17 December 2008

Greenville, Liberia: "Once we found a 13-year-old girl locked up in a police station. She had been accused of murdering a child of eight. She has been in detention for almost 48 hours… the first thing we asked her was 'have you eaten?'. No-one had done this so far, so we reminded the police to take care of it, and reminded them that the age of criminal responsibility was 16. We then advised the police to take her to a judge who could decide how to handle the situation."

Sensitive problems like this are part of life for UNV volunteer Human Rights Officers like Jon Izaguirre Garcia. He works with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in Greenville, Sinoe County, as part of a small team monitoring human rights and the rule of law in prisons and the police service.

"The things we work on are not easily solved," Mr. Izaguirre comments. "Our role is based on the long term: it’s a case of monitoring human rights violations and reporting them to Monrovia for further investigation… We have to respect the independence of the judiciary."

Along with his UNMIL colleague Chriss Bakara (himself a former UNV volunteer), Jon Izaguirre Garcia also monitors high profile cases, including those of former combatants. Within a week of Human Rights Day on 10 December, he was coordinating a delegation of senior Government ministers and UNMIL chiefs of section on a visit to talk to Greenville prison inmates.

"The inmates now realize that, when we told them we were reporting everything to Monrovia for action to be taken at higher levels… the reports were being taken seriously," says Mr. Izaguirre.

While it is outside UNMIL's mandate to tell Liberian judges what to do, in a country where few local courts even have access to law books the Human Rights Section plays a valuable advisory role. "We can discreetly print out relevant laws and offer them to local judges, and remind them of human rights obligations," he says. "Our presence, and the fact that we are observing, helps officials keep up standards."

Having joined UNMIL in autumn 2008 after completing a postgraduate degree in International Human Rights Law, Mr. Izaguirre Garcia has found that the variety of work he takes on as a UNV volunteer is often formidable. Another aspect of his work is monitoring economic, social and cultural rights – which means assessing the availability and accessibility of basic health and education services - and  training NGOs, Government institutions and communities on human rights.

There is an advocacy role too, for example, on Human Rights Day, Jon Izaguirre Garcia played a major role organizing the Day's events in Greenville.

Beginning with a musical parade, the event included messages from the UN Secretary-General and High Commissioner for Human Rights; remarks by local authorities and NGOs; specially-composed songs from a local school choir; prizes and readings from a human rights-themed school writing contest; and a football match between human rights clubs from different schools.

"It was a tough week," comments Jon Izaguirre Garcia, "perhaps the toughest since I came to Liberia. There were constant meetings  with the County Attorney, the police and the public defence lawyer about urgent cases, and among other things I had to buy supplies and arrange music for the parade…! But there was help from NGO colleagues, and at the end I felt really good – having been professional and strong enough to deal with it all and survive the week."

"As a volunteer you are here not for money but only because you believe in this kind of work," he concludes. "Maybe this gives us a freedom to bring something extra."