Angela Harper JD/LLM '11
Angela Harper says she first became aware of the issue of human trafficking as a freshman at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her initial reaction to what she calls a “modern day form of slavery” was shock. “I had no idea what human trafficking was let alone that it was occurring all over the world,” she says.At UNC, Harper joined and later led the campus chapter of Free the Slaves, a national organization based in Washington, D.C. that raises awareness about human trafficking. Through her involvement with that group, Harper’s interest in the issue continued to grow to the point that she decided to devote her senior thesis to the topic.
“I was trying to determine what is causing these problems on a thematic level,” she says. Her research took her to Ghana where she was able to interview children who had been rescued from Lake Volta, a region known for the trafficking of children. She also spoke to the parents and guardians who had sold or given these children away.
Those conversations, Harper says, revealed that a lack of law enforcement, insufficient resources in local communities, and greater poverty issues including the inaccessibility of health care and education, were all factors contributing to the trafficking of thousands of children.
“The experience in Ghana led me to apply to law school,” Harper says. “Ghana has passed domestic anti-trafficking laws. There are international conventions designed to protect the rights of children. But these laws are completely meaningless without enforcement.”
At Duke, Harper chose to pursue the JD/LLM degree in International and Comparative Law. “My interest in human rights is clearly linked to international law, so naturally this program was appealing to me. It has been a unique opportunity and has introduced me to many issues that will hopefully one day be relevant to my field of work,” she says.
She has enjoyed the freedom starting her dual degree in the summer has afforded, she says, as she was able to take a course in human rights law and arrange an ad hoc seminar on human trafficking during her 1L year.
“Our group in the ad hoc seminar came from very diverse backgrounds,” Harper says. “Most of my experience had been in the field, working with actual trafficking victims, so it was interesting to look at the issue from a broader policy perspective: U.S. visas for trafficking victims, and the various approaches other countries are utilizing to tackle human trafficking within their borders.
“It was a very dynamic approach with multiple angles and we all benefited from each other’s backgrounds.”
Before participating in last summer’s Asia-America Institute in Transnational Law in Hong Kong, Harper worked with another anti-human trafficking agency in Cambodia that focused specifically on the sexual exploitation of women. The position, arranged by Assistant Dean for International Studies Jennifer Maher, allowed Harper to work with the organization’s legal team, which helps Cambodian prosecutors pursue charges against human traffickers.
“It was a great organization and a wonderful experience,” she says. “It taught me some of the obstacles associated with enforcing trafficking claims in a legal system. Cambodia suffers from major corruption issues, and this proved to be a major obstacle in obtaining justice for our clients.”
At Duke this year Harper is working with the Public Interest Law Foundation, planning the public interest retreat and working with PILF’s auction committee to help raise funds for others to be able to participate in international public interest summer internships as well.
“Given the economic situation this year, finding funding for students who want to do public interest work over the summer will be difficult,” she says. “ Working to create sources of funding for students seeking to do public interest work is of great importance.”
And for her? Harper says she is looking into opportunities for her 2L summer at the U.S. Department of Justice, in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, and at firms. “There are several unique opportunities in the legal field that can accommodate my interests,” she says.
