that a non-jail sentence was a just outcome, since the boy now had proper parental support. Attorney Mu’s perse-verance is a prime example of why zealous defense work is so critical. Without her help, the boy likely would have received a long jail sentence.
This September, I took a leave from my job as an assistant state public defender in the Office of the Minnesota State Public Defender to volunteer with IBJ in China. A juvenile defense lawyer with over 24 years practice experience in the US, I was particularly interested in assisting IBJ’s Juvenile Justice Project, a program that aims to improve the quality of indigent defense for children in criminal proceedings, while also promot-ing improved implementation of laws designed to protect the rights of accused juveniles. Through a partnership with the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) in the United States, I learned about this exciting opportunity at IBJ. ISLP began as a small group of retired lawyers from private firms who wanted to find opportunities to use their legal skills as volunteers. The organization continues to grow and now has volunteers in various countries around the world. ISLP agreed to sponsor my trip and helped make the arrangements for me to live in Beijing and volunteer with IBJ over the next three months.
Over the past month, I have learned a great deal about the needs of China’s juvenile justice system. Although by law juveniles are entitled to legal aid, many go through the criminal process without ever seeing a lawyer. Those who do receive appointment of counsel frequently receive substandard legal representation. Often, defense lawyers are appointed to juvenile cases just a few days before trial, preventing them from visiting their clients, asserting their legal rights or presenting any meaningful defense at trial. As a result, the vast majority of juvenile suspects are detained for many months before trial; almost all are convicted and frequently receive jail sentences, even for petty crimes.
Many of the Chinese lawyers I have met are dedicated passionately to the reform of the juvenile justice system, yet lack the skills necessary to bring about meaningful change. I have learned of the need for China’s lawyers to gain practical trial skills and how great a need there is for the international community to help provide that training. China’s juvenile defenders are interested in working on skills such as how to interview juvenile clients, learning about adolescent development and achieving alternatives to incarceration for their juvenile clients. Over the next three months, I am working with IBJ and their Chinese partners to develop a comprehensive juvenile defense manual, a practical guide that will instruct lawyers on best practices for defending accused juveniles.
The Committee of 100 is a national non-partisan organization composed of American citizens of Chinese descent. Each member has achieved positions of leadership in the United States in a broad range of professions. With these diverse backgrounds, members collectively pool their strengths and experience to address important issues concerning the Chinese-American community, as well as issues affecting U.S.-China relations.
I have just returned from a week in China in my capacity as Deputy Director for International Bridges to Justice. IBJ has been working in China for the past five years training defenders and working with criminal justice policy makers to strengthen procedures for improved implementation of the criminal laws and procedures in China. I spent most of my time in Beijing with a side trip to Xian.
While in Beijing I observed a criminal law clinical class at Remnin University, discussing proposed new alternative dispute resolution regulations in The People’s Republic of China. The class was analyzing a case that their law professor was working on involving a stabbing between two men. The alternative dispute resolution option is available for misdemeanors - defined as cases involving potential incarceration for three years or less. A case would qualify as a misdemeanor based on the extent of the injury. Injuries of three centimeters or less qualify for misdemeanor status.
The students were role playing the perspective of the defense, the prosecution, and the court. The defense argued that the injury was on the left side of the face - and the defendant was right handed - not terribly persuasive. They wondered if the scar could be longer or shorter than the actual injury.
I formed the opinion that they were more concerned with form than substance. When I was invited to comment I wondered why they weren’t considering self-defense or defense of others instead of the seemingly implausible right hand left cheek defense. But rather more astonishing was the fact that this class was even taking place.
Alternative dispute resolution was being taught in a country that didn’t recognize the right to an attorney funded by the government until 12 years ago. In 1996 China revised its criminal procedure code to advance the western concepts of presumption of innocence, the right to an attorney for certain prescribed categories of cases and the prohibition against coerced confessions. China set up legal aid clinics across the country to begin to meet the demands of the new law. But these legal aid clinics didn’t have qualified lawyers in place to handle the job.
Establishing a legal framework modeled on western notions of jurisprudence and opening up legal aid offices across the country were significant accommodations. But the real challenge remains - incorporating this new legal framework into a working system. (See Jean speaking to the class by clicking the Youtube clip below.)
I am quite a few years removed from my law student days. As I observed this class I felt the students were missing the point as they mechanically attempted to adhere to technicalities in the law. On the other hand, having practiced for several decades, maybe I just developed the knack of actually practicing law. Perhaps most students attend to their legal education as literally as these Chinese students did, missing the forest for the trees.
When I graduated from law school my real education began. As a public defender I learned how to practice law in the courthouse surrounded by able advocates. But unlike me, when these Chinese students graduate from law school, they will enter into the practice of law with few role models to help them advance in their development. The tradition of an adversarial system in which the defense confronts the state on behalf of a client is unprecedented.
There is much work to be done only about 10% of the criminally accused receive appointed counsel. In the few cases where a lawyer is appointed the law does not permit the appointment of a defense counsel until 10 days before the trial. With no preparation time, appointed counsel can do little more than rubber stamp the prosecutor’s case. Interviewing a client and then investigating the case are luxuries most Chinese lawyers rarely indulge in. Even assuming that an attorney actually did endeavor to present a defense, she lacks rudimentary skills such as conducting an examination of a witness, or developing a theory of a case.
Building a viable defender community will take time. Establishing clinical programs where students can learn practical skills is a start. IBJ will begin with three law schools developing a framework for clinical education that will include 15 universities by the end of the third year.
The enthusiasm for clinical programs within the law schools is palpable. The students are bright, hard working, and extremely disciplined. This generation of young people inhabit a different China than their parents. They have had much more latitude to express themselves, worship freely, and travel outside of the country. They are extremely idealistic and want to improve their country. They recognize, if only abstractly, that the legal system can protect the rights of the impoverished, criminally accused.
Despite the fact that none of these students planned to practice criminal law they were eloquent ambassadors for their country and developing legal system. Several students made speeches - in surprisingly good English - that sounded like they might actually change their mind and switch to criminal law. After the class I received several emails from the students articulating a desire to work with IBJ to strengthen the criminal justice environment in the country.
The idealism of the IBJ Chinese staff was also inspiring. These young professionals have given up more lucrative career opportunities to join with IBJ in its daunting ambition to train the first generation of legal defenders within China.
One young lawyer lives in a boarding house in a singe room with no kitchen and a common bath. Her parents live far away and she can only travel home during the New Year’s celebration. Another young woman shares an apartment with five other women and sends all her discretionary income home to support her parents. Their only professional disappointment is they can’t do enough, fast enough.
They are correct.
The situation might seem hopeless. But somehow, observing this class and the enthusiasm of these young law students gave me a distinct sense of optimism. If the patriotic zeal of these young students is successfully harnessed into a robust adversarial legal system there is no stopping them. China is a “can-do” country. The people are hard-working and proud of their countries’ recent accomplishments and ancient historic civilization.
I saw evidence of this great civilization on my few tourist outings, first to the Great Wall of China, and then in viewing the magnificent Terracotta Warriors of Xian. The foundation of a legal system that provides significant legal protections from abuse has been staked out. With the help of IBJ and others, China’s lawyers have the potential to realize a legal system that respects the fundamental human rights of all its citizens.
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