1 minute read
PATHFINDING FOR JUSTICE
2023 Aurum Award winner and Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge, Mona Lynch, joined forces with other women judges to help their Afghan colleagues find new homes in free countries.
BY ALLISON BARSS
Advertisement
In 2001, following the American invasion of Afghanistan, the country saw great change including the appointment of more than 250 women judges. Over 20 years later – when U.S. forces withdrew from the country – the Taliban returned to power, threatening their lives. Justice Mona Lynch (’85) has made it her mission to help.
“It’s always been important for me to make a difference,” she says. “As Gandhi once said, be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Inspired by the altruism and kindness she always saw in her own mother, Justice Lynch has applied this outlook to much of her life, including raising her daughter as a single parent and a lawyer, and her 20-year career as a judge.
Now, she is applying her legal expertise – and passion for justice –to help the Afghan women judges find safety and freedom.
In the spring of 2021, during a conference with the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) – representing more than 6,500 judges in over 100 countries – judges from Afghanistan spoke and raised concerns about their safety and security.
“They shared details about two of their colleagues who, a few months prior, had been ambushed and killed on their way to work at the courthouse in Kabul,” says Justice Lu, one of the North American regional directors for the IAWJ.
During the conference, the Afghan women judges asked the IAWJ for assistance with skills training, technology support and security. President of the IAWJ, Susan Glazebrook, formed the Afghan Women Judges Support Committee to help support these needs, which Justice Lynch was quick to join.
“We met with the Afghan women judges again in July,” she says, “but by then, things had changed.”
Dire straights
“The situation in Afghanistan had grown much worse,” says Justice Lynch. “The Afghan women were no longer asking for things like skills training – they were asking to be saved, and for us to share their plight with the world. They asked us to be their voice.”
