By Vinicius Haesbaert

IBJ-Cambodia held a two-day event in Phnom Penh on September 25 and 26 with all staff, including lawyers, investigators and office administrators around the provinces.

On the 25^th, the focus was on IBJ’s internal policies, and on introducing IBJ’s Child Protection Policy. In the first part, Ms. Charlène Buisson, Program Officer, discussed the Human Resource policies and latest performance assessments with the staff . In the second one, Jeanne Salome, Program Officer, started a module on IBJ’s Child Protection Policy, raising the importance of an efficient response from IBJ staff to any kind of harm or abuse children might face while developing our work. Examples, such as securing disclosure of information in juvenile cases, were raised by the staff. Mr. Chhay Ros, representative of AusAid advocated towards the expansion of the Child Protection network with several organizations in Cambodia, which IBJ is glad to be a part of.In the second half of the morning, Mr. Ouk Vandeth, IBJ Fellow and Country Manager in Cambodia, and Mr. Brian Rohan, Special Projects Director, started a debate on IBJ’s mission and advocacy efforts for universal access to legal aid in Cambodia.

In the second half of the day, IBJ invited other local partners to share their experiences in the discussion on concrete cases in the fieldwork. The session had representatives from East-West Management Institute, Vishnu Law Group, Samreth Law Group and AusAid, who all brought examples on their current policies to tackle challenges like corruption and improve cooperation between local organizations.

In the second day, the staff took part in a workshop entitled “Community Legal Education Methodologies: Strengthening Internal Capacities and Sharing Legal Experiences”. As the name suggest, the event was an attempt for lawyers and assistants to share their experiences with community education and to revise techniques on how to engage more participants in the presentation.

In the first module, Vinicius Haesbaert, practitioner in Community Legal Education in Brazil, and Ke Sam Oeurn led the discussion . The session started with an introduction of our results and main challenges. The level of illiteracy in the audience is high; access is difficult in remote areas; and some participants, ethnic minorities, do not speak Khmer.

The workshop started with the Helim Stick group dynamic, an ice-breaking activity to foster communication within a team. Afterward, an initial brainstorming on where do they envision the educational sessions in five years set the mood for what was to come. The staff could envisage sessions that reach more people, in more districts, in the most comprehensive and inclusive fashion they could design. “The concept of street is very important to our work. The street is the place where everybody is free. Our mission is to make them aware of their rights. When they do that, they will carry on fighting against injustices. Our mission is to make all citizens knowledgeable about their own rights”, said Mr. Vandeth in the opening module.

The second part of the morning was an energetic module on Public-Speaking Techniques carried by Alma Abraham and Jolita Moeung from East-West Management Institute. Many topics were covered, such as the importance of knowing the audience, projecting your voice and feeling comfortable in the space.

After the lunch break, Vinicius and Sam covered various methodologies for delivering an educational campaign on legal issues. The group discussed how feasible it was to implement different techniques, such as brainstorming, group discussions and even theaters. Everybody took part in the group dynamics, including a theatrical performance to teach people about the criminal procedure. Based on Theater of the Oppressed, theatrical forms developed by the Brazilian actor, Augusto Boal, the audience could take part in the play and change the characters destiny by suggesting a positive change to their oppressive experiences.

Brian Rohan wrapped up the session, highlighting the importance of trainings for IBJ to continue delivering high quality work .

The two-day workshop has been very productive, the IBJ staff was very active in raising questions, concerns and suggestions to improve their daily work. They appreciated the different speakers and topics of the workshop.  It was also a great opportunity to discuss about IBJ Cambodia sustainability and global strategy for the upcoming years and to share about the different views and conception of the future legal aid system in Cambodia.

Pictures by Olle Eriksson Photography