Ending torture, now

Abstract

MY JOURNEY TO BECOMING A SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR began in 1994 when I walked into a prison in Cambodia and met a 12-year-old boy who had been tortured and denied access to counsel. I looked into his eyes and realized that although I had written hundreds of letters for political prisoners, I would never have written a letter for him. He was not a 12-yearold boy who had “done” something important for anybody; he was not a political prisoner; he was a 12-year-old boy who had stolen a bicycle. What I also realized at that point was that this didn’t happen only in Cambodia. This type of abuse is widespread in many countries. Every day in countries throughout the world people are detained, tortured, and denied access to counsel. Most of the victims are ordinary people, too poor to hire a lawyer to protect their rights. This abuse, I also realized, is 100 percent preventable because the majority of these same countries have passed laws to protect their citizen rights. However, they lack the international support and resources for proper implementation. Because of this awakening, in 2000 I founded International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) and began to organize, train, and support networks of defenders worldwide to undertake the work of ending torture and implementing due process rights.