LSE - Small Logo
LSE - Small Logo

Bethan Wilson

January 18th, 2019

Volunteering with LSE Student Division of Lawyers Without Borders

0 comments | 5 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Bethan Wilson

January 18th, 2019

Volunteering with LSE Student Division of Lawyers Without Borders

0 comments | 5 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

On Tuesday 22 January, the LSE Volunteer Centre will be collaborating with the LSE Student Division of Lawyers Without Borders to bring students a one-off volunteering session to transcribe anti-slavery manuscripts. The session will run from 1pm-3pm in LSE LIFE, and is a chance for LSE students to get involved in discovering the correspondence between anti-slavery activists! 

What is Lawyers Without Borders?
Lawyers Without Borders
(LWOB) is an international non-profit organisation that harnesses the work of lawyers around the world towards rule of law, capacity building, and access to justice initiatives. Projects that the organisation works on range from trial advocacy training and mediation training, to policy guidance and various forms of community outreach. All of which provides invaluable opportunities to promote the significance of the rule of law, while encouraging discourse about human rights related issues.

What is the Student Division?
As a student division of the parent organisation LWOB, the LSE Student Division see this event (transcribing anti-slavery manuscripts) as a fantastic opportunity to promote the rule of law and uphold access to justice in our own capacity. Slavery is undeniably a tragic and pressing issue that deprives humans of dignity and liberty. Thus, they believe it is crucial to play a part in keeping it’s history alive and to prevent slavery from occurring, and a part of this involves ensuring that archives are updated, and that transcripts are accessible.

Why did you choose to volunteer your time to LWOB?

“Personally, I joined LWOB to foster an understanding of law as an approachable means of attaining security and justice. With the relative comfort of our lifestyles, consisting of family and friends who support us, we often forget that we live in an unbalanced world. While the legal system exists for the administration of justice, it is often inaccessible to those who urgently need it. Simply, this inaccessibility is due to burdening legal costs. Pragmatically, this inaccessibility is also due to the intimidating processes involved, which gives the impression that the legal system operates with its own language. Thus, by joining LWOB, I had a strong motivation to decode this enigmatic language by encouraging students to actively invest in learning more about the rule of law and human rights. Moreover, having been involved in NGOs back in home in Hong Kong, I wanted to use the skills I obtained form my work with NGOs to my work with LWOB. As I created a swimming programme to help refugees in Hong Kong regain their confidence, I wanted to encourage LWOB to host more interactive events (E.g. scavenger hunts, a ’runathon’) so students can actively participate in meaningful events surrounding important issues” – Nicola, Events Manager of LSE Student Division of LWOB

 

“I personally decided to run for President for Lawyers Without Borders after serving as Public Relations Manager for a year. The society had only been established for two years at the time I ran, and I was intrigued by the capacity for the society to develop, as well as the international reach of the organisation. The organisation’s projects currently span across three continents; projects include educating law enforcement agencies about human trafficking and wildlife crime, as well as indexing and transcribing case law to online platforms. In this sense, the organisation’s transcription work is quite similar to our anti-slavery transcription event.

Although the organisation currently does not have any opportunities for students to work on the ground with lawyers, we are hoping to raise funds to sponsor students to do so either this year or next. In the meantime, the most direct way to get involved with the society is through its Rule of Law Innovation Challenge, where students (both Law and non-Law) compete every March to create a winning solution to various tasks. The organisation will fully implement the winning tasks. This year’s tasks include creating public service campaigns or literature to combat violent extremism, wildlife crime, or gender and domestic violence, or to promote reliable evidence processing. We are currently looking for members to join our competition team; I believe that the topical nature of these tasks and the positive impact of winning solution really makes this experience a worthwhile one.” – Steph, President of LSE Student Division of LWOB

How can I get involved?
If you are interested to get involved with LWOB or find out more about the society, you can reach them via their Facebook Page: Lawyers Without Borders Student Division at LSE. If you have specific questions about the organisation or the student division, the committee will be at the event and happy to answer questions.

Please sign up for the one-off volunteering session on CareerHub!

 

If this has inspired you to volunteer, check out one of our other 200+ ongoing opportunities or book a one-to-one with David Coles, the Volunteer Centre Manager if you have more questions. If you are short on time, then take a look at the one-off opportunities taking place in Lent Term organised by the LSE Volunteer Centre. And why not follow us on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram to stay up-to-date with our events and opportunities and read our blog for more volunteering tips and stories.

 

Share

About the author

Bethan Wilson

Beth’s main responsibilities are working with a fantastic team of Student Volunteering Ambassadors and coordinating the centre’s marketing and communications. As an LSE alumni, Beth strives to put the LSE student experience at the heart of everything the Volunteer Centre does.

Posted In: Charity | LSE Careers | NGO | Politics and political communications | Type of organisation | Volunteer Centre

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Bad Behavior has blocked 1545 access attempts in the last 7 days.