GN summer fall09 Digital.indd - National Lawyers Guild

Guild Notes ▪ Summer/Fall 2009Good Morning Vietnam: NLG goes to Hanoiby Susan Scott and Eric SirotkinTwenty-five members of the NLG, including fourstudents subsidized by International Committee members,joined hundreds of lawyers from throughout the world atthe 17th Congress of the International Association of DemocraticLawyers (IADL) in Hanoi from June 6-10. Many of ustook advantage of the opportunity to visit the place that ourcountry had bombed in the 60s and 70sand meet the people who have rebuiltVietnam into the dynamic socialist/marketsociety that it is today.The IADL is the second oldestinternational non-governmental organization.Founded in 1946 by the NLGand progressive bar associations fromseveral other countries, the IADL hasits focus on furthering and facilitatingcommunication internationally aboutlegal work that furthers the principals ofpeace and the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights. It holds a Congress everyfour years to address its members’work on international human rights andelect its leadership.The Congress, held at the magnificentNational Convention Center onthe outskirts of Hanoi, was a powerfulexperience for all of us. After serving asIADL Secretary General for the past four years, InternationalCommittee co-chair Jeanne Mirer was elected the first womanpresident of the IADL. NLG President Marjorie Cohn waselected to the IADL Bureau; NLG law students convenedthe first student meeting of the IADL where they exchangedstories and tears with Vietnamese students; and we createdthe NLG IC’s first blog of an international delegation wherepeople at home could follow some video talks and read thedelegation’s experiences while they were unfolding (seewww.nlgic.blogspot.com).The main thoroughfares of Hanoi were bedecked withbeautiful red silk banners welcoming the IADL to Hanoi, thePresident of Vietnam addressed the Congress at its openingsession (watch his speech live on the IADL Video pagehttp://www.vimeo.com/groups/nlgic/), and the Vietnamesemedia covered the proceedings. The local IADL affiliate, theVietnam Lawyers Association, did a magnificent job of organizingthe Congress logistics, including supplying visitingdelegations with convenient bus transportation to the conventioncenter and a plethora of enthusiastic young volunteerassistants who were studying English at universities in Hanoi.Eric Sirotkin with Agent Orange victim veteranwho was doused with the chemical.Photo courtesy of Eric Sirotkin.The Congress followed shortly upon the U.S. SupremeCourt’s April decision to deny cert for the IADL-sponsoredlawsuit by Agent Orange (AO) victims against the chemicalcompanies that produced the toxin, and the IADL’s subsequentTribunal of Peoples of Conscience in support of theVietnamese Victims of Agent Orange, held in Paris in May.NLG members Claudia Morcom and NLG President MarjorieCohn, both present in Hanoi, served on the Tribunal, whosefindings and recommended actionwere presented to the Congress and theVietnamese government. Pursuant tothe Tribunals’ recommendations, a commissionwill be convened to calculatedamages and reparations due to the AOvictims and their communities. Manyof our delegation visited the FriendshipVillage, a school and resident facilityset up for the victims of Agent Orangeby Vietnam War vets from all sides.There you can see the damage wroughtby introducing this poison into the DNAof so many sprayed over the years inVietnam. Read Marjorie Cohn’s movingarticle on Agent Orange on the blog.The IADL has member organizationsfrom 100 different countries, andapproximately 35 were present at theCongress, including a delegation of75 progressive attorneys from Japan,involved primarily in peace and labor issues.Two of the five days of the Congress were dedicated tosix “commissions”—day-long workshops on the topics of:• The Right to Peace• Anti-Terrorism Legislation• Accountability for International Crimes• Independence of the Judiciary• Globalization and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights• Development and Environmental RightsEach commission was chaired by an IADL leader and apanel of specialists, and a keynote speech was followed by 5-10 speakers, translated into English, French and Vietnamese,and question/answer periods. Many others submitted papers.Luncheons and coffee breaks provided opportunities for delegatesattending different commissions to mingle and shareinformation. See the report on the conference and the manyresolutions for social justice passed at www.iadllaw.org.Topics related to the Right to Peace included Eric Sirotkin’spresentation on the need for a peace treaty with North▪ 14 ▪