When the dialog ended, I merely stared into area, surprised. I should have misheard the official from the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth. This will’t be occurring to me, I assumed.
“We wish you to accompany Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on her journey to Mongolia this fall to assist democratic reforms,” he stated. It was summer time 2000, and I had simply returned from Mongolia, the place I helped develop the nation’s first justice system strategic plan.
I used to be astonished and elated by the chance—however not intimidated—as I had first met Justice O’Connor in Bulgaria in 1994, the place I used to be serving as a professional bono rule of legislation liaison for the Central and East European Legislation Initiative, a mission of the American Bar Affiliation. Justice O’Connor, the primary member of CEELI’s government board, was in Bulgaria for its 1994 board assembly.
On the suggestion of Homer Moyer Jr. and Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, CEELI was based after the autumn of the Berlin Wall to assist democratic transitions overseas by offering U.S. authorized experience in judicial reform, strengthening of authorized frameworks, and selling accountability and transparency in governance. USAID was its principal funder with further assist from the Division of State.
Inside its first decade, CEELI mobilized greater than 5,000 American attorneys, judges and authorized students, serving as unpaid volunteers, to work in former communist nations alongside their counterparts—native authorized pioneers dedicated to advancing the rule of legislation. Collectively, they helped enhance the lives of hundreds of thousands throughout greater than two dozen nations.
Justice O’Connor was deeply dedicated to CEELI’s historic mission. Over greater than a decade, she by no means missed a single board assembly.
Working with CEELI grew to become my ardour, main me to volunteer for 5 years. Over that point, Justice O’Connor and I developed each knowledgeable and private friendship. We met usually on the Supreme Court docket and shared meals collectively together with her husband, John, in Washington, D.C., at their Arizona house and in my hometown, San Francisco.
I used to be thrilled to return to Mongolia. After the period of Genghis Khan, Mongolia had practically turn out to be forgotten. That modified within the Nineties with the collapse of communism, which hurled Mongolia again onto the world stage. Mongolians had been not the one ones who knew how stunningly stunning their distant nation was.
When Justice O’Connor and John arrived in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, their first request was to go to the countryside. That didn’t shock me, since I knew Justice O’Connor could be extra at house roaming the hills amongst wandering cattle than whirling round Ulaanbaatar in a Russian-built car.
It was throughout this journey to Mongolia that I bought to know John nicely. He and Justice O’Connor had been remarkably related—exceptionally clever and lighthearted when off obligation. Though a nationally outstanding lawyer, John, like Justice O’Connor, by no means let titles intervene with friendships or skilled relationships. His self-confidence was important to their relationship. When others heaped reward on Justice O’Connor, he would remind her that she was as soon as a cowgirl who rode horses and swam in a cattle tank. Regardless of how usually he stated it, she all the time laughed.
U.S. Supreme Court docket Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (middle) and Mary Noel Pepys (proper) pose with an area man and a camel in Mongolia in 2000. (Photograph courtesy of Mary Noel Pepys)
On our first day, our driver took us on a countryside tour. As we drove via the open panorama, Justice O’Connor lit up on the sight of Mongolian cowboys with their lassos.
“The horses make me really feel at house,” she stated, pointing to 1 within the distance. “That reddish-brown one appears like Chico.” He was her favourite horse on her household’s ranch.
To learn the way nomadic cowboys dwell, I prompt we go to a household dwelling in a ger— a Mongolian yurt. Although uninvited, I reassured them that in nomadic cultures like Mongolia, strangers are all the time welcomed.
As we approached, a swish girl emerged from her ger and launched herself as Altansarnai. There was no have to determine us past being Individuals—nomadic Mongolians measure standing by livestock, not titles.
Altansarnai invited us into her ger and supplied lunch. What seemed stark from the skin dazzled us inside. The flooring and partitions had been lined with vibrantly coloured rugs and materials in stately jewel tones. Above the ger hung a facet of uncooked mutton—saved there for lack of refrigeration. Altansarnai introduced it inside and whacked it into small items. Beside the picket range sat a container of cow dung, which she used to warmth each her ger and our meal.
With assist from our driver, we requested her opinion of elections in Mongolia. She eagerly described the current presidential race, concluding, “There’s a sanctity in freely voting for the candidate of your selection.” Justice O’Connor and I sighed.
Individuals usually take with no consideration rights handed to them on a silver platter.
On our return to Ulaanbaatar, Justice O’Connor grew curious as we handed a village with a modest courthouse and three camels close by. I described its inside from a previous go to: one courtroom, a shared workplace for 3 judges, a hallway with benches—and no restroom. “You imply the courthouse has its personal outhouse?” John quipped. All of us laughed, picturing robed judges trudging via snow to a shack midtrial.
Again on the lodge, Justice O’Connor reviewed her 10-page schedule selling democratic reforms: quite a few briefings with U.S. and Mongolian governmental officers, a keynote at a rule of legislation convention, a roundtable with Mongolia’s girls trailblazers, a seminar with legislation college students, press conferences and official dinners. Exhausting for John and me—however not for Justice O’Connor.
On our final day in Mongolia, she requested if we might take a camel trip. She needed to be joking. “A camel trip,” she repeated calmly, as if asking for a cup of tea.
I had labored onerous to accommodate not solely the wants of Mongolians but additionally to anticipate Justice O’Connor’s pursuits. A camel trip was not amongst them, and arranging it on the final minute was unattainable.
Nonetheless, Justice O’Connor was just like the E.F. Hutton advert from the Nineteen Eighties—when she spoke, individuals listened.
Dressed as we had been, we set off to trip the camels. As mine lurched ahead to face, I shrieked, sure I used to be about to be catapulted to the bottom. Justice O’Connor, then again, sat tall and regular, her hand resting casually on the saddle. As soon as a cowgirl, all the time a cowgirl.
20 years later, throughout my final go to with Justice O’Connor at her retirement house in Phoenix—her dementia seeping into our restricted dialog—I reminisced about our journey to Mongolia, her love for CEELI and her dedication to the common significance of the rule of legislation.
She praised the 5,000 American attorneys and judges for his or her unwavering dedication to advancing the rule of legislation overseas, describing their volunteerism as a trademark of American citizenship and an inspiring act of selflessness that made a significant distinction within the lives of others.
One can solely marvel what Justice O’Connor would make of the worldwide backsliding of the rule of legislation, now compounded by USAID’s dismantling. Figuring out her as I did, I’m assured she would urge us to press on—at house and overseas—to withstand authoritarianism, defend human rights and uphold the rule of legislation. Let’s decide to doing simply that.
Since 1993, Mary Noel Pepys has helped to advance the rule of legislation in additional than 45 nations, specializing in worldwide authorized and judicial reform. Extra just lately, she has targeted on the rule of legislation and judicial independence in the US via the Alliance for American Rule of Legislation, a community of worldwide rule of legislation practitioners.
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