| *Diana - I hope my essay doesn't read as fatalistic or condescending toward those who do international human rights work. Like I said at the beginning, a lot of my dissatisfaction stems from personal shortcomings - lack of patience, lack of professional work experience (which would probably demonstrate to me that any type of work in any context will be ineffective and frustrating at times). I recognize that real change can't happen overnight. I enjoyed reading your response, especially its explanation of a function of advocacy of which I wasn't fully aware.
However, I still believe that it is valuable to challenge and criticize the institutions and methods that are currently the dominant forces in the international human rights community. This is not to condemn them. It is to say that perhaps we can find other ways to effect change. Maybe bribery isn't an acceptable or sustainable way to create change, but maybe buying influence through legal channels would be. Every movement or organization, however noble its purposes, has room for improvement. I'm sure that if you continue in the field of international human rights, your career will lead you to create new strategies and solutions, and challenge the practices that are ineffective.
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