Street Law Bhutan Style

Just past the Shaba Secondary School entrance is a roof with red hot chiles drying on top. The afternoon is really too nice to talk about legal rights, but here we are, hoping to keep the attention of 60 students in Shaba's law club who, like us, would probably rather be doing something else. Deki (the peace sign) set up the program to talk about criminal legal rights to youth as her project for our Current Legal Issues Class. Tenzin, next to Deki, volunteered to drive and help with the program. Chejay joined to talk about the right to an attorney if you cannot afford one, a right that only exists on paper when the students present the program. 

Deki, Tenzin, and Chejay did an excellent job bringing this topic alive. The High School students commented on how interesting and interactive the program was. Some confirmed they had difficult encounters with the police. There were lots of questions. We almost never got to tea time, an important and welcome cultural tradition in Bhutan.

At the end of the day Tenzin had to return to campus to do his program on issues around forensic evidence, wrongful convictions, and what Bhutan should consider in developing its criminal legal system. The audience included JSW faculty and students. The goal is to create a more just legal system through education of future legal professionals on the perils of wrongful convictions.