This reflection will serve as my LIA Project report, which will explore the work and tasks I completed, their impact, and the sustainability of my work.
Coming into my LIA, I had a good general idea of what I would be responsible for during my LIA. As I knew I would be directed by the Director of Advocacy and Communications, I understood my role to involve supporting the Foundation's social media and advocacy initiatives, with an emphasis on engaging potential stakeholders and potentially supporting fundraising efforts.
Furthermore, even before my internship, I already had a strong understanding of the work of the ILF, especially given how intrinsically intriguing I found the organization to be. Given my aspirations in law, along with my passion for global politics and human rights, the ILF's work was right up my alley. I was further drawn to the impact the Foundation had internationally, and its influence in major global arenas, such as the UN. Moreover, as I will discuss later, the ILF fits exactly within the mandate of UN Sustainable Development Goal 16, which I had somewhat predicted while crafting my LIA project outline.
Additionally, before my project, I understood my role to, in a broad sense, help bridge the gap between the lived experiences of individuals impacted by legal systems and the advocacy efforts supporting them. I would do this by ensuring that such stories are heard and centered during policy discussions. In my project outline, I had noted that the desired outcome of my project would be to contribute to the ILF's ability to communicate its mission to diverse audiences; enhance the organization's storytelling capacity; and ultimately support the ILF's mission to advance sustainable legal systems and enable more fair legal representation and access to justice.
Looking back on my initial plans, I understand that my initial idea of what my work would be like was very accurate, with every one of my plans coming to fruition. I will now break down my exact tasks, and reflect on how they are satisfied by initial SMART goals and overall aspirations.
The Work & My Role
My official title was "Advocacy and Communications Intern," as I worked under the supervision of the Director of Advocacy and Communications. Various pursuits come under the scope of the Director, such as speaking on behalf of the ILF at UN events, but the one most relevant to my role was amplifying the message of the ILF. This theme is central to any communications position, and in my case, it would be my primary endeavour. However, instead of speaking on behalf of the ILF, I would contribute to the ILF's reach by contributing to the launch of the Foundation's social media, aiding with fundraising, and creating content and stories for publication to amplify our mission. When I joined the ILF, the Foundation did not have any social media, with only their website videos loaded on Vimeo and a deactivated Instagram account. One of my tasks early on was to upload key videos to our YouTube and integrate them into our website. I then re-activated our Instagram, which involved creating a new email to manage our social media.
Given this place in our journey content-wise, fellow Laidlaw Scholar Taylor and I were tasked with creating content that would help begin our presence on social media. Even before crafting content, our supervisor emphasized the need to understand what the purpose of our work would be. This proved more difficult than it seemed, as there were so many potential routes we could take. Generally, however, our vision was to firstly simply get our work out there to the world. By utilizing both reels and posts, we could draw in Instagram users from outside our page/niche, and then inform them about our work on our main page. Moreover, those wanting to see our work on the internet could find a place where they could educate themselves on our success and impact. While spreading knowledge of what we did was valuable, this publicity could also help to raise funds for our mission, especially as the ILF is a non-profit and was recently affected by federal funding cuts.
With this goal in mind, I got to brainstorming and crafting content that would serve our mission specifically by illuminating the work the ILF did abroad. Through this endeavour, I fulfilled my second SMART Goal: "By the end of the fourth week, I will create at least one visual content asset, such as a graphic, infographic, or short video, that translates a key advocacy message or impact story into an accessible format for the ILF's digital/print platforms/literature."
In my case, what was a goal of one visual asset became around 30 different pieces of content, including videos, reels, reel covers, and composite stories. To create such pieces, I began by browsing the ILF's archived videos, and came up with the idea of launching a "throwback" series featuring videos of the ILF's work in the past to visualize the Foundation's trajectory. Amongst these videos was a wealth of content, including interviews with our current Executive Director, our international fellows, and our lawyers. After selecting feasible videos, I used Canva Pro to edit them into videos for publication on YouTube, along with Reels and Reel covers for use on Instagram. Moreover, Taylor and I also created a marketing campaign, featuring various ideas of content we could publish. For many of these, we worked together, with one of us drafting the posts' content and caption, while the other created the visual. These pieces fulfilled the vision we had of amplifying the ILF's mission, as they conveyed various aspects of the ILF: from defining what Fellows do when they travel to another country to train local lawyers to breaking down our successes in various countries to articulating the work we do in actual cases through composite stories which merge different stories together. Moreover, I also had the chance to design the official graphic for the ILF's event at the 35th session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna on June 1, named "The Equal Access to Justice for All in Criminal Justice Systems — Advancing a People-Centered Approach," in collaboration with NYU's Pathfinders organization, the Governments of Brazil and Canada, the Access to Justice Group of Friends, the Justice Action Coalition, the ILANUD, the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and Penal Reform International.
On that note, I also fulfilled SMART Goal 3: "Each week, I will conduct targeted background research on a specific country where the ILF operates and produce concise briefing notes to inform the organization's advocacy strategies." This was done by crafting content that served as Country Reports by highlighting key statistics regarding the ILF's accomplishments, such as how many offices we operate and how many cases we've worked on. The breadth of these posts, created by how they capture the work done in an entire country, contrasts the very specific content pieces, which, for example, explore an individual or single case.
Again carrying on from SMART Goal 4, I satisfied SMART Goal 2: "Over the six-week placement, I will research and draft at least two distinct pieces of public-facing written content, such as blog posts or newsletter articles, that effectively communicate the ILF's mission and impact, with each piece approved by my supervisor before the project's conclusion." As mentioned, a key content genre was composite stories, which are amalgamations of various real stories, meant to illuminate the work and success of the ILF while keeping identifiable details private. One of my first tasks was creating composite stories using cases based in Myanmar. Given that this was the first time such stories were created for the ILF, the stories from Taylor and me were used to inform a guide to drafting composite stories, written by our supervisor. Using this guide, I worked on crafting revised composite stories that effectively intertwined real experiences and captured the ILF's methods and success. My work resulted in 7 composite stories, with the last three being the revised ones, enabling me to do more than what my SMART Goal aspired towards.
Finally, I fulfilled my first SMART Goal: "By the end of my second week, I will complete an orientation and conduct introductory meetings with Leah Conklin and other ILF staff members to gain a comprehensive understanding of the organization's current advocacy priorities and ongoing campaigns." The reason I mention this is not just because I completed introductory meetings with my supervisor, fellow staff, and became acquainted with the ILF's mission. It's because I believe that it was not just those meetings and orientations which gave me the knowledge I now have of the ILF — it was the work of creating content that truly showed me the work of the Foundation. For example, editing videos of Fellows from 10 years ago showed me the effort put into developing the ILF's offices. Moreover, drafting composite stories, which required the careful understanding of real cases, showed me the passion and commitment of the ILF's lawyers to the clients, and the success of the locally led but internationally supported model, as the lawyers were fit to serve their fellow citizens but also received a legal defense education that allowed them to use unprecedented methods to craft case-winning arguments.
Representing the International Legal Foundation
A very anticipated aspect of my internship was the opportunity to represent the ILF at various UN events. With a strong interest in diplomacy and global affairs since middle school, it has been a dream to be in such spaces, so the chance to now do so as a part of a UN-partner organization was truly surreal. During the summer, there were various events and programs run by the UN, so our supervisor ensured that we had multiple opportunities to engage with the IGO.
My first foray into the conference space was to attend the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) Annual Meeting on the Rule of Law and Human Rights, a yearly conference considered the premier global forum for discussing international justice, peace, and human rights and the ways they're pressured in today's world. Given the scope of the ILF's mission, such justice and rule-of-law-focused events are very valuable, as they provide insight into the state of justice globally. During the course of the two-day event, I attended multiple panel sessions featuring leaders in areas such as gender, human rights, and business, along with country-focused sessions, such as one on Lebanon, which featured the Lebanese Minister of Justice attending in person. To get an in-depth exploration of the event and my key takeaways, check out my LSN blog here! Such a key session would usually be attended by more members of the ILF team; however, an even more important UN event was happening in Vienna, which necessitated the presence of our Executive Director and Director of Advocacy. For us interns, our presence was primarily for our own benefit, as it gave us a chance to gain first-hand experience in a real diplomacy setting. Moreover, it was very advantageous personally as it provided us interns with copious networking opportunities with leaders in the realm of diplomacy and public service. I had the chance to meet truly fascinating people, including a Ghanaian National Security Advisor, a diplomat with the Netherlands' Foreign Service, delegates from Japan's Ministry of Justice, a UN Committee Co-Chair, multiple professors, a Bangladeshi Economic Minister, and copious UNDP and UN advisors. I met one such advisor while eating lunch, and a conversation with her quickly turned into a friendship that blossomed into even more opportunity, which I will discuss later.
My second UN experience was at another annual conference, with this one serving to explore the SDG which defines the work of the ILF: SDG 16, Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Unlike the first event, which was held outside the UN Headquarters (but in a very nice venue), this conference was held at the UN Headquarters in East Manhattan. Having the chance to visit the Headquarters as an official delegate (with a badge! :)) was truly a dream come true. This conference also featured various panels overseen by moderators who guided conversations which took the main theme of SDG 16 and applied it to various themes. Besides the learning we did listening to the very inspirational speakers (which included the President of the UN General Assembly, the President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the UN Deputy Secretary-General, and the Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO)), I also had a chance to meet up with the UN Advisor I mentioned earlier. During our conversation on diplomacy and foreign service as a career, a personal invitation to a closed UN session on disarmament was extended to me!
While disarmament is out of the scope of the UN (at least in precise terms), it was a pleasure to have the chance to represent the ILF at this closed session, which occurred in a more intimate setting and featured specific attendees most relevant to the discussion, and was titled "UNDP and UN Peacebuilding and Peace Support Collaborative Event: 'Our Shared Responsibility: Supporting Pathways Out of Violence.'" Attending the event gave me the chance to learn about DDR, or Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration, which is the process of helping ex-combatants put down their weapons, leave armed groups, and transition into civilian life. Learning about the topic, and hearing from representatives of countries such as South Sudan and Haiti, gave me insight regarding another key part of justice, which may not be directly under the ILF's mandate, but is very relevant to our mission ultimately. This is because the ILF serves in countries with existing legal systems, by offering legal aid to the accused. DDR, however, applies to an era much before that — in countries in the midst of armed conflict and violent turmoil. In this sense, DDR is very relevant to justice, as it is an essential stepping-stone to a place where the rule of law can be enforced.
Challenges I Faced
The nature of my work was not conducive to significant challenges. However, I did encounter instances which required reflection before proceeding. For example, the development of my composite stories was a process of learning and refining various details. While my first draft was made purely based on the instructions of "merge multiple stories," the writing process quickly became more tedious, as we learned that an effective composite story required more than just mixed-up story points to be effective. Even with the guide, refining my stories involved meeting with my supervisor, taking her through my plans, submitting first drafts, and following up. Moreover, given the legal aspects of the case, such as the various charges and case outcomes, my supervisor and I constantly communicated to ensure that we were being faithful to a true storyline while ensuring our final stories could not be traced to anyone.
As I have mentioned in my other final deliverables, leadership does not require a title or position, but instead requires a commitment to values and the ability to see what others cannot. While, on paper, I would not satisfy the latter criterion, given that it was my supervisor who often orchestrated the bigger purpose of our work, I did have the chance to develop key leadership skills as I developed content and represented the ILF. Communication was naturally critical to my work, given that my role was to communicate our mission. In the context of leadership, however, communication goes beyond just writing — it entails the skill of carefully putting together content that is aware of the nuances of our work. An example of this is any content we produced regarding a certain country. While, at one time, the ILF operated in the country with significant freedom, recently, such liberty has waned due to the nation's political shifts. Given that the Foundation still operates there, it was essential for our content to fit the standards of the country, which sometimes meant that we could not use photos or discuss certain topics. This cultural awareness was a key competency I developed during my internship, as I repeatedly found the great importance of being aware of the cultural realities that I simply would not otherwise be aware of, if I were not guided by my supervisor or educated myself. Part of this is being culturally humble, and not applying personal biases or preconceived notions to situations in other cultures, but instead attempting one's best to understand them from the inside. Teamwork was another essential leadership skill which I had the chance to practice during my internship. Working with a fellow intern gave us both opportunities to rely on each other for inspiration, help, and guidance when needed. Moreover, working in a team gave us practice delegating tasks and coordinating projects, while catering to our own skills and interests.
Beyond interactions in the communications team, collaboration was required throughout the ILF team. Working in an office with multiple other people with various positions requires a constant awareness of others' needs. Whether this means ensuring one's conversation is not too loud, or ensuring that the temperature is appropriate for everyone, working effectively with a team goes beyond one's work and requires interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the ILF in the ways I have — from drafting composite stories to creating social media content to representing the Foundation externally. Things went very similarly to how I expected them to be, and I was able to practice and develop various key leadership skills, from approaching storytelling in a culturally sensitive manner to looking at the more interpersonal aspects of teamwork.