I have been thinking about what was said by an African activist in a meeting of a few community advocates , community lawyers and grassroots legal activists which I attended last week . He has had a great deal of experience over a number of years of dealings with the "top" criminal defence and civil liberties law firms in London . But, he questioned in the strongest of terms, who among these "top" lawyers ( almost always non- African) had ever practiced civil liberties, human rights/criminal law in a truly collaborative, community empowering, knowledge sharing and embracing way? Despite their expertise, does their conduct towards and arms-length relationship with the African/African Caribbean community over the years in the UK not reflect those traits for which the human rights NGOs are rightly criticised in the article posted below ? this is advice to them for "home" and abroad: "It is instead a call for them to be more conscious of their weaknesses and to develop and implement an alternative set of practices. When considering these issues, one might find a lot of wisdom in works of critical scholarship that demand strategic innovation and critical reflection about the means they use in their work. The... (alternative ) approach to advocacy has been given many labels (community lawyering, critical lawyering, rebellious lawyering, and the like). Regardless of the term, the main aspect of such an approach is that it values broad participation in collective efforts for eliminating certain injustices or improving some problems. It argues that in order to make real lasting changes, advocates must reshape the ways they think about themselves and the victims or communities they serve. This approach also embraces a greater respect for the power of marginalized and oppressed individuals and communities—deeper attention to the influences of race, gender, class, and culture on human rights advocacy as well as on the relationships between professionals and their clients. As first introduced by Gerald Lopez, rebellious or community advocates “respect the energy and the commitment of community members working together and [...] with them for meaningful change, emerging from political and grass-root movements rather than from clever advocacy efforts by smart lawyers in suits..... ............ advocates would see themselves as more a part of the communities or groups for whom they work and would share with them the special knowledge and expertise they have gained through their education and expertise. They would still put the human rights (or civil rights, or criminal law injustice) violations in the spotlight, but in a way that enhances the victims’ autonomy and their rights to control their own lives and affairs."
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:39:43 +0000