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Send to friendWelcome to the second audio segment of Understanding Advocates! This second interview is with Mary Ellingen from the Advocates for Human Rights, with a focus on women's issues.
This summer at New Tactics I'm doing a project to get to know human rights advocates, particularly in the twin cities area, a little bit better. It's not always an easy job, and the diversity of individuals that devote their time to struggling for human rights is incredible; the diversity of how they do that is no less impressive. We want to know, what makes them tick? How did they get here? How do they do their work, and what makes them keep at it? I have been conducting interviews with activists in the twin cities area, and now we want to share their insights with you. So listen in, and get to know your human rights community, they've got a lot to offer.
The first interview was with Joy Nelson from the Resource Center for the Americas. Check out that post for discussion about Latin American issues, the Resource Center, immigrant issues in the US today, and Joy's tactics and experiences.
Mary Ellingen, interview featured here, is a staff attorney at The Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis. Mary specializes in the Women's Program at The Advocates, and has done a lot of work in the area of domestic violence; the Women's Program has really made tracks in assisting countries with reforming their legal systems to better protect women in their private environments. In this interview she offers us some insight into her early feminist motivations that brought her here, as well as a number of unique challenges that women's issues and their advocates face.
Q: How do you see yourself, and what you do here at the advocates, fitting into the wider human rights community? What role do you fill?
Q: What motivates you in your work? How did you get into it?
Q: What are some specific goals that you are working on achieving right now? Short term or Long term.
Q: You mentioned doing some training work; I’d like to know more about the tactics you employ to work toward your goals. Could you elaborate on this?
Q: What tactics have you found to be the most useful or successful? Do you have a story to illustrate that?
Q: What challenges do you face as an organization in Human Rights Advocacy? As an individual?
Q: As a human rights advocate, what do you need to enable your work further and help you achieve your goals? Or what do you have in your job here that is really invaluable to what you do?
Q: Are you familiar with the CVT New Tactics Project? Have you ever used the resources or engaged in the online community? Could you tell us a bit about your experience with that?
Thank you Mary! We appreciate you sharing with us.
