Melody Burke: Beyond Borders as a Legal Intern with Canadian Lawyers Abroad
Melody Burke is completing her CLA-ACE internship with Beyond Borders in Ottawa, Ontario.
My internship at Beyond Borders ECPAT has been an eye-opening experience.
When I first began the internship, I did not know what to expect in terms of workload or even content, to a major extent. I knew Beyond Borders was an organization whose focus was advancing the rights of children, specifically targeting sexual abuse and exploitation. I did not realize the various forms of sexual abuse and exploitation that existed in the world involving children.
However, I soon learnt about child trafficking, child marriage, online child exploitation, female genital mutilation, etc. by updating the website’s Fact Sheets, which involved all of these topics and more. In order to update the Fact Sheets, it was necessary to research the current status of various bills and statistics, update references, and review the new trends and cases that have emerged on each subject.
(Above) At a conference in Toronto called the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto Symposium at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Cindy Blackstock and Alanis Obomsawin give a talk discussing the "Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on First Nations Child Welfare".
After I completed updating the Fact Sheets for the website, I began working with Mr. Mark Hecht, the Co-founder and Senior Legal Counsel at Beyond Borders, on his report that highlights the status of sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, specifically by drafting a section called “MENA at the Committee on the Rights of the Child”. Once the section was completed, I was tasked with my current assignment of answering four research questions to supplement the paper.
My internship with Beyond Borders has already greatly expanded my view of children’s rights, both locally and globally, as well as reminding me why I was fascinated in law in the first place.
(Above) At the same conference, Michele Anderson and Bruce Rivers give a talk on "Sex Trafficking and Homeless Youth: A Solution-Focused Approach".
Learning about the many injustices in the world can be disheartening, but nothing is more hopeful and encouraging than realizing that there are ways to legally combat social injustice, such as changing a legal infrastructure or improving victim treatment. I have looked forward to all my projects this summer and learning more about children’s rights and international law.