It's interesting. I've been doing this work for quite a while, and what you find when you do this kind of work is that we're not aware of our own cultural context a lot of the time, and we just assume things, or we understand things, or we see things in a certain way. In a lot of countries in the world where we talk about human rights, they view it from a different perspective because they've lived a different life. When you're dealing with the justice system, part of what we need to do is to see things flourish. They need to demonstrate that they work. They have to be functional, and they have to start to address the problems, because that's where the commitment comes from.
Around the question of investigation, we have to make sure that a model is created that will work, that will deliver the results. Then they can have hope in the model, and the hope will inspire the passion and the resources, and they'll replicate it. We believe that is the only way to do this work.
Part of what we find is that when you talk to people and you talk the terms, they don't understand the terms the way I understand the terms. What the term means is different. It's only in the process of doing that we can start to really grapple with those differences, and that's what we try to do. We have to be culturally clear and culturally relevant if it's going to work. To me, that's a major piece of this. I think most of those governments in those regions understand that security is probably the number one preoccupation of their populations. They know that. They hear that. They live it. They live behind these barriers; they're closed in. Everybody has guards. It's not a healthy society. They're fearful for their kids. The experience for them is real.
What we have to do is help them to say, “Okay, this is overwhelming.” It's going to have to play on a number of levels. They have to deal with the narco problem. They have to deal with the gang problem. They also have to deal with the functionality problem. I find generally that the desire is there, but a lot of the time it's as if when we go to them, we're going to them with an idea that has not been part of their previous thinking. Then we have to try to work with them to say why this fits, why it's relevant, even to the extent of things like cross-examination. In a lot of these countries, what we would understand as cross-examination doesn't exist. It comes out of the human rights history, because the old idea of putting a victim on the stand, and the inquisidora model, and then really testing them, or testing other witnesses, is almost a foreign concept. It comes out of our culture, our history, our legal system that's evolved over 500 years. As they move in this direction, we have to work with them on that. I think we can, and I think it's happening, but at the end of the day it has to deliver the results. If it does, I think it will move forward.
I think political will is critical. They have to say, “Listen, this is number one. We're going to do everything in our power”, and they have to make more resources available.
I don't mean to be too complicated in my responses. I hope that's okay.