Blog from abroad

Student Lindsay Toczylowski updates the USC Law community on her summer work in Nicaragua

Dear Friends and Family:

This is the first in an occasional series of blogs from USC Law students about their work in the U.S. and abroad. 3L Lindsay Toczylowski works with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nicaragua. She was an intern last summer at Centro de Mujeres Ixchen in Masaya, Nicaragua.

I came into this position not really knowing what to expect. I was concerned to be coming down here to work for a U.S. government agency, not knowing if this would be like a secular version of the thousands of church groups who come down to Nicaragua each year to save people from themselves.

I have found, however, that the work USAID is doing here is really fantastic; and on top of that, it is entirely carried out by Nicaraguans. The only other gringo here is the Deputy Chief of Party, my boss, Javier who is Puerto Rican. Other than him, our office is comprised of approximately 20 Nica attorneys and about ten other people from all over — Chile, Argentina, and principally Costa Rica. 

The program is officially called the USAID Rule of Law and Respect for Human Rights Project. We have five main project components: Criminal Justice and Prison System Institutional Strengthening, Judicial Independence Strengthening, Access to Justice Program, Public Involvement in Judicial Issues, and Law School Development.

For my first two weeks I have been basically observing, and working, with each program so I can get a better idea of what each component does. As a result, I have spent very little time actually in our office, but instead have been going to different events each day with different people. 

The author near Volcano Concepcion

I went to the inauguration of a mediation center in Esteli, an access-to-justice fair for kids in San Rafael del Sur, a Youth for Democracy summit in Leon, and a conference on arbitration here in Managua. I have also been doing some legal research on contractual issues and done A LOT of translating of legal documents and memos.

The main project I will be working on, in addition to assisting with various other Program projects, is within the Access to Justice Component. It is a project that will likely take me the rest of the summer.

Essentially I will be creating a tool to evaluate the differences between our alternative dispute resolution centers, depending on where they are located. For example, some of them are in universities, while others are in jurists associations or police stations. I will be designing a tool by which to measure the effectiveness of the centers and how that relates to their location, in particular whether the location affects the public’s confidence in the institution.

I will probably spend the next two weeks developing my methods, then six weeks in the field gathering the data, and then my last few weeks writing the report to be sent to DC. In the end, the information will be used to help USAID Nicaragua decide where to pursue new centers. 

These mediation centers are really important here for two reasons: 1) people have no faith in the regular courts because of a history of corruption, so they generally will not bring cases there whether they be criminal or civil; and 2) in minor criminal cases here it is common to keep people in pre-trial detention, and given the sometimes two-to-three-year backlog in the system, many people end up serving the maximum sentence possible for their crime many times over before they even get a trial.

Toczylowski atop an abandoned tank from the Contra war in the mountains of northern Nicaragua

The mediation and arbitration centers cut the adjudication time to less than four months and can be used for any misdemeanor case and, of course, for any civil case like family stuff, property, business dispute, etc. The goal of the mediation centers is really to increase access to justice for those groups who are traditionally excluded form the formal system, like domestic violence victims, sexual assault victims, indigenous persons, children, women, poor people and ethnic minorities. It's really exciting to work on something that has the potential to improve and cultivate the legal rights for such a huge group of people.

Nicaragua is as fascinating, beautiful and perplexing as I remember it. I feel ecstatic to be back here, it took me all of about three minutes to remember why I love this place so much. It is so green and tropical, people are incredibly friendly and accommodating, and everyone likes beer and politics.

My apartment is super cute and the owners are Nicaraguan cultural anthropologists who work for the United Nations Development Program. They seem really interesting so I can’t wait to get to know them better. They are working on a project to preserve indigenous languages on the Atlantic Coast. The apartment even has hot water and internet!

Much Love,
Lindsay

"It's injustice that motivates us to do something, to take risk, knowing that if we don't, things will remain the same," — Digna Ochoa