TRUE INSPIRATION

For Human Rights Day 2012, international criminal lawyer and LLB alumnus Shyamala Devi Alagendra gives a personal account of what human rights means to her

Discussing human rights: LLB alumnus Shyamala Devi Alagendra

I have prosecuted and defended many leaders and individuals around the world and human right is at the centre of criminal law. Law, to me, represents an opportunity to redress the balance and attempt to ameliorate wrongs in individual cases, and thereby also contribute to also to a wider sense of justice. 

I am delighted to be asked to contribute something for Human Rights Day to London Connection.  The name of this publication is, in fact, very apt as I have a very strong connection with the University, through my association with the University of London and having had the privilege of reading for my Bachelor of Laws (LLB) through the University of London International Programmes.
I have an immense and abiding interest in human rights law that, in fact, preceded my study of law. I am a Malaysian national of  Tamil “Ceylonese” origin. My mother, Puan Sri Saraswathy Devi was one of the pioneer female lawyers in Malaysia (and past president of FIDA – the International Association of Women Lawyers) who at 76 years of age is still in active practice. My father, Tan Sri P. Alagendra was  a Commissioner of Police in Malaysia. From an early age, as you can imagine, issues of law and order and respect for individuals rights was a regular topic of conversation around the family dinner table. It is perhaps no coincidence that my three sisters and I all entered the law! However, this interest in “human rights” was not purely theoretical. Human Rights in its wider sense also includes economic, social and cultural rights, rights of belief and right to be protected from all types of discrimination.

As a family we travelled a lot, so my three sisters and I interacted with people of all classes and from all stratas of society. This travelling we did moulded us in many ways. But it was in poverty, however, that we most acutely saw the essential need for fairness and empowerment to the disenfranchised, the dispossessed and the “untouchable”. Looking back, my passion for “justice” probably took root in the injustices I saw in slums and villages around Asia. It was law, however, that gave me a platform upon which I have tried, in however small a way, to build as my career progressed. It is law that has taken me from Asia, to the Far East, to West Africa and to East Africa and Europe. These travels and the practical experience I have gathered along the way have given me the enormous privilege of learning and observing.

"Man, for all his technological prowess and ability to fly to the stars and beyond, still fails his fellow man, woman and child – as well as his environment – on a daily basis."

One thing is clear: breaches of human rights continue unabated even in this 21^st century of civilisation. Man, for all his technological prowess and ability to fly to the stars and beyond, still fails his fellow man, woman and child – as well as his environment – on a daily basis.  For all the wealth man has accumulated and taken from the soil, from countries and people, and for all the brilliance of his inventions, there remains a large segment of humanity that live in abject poverty. There are many others whose rights are breached by criminals, organisations, states, or other powerful individuals or entities in the most egregious fashion. Law, to me, represents an opportunity to redress the balance and attempt to ameliorate wrongs in individual cases, and thereby also contribute to also to a wider sense of “justice”.
In being asked to write this short piece, it may be expected that I would simply detail what I have done since I was awarded by LLB degree from the University of London. I could tell how, after domestic practice in Malaysia, I was appointed, in 2001, a Prosecution Trial Attorney in the United Nations Serious Crimes Unit of the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor. In this position, I was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by Indonesian Security forces and East Timorese militia. From here I went as a Prosecution Trial Lawyer in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, appearing in various trials, including being one of the prosecutors in the team that prosecuted the Former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor.   After that I worked as a trial attorney in the International Criminal Court. There I was a Trial Lawyer on the team that was responsible for prosecuting crimes in Darfur, Sudan including indicting the Sudanese President, Omar Al Bashir and Rebel leaders. It could interest some that after that, I returned home to domestic practice and then was engaged to represent a prominent member of parliament in the EULEX courts of Kosovo – Fatmir Limaj. Currently, I am counsel representing the Head of the Public Service of Kenya before the ICC, Ambassador Francis Muthaura  who is accused of involvement in post election violence that befell that country in 2007-2008.  But such an account, could simply read as a rather long winded curriculum vitae.

"The right to be safe from crime, the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence are cardinal principles known to lawyers and non lawyers alike."

If the purpose of London Connection is simply to let people know that a degree from the University of London has value, I can attest it has. It also provides a good foundation for one’s future career and it is “marketable”. However, it would be remiss of me not to underscore what a privilege it is to have any education. I have prosecuted and defended many leaders and individuals around the world and human rights is at the centre of criminal law. The right to be safe from crime, the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence are cardinal principles known to lawyers and non lawyers alike. However, human rights do not end with the criminal law. Indeed, they may not even start with the criminal law. Human rights include the right to education, right to health care, the right to non-discrimination on racial, religious, political, ethnic, or gender grounds. Human rights include economic, social and cultural rights.

The United Nations accepted this reality at the height of the Cold War in 1966 when enacting what some call the International Bill of Rights: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This division between the “Communist” and “Western” blocks – between East and West - saw the latter place more emphasis on political rights, whereas the former (and many non-aligned countries like India) place significant emphasis on the war on want and the right to development. The truth is that these separate and basic international legal instruments do not compete against each other, but each is dependent upon the other. The root of so many conflicts can be seen, from one vantage point, as a grab for power, and the crimes in conflict predicated upon an abuse of trust. That is so. But, it is unfairness, hopelessness, being economically and politically disenfranchised that creates the fertile breeding grounds for despots and dictators. This was so in Germany in 1939 and it is so, in many respects, to certain conflicts today. 

Why is all this relevant? Why is it of interest to the readers of London Connection? It is for only this reason: Human rights and the law is not only the business of lawyers. Many will graduate from the University of London as doctors, nurses, economists, scientists, engineers and graduates from the University will travel to all countries of the world, either back to their homes or to the homes of others. In all this work, we are bound together not only as alumni of the University of London – but far more importantly by our shared humanity. In all our respective spheres of influence, however large or small our orbits, we bring about change either positive or negative. Each of us can contribute to the collective by having regard to those less fortunate than ourselves. In this human regard for our fellow man, lies the key to bring about peace.

The quest of justice continues in so many countries around the world. Courts and the Rule of Law, of course, has an important part to play if humanity’s progress is to continue. Human frailty is in our DNA and yet it remains critical that truth be spoken to power. Courts are where this aspiration can become a reality and where justice can be striven for and hopefully attained. In the end, for justice to prevail, the substantive law learnt at university must be married to experience of the human condition and a willingness to listen and learn and to properly apply reason to evidence. I remain profoundly grateful that I was able to read my LLB at the University of London and profoundly grateful, in fact, to be a lawyer.

Shyamala studied for her LLB in Malaysia and graduated in 1995. She is an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya and is currently acting as defence counsel for the Head of the Public Service of Kenya in relation to allegations before the International Criminal Court for Crimes Against Humanity.

                                                                                                         copied from an email thread.