East and Southern Asia
In this section
Overview
The LACEC East & Southeast Asia sub-program was initially started late 2003, when its resident fellow Bruce Lasky relocated to Cambodia to establish the first university clinic in the country at Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC). In October 2003, the first legal clinic in Cambodia opened its doors to students. The Clinic initiated community legal education programs in villages surrounding Phnom Penh and a criminal law program in cooperation with Cambodia Defenders Project, an organization providing legal aid to indigent criminal defenders. Students from law and other humanities faculties at PUC worked together to assist the vulnerable groups and teach about law and human rights.
During 2004 – 2005, Bruce has conducted numerous needs assessment trips in the region resulting in emerging need to expand the program to other countries in Southeast Asia. As a result, in November 2005, the Justice Initiative and PUC legal clinic convened the first _Southeast Asian CLE Conference_ for more than 70 participants from the region. The Conference has generated enormous interest and follow-up initiatives in the region to establish legal clinics and community empowerment programs using law students.
Starting early 2006, the Justice Initiative was involved in supporting and promoting legal clinics in Malaysia and Indonesia, and organized capacity building efforts region-wide. In January 2007, jointly with Ateneo de Manila Law School Human Rights Center, Philippines – the leading university legal clinic in the country, the Justice Initiative organized the first Teacher Training Workshop for university law teachers on CLE and Street Law methodology and programs. The Workshop brought together 25 law teachers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam and it resulted in an increased capacity to operate and teach in a clinical program.
Objectives
A. to support the creation of university legal clinics in the region;
B. to provide capacity building and training support for involved university faculty;
C. to organize inter-clinical exchange programs with the purpose of stimulating networking and future cooperation on specific matters of public interest;
D. to provide the opportunity for existing clinical programs to undertake work in promoting community empowerment and other social justice initiatives.
Project and Activities
1. Cambodia PUC Legal Clinic
In October 2003, PUC has opened the first legal clinic based at university in the country and the region. The Justice Initiative provided the necessary technical and fincanacial support for the clinic to run. The clinic enrolls 20 law and other profiles students each year, organized thematically into two sections – Community Legal Education Program and Criminal Law Program. In the first section, students are participating in designing and teaching legal literacy lessons in community setting in Phnom Penh and its outskirts. In the latter, senior law students assist practicing attorneys from Cambodia Defenders Project (CDP) with providing legal aid to poor criminal defendants. Both sections have a preparatory module where students learn about practical skills, knowledge and values of client-centered practice, and also the basics of human rights teaching and interactive methodology for laypersons. As a result of 4 years of operation, the Clinic has provided practice oriented education to more than 80 students and also created a network of alumni of the clinic that are continuing to be involved in human rights work after their graduation.
2. Promoting Community Empowerment Clinics in Indonesia
This project is an initiative of the TIFA Foundation in Indonesia and the Justice Initiative, in cooperation with two universities in the country – Pasundan University in Bandung and International Islamic University of Indonesia in Yogyakarta. The project aims at introducing the concept of community education and empowerment clinic into the academic field. The concept of CLE is not entirely new in Indonesia. Many universities have created during past 10 years legal aid centers, run by faculty with student assistance that provide legal assistance free of charge to most vulnerable groups. The novelty of the project consists of using such centers to provide also legal literacy/empowerment assistance to such communities. The project was initiated in June 2006 and it is expected that both universities will engage in community legal literacy activities and will also cooperate with grassroots NGOs
3. Assisting Capacity Building Efforts in Malaysia
This project is a cooperation effort with the Bridges across Borders-BAB, an international NGO based in Cambodia, Thailand and USA that focuses on promoting legal clinics in the region and providing capacity building assistance. The project aims at providing support to the recently created first legal clinic in Malaysia at the University Teknologi Mara-UiTM in February 2007. The Student Law Club-SCLC (legal clinic) has opened three sections: a. community legal education; b. legal aid attachment section and c. in-house consultation clinic. The students in the community legal education section teach in the communities at Dengkil and Slim River. Both areas are Tamil communities suffering from extreme poverty. Project partners are providing workshops and methodological guidance to students on community development work and teaching human rights. The SCLC-law club will also participate in an in-house legal clinic at the university. Procedures for this clinic are currently being established.
4. Promoting Criminal Defense Clinics in China
In late 2006, the Justice Initiative approached the Committee for Chinese Clinical Legal Educators (CCCLE) with a proposal to organize a workshop for university legal clinics in China on criminal defense matters. The CCCLE is the network organization that introduced the idea of legal clinic to Chinese academic circles in 2000. In 2001, the first 20 legal clinics started at universities in China. In 2002, CCCLE established its nation wide operation. In 2007, the CCCLE membership comprises 69 universities with more than 40 of them running legal clinics.
In early 2007, the Justice Initiative approached the International Bridges to Justice-IBJ, an international human rights organization promoting criminal defense and legal aid capacity building, to join in the organization of the Workshop on criminal defense issues for legal clinics. The workshop was organized by all three organizations and was hosted by Northwester University in Xi’an in July 2007. The resources used can be found on the LACEC Legal Clinics Resource page.