New York associate Johanna Fine had an unusual start to her White & Case legal career. After finishing the standard training for first-year associates in September 2007, she immediately flew to Kenya for three months to participate in a project with the Center for Reproductive Rights, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization that promotes and defends women’s reproductive rights worldwide. And best of all, she had White & Case’s support in her efforts.

Johanna authored a report for the Center, "At Risk: Rights Violations of HIV-Positive Women in Kenyan Health Facilities,"  which calls on the Kenyan government to  implement systemic changes to ensure that HIV-positive women can fully exercise  their rights to affordable, accessible and safe health care services. She recently presented the report at the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City and generated great interest from Kenyans attending the conference. Johanna is hopeful that meaningful action will result.

The Route to Kenya
During her third year at Columbia Law School, Johanna interned with the Center.  Always interested in doing field work in Africa in the reproductive rights area, she worked to develop a project that would allow her to intern with the Center’s field partner—the Federation of Women Lawyers—Kenya. Instead of deferring her White & Case start date, she asked the Firm if she could finish her first-year training and then participate in the project. White & Case was, "really great, very open to this," remarks Johanna. "I was always impressed with White & Case’s pro bono reputation, and now I have discovered the depth of its commitment."

Serious Violations Found
Johanna’s work in Kenya focused on human rights violations and barriers to quality health care that HIV-positive women experience in Kenyan health facilities, and her report vividly illustrates the government’s failure to care for them. At Kenyan healthcare centers these women encounter physical and verbal abuse and are subject to discriminatory standards of care, often being denied treatment. They often cannot access antiretroviral treatment and their rights to informed consent and confidentiality are violated during HIV testing and treatment.

Inadequate service provision and lack of resources in health care facilities, such as the lack of rubber gloves, anesthetics and sterilized instruments, can lead to the spread of illness among women in maternity wards and, thus, the deterioration of the health of many HIV-positive women.

Local communities also discriminate. An HIV-positive woman may experience domestic violence or abandonment if her partner discovers her HIV status. And communities may stigmatize HIV-positive women for not breastfeeding their children, something they choose not to do to avoid transmitting HIV through their breast milk.

Firm’s New Pro Bono Client
When Johanna returned to New York from Africa, the Firm took on the Center as a pro bono client and gave her the opportunity to draft her report, with the help of many White & Case associates. Additionally, Johanna recently worked on a memo for the Center about contraceptive subsidies in EU member states, which will aid the Center’s efforts in Slovakia, where contraceptives are technically free to all, but in practice are not. By furnishing evidence of the practices of other EU member states, the Center hopes to persuade Slovakia to enforce its access to contraception laws. Failing this, it may seek a judgment from a European or human rights venue that access to contraception is a human right. 

For information about the Center, go to: http://www.reproductiverights.org/. To learn about White & Case’s work for the Center or to participate in it or other pro bono work, contact .

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© 2008 White & Case LLP