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ElizabethEncinasFirstPaper 4 - 11 Apr 2013 - Main.ElizabethEncinas
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< | It’s never sat well with me being categorized as one of “The privileged” simply because I’ve had access to tertiary education. I’ve always been very aware of my family’s economic and class origins. My maternal grandmother was a single parent and worked as a cleaner for middle class Venezuelans in order to send money to Trinidad to support her three children being cared for by her relatives. My paternal grandfather worked for white, expatriate, Englishmen on oil rigs for 20 years until he opened his own well servicing business. My parents lifted themselves out of extreme poverty to create a better life. All this is to say that I am ever aware of the people I come from and thus having access to a privileged world and “the key to power” via the law, seems farcical to me rather than a defining point of who I am. | >
> | It’s never sat well with me being categorized as one of “The privileged” simply because I’ve had access to tertiary education. I’ve always been very aware of my family’s economic and class background. My maternal grandmother was a single parent and worked as a cleaner for middle class Venezuelans in order to send money to Trinidad to support her three children being cared for by her relatives. My paternal grandfather worked for white, expatriate, Englishmen on oil rigs for 20 years until he opened his own well servicing business. My parents lifted themselves out of extreme poverty to create a better life. All this is to say that I am ever aware of the people I come from and thus having access to a privileged world and “the key to power” via the law, seems farcical to me rather than a defining point of who I am. | | | In an attempt to center myself and reconnect with my motivations for choosing a legal career I attended the 2013 “Women in the World Conference” on April 4-5th. Although it was an extravagant, corporate sponsored, publicity extravaganza for celebrities and corporations seeking to gender their brand’s image, one event stood out because of two young women. Humaira Bachal (Founder of the Dream Foundation Trust) and Khalinda Brohi (Founder of Sughar Women Program) risk their lives daily to open schools and community centers for girls and women in Afghanistan. They work under the threat of violence from the men in their rural communities who believe that educating women is a threat to their power over their community. These young women are being threatened for simply teaching young women to read and create crafts. This fact struck a nerve for me because it’s the first time I felt, and not simply acknowledged, that having the chance to attend a top graduate school in the world is an opportunity I should make the most of, not simply for myself but to honor those who sacrifice greatly to pursue their right to education. | |
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< | This event has fueled my interest in viewing myself as a future business owner (a law practice) with skills, assets and resources to manage. Those brave young women run their own non-profit organizations under dangerous conditions and I’m inspired to do the same. | >
> | This event has motivated me to see myself as a future business owner (law practice) with skills, assets and resources to manage. Those brave young women run their own non-profit organizations under dangerous conditions and I’m inspired to do the same. | | | My ideal practice would be in International Law and Human Rights. I’d like my practice to specialize in transnational cases, preferably advising and consulting. I like the work that Sarah Cleveland has done with Jamaican cane workers, addressing the Supreme Court on the detention policy of the United States in the ‘War on Terror’ and her advisory role in constitutional drafting in post Arab Spring countries.
I envision my clients to be non profit organizations, nations, corporations, and individuals. Organizations that currently take on cases and activities that I would like to be engaged in are the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, The ACLU and also corporate firms who do pro bono work like Paul Weiss. |
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All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
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