The Reprieve Volunteer Programme places enthusiastic volunteers in the office of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), where they work either assisting with the representation of defendants facing execution, investigations and litigation related to extraordinary renditions and other abuses emanating from the so-called “war on terror”, or on research and litigation directed towards systemic reform.
Volunteers are placed for a minimum of 3 months at JPP, which is dedicated to capital defence and secret prisons and extraordinary renditions work in Pakistan and is based in Lahore. The volunteer placements are completely self-funded; that is, the volunteer must pay for all costs of travel, accommodation and living expenses while in the placement.
The work performed by Reprieve volunteers has proved vital to the JPP, which is a non-profit organisation working in a notoriously under-funded field. Reprieve volunteers are the only way in which the JPP is able to meet the demands of its caseload.
In addition to the benefit to the JPP and its clients, volunteer placements are a richly rewarding experience for the volunteers themselves, offering the unique experience of working in a foreign country and providing humanitarian relief to those in need while learning about another legal system.
Types of work
On arrival at their placement, Reprieve Volunteers are given in-house training and more basic tasks designed to make them familiar with the host office and the requirements of the work. Thereafter, the work can be extremely varied depending upon the needs of the office at the particular time. The abilities, skills and willingness of the volunteer combined with the workload of the host office largely dictate which tasks volunteers will perform.
Depending on whether the volunteer speaks the local language (Urdu), the nature of the work and the work practices will differ. However, the tasks may include:
File Management: Some of the most useful work performed by a volunteer is file management. Volunteers may find themselves either organising or updating a file, including; organisation of a file (paginating, preparing annotated indexes etc.), preparation of team documents (address lists, timelines, case status sheets etc.); preparation of notebooks for use in court (witness statements, pleadings, exhibits); and preparation of trial summaries involving lengthy transcripts.
Investigation: The investigation of the guilt or penalty aspects of a capital trial or in post-conviction proceedings may include a fact-finding exercise involving either direct interviews of potential witnesses or collection of documents.
Volunteers who speak the local language may also be involved in some witness interviews. These will be conducted with prosecution or defence witnesses (including both eyewitnesses and mitigation witnesses), surviving victims or their victim’s families, or defendants. In the case of a defendant, a jail or prison visit will be required to conduct the interview; otherwise interviews are usually held at the residence of the interviewee. Detailed memos are expected to be prepared within 48 hours of the completion of interviews.
Research: Drafting motions or appearing in court is the exclusive domain of the practising Pakistan qualified lawyers. However, a volunteer may be requested to research a certain legal issue and draft a memorandum outlining the law on the issue. English is the official legal language of Pakistan, and is therefore widely used in court. Certainly all High Court and Supreme Court decisions are reported in English and as a result it is perfectly possible for non-Urdu speakers to conduct research ahead of hearings. Volunteers may also be asked to proof read or perhaps edit a legal document prior to it being filed with the appropriate court.
Reprieve Volunteers in the past have also engaged in research and litigation directed at systemic reform, rather than just individual cases, and have provided support with administrative and fundraising tasks.
Workloads
Reprieve volunteers in Pakistan are expected to work hard, particularly during times of high demand, such as trials.
Person Specification
Reprieve Volunteers must be unshakeably opposed to the death penalty and to abuses perpetrated during the so-called “war on terror”. Maturity and self-sufficiency are critical given the demands of the work and the placement in a foreign country. Scant resources mean that supervision will often be minimal and so the ability to work independently is of paramount importance.
A Reprieve Volunteer is placed into a busy office with staff stretched to their limits in terms of what can be achieved in a day and it is important that the volunteer's presence be a help rather than a hindrance. Volunteers must respect the host office environment, and be sensitive to the personal impact of death penalty and secret prisons work on the lawyers and investigators who do it every day for years on end. Volunteers should also be aware that they will rarely receive the praise or acknowledgement for their work that they deserve, simply because of the extreme time pressure their supervisors are forced to operate under.
Volunteers must have respect for the social environment in which they are working. Lahore can be a socially and politically conservative region in Pakistan. A volunteer needs to bear this in mind, and not assume that his/her views are shared by the people he/she encounters in the course of the work. Volunteers must also be mindful of the inherent security risks involved in working in Pakistan, and not expose themselves to unnecessary risk.
It must be stressed that a great deal of the work that a volunteer is expected to do will be simply to provide administrative assistance to attorneys working on active cases. As a result, if you are not prepared to spend the majority of your time doing filing, photocopying and running errands, then volunteering with Reprieve is not for you.
Applicants will be judged against the following criteria:
Essential
- Be over 21 and fluent in written and spoken English;
- Be available to volunteer for at least three months and able to financially support yourself for the duration of the placement;
- Be committed to Reprieve’s aims, in particular, assisting in the provision of effective legal representation and humanitarian assistance to those facing the death penalty, torture and/or detention without trial at the hands of the state;
- Be unequivocally opposed to the death penalty and the abuses perpetrated during the so-called “war on terror”;
- Have a commitment to volunteer charitable service for the poor, including a willingness to perform repetitive and unglamorous tasks;
- Have a commitment to performing volunteer service with humility and with respect for both those served and others working in the field;
- Be mature and independent, with a strong sense of personal responsibility;
- Be able to manage living in a foreign country and in the workplace;
- Have an ability to work well with others and fit in well in the office;
- Have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including clear written and oral expression;
- Be willing and able to work long hours, including weekends and evenings while working under pressure and meeting deadlines;
- Be proficient with word processing software;
- Have attended Reprieve’s death penalty training day (or listened to the sessions on MP3) before commencing the placement;
- Have attended a security briefing at Reprieve’s office;
- Be familiar with and agree to abide by Reprieve’s volunteer policy statement.
Non-essential (but desirable)
- Be fluent in written and spoken Urdu;
- Have a driving license and driving experience;
- Have previous volunteer experience;
- Have experience in any of these areas: mental illness, mental retardation, criminal justice, prisons and prison visiting, poverty, race or class;
- Have additional computer skills, e.g. spreadsheets, databases and, on-line research tools.
You will need a Pakistan visa to participate in the programme. Details of visa requirements are available on the embassy website.
Obtaining a visa is the sole responsibility of the volunteer. Acceptance into the Volunteer Programme is required before you can attend any visa interview. If you are accepted as a volunteer, Reprieve and JPP will provide the supporting documentation required for the interview.
When to go to the Pakistan
Normally, Reprieve Volunteer placements last for 3 – 6 months, from October to May. This is when we encourage volunteers to apply, as applications are much more likely to be successful.
Reprieve is able to place only a limited number of volunteers over the summer period. The reason for this is that during the summer, the Justice Project tends to fill its volunteer positions with Pakistani law students. The application process for this time of year is extremely competitive, and Reprieve receives more applications than there are available placements.
Applicants should make clear on their application what their proposed dates are so that they may be considered. We strongly recommend that they apply at least four months in advance of their commencement date.
Costs
The volunteer pays all costs associated with the placement, including visa fees, travel costs and living expenses. Reprieve is not able to provide any funding to volunteers.
Travel costs associated with being a Reprieve volunteer can be high. The cost of airfares to Pakistan is variable but in the range of £550-600 and a visa costs approximately £100. It is also a requirement of the programme that volunteers take out travel insurance including health insurance that provides cover at the highest level.
- Past Reprieve volunteers have provided estimates of the cost of spending 3 months in Pakistan. These estimates of course depend upon location and lifestyle, but a basic cost for three months is estimated to be approximately £1,200-2,800.
Previous volunteers have been very creative about how they have raised the funds to pay for their volunteer placement, from sponsored athletic feats to taking on an extra job, to moving back in with their parents for six months to save on rent.
The JPP may be able to assist volunteers in finding accommodation.
Visas
You will need a Pakistan visa to participate in the programme. Details of visa requirements are available on the embassy website.
Once accepted, volunteers need to get their visa application underway - it is the sole responsibility of the volunteer to obtain a visa. This must be done at the Pakistani Embassy in London and takes around a month to arrive. If you are accepted as a volunteer, Reprieve and JPP will provide the supporting documentation required for the visa application.
How to Apply
To apply, you will need to send the following to Tom Kemp tom.kemp@reprieve.org.uk:
- This application form (download below) completed and saved with the following filename: name.application.doc. (E.g. If you name was John Smith, the application form would need to be saved as johnsmith.application.doc)
- Current curriculum vitae [name.cv.doc]
- A sample of your professional or academic writing [name.sample.doc]
- Recent digital photo (head and shoulders only) saved as a JPEG [name.photo.jpg]
- Scanned copy of photo page of passport [name.passport.pdf or name.passport.jpg]
Applications will be judged on match of skills and ability of the applicant to do the work to be performed in Pakistan. All the information given by each applicant in his or her application form will be considered. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer everyone an interview, and as a result, some applications will be considered unsuccessful without progressing to the interview stage.
If you reach the interview stage, you will be interviewed either over the telephone or via Skype by the appointed person at JPP. This will normally be on a weekday during work hours. Unfortunately, given the considerable time difference (depending on the location of the applicant), this may be at an inconvenient time for the interviewee.
If you are accepted we will pass your file onto Justice Project Pakistan, who will handle your placement from that point forward.
If a successful applicant becomes unable to take up the placement for personal reasons, prompt notice is appreciated.
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