Defending Human Rights: A View from the Trenches

A discussion featuring Tiawan Gongloe (Liberia) and Javier Stauring (U.S.), award-winning human rights defenders working in the fields of international justice and juvenile justice.

In the 1990s, Tiawan Gongloe, one of Liberia's leading human rights lawyers, was deeply involved in the implementation and growth of the first human rights organizations to emerge in the country. After Charles Taylor came to power in Liberia, government security forces imprisoned, harassed, beat, and in a few cases, killed individuals who were critical of its policies. Gongloe never wavered in his criticism of Taylor's human rights abuses. Political detainees, independent journalists, human rights activists, and victims of abuse relied on him to defend their rights in the courtroom or demand their release. In April 2002, Gongloe was arrested without charge by the police, beaten so severely that he was unable to stand, and required hospitalization. After strong interventions by the international community, Gongloe was permitted to leave Liberia and travel to the U.S., where he and his family currently reside.

Javier Stauring is a lay chaplain who advocates on behalf of youth in the Los Angeles prison system and is committed to working for radical and systemic change of the justice system. He is the Coordinator of Juvenile Chaplains Archdiocese of Los Angeles/Prison Ministry Juvenile Justice

Advocacy Group, which provides direct ministry,

education, and advocacy on behalf of incarcerated youth and their families; encourages creative

approaches to crime prevention and alternatives to incarceration; and opposes policies that treat young offenders as though they are adults. Stauring has consistently been one of Human Rights

Watch's inside sources on the workings of the Los Angeles prison system, and has generated an

immense amount of publicity calling attention to

prison facilities and the problems of incarcerated youth.