(please click on the coverpage to download)

2011: THE YEAR OF “SOCIAL JUSTICE INSPIRATION” 

Dear Friends and Supporters of Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative (BABSEA CLE),

2011 has come to a close and we’d like to share with you our experiences and achievements, as well as some of our hopes and plans for 2012. 

This year has truly been a year of INSPIRATION.  It is clearer to us than ever before that a vital part of what we do involves working hand-in-hand with people who inspire us and others: people who strive, and inspire others to strive, to achieve access to justice worldwide.

Here are just a few examples of this year’s “inspirations”.  

University deans, educational and government policy-makers inspired to openly support clinical legal education programs in countries like Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Viet Nam, where only a few years ago such programs did not exist or were not even heard of. 

• Law lecturers who inspired young people to join CLE because they themselves were inspired to change their traditional methods of teaching and expose their students to justice education, teaching them the knowledge, skills and values to helps others in need, as Ajaarns Mo and Withoon from Thailand, Prof. Norbani and Asnida from Malaysia, Prof. Chau from Viet Nam, and Ajaarns Xay, Pang and Phetmany from Laos did this year.
• Graduating law students like Thien and Linh Bear from Viet Nam and Souliya from Laos who were inspired by their CLE experience to go on to use their newly acquired legal skills to help poor and marginalized people, as BABSEA CLE Fellows.
• Lawyers, law firms and corporations who were inspired to actively support our CLE and pro-bono initiatives – such as Freehills, Blake Dawson and IBM did in 2011.
• University clinics in Indonesia (Pasundan University) and Malaysia (University Malaya) that were inspired to work together to develop a CLE program that “crosses borders” and protects the rights of migrant workers.
• Former BABSEA CLE interns who are now leading team members of BABSEA CLE staff, like Hien and Phuong in Viet Nam, Dinah, Tze, Don and Pim in Thailand, Thip in Laos and Marie in Singapore.
• All the BABSEA CLE team members, volunteers and Vietnamese law students and others who worked so hard on the Comprehensive Applied Research on the Development of CLE in Viet Nam for the United Nations Development Program. This research may inspire universities, policy-makers and donors to use it as a basis for future CLE support in the country.
• Could the research and support mentioned above help create a network of university clinics in Viet Nam inspired to actively work together and support each other to educate students and provide access to justice to the poor?  As we go into 2012, that is what is happening!
•  Could former BABSEA CLE interns, law professors and lawyers get together to form a local, not-for-profit CLE organization in Singapore? You’ll meet BABSEA CLE Singapore in this magazine!
• And our final example from a long list: in 2011, more than 200 professional and student volunteers and interns from around the world were inspired to work with BABSEA CLE and our partners.

 As Co-Directors of BABSEA CLE, we invite you to be inspired by the people and events described our magazine. You will read about what we and our partners did in 2011 and the people who inspired us to do that work. We believe you will be moved and inspired in ways similar to those shared here by our authors.

On behalf of the BABSEA CLE Team we thank you each of you for your partnership and support. 

Bruce A. Lasky

Kevin Morley

Wendy Morrish

2011 BABSEA CLE Magazine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZAhQ101xxs

A Snap Shot of What We Do

BABSEA CLE hosted its 3rd Annual “Trio for Justice” on November 13 with its first-ever Access to Justice Public Interest Fair in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on November 12. The “Trio for Justice” was supported by sponsors like Energizer, Buzzwoo!Asia, the HRBA A2J Asian Consortium, the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE), and so many more.

BABSEA CLE’s Trio for Justice is a half-marathon race, 10K run, 5K fun walk, and duathlon (a new event) held for the third year this year to raise funds for BABSEA CLE and to raise awareness for access to justice issues in the region. This year, the event was “bookended” by a CLE skills workshop for participating law students and law lecturers from northern Thailand. The skills sessions focussed on interviewing clients and clinic supervision procedures, and the Thai participants were joined by BABSEA CLE’s CLE team from Laos.

The Trio event itself was a huge success. More than 160 people ran, biked, or walked for justice under beautiful blue skies in Sankampaeng, Thailand, north of Chiang Mai. After the race, they listened to a presentation by CLE Fellow Souliya Svithongthai, who described the start-up of the CLE clinic at the National University of Laos. Svithongthai’s fellowship at the University’s Faculty of Law and Political Science CLE program is supported by BABSEA CLE and the Australian law firm, Freehills. Bruce Lasky, Co-Director of BABSEA CLE, described the organization’s many projects throughout the region before announcing that the first $5,000 raised by this year’s Trio for Justice would go to support the opening of the CLE clinic in Vientiane. We are proud to say that we raised enough money, with the support of Freehills Law Firm Singapore Branch, who generously donated the remaining amount needed for the construction of the legal consultation clinic.

All in all, with educational workshops, the first Access to Justice fair in Chiang Mai and an very enjoyable race day, BABSEA CLE’s Third Annual Trio for Justice weekend was a highly successful awareness-raising and fundraising event.

Thank you to all who supported our 3rd annual Trio for Justice and we are pumped for the 2012 Trio for Justice weekend!

The BABSEA CLE Team

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPtkbhWxWYg

BABSEA CLE – Chiang Mai University Legal Clinic promotional video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp80AruebcM

Promotional Video about the Legal Studies International Externship Clinic.

The BABSEA Community Legal Education Initiative is founded upon the strong belief that no society can function, much less protect the rights of its people, without a working Rule of Law system. Throughout the world, marginalized groups and individuals yearn for access to justice, yet they often find themselves without the power or ability to obtain it. The result is a pervasive sense of injustice throughout societies of both the Global North and South, where a growing rift continues to divide those with financial and legal means and those without.

Thankfully, there are ways to address some of these problems and to expand access to justice and protection of basic rights for poor and marginalized communities. Clinical and Community Legal Education programs are one such way.

To date, the BABSEA CLE Initiative has accomplished great success on a budget provided in large measure from individual financial and in-kind contributions from our members and supporters.

For more information please download our brochure - BABSEA CLE Brochure

BABSEA CLE Provides Technical, Administrative and Organizational Support in Establishing, Developing and Maintaining University-based and Community-based CLE Programs

•  BABSEA CLE Conducts Grassroots Community and Training of Trainers Workshops Utilizing Interactive Community Legal Education Methodology
•  BABSEA CLE Develops and Assists in the Development of Interactive Legal Curricula and Manuals for University Law Faculties, Community-based Legal Advisors/Paralegals, as well as Non-Governmental and Governmental Organizations
•  BABSEA CLE Coordinates and Hosts  International Legal Studies Externship Programs. Participating Students May be Eligible for Course Credit
•  BABSEA CLE Organizes and Facilitates CLE Student, Professor and Lawyer Exchanges and Trainings as well as CLE Exposure Visits
•  BABSEA CLE Works to “Twin” Nascent or  Pioneering University Clinics With Recognized and Established University Clinics
•  BABSEA CLE Provides Training to Lawyers and Professors of Law to Assist in the Development

]]> http://www.babseacle.org/articles/babsea-cle-brochure/feed/ 0 http://www.babseacle.org/articles/learning-about-your-rights-vietnam-training-manual-on-hivand-the-law/ http://www.babseacle.org/articles/learning-about-your-rights-vietnam-training-manual-on-hivand-the-law/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:41:12 +0000 Bruce http://www.babseacle.org/?p=916

In recent years the Vietnamese State has focused on diffusing awareness of and educating citizens on the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control in order to ensure the law is being respected and is being correctly and fairly implemented. This focus has gradually increased awareness and helped the State to regulate behavior according to the rule of law. In order to satisfy the needs of People living with HIV (PLHIV) and enable the law to be used as a tool for protecting rights and benefits of PLHIV.  BABSEA CLE  assisted in developing and writing  the manual “Learn About Your Rights Training Manual on HIV and the Law”. It also  helped support the local organization Institute on Policy, Law and Development,  a number of  Vietnamese clinical legal education professors and student partners, and UNAIDS to prepare the manual which was published in November, 2011.

The manual is based on the content of the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, and associated legal documents guiding the implementation of that Law. The manual consists of 12 chapters relating to the rights of PLHIV under Vietnamese law. It includes basic information about HIV and AIDS; the rights and obligations of PLHIV; the rights of woman and children living with HIV; the right of PLHIV to be educated, work, receive health care, HIV counselling and testing and the right to privacy; on the prohibition of stigma and discrimination relating to HIV and AIDS; and the mechanisms available to address rights violations of PLHIV. The manual is written carefully and is easy to use through the inclusion of real cases and interactive teaching methods, such as role-plays, presentations and mock interviews which are designed to impart the specific information contained in each topic.

To download the manual please click here