Afghan Women Lawyers' Training and Empowerment Conference
The DRLC was honored to be part of this historic conference held at the Historic Mission Inn in Riverside, CA and sponsored by the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan. DRLC Executive Director, Paula Pearlman, served on the Core organizing committee which included:
Dr. Kerry Murphy Healey, former Lt. Governor, State of Massachusetts, Chair
Judge Stephen Larson, United States District Judge (Central District CA), Co-Chair
Judge Judith M. Billings, Presiding Judge, Utah Court of Appeals
David Bristow, Reid and Hellyer
Jackie Carey-Wilson, San Bernardino County Counsel
Professor Erika George, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
Xanthe Larsen, Akin Gump
Tim Nusraty, U.S. Department of State
Robert C. O'Brien, Arent Fox, Co-chair of the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan
Laura Tuell Parcher, Jones Day
Paula Pearlman, Executive Director, Disability Rights Legal Center
Judge Virginia A. Phillips, United States District Judge (Central District CA)
Judge Joanna Seybert, United States District Judge (Eastern District NY)
Jennifer Terry, Arent Fox
Joan Winship, Executive Director, International Association of Women Judges
Paula Pearlman coordinated a panel in Riverside regarding Mental Health Issues and the Criminal Justice System: Connection between Violence, Victimization, Mental Illness and Addiction. The speakers were David Foy, PHD, Pepperdine University, Paul Freese, Director of Litigation and Advocacy, Public Counsel, Erin Alexander, Public Defender, San Bernardino County, and Tristan Scremin, 4th year law student, People's College of Law. At the conclusion of the conference in California, the women lawyers were welcomed by Loyola Law School Dean Victor Gold and the Disability Rights Legal Center at a dinner reception on the law school campus. The women spoke about their challenges in obtaining legal education in Afghanistan and the challenges they now face as prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges.
Secretary of State Meets Afghan Women Lawyers
Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC
Date: 01/23/2009
Location: Washington, DC Description:
Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton Meets Afghan Women Lawyers at the Department of State.
Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton met today at the State Department with fourteen prominent Afghan women judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. These jurists were in Washington to participate in a training program arranged by the Department's Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan. Secretary Clinton told
them: "Your American friends greatly admire your bravery and courage. It is your work in the tough environment of Afghanistan for women lawyers that will bring real reform and the rule of law to the Afghan people. As President Obama made clear yesterday in his first foreign policy announcement, we are committed to supporting your efforts to
bring security and stability to your country."
Under the leadership of the former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Dr. Kerry Healey, and United States District Judge Stephen G. Larson of the Central District of California, the women participated in two weeks of intensive legal seminars, roundtable events, and consultations with senior officials from the State of California and the U.S. government, including former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The women explored current topics in the Afghan and American legal systems, legal decision-making and mediation, domestic violence, family and mental health, and narcotics law, while gaining hands-on exposure to the American judicial system.