international lawyer

>>kimberley motley: at the age of 15, gulnazwas raped by her cousin and became pregnant as a result.she talked to me about going to the police with her mother. and when she went there,they didn't take her seriously. she was ignored. unfortunately, she was in prison as a resultof this rape. when i met her in prison, she also describedto me going to court and how when she went to court, she didn't have an attorney thatrepresented her, and that she wasn't allowed to speak in court.without having legal representation, she was berated for being raped.the judges decided to give her a 12-year sentence, but told her that if she married her attacker,that she would be free.

i met her in the prison with her two-year-olddaughter, mushka (phonetic), and at the time, she didn't know exactly everything that happenedin court, but she knew she was entitled to something. and she knew she was entitled tosome level of protection within the legal system.so we talked about what her options were, and so we decided to take this case to thesupreme court. and at the supreme court, the judges decided to give her a three-year sentenceand told her that she doesn't have to marry her attacker.but this wasn't good enough, because gulnaz had served two years with her daughter inprison, and what that meant, she had one more year to serve.so, basically, after everything was said and

done, we decided to write a pardon applicationto president karzai. in this application, we talked about how it was illegal for herto be charged with rape as a victim, even in afghanistan.and we also talked about how we'd best present this to president karzai.usually, with a pardon application, i think that it's a good idea to have letters fromfamily and friends. but, unfortunately, gulnaz did not have any family that supported her.and so we decided to put on an online petition to people around the world to sign. and after6,000-plus signatures, i then took this document to the presidential palace, to president karzai.and so when i showed up there, basically, his guards were kind of surprised. and theywere just, like, you can't just come up in

here and drop off stuff for the president.[ laughter ] and so my response was, like, really? youcan't do that? and so we kind of stood there and looked ateach other for quite some time. and i told them, i said, listen, i have something togive him, and he has to read this. so i don't know what we're going to do here, but i'mnot going anywhere until he gets this. and so long story short, they finally acceptedthis document, and president karzai received it, and it became the first presidential pardonthat an afghan president gave to a woman for a moral crimes case in afghanistan.in addition to this, we further lobbied to president karzai, and then he decriminalizedrunning away as a crime in afghanistan, a

crime that for centuries women had been oppressedwith and that was illegal, he decriminalized because of gulnaz.and then in addition to that, the president, as well as the attorney general's office,decided to create a unit within the attorney general's office where women could specificallygo to report if they were victims of violence. and in a country where over 90% of the womenare victims of domestic violence, this was a huge victory not only for gulnaz, but alsofor afghan women throughout the country. in 2008, i went to afghanistan, and i wentthere to -- as an opportunity. it was the first time that i had traveled out of thecountry. and so i had to get my passport, obviously. and i went there originally ona nine-month project to train and mentor afghan

defense attorneys. and so what became a jobended up being a mission. and in this year that i was there, the firstyear that i was there, i went to different prisons around the country, and i talked tohundreds of people. and i talked to them about what happened to them in court. and i foundthat many people weren't given a voice. they didn't have a lawyer. they weren't allowedto speak. they didn't have legal representation. they were being tortured, abused and, railroadedby the legal system. and i also talked to many businesses thatwere operating in afghanistan, many global corporations. and i heard stories of systematicextortion by persons within the government that were working within afghanistan, forpeople that just wanted to have a viable business

in the country.and so i decided to open my own practice. and, originally, with my practice, i choseto represent global companies as well as foreigners that were charged with criminal offenses inafghanistan. and in doing this representation, i met people like gulnaz. and i realized thesimilarities between people not being represented from businesses to human rights clients.and so i decided to -- and i sort of developed a purpose. and my purpose was what i callmy justness. and what this means to me is using laws in the ways that they're meantto be used to protect people. and so it was -- became my legal truth. andi found that the best way for me to receive my justness for myself, as well as my clients,was by working the system from the inside

out. and so, therefore, i became a globalinvestor in human rights. ultimately, rule of law, if you build a system,it improves the economic and social development of any emerging market, especially in afghanistan.there's some economic benefits to supporting human rights. basically, it's the best wayto combat corruption. and afghanistan is the number one most corrupt country in the world.an investment in rule of law improvements the transparency. it makes people accountableto a legal system. and there are consequences to people that abuse their power. and i chooseto do this by working the system from the inside out, which i think is very important.and by improving people's lives, you're not only improving their lives as individuals,but you're improving the wider community's

lives.religious oppression is another big issue that we've seen of late. and so when you oppresssomeone's religion, it creates a very toxic environment for violent extremism to takehold. and when people are denied their right to practice their beliefs, they become morealienated, more vulnerable, and they become more resentful of the system that they'rein. and sometimes they choose to join extremist groups which support very draconian laws againstthe wider community. baljit singh was an afghan sikh in afghanistan.in the 2000s, the taliban targeted sikhs and were, unfortunately, killing sikhs, and sohim and his family decided to flee from afghanistan. and he eventually ended up in the united kingdom.when he was in the u.k., baljit decided to

seek asylum. and, unfortunately, he was deniedasylum. and his basis was that his religious beliefs were being oppressed in afghanistan.after being unjustly denied asylum, the u.k. government flew him back to afghanistan. it'sillegal for afghanistan and the u.k. to send somebody back to a country if there is a reasonablebelief that they will be tortured for their religious belief. but they did that to himnonetheless. when he arrived in afghanistan, he was immediatelyimprisoned, right from the plane. and while in prison, he was forced to convert to islam,he was denied the right to practice his religion, and he was tortured and abused and enslavedwithin the system. for almost two years, this happened to him.and so when baljit sort of came to my attention,

he started representing him. and we approachedthe afghan government and asked questions, and asked why was he being denied his rightto freedom, which he was entitled to. and so, ultimately, the afghan governmentagreed with what i knew was right, which is basically that he was unjustly imprisoned,and he was released as a result. but that wasn't good enough, because it wasn't justthe afghan government that was the problem. the u.k. government also had a duty of careto baljit. and so we then contacted the u.k. governmentand said, you know, he should not have been denied asylum and he has a right to protection.so, long story short, the u.k. government decided to give him -- to take him back, andhe was granted asylum. and now he's in the

u.k., going to school and working.now, i love my job. but my job, there are some risks that are involved in it. i mean,i've been called a spy; i've been detained; i've been accused of running a brothel. iknow. it's just -- a brothel. and then someone threw a grenade at my office.who throws grenades at brothels? i don't know. but that's what they did.so but in my job, i find that the rewards far outweigh the risks.and i know that the world is closing in on us and what were once individual problemsare now our problems. i grew up in a world where my eight-year-old daughter, she onlyknows a black president. there's a great possibility that a woman will be the next president. andno disrespect, mr. carter, but when my daughter

becomes voting age, she will probably askme, "can a white guy be a president?" [ laughter ]so what started in afghanistan can translate to other countries. all these cases, they'reall blueprints of the possibilities of what can be done if you use your justness, if youuse the laws in the way that they're meant to be used, which is to protect individuals.it's teaching the systems to respect their own laws. and it's the best way to build justice,i believe, is by working the laws from the inside out, in the ways that they are meantto be used, and to also become a global investor in human rights.a corporate investment in human rights is a capital gain on your businesses. and i knowthis because i have a business in afghanistan

and also that's what i support.i believe that we as a business community -- no, i know that we as a business community,we need to be more vocal on rule of law issues, especially as it relates to human rights.we have a responsibility to work collectively, to bring the leverage of the private sectoron governments, to make them accountable for what they do against individuals, becauseit doesn't just affect them. it affects all of us.unicef just reported in july that currently there are over 700 million women under theage of 18 who are married. 700 million. that's double -- more than double the populationof the u.s. right now. statistically it's been shown that girls thatmarry under the age of 18 are more likely

to be uneducated, they're more likely to bevictims of domestic violence, and they're more likely to have health issues as it relatesto childbirth. sahar gul, at the age of 12, was married toher 30-year-old husband. her brother sold her for $5,000.when she went into her in-law's house, they asked her -- they wanted her to prostitute.and so she refused to do that. so as a result of her refusal, she was tortured, she wasbeaten, she was burned, she was starved to death, she was tied up in the basement forhours, and they did this for months and months and months.at one point in time, sahar was able to escape from her house to the neighbor's house, butinstead of protecting her, they dragged her

back to the house and she was tortured evenmore. when the afghan authorities found out aboutthis, there was a big media frenzy in afghanistan and they came hard -- they pretended to comedown hard on the mother-in-law, the father-in-law and the sister-in-law. however, once the cameraswent away, then they released people and they basically didn't feel there wasn't a needto protect sahar. when we sort of got connected, we talked aboutwhat her options were again, and what her justness was. and so we decided to take thiscase to the supreme court because she has a right to be protected.and at the supreme court, we wanted her in-laws to be punished for what they did to her. wewanted the in-laws to be punished, we wanted

her husband to be punished for what he did,as well as her husband -- excuse me; her brother to be punished for selling her.and so a girl who was once too shy to look me in the eye when i first met her found herjustness and she found her voice. in the supreme court, we spoke up togetherabout what she was entitled to as a victim. and it was beautiful, because this was thefirst time in afghanistan that a woman, or any person for that matter, had an attorneyto represent them in court, despite the fact that there was a law on the books for yearsand years. in addition to asking for criminal punishments, we also asked for civil compensationbecause as a victim, she again had a right to that but it was another law that was sorelyunderutilized. so in front of 12 justices,

me as an american woman, her as a teenageafghan woman, we talked to them, and we talked to them about how she was entitled to be protectedand they agreed. and they re-arrested people, and now they're being prosecuted for whatthey did to her. ultimately --[ applause ] thank you.ultimately, these cases are not just about, you know, one girl that was raped or a girlthat was a victim of domestic violence over here or about a religious persecution case.they represent so much more. all these cases are blueprints that can translateanywhere in the world. and we node to use these blueprints to show others how they canachieve their justness.

and while these are legal victories and they're,to a certain extent, anomalies, they represent the possibilities; the possibility that evenin the number one most corrupt country in the world that you can use the laws in theways that they're intended to be used, which is to protect.instability of laws perpetuates the inability of emerging markets to compete in a globaleconomy. and i'm not telling you what i think. i'm telling you what i know. and what i knowis that i'm a global investor in human rights, and you can be a global investor in humanrights. and by working together, we can really make changes. because through businesses andindividuals using law as our common thread, we can collectively work together to bringthe leverage of the private sector, the public

sector, and the people sector on governmentsto make them more accountable to following their own laws so they can protect peoplein the way that they were intended to be used. by doing this, we help gulnaz, we help herdaughter mushka, we help baljit, sahar gul, and so many more people, including ourselves,and we can improve these global markets and the global human rights economy, and we canall achieve our justness together. thank you.[ applause ]