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Al Jazeera Covers PILnet Fellow Huang Xuetao’s Work on Mental Illness in China
In a recent video report on the inadequacies of mental health care in China, where 173 million are estimated to suffer from mental illness and few receive care, Al Jazeera interviewed 2009 PILnet International Fellow Huang Xuetao for her take on the nation’s treatment of the mentally ill. The president and founder of the Equity and Justice Initiative in Shenzhen, she focuses her work on the rights of persons with mental disabilities and on efforts to combat the practice of forced institutionalization. Read more »
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2012 International Fellows Application
The PILnet International Fellows application for the class of 2012. Read more »
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PILnet and Law Firm Partners Hold Flagship Ethics Course for Russian Law Students
The legal profession in Russia is largely unregulated and professional ethics are not widely taught in universities. In the last few years, however, the landscape has begun to change and there have been moves towards improved regulation of the profession. Read more »
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PILnet Co-sponsors Ethics Essay Competition for Russian Law Students
Update: Competition Winners Announced! Russian law students are invited to submit papers on the subject of legal ethics for an essay competition. Thirty winners will be selected for an intensive training to be held in Moscow 9-12 November, 2011, entitled Professional Responsibility and Ethics in the Global Legal Market. Read more »
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Who Owns My Land? Findings from a Nationwide Survey on Chinese Farmers' Land Rights
On May 2 in New York, PILnet hosted the presentation "Who Owns My Land?", which highlighted findings from a nationwide survey on Chinese farmers' land rights undertaken by Landesa (formerly Rural Development Institute), in collaboration with China Renmin University and Michigan State University. Read more »
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Significant Progress in Civil Legal Aid Reforms in Russia
When PILnet (then the Public Interest Law Institute) organized its first public discussion in Russia dedicated to issues of legal aid reform about six years ago, the subject was something that hardly anyone was willing to discuss. Read more »
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Looking Back on the Birth of a PILnet Clearinghouse
Until just a few years ago, pro bono was a foreign concept to many in Russia. But the access of NGOs to affordable legal services has became more critical as new registration requirements and complex tax regulations have made the legal environment for NGOs in Russia more challenging. Read more »
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“From Strength to Strength“
From classical times the point of a forum was talk, and the talk never stopped during PILnet’s 2011 European Pro Bono Forum, held in Berlin, 17–18 November. On the dais, in quiet corners, during lunch, and over coffee, Forum participants from Europe and around the world shared notes, debated strategies, discussed ideas, and reflected on how far pro bono has come in five years since the first Forum was held. Read more »
views from 30,000 feet: reflections from PILnet's executive director
The Unsung Heroes of the Tunisian Revolution
A year ago last Saturday marks one year from the day Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia to express his desperate frustration with the arbitrary nature of daily live in Tunisia.
But that anniversary was not on the minds of Tunisians I met with last week, who were far more absorbed by the formation of a new government on Friday. One young lawyer even told me that a joke has spread attributing the fruit-seller’s self-immolation to an accident with a cigarette.
Behind the snarky, dark humor is a widespread conviction among Tunisians that the ouster of the hated autocratic president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was not the result of an individual act or the voice of a particular leader; it was a spontaneous and broadly based movement running deeply in Tunisian society. Read more »
featured fellow:
Folusho Shado
Reading and Rights in Nigeria: A PILnet Interview
PILnet: One centerpiece of the PILnet Fellowship is the legal project each Fellow develops aimed at advancing justice in their home country. Yours is already having an impact in Nigeria—can you fill us in?
Folusho Shado: The project I developed concerns the right to education in Nigeria. This is a right that's on the books here but the requirement that all citizens receive a basic education is really just an aspiration. I wanted to address that gap and find ways to close it.
The project’s main strategies involve educational outreach, advocacy, policy analysis, and legal action. A sister organization, the Orderly Society Trust, has already taken on the educational component. They’ve started about ten alternative schools in different areas and have begun a literacy program targeted at adults. Classes are free and they’re offered at times when adults are able to attend.
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