Horatia Hopper

Horatia Hopper
New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties
Sydney Australia

Below is my final blog post. I wrote it many weeks ago but in the midst of working and traveling, it seems I forgot to post it online! I am now back in New York, and looking back on my experiences in Australia, I can say that my time there was very informative and extremely necessary. I was truly able to examine the implementation of human rights. I also gained an inside look at how organizations such as the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) function, as well as the logistics of maintaining such organizations. I cannot believe how quickly it all went by. What an amazing time I had! I am so excited that I can fully present my findings to the fellowship advisory committee and the other fellows in October.

My work has significantly changed since I arrived in Sydney, and there are a few exciting developments to report! Firstly, after a discussion with my boss and the other interns, it was decided that all interns should work out of the head office in the city. So, for the last few weeks, I have been stationed in the office. This has been a really great change because it has allowed me to work more closely with the other interns in the office and really get the feel for the way a volunteer-run organization operates out of its home base.

The nature of my work has also changed. I now have a central project which focuses on Asylum Seeker policy in Australia, as well as a new project I will be starting on Monday regarding the recent ruling in the EU court on the right to be forgotten—that is, the right of an individual to petition a search engine (such as Google) to remove their name/information from a search result if that information is outdated or untrue. This project is going to be quite exciting, as I will be working closely with one of NSWCCL’s committee members, who is a prominent philosopher.

In addition to my main project, I have been working on smaller sub-projects. These have included responding to media articles or current events and writing short pieces for the website. I also implemented a spreadsheet for NSWCCL for them to keep track of intern projects and information. This has greatly helped internal communication and has made it easier for the interns to collaborate with each other.

After being at the internship for some time now, I have begun to closely examine how NSWCCL views human rights and how they learn the best way of gaining social justice for all. The organization takes a legal approach to a lot of the problems they address. For instance, their condemnation of acts such as privacy violations (e.g., data collection or phone monitoring) is shaped by the ways in which the government has broken the law. This is extremely interesting because there is a delicacy with which certain issues must be handled, and it showed me the channels that NSWCCL must go through to be taken seriously.

This has prompted me to think about how human rights violations are easier to confront when there are issues of legality behind the violation. I was surprised at just how legal this branch of human rights work was, and understanding this has led me to further consider law school.

The international focus of my work has manifested in ways that I didn’t necessarily anticipate or expect. For example, I thought I would be working directly with asylum seekers in Australia and around the world. I have instead focused on comparing the rights of asylum seekers here with those living elsewhere. Similarly, when looking at issues of privacy, I have been asked to compare Australian right to privacy legislation to that of the UK and the USA. It seems that this channel of international human rights work functions largely in a legal sphere as well.

With only two weeks left at my internship, I’m shocked at how quickly the time has gone by!

Horatia Hopper
New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties
Sydney, Australia

What a whirlwind! I have now been in Sydney for five weeks and the time really is flying by. I’m sure I’ll be wondering where all the time went when I head back to America in August.

I grew up in Sydney and left when I was 12, having been back only twice in ten years. I was raised by my parents with an understanding of Australian culture and with an Australian identity; however, it was inevitable that I picked up parts of American culture during my time there. Because of this, I found myself wondering if I would fit in with the lifestyle that I was entering, wondering if I would be considered an outsider in a place I thought of as home, wondering if I would find myself feeling like an outsider. I found this quite funny, as time and time again in our fellowship seminar, we discussed the politics of being an outsider but doing work within a community, and here I was already feeling the worries of a position that I had yet to fully even occupy.

Regardless of status as outsider, insider, tourist, or local, there is no doubt that Sydney is a beautiful city. I live in Bondi Beach—from my backyard I can hear the ocean and if I walk two minutes up the road I can see the vast expanse of one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen yet. I grew up and went to this beach as a child and it is strange to look upon these same waters as an adult; however, even though years have passed, the beach is just as amazing. The people are friendly and the culture is extremely relaxed, nothing like the bustling city of New York where everything and everyone is on the move. Here there is a sense that you can take your time and enjoy the view.

My work was originally going to be located at the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberty’s head office in Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD), however, the location changed last-minute to the president’s private legal offices in a different area of town. It takes a bit of a while to get there each day (about an hour and fifteen minutes each way) but it has allowed me to see parts of Sydney I haven’t seen before. My time has been highly productive and extremely interesting, teaching me a lot about human rights work and allowing me to take a step back and really examine the way human rights work actually takes place in the day-to-day lives of those who do this work. I’ve been excited about this as it was a key part of my focus for the fellowship—that is, asking the questions of who implements human rights? How does this work happen? Who does this work and why? And finally, what are the politics behind advocacy? My time here has certainly answered these questions, perhaps not in full but definitely in part.

My work so far has consisted of a lot of research, which has been very beneficial to me, particularly because I am not as intimately acquainted with Australian politics as someone who has lived here all their lives, particularly someone from New South Wales. My work at the organization is slightly different than what I expected; however, I am learning a lot and I am understanding more about human rights work in Australia. Last week I attended the committee meeting of the organization and it was extremely interesting to see the make-up of the committee members and to hear about the various ideas/issues discussed, as well as to see the ways in which the logistics of an organization like this take place. A lot of the work of the organization is through a legal channel and this has lead me to learn a lot about the legal system of Australia, particularly about the politicians and their interaction with society. I am currently working on a project to document the increase of police power implemented with amendments to the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act. My next task is tracking the case of an Australian citizen sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug trafficking. The variation within my work has allowed me to look at rights through a multitude of lenses.

Something that has caught my attention often is Australian politics in the media. A noticeable difference between Australian and American politics is the presence that Australian politicians have in the media and the direct interaction they have in participating in news stories and debates. Toby Abbott, the current Prime Minister of Australia, appears on news programs and interacts with people who call in or appear on the program and I often take note of this, as this seems less prevalent in the United States. Another funny aspect of this political arena is that there really is no limit to what is said here; the things called out by the media and stories that are aired probably wouldn’t be shown in the US and I appreciate the (somewhat) honesty of this, as it is refreshing to have this no-frills attitude.

Next week I am attending a talk about the freedom of speech. This should be extremely interesting and should provoke an interesting discussion with the panel members who are leaders within the human rights field in Australia.

There are other international interns at the office and it has been great to talk to them and exchange experiences about previous internships and collaborate on tasks for the organization. I love interacting with them and talking to them about various issues. We have an office lunch every Friday and we have gotten to know each other quite well!

So far, so good! Sydney has surprised me and intrigued me, and my work here continues to enlighten me. There is the possibility that I may be able to visit one of the detention centers for asylum seekers and refugees here in Australia. Fingers crossed that this happens, for I would love to have an opportunity to actually see the centers firsthand. I know this would be an extremely humbling experience were it to take place.