Student Staff Project Update by Michaela Pannell

This semester I have had the privilege to work with Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF). ADF is a legal organization that works with other lawyers and organizations to advocate for religious freedom, life, marriage, and family. ADF has offices both in the United States and Internationally. ADF has special consultative status with the United Nations and is accredited at the European Parliament, European Union Fundamental Rights Agency, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Organization of American States. ADF has the ability to take cases to the highest level and achieve success at the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. ADF builds a strong alliance with Christian professionals in the legal field.

I have been working on two different legal projects. The first project is monitoring all new cases that come through the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). A big part of what ADF does is to assist on cases relevant to their mission. I help filter through cases to see which ones ADF may want to intervene on. The second project I am helping out on is ADF’s Digital Library. I have been researching resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe (PACE) that relate to the right to life. Once I find applicable resolutions, I summarize them to record in the Digital Library. Our goal is to assist ADF in looking for cases as well as building their database.

I have been blessed this semester to be able to learn about ADF as an organization, and human rights in a global context. I look forward to continuing my work and seeing what God’s plans are for ADF and the Center in the future.

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.”—Eleanor Roosevelt