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"I had to have a bodyguard just to cross the street from my apartment in Kabul. Kidnappings and improvised explosives were not uncommon." — MARLA MORRY and Georgia (helping Iraqi, Iranian, Afghani, and Chechen refugees) and Kosovo where she helped monitor her first elections under the OSCE aegis. "I was part of the legal team that vetted complaints to ensure that the political parties and candidates were playing by the rules and that citizens were afforded their political and civil rights," she says of Kosovo's November 2001 election. In 2005, she took a year's assignment in Afghanistan for the Norwegian Refugee Council. She was part of a team charged with developing a legal aid system and assisting returnees and internally displaced persons with overcoming legal obstacles to their reintegration. It was one of her most difficult experiences. Foreigners were never allowed to go anywhere alone, she recalls. "I had to have a bodyguard just to cross the street from my apartment in Kabul," she says. "Kidnappings and improvised explosives were not uncommon." The legal training she found in Afghanistan in 2005 was rudimentary, she notes. Private practice didn't exist before. Most people were too poor to afford lawyers. "There were no bar courses like we have here," she says. "The Afghan lawyers who were working with us were academics, judges, or government prosecutors before." While Afghanistan is officially governed by Sharia law, Morry notes, most of the villages operate under a harsher tribal law that the villagers think is Sharia. The security situation is increasingly difficult, she reports, but the effort to assist returnees and to create a legal aid system is ongoing. After leaving the Afghan mission, Morry next found herself going to Germany to train NATO peacekeeping forces heading for Afghanistan. "I was sent to Germany twice by NATO — for three weeks each time — to prepare military officers on human rights issues they would face," she says. After Afghanistan, Morry was looking for shorter-term foreign postings. For the past three years she has been mainly working as a legal analyst on OSCE election observation missions. The OSCE, she explains, is one of a number of international organizations that monitor and assess elections around the world to ensure compliance with international commitments and standards on all aspects of the election process including the legal framework, campaign activities, media coverage, election administration, and access to justice. "I am experienced in all of these areas," she says, "although my specialization is in the legal framework, monitoring human rights in campaign activities, and access to justice issues. All election observation missions produce a report with recommendations for improvements in all aspects of the election process." As an election legal analyst since 2007, Morry has been to Moldova, Georgia (twice, for both presidential and parliamentary elections), Montenegro, and Washington, D.C., to assess the 2008 U.S. presidential election. These missions lasted from six to nine weeks. She has also done extensive volunteer work as an election observer (which involves polling day observation) in numerous countries, including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Serbia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan. "Belarus was an interesting experience because the country is very closed and repressive," she says. "As an election observer there it was unique. Although we were there on official invitation, the election officials were clearly instructed to limit our observation of the election process, including restricted access to voter registers and the counting process. The election was assessed as falling short of international commitments and standards, as was the Kyrgyz election." Last December, she went to Ghana as an election-day observer for the Carter Center. She describes that election day as the best one she has ever observed. "Ghana is a beacon of democracy in Africa," she says. Over the summer, she worked on missions in Norway and for the European Union parliamentary elec- tions (in Malta, the Czech Republic, and Ireland). "Although the democratic tradition is strong in Western Europe, the OSCE wants to be seen to be even- handed and there is always room for improvement," she explains. In October, Morry went to Iraq for two months — as part of a USAID- funded project — to reform Iraq's election laws and regulations ahead of the Iraqi legislative elections scheduled for January 2010. After that, her calendar is open. "There are always opportunities opening up for international election monitors," she says. In between foreign missions, Morry is working from her home reviewing international election legislation and recommending improvements to the laws based on international commit- ments and standards. She is also helping CANADEM screen applicants for overseas missions. CANADEM, she explains, is a non- governmental organization that advances international peace and security through the recruitment and placement of skilled Canadians. "CANADEM has helped me over the years," she says. "I am reviewing applications and checking references. "I view what I am doing, whether helping refugees or monitoring elections, as my life's work rather than a job," she says. "I want to be able to use my skills to help people. I get a lot of satisfaction from what I do and I have learned a lot about myself, other peoples, and other cultures." Know a lawyer worth cross-examining? Contact editor Gail Cohen at gcohen@clbmedia.ca with your ideas. www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2009 19