April 12, 2012

25 Years of Alternative Lawyering

The Ateneo Human Rights Center's (AHRC) Internship Program is celebrating its 25 years of training students in providing legal assistance to vulnerable and marginalized sectors and communities - and of making alternative lawyering mainstream.

The AHRC's Internship Program is four-fold: Basic Orientation Seminar (BOS), Immersion, Internship Proper, and Evaluation. 18 interns from five law schools - Ateneo de Manila University, Western Mindanao State University, Notre Dame University, Aquinas University and Ateneo de Zamboanga University, are participating this year.

The BOS for this year's summer batch of interns was held on April 9-12, 2012 in Antipolo City. The BOS is a four-day seminar that seeks to introduce interns to the concept of social justice and the practice of alternative lawyering. Representatives from Alternative Law Groups discussed Environment, Gender Sensitivity & Women's Rights, Migrants, Labor, Indigenous Peoples, Children, Peasants & Agrarian Reform, and Detention Prisoners. Aside from input on substantive laws and concepts, interns were also equipped with practical paralegal skills through talks on Legal Aid & Client Interview, and Popular Education & Paralegalism. These talks are capped with workshop exercises on crafting affidavits and conducting paralegal trainings.

After completing the BOS, the 18 interns were sent to live with indigenous peoples’ communities in Quezon Province for a six-day immersion. The immersion is meant to deepen what is learned in the BOS by experiencing, even just for a few days, the daily struggle of vulnerable communities. The interns will then be assigned to non-government organizations catering to different sectors for a two-month internship.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), a German liberal foundation, has been supporting AHRC's Internship Program since 2004. This is an important activity for us as it not only discusses human rights in theory but also does it in practice. For the interns, their classrooms are real communities and they teach and learn from the marginalized sectors, ”said Jules Maaten, FNF Country Director.