Synergy #33 Spring edition 2003 - European Law Students ...

26
Iulia Vass
Director for Human Rights
ELSA International
Four Years Of ELSA
and Human Rights
THE BEST FOUR YEARS OF MY LIFE
It is almost the time to draw another important
line of my life, as the University is ready
to kick me out by the end of this year. It is
almost the end of one of the best periods. A
period that has also been the beginning of my
maturity. It is not easy for me to tell the
story of the last four years. So many things
have happened, that many of them are only
shades in my memory. But there are a few
important episodes, which I would like to
remember, laugh and cry at together with
you, who left aside the ELSA work and the
law books in order to read these lines. And
most importantly, I would like to remember
the faces, the laughter, the sadness and the
love of all the wonderful friends and people
I have worked with during these four years.
How did I get involved with ELSA and
Human Rights? Four years ago, after
participating in the seminar “Rights of minorities
– de jure and de facto situations”, I sent an
application to Budapest for a project, which I
intended to organize the next summer. It was
something about organizing a group of law
students who were supposed to go to different
cities and villages in Transylvania in order to
teach Romanian and Hungarian students about
Minorities’ Rights. Being convinced that my
application was one of the best, I managed to
“fool” the Local Board of ELSA Bucharest to
appoint me as Director for Human Rights. I
did not receive the money for my grand project,
and after a few months, I was still trying to
figure out what ELSA was actually about and
what I was supposed to do as Director for
Human Rights. My motivation came from my
first international ELSA event, one of the best
trilaterals ever, in Fribourg, Switzerland,
gathering members from ELSA Bucharest,
ELSA Messina and ELSA Fribourg together.
The summer brought with it the Coimbra
Law School on Human Rights and Demo-
Magazine of The European Law Students’ Association
cratization. Two dream-weeks: Great courses,
great climate, great town, great ocean, and
most of all, great people. The fun, the
adventure, the sadness, the sleepless nights…
were all shared with great friends: Tove,
Vassiliki, Dragana, Irena, Eszter, Ivan, Robert
and Dora and so many other wonderful
participants. Of course, I don’t forget the OC
members, who offered us an unforgettable
Human Rights experience. One of the outcomes
of the Coimbra Law School was that I found
out about the existence of ELSA’s ICMs.
Which led to my next important step: the
Oresund ICM. Understanding the international
dimension of ELSA and meeting Cornelia
Schneider, the newly appointed DHR ELSA
International, were the best inspiration for my
desire to bring a change in ELSA Bucharest.
After these international experiences, I
came back home and started applying what I
have learned. By the end of October, I already
had a Human Rights Working Group composed
of 12 motivated girls, which immediately
started working: we set up an IHL LRG, a
practice at the Romanian National Council for
Refugees and started organizing the
International Human Rights Day Conference.
It was the first time when I first understood
how much responsibility organizing an event
implies, even if only a one day event, as you
have to think about so many things at the
same time: academic programme, fundraising,
speakers, rooms, materials, posters,
participants, coffee breaks, parties, and most
of all, organising and motivating people to work
for the project. Luckily, it was a success!
After being appointed DHR of ELSA
Romania and President of ELSA Bucharest,
in February I was a very happy person: being
in New York as an ELSA delegate to the VIIth
ICC Prep. Com. Entering the UN building, I
had the feeling that I was both important and
small at the same time. Meeting people like
Benjamin Ferencz, former Nuremberg
prosecutor, or Mrs. Paula Escarameia,
Portugal’s delegate and member of the
International Law Commission, I realized how
lucky I am to be an ELSA member and to
have the opportunity to sit next to living
legends. But the charm of my New York
experience was not only caused by the chance
to talk and work with diplomats and other
wonderful people. The UN Cafeteria
breakfasts with Sofia, our “head of state”,
the Spanish serenade in the hotel lobby with
Melina and Iason, the New York sightseeing,
Tiago’s disappointment for not managing to
convince me to fundraise for ELSA by going
to a casting of a modeling agency who tried
to recruit me, are only some of the
unforgettable people and moments of another
ELSA Human Rights experience.
Those weeks must have been some of
the most tiring weeks of my life, especially
since after only five days I joined the largest
delegation ELSA Romania ever had to an ICM,
to the XX Anniversary of ELSA and the
Vienna ICM. Meeting old and new friends,
working during the day and having fun during
the night is something that we always do
during the ICMs. But what made this ICM
special was the Human Rights Working
Group. I rarely saw so many ELSA Human
Rights Enthusiasts in the same place. We
made many plans, and even if not all were
realistic, there was an important outcome
of the Human Rights Working Group: we
went back home wiser and ready to work
harder. Therefore, the following months were
filled with projects: conferences, seminars,
editing ELSA Bucharest’s magazine, a
training weekend, and ELSA Romania’s NCM,
where, following the Vienna ICM example,
I organized the Human Rights Workshop.