Co-op program

Law student Leonard Statz on a co-op term in rural Mongolia.

The importance of getting your boots muddy

By Thomas Winterhoff

When Leonard Statz was accepted into the University of Victoria Faculty of Law, he knew that he would receive a solid legal education that would serve him well in whatever career he chose to pursue after graduation. He also realized that the unique experiential learning programs offered through UVic Law would provide him with many opportunities to use that newly acquired knowledge to develop valuable practical skills outside of the classroom.

Learning how to ride a camel in rural Mongolia was an unexpected bonus.

Statz is now a second-year student, with a keen interest in criminal law, constitutional law, human rights law, public law and domestic violence issues. He's travelled quite extensively in Southeast Asia in recent years, so when he was offered a chance to complete a co-op placement in Mongolia, he jumped at the chance.

"I was hoping to get an opportunity to get back there and do some work," he says.

Statz applied for a four-month internship with the National Centre Against Violence (NCAV) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, as part of the Students for Development Program offered by the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives at UVic. The placement was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

The NCAV is committed to reducing domestic violence throughout Mongolia and it operates a variety of programs to address the problem, including public awareness campaigns, legal education and advocacy, client counselling and a system of temporary shelters to assist victims.

"Domestic violence is probably one of the most — if not the most — pervasive human rights issues in the world. Yet despite the fact that it knows no ethnic or status boundaries at all, it doesn't seem to me that it's discussed very often," explains Statz. "Even though it's almost as prevalent in Canada and the United States as it is in Asia, it's still not something that people seem to talk about. So I thought that was a really compelling reason for me to get involved."

Given that most domestic violence is directed toward women and children, he also thinks it's crucial for men to work on a solution to this pervasive problem, to demonstrate that they are concerned about it and to tell offenders that this sort of violence has to stop.

"Men need to hear other men saying that sort of thing."

From September to December of 2007, Statz worked alongside NCAV staff members and the organization's two lawyers to advise victims of domestic violence and also help change how the issue is perceived in the Asian country. Because family violence has traditionally been viewed as a private matter, one of the most significant obstacles was reaching out to victims to let them know that programs were in place to protect them and that a new law had been enacted to deal with perpetrators.

Legislation was passed in Mongolia in 2005 that specifically addressed domestic violence, stipulated penalties for violations of the law and laid out a framework to protect victims from further abuse. Much of NCAV's recent work has involved setting up outreach programs and training initiatives, which include educating police officials about the new legislation and its associated enforcement requirements. The very fact that the new provisions were codified in law and approved by the government was a huge step forward.

"The implementation is a big challenge for them," says Statz. "Even though it was passed over two and a half years ago, it's still a major issue that they're dealing with now."

Changing people's attitudes towards domestic violence relies in large part on educating victims about their rights. Many women who are being mistreated aren't even aware that specialized assistance is available, especially in a country where Internet access is limited and not many homes are equipped with televisions. There is also a strong correlation between income level and domestic violence, which makes it very challenging to reach victims, many of whom don't even own a radio.

"When you're in developing countries like this, even though the services are out there to help people, it's quite often an issue of them actually finding out that they're there. You see these kinds of things in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam as well," says Statz.

NCAV is working hard to get the word out and encourage people to discuss domestic violence and potential solutions to the problem, through outreach programs and public awareness campaigns delivered through radio, newspapers and leaflets.

"We had a press conference at the office one day that was broadcast on local television," recalls Statz. "Inevitably, whenever one of these events occurs — whether it's a radio show, a television broadcast or an outreach program — the number of people coming to the office increases dramatically the very next day."

Statz was able to deal with the challenges he faced in Mongolia because his UVic Law education helped him develop analytical, research and critical thinking skills that were crucial in understanding how best to deal with each situation he came across.

"It helps you ask the right kinds of questions," he says. "In law school, you break things down and analyze them and see how they could be adjusted or improved."

Those skills allowed him to look at the problems he saw in Mongolia from new perspectives and determine if they could be addressed in better ways or approached from different angles.

One project that Statz is particularly proud of is an advocacy paper that he wrote on compensation schemes for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, which required him to research public compensation schemes elsewhere that were informed by civil rules and compensation precedents in civil suits. The paper addressed the impacts of domestic violence and sexual assault on victims, their families and society as a whole, and looked at how such a program might operate.

"In places like Mongolia, the perpetrators generally aren't going to be able to provide any sort of recompense or damages to their victims," he explains. "What we were hoping to do was compel the government to create a public compensation scheme much like we have here in Canada for criminal victim compensation."

The director of the NCAV subsequently presented the paper to a delegation of government officials, lawyers, judges, police officers and others at the national legislature, where it was "very well received". Now it's up to the government, the NCAV and other agencies to determine if such a plan can be established and to figure out how it might be funded.

When he wasn't working at the centre, Statz took advantage of several opportunities to travel to other parts of the land-locked country, meet the local people and participate in "amazing" experiences along the way. In a rural area that was a bumpy, two-hour drive southwest of the capital, he visited a nomadic herding family in a traditional ger home, shared a meal with them and learned how to ride a camel. He also "ran, walked, crawled and staggered" his way through a 21.5-km half-marathon in the Gobi desert.

"It is a really beautiful, unique, wild and raw country," he says.

For Statz, the months he spent in Mongolia reinforced the long-term value of experiential learning, the need to "get your boots muddy" and the importance of studying legal issues in context. It also gave him greater insight into the struggles faced by people in developing countries, plus an enhanced appreciation of the difficult work done by agencies like the NCAV.

That organization realizes that eradicating domestic violence in Mongolia is a lofty goal and that it's going to require a significant shift in social values, beliefs and traditions, but the NCAV staff also believe that the holistic model they've adopted is the best way to achieve that objective.

"Not only do they help and support the victims through shelter programs, and legal and psychological counselling, but they're also involved in outreach and education all the way from the school level up to law enforcement," says Statz. "They've made that commitment because they believe in it and they want to help people. I think what I've gained the most from this placement is that I know that I want to continue doing that with my career."

He notes that law school definitely teaches students how to think, research and analyze problems — all of which they can apply to their future careers.

"But if we don't go out and apply that skill set, we're not truly beginning our learning as lawyers," he says. "We don't learn how to become a lawyer until we get out in the field, so the sooner you can do that, obviously the more quickly your skills are going to develop."