At Work

The first three days in the OSI office – I’m not gonna lie – were a little dull, a little too much like the first year of law school: Lots of reading, interrupted with frequent checks of Facebook, iwiw, or some other kindly reminder that the rest of the world is more interactive than casebooks. Sure, there was more of a point to the reading this time around, I was learned all the background information about Freedom of Information that I needed to know, but sometimes it’s hard to appreciate background work, even if every glance out the window catches the spires of St. Istvan’s Baszilika.

But then came Thursday afternoon and a phone call. Just before I was ready to pack it in for the day, a voice on the other end of the line gave me a mission. Like a game of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, the mysterious voice from New York – it belongs to a certain Sandy – gave me an adventure, a puzzle, a project.

What, she wanted to know – and had wanted to know since the day before, but had only asked an e-mail account that hadn’t yet been activated – were some of the monitoring mechanisms that the Council of Europe used to supervise various human rights initiatives in the past. How did the Council’s Committee of Ministers delegate the task of watching over member states in key areas like the racism and intolerance, the prevention of torture, the protection of national minorities, upholding the European social charter and fighting human-trafficking? And what could we learn from those structures (organizations, tools, methods, etc.) as the Justice Initiative helps recommend the best monitoring methods for the Council’s upcoming Freedom of Information convention?

So Friday morning I dove into international law and the realm of the Council of Europe. The Council’s website was just about my only source of information. Adequate, if not well-rounded. So I plunked away for eight hours until I’d found a slew of information, some more helpful than other parts. I e-mailed off a narrative report and chart to New York and Abuja, Nigeria. Monday morning, when I came back, an e-mail box full of feedback, other ideas, etc. Time zones are fun. There can always be an e-mail and an assignment waiting in the morning. When I finish in the afternoon, I send it off, knowing that when the seven hours of difference work themselves out between here and New York, I’ll have all my questions answered come tomorrow.