Promoting Legal Skills Training for Independent Burmese Lawyers

The CEELI Institute, in partnership with Czech NGO Burma Center Prague, is again preparing to deliver another series of legal skills training sessions for independent Burmese lawyers, to be held this month in two regional Burmese cities. The trainings are

The CEELI Institute, in partnership with Czech NGO Burma Center Prague, is again preparing to deliver another series of legal skills training sessions for independent Burmese lawyers, to be held this month in two regional Burmese cities. The trainings are delivered as part of a long-term cooperation agreement with the Myanmar Lawyers Network (MLN), an organization of independent Burmese lawyers active in pro bono defense of politically prosecuted citizens and vulnerable populations. U.S. Judge Christopher Whitten and Polish law professor Marta Skrodzka will lead the training, which is focused on building practical advocacy skills.  The program will also address the role and experience of lawyers in a society transitioning from a totalitarian regime to democracy.

The training sessions predominantly target the younger members of the network, especially in the regions outside of the two main cities of Yangon and Mandalay. Their main focus is on advocacy skills in a very practical hands-on setting. The program, funded by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also focuses on experience from the transformation of the legal environment in Central Europe. In addition, the CEELI Institute also uses this project as a mechanism to provide traini-the-trainer support to selected network lawyers who will assume more responsibility in delivering training projects for their organization. Not least, the CEELI Institute and Burma Center Prague also continues its long-term institutional support and cooperation with the MLN leadership, a group of veteran Burmese lawyers who have fought for human rights in their country for the last four decades.

With the recent landslide election victory for Aung San Sui Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, the Burmese transition to genuine democracy continues; the process is far from done, but there is new hope that the investment of time and energy in the support and development of a cadre of principled lawyers providing willing to provide pro bono defense will be more important than ever.

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