<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html><head><title>International Senior Lawyers Project</title></head> <body alink="#000000" link="#000000" vlink="#000000"><center> <table width="700"><tbody><tr><td><a href="index.html"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 734px; height: 57px;" alt="" src="islplogo3.jpg"></a><br> <img src="banner-3.jpg" name="slide" border="0" height="163" width="734"><br> <table><tbody><tr><td><font face="Arial" size="1">Volunteer Doug Kramer in Russia </font></td><td width="100"></td><td><font face="Arial" size="1">Volunteer Steve Spronz in South Africa </font></td><td width="37"></td><td><font face="Arial" size="1">Volunteers Mo &amp; Mickey Winograd in South Africa</font></td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table><table> </table><table width="740"><tbody><tr><td><a href="aboutus.html"><img src="aboutus.jpg" border="0"></a> <a href="programs.html"><img src="programs.jpg" border="0"></a> <a href="partners.html"><img src="partners.jpg" border="0"></a> <a href="volunteer.html"><img src="volunteer.jpg" border="0"></a> <a href="news.html"><img src="news.jpg" border="0"></a> <a href="contactus.html"><img src="contactus.jpg" border="0"></a> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table bgcolor="#bbbaba" width="740"><tbody><tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="French%20Web%20Page-%20A%20Propos%20de%20Nous.html"><img style="border: 0px solid ; height: 19px; width: 147px;" alt="" src="French%20Link%20Button.jpg"></a><br><font face="Arial" size="2"><b><br></b></font><div style="text-align: center;"><font face="Arial" size="2"><b>Current Newsletter</b></font><br></div><a href="newsletters/2008/Summer%202008%20Final%20Draft-Smaller.pdf"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 146px; height: 188px;" alt="" src="current-newsletter2.jpg"></a><p> <a href="raq.html"><img src="request-button.jpg" border="0"></a></p><p> <a href="donate.html"><img src="donate-button.jpg" border="0"></a></p><p> <a href="funders.html"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 147px; height: 19px;" alt="" src="funders.jpg"></a></p><p> <a href="programs.html"><img src="program-button.jpg" border="0"></a><br> <a href="file:///M:/My%20Documents/Jesse/Website/ISLP%20Web/humanrights.html"><img src="HR-button.jpg" border="0"></a><br> <a href="economic.html"><img src="EC-button.jpg" border="0"></a><br> <a href="justice.html"><img src="AJ-button.jpg" border="0"></a></p><p style="height: 105px;"> <a href="geography.html"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 147px; height: 19px;" alt="" src="Where%20We%20Work%20Button.jpg"></a><br> <a href="REE.html"><img src="RE-button.jpg" border="0"></a><br> <a href="SubSaharanAfrica.html"><img src="SA-button.jpg" border="0"></a><br> <a href="india.html"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 147px; height: 19px;" alt="" src="Asia-button.jpg"></a><a href="Latin%20America.html"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 147px; height: 19px;" alt="" src="Latin%20America.jpg"></a></p><p><a href="2006%20project%20report%203%5B1%5D.12.07.pdf"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 147px; height: 18px;" alt="" src="2006project.jpg"></a></p><p><a href="Web%20Issue%202007%20Project%20Report.pdf"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 147px; height: 18px;" alt="" src="2007project.jpg"></a></p><p></p><p></p></td><td align="left" valign="top" width="550"><br> <p class="MsoBodyText"><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">Human Rights and Social Welfare</span></b><i style=""><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">ISLP projects that advance the cause of human rights and social welfare in developing countries and emerging democracies range from deploying experienced lawyers to work on site with foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to assisting foreign NGOs with organizing and operating U.S.-based affiliates. Below are several recent examples of ISLP projects in this critical area:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Liberian Women's Advocacy</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">: ISLP partner Global Rights requested an on-site volunteer to work in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Liberia</st1:country-region></st1:place> with the women's advocacy organization ZODWOCA on an awareness-raising project related to the country's new rape law.<span style="">&nbsp; </span>ISLP Volunteer Doug Mooney, a Seattle-based lawyer, went to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Liberia</st1:country-region></st1:place> in March, 2007 to help ZODWOCA plan and develop this project.<span style="">&nbsp; </span>Targeting citizens in rural communities, the project is intended to both raise public awareness and provide training for police and peer-counselors on the protections afforded victims under the country's newly enacted rape law. A longer description of this project may be found in our most recent Newsletter on "About Us" page.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Charles Taylor Trial:</span></b> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">The Open Society Justice Initiative requested ISLP's assistance in monitoring the trial of former Liberian president Charles Ghankay Taylor in <st1:city w:st="on">The Hague</st1:city> and providing timely information about the proceedings to constituencies in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Liberia</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Sierra Leone</st1:country-region></st1:place>, as well as to journalists and professionals. When the trial began on June 4th,<span style="">&nbsp; </span>2007, ISLP volunteers were there to facilitate broad and rapid dissemination of trial developments through a live blog, which may be accessed at <span style="text-decoration: underline;">www.charlestaylortrial.org</span>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.charlestaylortrial.org/"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></a>and which received close to 4,000 hits on days the court was in session on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Taylor</st1:city></st1:place> trial.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Strengthening South African Civil Society</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">:<span style="">&nbsp; </span>Civicus, a Johannesburg-based international NGO focusing on civil society and the right to freedom of expression, requested a long-term on-site volunteer to research and analyze domestic laws threatening civil society and the right to assembly, and<span style="">&nbsp; </span>to work with them to develop campaigns in response to those laws.<span style="">&nbsp; </span>Joe Hahn, a retired partner in the <st1:city w:st="on">Portland</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Maine</st1:state> firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer &amp; Nelson with previous experience in First Amendment litigation, started a four-month assignment in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">South Africa</st1:country-region></st1:place> in March 2007.<span style="">&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Mongolia</span></b></st1:country-region><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> Human Rights Advocacy:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> &nbsp;In March 2006, ISLP volunteer Richard Spencer, a shareholder in the <st1:state w:st="on">Maine</st1:state> law firm Drummond Woodsum and MacMahon and a highly experienced public policy and environmental lawyer, went to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Mongolia</st1:country-region></st1:place> for three months to work with the Centre for Human Rights and Development to help build its environmental advocacy program.&nbsp; His numerous projects included help with the first case ever won against a mining company in Mongolia; assistance in drafting two amendments to the Mongolian mining laws that were, with some changes, adopted by the parliament;&nbsp; identification of a statute that served as the basis for negotiating the termination of a mining license in a protected area of the Gobi Desert; and assistance with writing a national discussion paper on mining and the environment for the United Nations Development Program.&nbsp; His firm provided back-up research and other assistance, as did a number of lawyers and environmental specialists to whom Dick reached out for advice.</span></p> <p><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Freedom of Information/Freedom of Expression Project:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> The Freedom of Information/Freedom of Expression Project provides pro bono legal services in developing countries and emerging democracies to advance the rule of law and to advocate democratic reforms of media laws. ISLP's Media Law Working Group identifies cases and responds promptly to requests for pro bono legal services from non-government organizations, including ABA/CEELI, the Ashoka Foundation, Freedom House, Fund for Peace, Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute, and the Open Society Justice Initiative. Recent work undertaken includes assistance with amici briefs for three cases against Russia before the European Court of Human Rights; assessments of the Macedonia draft freedom of information law, the Turkish draft state secrets law and the defamation guidelines decision of the Supreme Court of Russia; participation in workshops in London, Belgrade, Serbia, Skopje, and Bucharest; and preparation of an amicus brief in the case of a Thai media law reformer charged with criminal and civil defamation.</span></p> <b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Enforcing Sexual Harassment Laws in Hungary</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">: Responding to a request from Hungary's Equal Treatment Authority (ETA), a newly formed agency that enforces Hungary's anti-discrimination laws, ISLP volunteers Blair Soyster, a senior partner with US law firm Clifford Chance, and associate Marye Cherry, developed a comprehensive manual addressing applicable issues which was then translated into Hungarian and followed by a 2-day training in April 2006 for the entire ETA staff. </span></td><td align="left" valign="top" width="50"> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p> </p><center><font face="Arial" size="-2"> islp.org. all rights reserved. copyright 2008</font></center> </center></body></html>