In case you’re not watching our home page, you may have missed the story about the new HUMAN RIGHTS FELLOWSHIP.
Also, on the subject of human rights funding, Mipe Okunseinde spent the summer exploring new frontiers in law in South Africa:
“Thanks to the Summer Public Interest Funding program, I was able to travel abroad to Cape Town, South Africa. I chose South Africa because not only is its Constitution widely recognized as one of the most progressive in world history but it is also very young and, as such, the law feels extremely fresh and alive.
“However, as with many a country, a wide schism exists between what citizens ought to have and what they indeed do have. I worked with Legal Resources Centre, a human rights public interest firm and one of the top non-profit organizations in South Africa. Legal Resources Centre specializes in impact litigation work with a focus on several major ‘rights’ areas, including women’s and children’s rights, environmental rights, and housing rights. My time was spent mainly with the housing rights project.
“The South African Bill of Rights guarantees the right to have access to adequate housing as well as mandates the government to take measures to achieve the progressive realization of this right. Furthermore, South Africa is struggling to redress generations of apartheid regime practices such as arbitrary evictions and race-based dispossession of land. Our work took place at the intersection between law and policy, trying to find both legal and political solutions for our clients. My summer work doing public interest with Legal Resources Centre in South Africa brought me vast amounts of perspective – both on a personal and a professional level – and was a truly rewarding experience.”
