COLUMNS

Human Rights Matter

A lawyer friend took me to task recently on the relevance of human rights law in Singapore when I reminded him to attend the Law Society's maiden Biennial Lecture. Perhaps, this was the reason many of my learned friends did not even reply to my SMS reminder. This, coupled with the fact that the Lecture was held on a Friday night, did not seem to have caught the attention of many lawyers. Or - is this the apathy, inaction and the refusal by many individuals to take a stand for other human beings, which Professor Cotler was referring to? I am not sure.

'We cannot say that we do not know about many of the incidents of human rights violations. Of course we know but we do not intervene or do anything about it. And we are not helping by being silent. It's easy to get disillusioned and be cynical about human rights. I think the real danger is the indifference,' he said firmly at the start of the interview.

According to Professor Cotler, every individual should ask himself this question at the beginning of each day: 'What can I do today to help the cause of human rights?' Human rights, he explains, is in the little acts of human kindness that we can perform daily. It's about how we treat our family, colleagues, friends and the many people that we meet every day.

Professor Cotler is a dream interviewee. He puts his ideas across succinctly, simply and reiterates his overall message so that it is not lost in the midst of the many pieces of information that he shares with me openly and earnestly during the interview.

A law professor and international human rights lawyer, he described his entry into politics in August 1999 as an 'accident'. Although he was encouraged to stand for the by-elections in the Canadian Liberal Government, he initially hesitated. On nomination day, for some reason, the other three candidates - two of them his former students - pulled out and gave him their vote of support. It did not help that his then 12 year-old son whom Professor Cotler spoke affectionately of throughout the interview, was totally against the idea. Young Cotler was upset. He felt that his growing up years would be disrupted if his father became a politician. 'He told a journalist who interviewed him that I was a law professor and human rights lawyer. That he could understand. But that I was crazy for going into politics, that nothing ever happens in politics as nothing gets done.' After being strongly persuaded to treat the two-year term as a sabbatical and an opportunity to do public good, Professor Cotler was elected with 92 per cent votes, which was described as 'the most stunning electoral victory in this century by any standard.'

The 'over-arching principle' he subscribes to and that has guided his career is the pursuit of justice. First taught of the importance of this value by his lawyer father, Professor Cotler is fiercely passionate about the importance of maintaining a just society where human dignity must be promoted and protected. And he has no second thoughts about this.

He tells a story of a Rabbi who was loved by his followers. The Rabbi asked them, 'Do you know what hurts me?' The followers, taken aback at his question, asked him why that mattered. He replied: 'If you don't know what hurts me, how can you love me?'

After his entry into politics and appointment as Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of Canada, he visited every part of Canada to gather views, especially from young people, on the pursuit of justice. Professor Cotler recounted the great sense of pain and hurt that the aboriginal law students he met felt about being dispossessed of their culture and values.

Having spent some time in the Middle East during his law professorship, Professor Cotler became the first Canadian government minister to visit Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Israel and attempted to organise the very first Middle East Justice Summit.

Professor Cotler regards every lawyer as an Attorney-General who can make a major contribution to the society they live in. He invited lawyers to ask themselves questions such as: Who are we? What is our role? How can we make a difference to the world we live in?

When sharing his views on the legal education and the role of lawyers, he sounded as excited and passionate as a new entrant into the Bar. He echoed the words of his father when he said that law and the pursuit of justice are inseparable twins. A law professor of 30 years, Professor Cotler remains fascinated by our 'unique qualification'. 'As lawyers, we are blessed with a sound education and a high form of intellectual training. Law sets out the values that we can seek to live by.'

He reiterated that lawyers have heavy and important responsibilities. 'We are members of what I feel is the highest calling. We are advocates. That means, we are the administrators of justice and important trustees of the public good. We have the burden of promoting and protecting important values such as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. Next, we are educators. We teach and train people through our daily life.'

'Our primary role is to be the servants for the public good.' He elaborates, 'When we work for the public good, the public gains trust and confidence in us. They then grow to respect the law more. That's why it is very important for lawyers to engage in pro bono work. We are in a privileged position to engage in the on-going struggle to better the human condition. And we do it by performing pro bono work.' A firm believer of pro bono work, he calls for lawyers to set aside a certain percentage of their working hours for this work.

To Professor Cotler, another important player in the legal arena is the law society. Together with its lawyers, the law societies are collective instruments for helping the public. 'We must never forget the law organisations' role as educators and the public expectations of them.' According to him, members of the public expect to hear the law society's voice on important issues.

On politics, Professor Cotler, who is now a Member of Parliament, agrees on its strong relationship with law. 'There is a natural concurrence between the two. After all, the law affects the decision-making powers of politicians.' Asked whether a politician is motivated by a good salary package, fame, glory or willingness to make a valuable contribution to society, he replied, 'There are far better ways to make money. A politician must clearly be animated by public service. He must develop his personal career first and then consider spending a period of time, not too long, in public service.'

It is not difficult to understand why Professor Cotler went into the practice of human rights law and became a well-respected international human rights lawyer. It was simply an extension of his solid belief in the pursuit of justice and protection of individual rights. He admitted that it was difficult to maintain a human rights practice per se. However, he stressed that lawyers can engage in aspects of human rights practice which are relevant to the place they live in, such as anti-discrimination laws. 'Maintain an active pro bono practice. You can work in a human rights non-governmental organisation or for the government. Or be a law professor and a human rights practitioner at the same time,' he says, listing career options for lawyers interested in human rights work.

He counted a sound knowledge of the law, good training in it and the willingness to work in the 'trenches' as important attributes of a human rights lawyer.

Some of his clients were political prisoners and prisoners of conscience such as Nelson Mandela and Russian Andrei Sakharov. Describing Mandela, the second Honorary Citizen of Canada as a shining star of courage and a source of 'great inspiration', Professor Cotler is very moved by these heroes' moral courage and commitment. 'What they are doing is tough. It is an endless struggle where they pay a terrible price. Though some of them were political prisoners, each one of them believed that they can make a difference and they felt a great sense of freedom within themselves. It is through helping these heroes that I achieve my pursuit of justice.'

Describing the current state of human rights as 'the best of times and the worst of times', he acknowledged the 'explosion' in human rights law. Having taught the law of poverty, domestic and international human rights law in McGill University, he pointed out that certain universal human rights do not exist in a vacuum. 'On the other hand, we must never forget that human rights violations continue unabated.' An eternal optimist, his judgment is that we are moving forward in the right direction.

Professor Cotler's curriculum vitae runs into several pages in the Canadian government website. How did he find the time to do so much in 67 years? He smiled. 'Well, my life is my work and my work is my life. I love what I do and my work is a reflection of who I am. When work is part of my overall life, in which my family has a key position, I really do not make sacrifices.'

After engaging with him for slightly more than one hour, you come away with only one feeling - an overwhelming sense of inspiration. It wasn't an interview but an education on what being a lawyer was really about. His words are still resonating within me: 'Be a voice to the voiceless. Be the source of power to the powerless.'

Rajan Chettiar
Rajan Chettiar & Co
E-mail: rajan@rajanchettiar.com