IHRP Summer Letters: 2006

Tara Doolan

Girl Child Network (Zimbabwe)

"I began the summer by drafting legislation aimed at helping protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation.  At present, no such legislation exists to offer specific protection to children, and so GCN took the initiative to begin drafting a bill called the Child Sexual Offences Bill."

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Megan McLemore

WE-ACTx  Legal Workshop: The Rights of Persons with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda

"My project was to organize a legal workshop focusing on the rights of persons with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda. It had two aspects: a law portion which addressed protections against discrimination under current Rwandan (and international) law, and a skills portion emphasizing paralegal skills of mediation, negotiation, documentation and referral."

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Erin Runnalls and Sarah Hudson

Pinocchio Crèche,­ Cape Town, South Africa

"Maggie Shongwe, a domestic worker from the age of nine, created the Pinocchio Crèche to address the needs of working parents and their children. Since the beginning, our mandate has been to ensure the sustainability of this important social service."

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David Thompson

International Human Rights Clinic (Toronto and Belize)

"This summer I made my second trip to Belize to work with a group of Mayan farmers, helping them develop a domestic litigation strategy to protect their traditional land rights from government encroachment."

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Janye Lee

COPPADES (Kathmandu and Lamjung, NEPAL)

"I  researched women's economic rights in Nepal, particularly women's property rights.  My reading revealed that women have virtually no right to own property, whether as a daughter, a wife or daughter-in-law, or a widow.  In some manner, the property is controlled by her husband or son."

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Laura Baron

Siyakhula Trust (Johannesburg, South Africa)

"My project has been to write a manual that will enable the organizations to become 'legal': to register themselves as NPOs with the government, create their founding documents, become eligible for tax exemptions and donor deductible status, and comply with ongoing regulatory requirements such as financial reporting."

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Travis Allan

United Action for Children (Buea, Fakoship Division, Cameroon)

"United Action for Children is an African-run NGO whose mandate is to create a caring society for children through innovative programs. It works toward this goal by running a child-centered nursery and primary school, a computer education center, a vocational training unit, various roving presentations on HIV/Sexual health and, recently, child trafficking."

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Emmanuel Ekiba Bagenda

Uganda Human Rights Commission (Uganda)

"My brief was to complete a comparative analysis of the UHRC's legal framework with those of other national human rights commissions."

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Jared Kelly

LIFT (Zimbabwe)

"I am currently filming a documentary in Zimbabwe that will be aired at the next LIFT Gala on November 14th at the Gladstone.  Besides the film, we are doing legal and medical research into the reproductive rights of HIV+ women."

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Stella Luk

Access to Drugs Initiative (ADI) (Toronto)

"This internship has been a perfect way for me to wade into completely new and interesting areas of law, from WTO law to the public procurement of drugs, from non-discrimination legislation to comparative constitutional law."

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Alyna C. Smith

Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF): Women in an Insecure World Project

"My task over these last months has been to take the first steps in developing DCAF's initiative, "Reporting Reality", which is concerned with the documentation of sexual violence in conflict and crises."

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Dylan Smith

Joint Project on Health and Human Rights within the AIDS epidemic 

"We met Anita Isaacs, a former guerilla freedom fighter, and now outspoken AIDS activist, who works to counter violence against women and children - after being ostracized and eventually kicked out of her own family when she was diagnosed with HIV in 2000.  Her courage, the strength of her convictions, and her fierce determination are totally inspiring."

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