With her gall to think big, Karen realized early big-league problems require big-league solutions. So she moved to Geneva, Switzerland with its international reputation for human rights organizations. Flying back and forth between China and Switzerland, Karen worked hard at building a network of support for IBJ in both places. She met with government officials, lawyers, and funders and enlisted them to her cause. Karen strategically built alliances in the powerful center so that she could extend her work to the powerless margins.
Bit by bit, IBJ started gaining ground. Karen negotiated a
groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Chinese
government to work with them in instituting a criminal legal
development program within the Chinese legal services system. IBJ has
mobilized as many as 3,000 law students to distribute more than half a
million posters and brochures outlining the rights of criminal
defendants in China. IBJ also trained over 1000 criminal defense
lawyers throughout China, helped support 2,800 legal aid offices and
held over 50 mini-conferences. Posters declaring defendants’ rights
have been printed in the languages of the most persecuted—Tibetan,
Uigher and Mongolian.
Today IBJ’s work in China spans prestigious law schools and far-flung provinces, policymakers and police stations. This multi-pronged strategy is being replicated in several emerging democracies. These are the same ideas that were initially dismissed as unrealistic by lawyers, business people, and nonprofit organizations.
The success of IBJ has not made Karen complacent. On the contrary, she is actively seeing possibilities for the future and identifying solutions to even bigger problems. She foresees that IBJ will go beyond being just a legal program to become an important part of a wider people’s movement for social change. Karen is spearheading the creation of “communities of conscience” that will empower not only lawyers and activists but also ordinary citizens. She knows that given the right opportunities and effective means, countless others will fight for human rights. Her deep faith in herself and in others makes Karen’s journey not just extraordinary but also exemplary.
