0:00:01.957,0:00:03.518
Let me tell you a story

0:00:03.518,0:00:06.724
about a little girl named Naghma.

0:00:06.724,0:00:08.546
Naghma lived in a refugee camp

0:00:08.546,0:00:11.425
with her parents and her eight brothers and sisters.

0:00:11.425,0:00:13.361
Every morning, her father would wake up

0:00:13.361,0:00:15.801
in the hopes he'd be picked for construction work,

0:00:15.801,0:00:19.367
and on a good month he would earn 50 dollars.

0:00:19.367,0:00:20.755
The winter was very harsh,

0:00:20.755,0:00:23.439
and unfortunately, Naghma's brother died

0:00:23.439,0:00:25.359
and her mother became very ill.

0:00:25.359,0:00:27.939
In desperation, her father went to a neighbor

0:00:27.939,0:00:30.336
to borrow 2,500 dollars.

0:00:30.336,0:00:32.250
After several months of waiting,

0:00:32.250,0:00:33.767
the neighbor became very impatient,

0:00:33.767,0:00:36.485
and he demanded that he be paid back.

0:00:36.485,0:00:38.929
Unfortunately, Naghma's[br]father didn't have the money,

0:00:38.929,0:00:41.764
and so the two men agreed to a jirga.

0:00:41.764,0:00:44.294
So simply put, a jirga is a form of mediation

0:00:44.294,0:00:47.534
that's used in Afghanistan's [br]informal justice system.

0:00:47.534,0:00:50.988
It's usually presided over by religious leaders

0:00:50.988,0:00:52.686
and village elders,

0:00:52.686,0:00:55.886
and jirgas are often used in[br]rural countries like Afghanistan,

0:00:55.886,0:00:57.737
where there's deep-seated resentment

0:00:57.737,0:00:59.999
against the formal system.

0:00:59.999,0:01:02.337
At the jirga, the men sat together

0:01:02.337,0:01:05.251
and they decided that the [br]best way to satisfy the debt

0:01:05.251,0:01:09.840
would be if Naghma married[br]the neighbor's 21-year-old son.

0:01:09.840,0:01:12.500
She was six.

0:01:12.500,0:01:14.565
Now, stories like Naghma's unfortunately

0:01:14.565,0:01:16.253
are all too common,

0:01:16.253,0:01:17.748
and from the comforts of our home,

0:01:17.748,0:01:19.503
we may look at these stories as another

0:01:19.503,0:01:21.763
crushing blow to women's rights.

0:01:21.763,0:01:24.294
And if you watched Afghanistan on the news,

0:01:24.294,0:01:27.993
you may have this view that it's a failed state.

0:01:27.993,0:01:31.809
However, Afghanistan does have a legal system,

0:01:31.809,0:01:35.671
and while jirgas are built on[br]long-standing tribal customs,

0:01:35.671,0:01:39.034
even in jirgas, laws are supposed to be followed,

0:01:39.034,0:01:40.962
and it goes without saying

0:01:40.962,0:01:43.583
that giving a child to satisfy a debt

0:01:43.583,0:01:47.649
is not only grossly immoral, it's illegal.

0:01:47.649,0:01:50.176
In 2008, I went to Afghanistan

0:01:50.176,0:01:52.496
for a justice funded program,

0:01:52.496,0:01:55.203
and I went there originally [br]on this nine-month program

0:01:55.203,0:01:57.115
to train Afghan lawyers.

0:01:57.115,0:01:59.376
In that nine months, I went around the country

0:01:59.376,0:02:02.312
and I talked to hundreds of[br]people that were locked up,

0:02:02.312,0:02:03.910
and I talked to many businesses

0:02:03.910,0:02:06.440
that were also operating in Afghanistan.

0:02:06.440,0:02:07.784
And within these conversations,

0:02:07.784,0:02:09.655
I started hearing the connections

0:02:09.655,0:02:11.645
between the businesses and the people,

0:02:11.645,0:02:13.715
and how laws that were meant to protect them

0:02:13.715,0:02:15.416
were being underused,

0:02:15.416,0:02:19.474
while gross and illegal punitive[br]measures were overused.

0:02:19.474,0:02:22.298
And so this put me on a quest for justness,

0:02:22.298,0:02:25.020
and what justness means to me

0:02:25.020,0:02:28.715
is using laws for their intended purpose,

0:02:28.715,0:02:31.040
which is to protect.

0:02:31.040,0:02:34.543
The role of laws is to protect.

0:02:34.543,0:02:38.258
So as a result, I decided to [br]open up a private practice,

0:02:38.258,0:02:40.599
and I became the first foreigner to litigate

0:02:40.599,0:02:42.815
in Afghan courts.

0:02:42.815,0:02:45.672
Throughout this time, I also studied many laws,

0:02:45.672,0:02:47.202
I talked to many people,

0:02:47.202,0:02:48.373
I read up on many cases,

0:02:48.373,0:02:50.763
and I found that the lack of justness

0:02:50.763,0:02:52.749
is not just a problem in Afghanistan,

0:02:52.749,0:02:55.070
but it's a global problem.

0:02:55.070,0:02:56.821
And while I originally shied away from

0:02:56.821,0:02:58.938
representing human rights cases

0:02:58.938,0:03:01.117
because I was really concerned about how it would

0:03:01.117,0:03:03.760
affect me both professionally and personally,

0:03:03.760,0:03:06.513
I decided that the need for justness was so great

0:03:06.513,0:03:08.384
that I couldn't continue to ignore it.

0:03:08.384,0:03:10.701
And so I started representing people like Naghma

0:03:10.701,0:03:13.157
pro bono also.

0:03:13.157,0:03:14.863
Now, since I've been in Afghanistan

0:03:14.863,0:03:17.326
and since I've been an attorney for over 10 years,

0:03:17.326,0:03:21.040
I've represented from CEOs [br]of Fortune 500 companies

0:03:21.040,0:03:23.368
to ambassadors to little girls like Naghma,

0:03:23.368,0:03:24.918
and with much success.

0:03:24.918,0:03:27.833
And the reason for my success is very simple:

0:03:27.833,0:03:29.843
I work the system from the inside out

0:03:29.843,0:03:31.262
and use the laws in the ways

0:03:31.262,0:03:33.998
that they're intended to be used.

0:03:33.998,0:03:36.120
I find that

0:03:36.120,0:03:39.536
achieving justness in places like Afghanistan

0:03:39.536,0:03:41.684
is difficult, and there's three reasons.

0:03:41.684,0:03:44.240
The first reason is that simply put,

0:03:44.240,0:03:47.339
people are very uneducated as[br]to what their legal rights were,

0:03:47.339,0:03:49.930
and I find that this is a global problem.

0:03:49.930,0:03:51.144
The second issue

0:03:51.144,0:03:54.583
is that even with laws on the books,

0:03:54.583,0:03:56.848
it's often superseded or ignored

0:03:56.848,0:03:59.170
by tribal customs, like in the first jirga

0:03:59.170,0:04:00.702
that sold Naghma off.

0:04:00.702,0:04:03.404
And the third problem with achieving justness

0:04:03.404,0:04:06.216
is that even with good, existing laws on the books,

0:04:06.216,0:04:08.862
there aren't people or lawyers [br]that are willing to fight

0:04:08.862,0:04:10.558
for those laws.

0:04:10.558,0:04:13.432
And that's what I do: I use existing laws,

0:04:13.432,0:04:15.231
often unused laws,

0:04:15.231,0:04:18.865
and I work those to the benefits of my clients.

0:04:18.865,0:04:21.413
We all need to create a global culture

0:04:21.413,0:04:23.241
of human rights

0:04:23.241,0:04:25.990
and be investors in a global [br]human rights economy,

0:04:25.990,0:04:27.757
and by working in this mindset,

0:04:27.757,0:04:30.474
we can significantly improve justice globally.

0:04:30.474,0:04:32.866
Now let's get back to Naghma.

0:04:32.866,0:04:35.265
Several people heard about this story,

0:04:35.265,0:04:36.790
and so they contacted me because they wanted

0:04:36.790,0:04:39.355
to pay the $2,500 debt.

0:04:39.355,0:04:41.216
And it's not just that simple;

0:04:41.216,0:04:42.998
you can't just throw money at this problem

0:04:42.998,0:04:44.151
and think that it's going to disappear.

0:04:44.151,0:04:46.632
That's not how it works in Afghanistan.

0:04:46.632,0:04:50.030
So I told them I'd get involved,

0:04:50.030,0:04:52.318
but in order to get involved, [br]what needed to happen

0:04:52.318,0:04:55.141
is a second jirga needed to be called,

0:04:55.141,0:04:57.250
a jirga of appeals.

0:04:57.250,0:04:59.501
And so in order for that to happen,

0:04:59.501,0:05:02.206
we needed to get the village elders together,

0:05:02.206,0:05:04.467
we needed to get the tribal leaders together,

0:05:04.467,0:05:06.056
the religious leaders.

0:05:06.056,0:05:07.630
Naghma's father needed to agree,

0:05:07.630,0:05:08.881
the neighbor needed to agree,

0:05:08.881,0:05:11.085
and also his son needed to agree.

0:05:11.085,0:05:15.110
And I thought, if I'm going to [br]get involved in this thing,

0:05:15.110,0:05:18.765
then they also need to agree [br]that I preside over it.

0:05:18.765,0:05:21.735
So, after hours of talking

0:05:21.735,0:05:22.943
and tracking them down,

0:05:22.943,0:05:25.806
and about 30 cups of tea,

0:05:25.806,0:05:27.718
they finally agreed that we could sit down

0:05:27.718,0:05:31.050
for a second jirga, and we did.

0:05:31.050,0:05:33.134
And what was different about the second jirga

0:05:33.134,0:05:35.709
is this time, we put the law at the center of it,

0:05:35.709,0:05:37.053
and it was very important for me

0:05:37.053,0:05:38.811
that they all understood that Naghma

0:05:38.811,0:05:41.150
had a right to be protected.

0:05:41.150,0:05:42.696
And at the end of this jirga,

0:05:42.696,0:05:44.989
it was ordered by the judge

0:05:44.989,0:05:48.825
that the first decision was erased,

0:05:48.825,0:05:52.257
and that the $2,500 debt was satisfied,

0:05:52.257,0:05:54.090
and we all signed a written order

0:05:54.090,0:05:55.481
where all the men acknowledged

0:05:55.481,0:05:57.601
that what they did was illegal,

0:05:57.601,0:06:02.399
and if they did it again, that [br]they would go to prison.

0:06:02.399,0:06:04.168
Most —

0:06:04.168,0:06:05.636
(Applause)

0:06:05.636,0:06:07.483
Thanks.

0:06:07.483,0:06:09.299
And most importantly,

0:06:09.299,0:06:10.800
the engagement was terminated

0:06:10.800,0:06:12.809
and Naghma was free.

0:06:12.809,0:06:15.666
Protecting Naghma and her right to be free

0:06:15.666,0:06:18.300
protects us.

0:06:18.300,0:06:21.762
Now, with my job, there's above-average

0:06:21.762,0:06:24.505
amount of risks that are involved.

0:06:24.505,0:06:27.212
I've been temporarily detained.

0:06:27.212,0:06:29.805
I've been accused of running a brothel,

0:06:29.805,0:06:32.110
accused of being a spy.

0:06:32.110,0:06:34.238
I've had a grenade thrown at my office.

0:06:34.238,0:06:36.937
It didn't go off, though.

0:06:36.937,0:06:38.537
But I find that with my job,

0:06:38.537,0:06:41.503
that the rewards far outweigh the risks,

0:06:41.503,0:06:43.877
and as many risks as I take,

0:06:43.877,0:06:45.846
my clients take far greater risks,

0:06:45.846,0:06:47.349
because they have a lot more to lose

0:06:47.349,0:06:48.839
if their cases go unheard,

0:06:48.839,0:06:51.962
or worse, if they're penalized[br]for having me as their lawyer.

0:06:51.962,0:06:53.736
With every case that I take,

0:06:53.736,0:06:56.656
I realize that as much as[br]I'm standing behind my clients,

0:06:56.656,0:06:58.669
that they're also standing behind me,

0:06:58.669,0:07:02.462
and that's what keeps me going.

0:07:02.462,0:07:04.359
Law as a point of leverage

0:07:04.359,0:07:06.881
is crucial in protecting all of us.

0:07:06.881,0:07:09.517
Journalists are very vital in making sure

0:07:09.517,0:07:12.791
that that information is given to the public.

0:07:12.791,0:07:15.277
Too often, we receive information from journalists

0:07:15.277,0:07:18.921
but we forget how that information was given.

0:07:18.921,0:07:21.507
This picture is a picture of the

0:07:21.507,0:07:23.500
British press corps in Afghanistan.

0:07:23.500,0:07:26.649
It was taken a couple of years[br]ago by my friend David Gill.

0:07:26.649,0:07:28.517
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists,

0:07:28.517,0:07:31.363
since 2010, there have been [br]thousands of journalists

0:07:31.363,0:07:33.241
who have been threatened, injured,

0:07:33.241,0:07:35.873
killed, detained.

0:07:35.873,0:07:38.112
Too often, when we get this information,

0:07:38.112,0:07:39.336
we forget who it affects

0:07:39.336,0:07:42.634
or how that information is given to us.

0:07:42.634,0:07:45.244
What many journalists do, [br]both foreign and domestic,

0:07:45.244,0:07:49.315
is very remarkable, especially[br]in places like Afghanistan,

0:07:49.315,0:07:50.887
and it's important that we never forget that,

0:07:50.887,0:07:52.243
because what they're protecting

0:07:52.243,0:07:54.525
is not only our right to receive that information

0:07:54.525,0:07:56.582
but also the freedom of the press, which is vital

0:07:56.582,0:07:59.458
to a democratic society.

0:07:59.458,0:08:03.343
Matt Rosenberg is a journalist in Afghanistan.

0:08:03.343,0:08:05.233
He works for The New York Times,

0:08:05.233,0:08:06.850
and unfortunately, a few months ago

0:08:06.850,0:08:08.990
he wrote an article that displeased

0:08:08.990,0:08:10.296
people in the government.

0:08:10.296,0:08:13.546
As a result, he was temporarily detained

0:08:13.546,0:08:17.859
and he was illegally exiled out of the country.

0:08:17.859,0:08:19.911
I represent Matt,

0:08:19.911,0:08:22.039
and after dealing with the government,

0:08:22.039,0:08:23.719
I was able to get legal acknowledgment

0:08:23.719,0:08:26.780
that in fact he was illegally exiled,

0:08:26.780,0:08:29.840
and that freedom of the[br]press does exist in Afghanistan,

0:08:29.840,0:08:32.372
and there's consequences if that's not followed.

0:08:32.372,0:08:34.118
And I'm happy to say that

0:08:34.118,0:08:36.206
as of a few days ago,

0:08:36.206,0:08:37.532
the Afghan government

0:08:37.532,0:08:39.744
formally invited him back into the country

0:08:39.744,0:08:43.377
and they reversed their exile order of him.

0:08:43.377,0:08:47.016
(Applause)

0:08:48.049,0:08:51.252
If you censor one journalist, [br]then it intimidates others,

0:08:51.252,0:08:53.224
and soon nations are silenced.

0:08:53.224,0:08:55.942
It's important that we protect our journalists

0:08:55.942,0:08:57.719
and freedom of the press,

0:08:57.719,0:08:59.778
because that makes governments[br]more accountable to us

0:08:59.778,0:09:01.763
and more transparent.

0:09:01.763,0:09:03.670
Protecting journalists and our right

0:09:03.670,0:09:07.844
to receive information protects us.

0:09:07.844,0:09:10.860
Our world is changing. We live[br]in a different world now,

0:09:10.860,0:09:13.243
and what were once individual problems

0:09:13.243,0:09:16.061
are really now global problems for all of us.

0:09:16.061,0:09:19.700
Two weeks ago, Afghanistan had its first

0:09:19.700,0:09:21.691
democratic transfer of power

0:09:21.691,0:09:24.943
and elected president Ashraf Ghani, which is huge,

0:09:24.943,0:09:27.440
and I'm very optimistic about him,

0:09:27.440,0:09:29.419
and I'm hopeful that he'll give Afghanistan

0:09:29.419,0:09:30.690
the changes that it needs,

0:09:30.690,0:09:33.187
especially within the legal sector.

0:09:33.187,0:09:35.090
We live in a different world.

0:09:35.090,0:09:37.439
We live in a world where my [br]eight-year-old daughter

0:09:37.439,0:09:40.153
only knows a black president.

0:09:40.153,0:09:42.861
There's a great possibility that our next president

0:09:42.861,0:09:44.197
will be a woman,

0:09:44.197,0:09:47.100
and as she gets older, she may question,

0:09:47.100,0:09:48.845
can a white guy be president?

0:09:48.845,0:09:50.619
(Laughter)

0:09:50.619,0:09:53.730
(Applause)

0:09:53.730,0:09:56.910
Our world is changing, and [br]we need to change with it,

0:09:56.910,0:09:58.542
and what were once individual problems

0:09:58.542,0:10:01.390
are problems for all of us.

0:10:01.390,0:10:03.468
According to UNICEF,

0:10:03.468,0:10:09.509
there are currently over 280 million

0:10:09.509,0:10:11.394
boys and girls who are married

0:10:11.394,0:10:13.176
under the age of 15.

0:10:13.176,0:10:15.219
Two hundred and eighty million.

0:10:15.219,0:10:17.761
Child marriages prolong the vicious cycle

0:10:17.761,0:10:22.181
of poverty, poor health, lack of education.

0:10:22.181,0:10:26.868
At the age of 12, Sahar was married.

0:10:26.868,0:10:28.717
She was forced into this marriage

0:10:28.717,0:10:30.417
and sold by her brother.

0:10:30.417,0:10:32.485
When she went to her in-laws' house,

0:10:32.485,0:10:35.173
they forced her into prostitution.

0:10:35.173,0:10:38.986
Because she refused, she was tortured.

0:10:38.986,0:10:43.011
She was severely beaten with metal rods.

0:10:43.011,0:10:45.803
They burned her body.

0:10:45.803,0:10:49.293
They tied her up in a basement and starved her.

0:10:49.293,0:10:53.503
They used pliers to take out her fingernails.

0:10:53.503,0:10:55.332
At one point,

0:10:55.332,0:10:58.537
she managed to escape from this torture chamber

0:10:58.537,0:11:00.910
to a neighbor's house,

0:11:00.910,0:11:04.206
and when she went there, instead of protecting her,

0:11:04.206,0:11:06.221
they dragged her back

0:11:06.221,0:11:07.857
to her husband's house,

0:11:07.857,0:11:11.638
and she was tortured even worse.

0:11:13.864,0:11:16.975
When I met first Sahar, thankfully,

0:11:16.975,0:11:18.206
Women for Afghan Women

0:11:18.206,0:11:21.534
gave her a safe haven to go to.

0:11:21.534,0:11:24.720
As a lawyer, I try to be very strong

0:11:24.720,0:11:26.379
for all my clients,

0:11:26.379,0:11:30.193
because that's very important to me,

0:11:30.193,0:11:33.122
but seeing her,

0:11:33.122,0:11:37.024
how broken and very weak as she was,

0:11:37.024,0:11:40.321
was very difficult.

0:11:40.321,0:11:43.808
It took weeks for us to really get to

0:11:43.808,0:11:47.164
what happened to her

0:11:47.164,0:11:49.120
when she was in that house,

0:11:49.120,0:11:51.760
but finally she started opening up to me,

0:11:51.760,0:11:54.080
and when she opened up,

0:11:54.080,0:11:55.552
what I heard was

0:11:55.552,0:11:58.152
she didn't know what her rights were,

0:11:58.152,0:12:00.355
but she did know she had [br]a certain level of protection

0:12:00.355,0:12:02.982
by her government that failed her,

0:12:02.982,0:12:04.584
and so we were able to talk about

0:12:04.584,0:12:07.126
what her legal options were.

0:12:07.126,0:12:09.134
And so we decided to take this case

0:12:09.134,0:12:10.890
to the Supreme Court.

0:12:10.890,0:12:12.760
Now, this is extremely significant,

0:12:12.760,0:12:14.673
because this is the first time

0:12:14.673,0:12:17.509
that a victim of domestic violence in Afghanistan

0:12:17.509,0:12:20.302
was being represented by a lawyer,

0:12:20.302,0:12:23.037
a law that's been on the [br]books for years and years,

0:12:23.037,0:12:26.443
but until Sahar, had never been used.

0:12:26.443,0:12:28.655
In addition to this, we also decided

0:12:28.655,0:12:30.378
to sue for civil damages,

0:12:30.378,0:12:33.325
again using a law that's never been used,

0:12:33.325,0:12:36.353
but we used it for her case.

0:12:36.353,0:12:38.615
So there we were at the Supreme Court

0:12:38.615,0:12:41.857
arguing in front of 12 Afghan justices,

0:12:41.857,0:12:44.493
me as an American female lawyer,

0:12:44.493,0:12:47.980
and Sahar, a young woman

0:12:47.980,0:12:53.163
who when I met her couldn't [br]speak above a whisper.

0:12:53.163,0:12:54.834
She stood up,

0:12:54.834,0:12:57.120
she found her voice,

0:12:57.120,0:12:59.917
and my girl told them that she wanted justice,

0:12:59.917,0:13:02.556
and she got it.

0:13:02.556,0:13:05.385
At the end of it all, the court unanimously agreed

0:13:05.385,0:13:09.568
that her in-laws should be[br]arrested for what they did to her,

0:13:09.568,0:13:12.177
her fucking brother should also be arrested

0:13:12.177,0:13:14.123
for selling her —

0:13:14.123,0:13:18.543
(Applause) —

0:13:18.543,0:13:20.546
and they agreed that she did have a right

0:13:20.546,0:13:22.964
to civil compensation.

0:13:22.964,0:13:25.743
What Sahar has shown us is that we can attack

0:13:25.743,0:13:28.521
existing bad practices by using the laws

0:13:28.521,0:13:31.459
in the ways that they're intended to be used,

0:13:31.459,0:13:33.940
and by protecting Sahar,

0:13:33.940,0:13:37.520
we are protecting ourselves.

0:13:37.520,0:13:39.152
After having worked in Afghanistan

0:13:39.152,0:13:41.150
for over six years now,

0:13:41.150,0:13:43.201
a lot of my family and friends think

0:13:43.201,0:13:45.993
that what I do looks like this.

0:13:45.993,0:13:48.499
(Laughter)

0:13:48.499,0:13:53.137
But in all actuality, what I do looks like this.

0:13:53.137,0:13:55.010
Now, we can all do something.

0:13:55.010,0:13:57.790
I'm not saying we should all buy a[br]plane ticket and go to Afghanistan,

0:13:57.790,0:14:00.812
but we can all be contributors

0:14:00.812,0:14:02.871
to a global human rights economy.

0:14:02.871,0:14:05.139
We can create a culture of transparency

0:14:05.139,0:14:06.463
and accountability to the laws,

0:14:06.463,0:14:08.874
and make governments more accountable to us,

0:14:08.874,0:14:11.897
as we are to them.

0:14:11.897,0:14:13.889
A few months ago, a South African lawyer

0:14:13.889,0:14:15.644
visited me in my office

0:14:15.644,0:14:17.569
and he said, "I wanted to meet you.

0:14:17.569,0:14:21.563
I wanted to see what a crazy person looked like."

0:14:21.563,0:14:23.542
The laws are ours,

0:14:23.542,0:14:25.575
and no matter what your ethnicity,

0:14:25.575,0:14:28.466
nationality, gender, race,

0:14:28.466,0:14:30.585
they belong to us,

0:14:30.585,0:14:35.374
and fighting for justice is not an act of insanity.

0:14:35.374,0:14:37.615
Businesses also need to get with the program.

0:14:37.615,0:14:39.336
A corporate investment in human rights

0:14:39.336,0:14:41.214
is a capital gain on your businesses,

0:14:41.214,0:14:43.340
and whether you're a business, an NGO,

0:14:43.340,0:14:47.435
or a private citizen, rule [br]of law benefits all of us.

0:14:47.435,0:14:49.750
And by working together with a concerted mindset,

0:14:49.750,0:14:53.206
through the people, public and private sector,

0:14:53.206,0:14:55.503
we can create a global human rights economy

0:14:55.503,0:14:59.036
and all become global investors in human rights.

0:14:59.036,0:15:00.820
And by doing this,

0:15:00.820,0:15:03.480
we can achieve justness together.

0:15:03.480,0:15:05.573
Thank you.

0:15:05.573,0:15:09.573
(Applause)