Interview with Pascal Paradis, Lawyers Without Borders
This month CCIC chatted with Pascal Paradis, Executive Director of Lawyers Without Borders
CCIC: Lawyers Without Borders Canada currently works in Latin America, Haiti and Africa. Among other activities, you are participating in the observation of the trial of Berta Cáceres (environmental leader murdered in 2016) in Honduras, with a coalition of national and international organizations. What are the issues associated with the work that you do on politicized and contentious files? What lessons do you draw from it?
Pascal Paradis: Our work very often focuses on complex and delicate files, which are strongly anchored in the country’s current social and policy debates. The rule of law, governance, human rights, and access to justice are very political concepts. However, we engage on these issues from a legislative perspective rather than a political one. All of our interventions are based on international and national law.