Finding and using your voice
With an array of specialised LLM programmes on campus and online, the University of Edinburgh offers lawyers cutting-edge continuing education. Mercy Christopher spoke to Craig Sisterson about her journey in human rights law.
Some of the key things overseas postgraduate studies can provide for young lawyers are not just insights into particular areas of law, but also insights into themselves and how they can find their voice and learn to best use it, says Mercy Christopher.
“I got to the point during my masters where I became really angry at the way the world is run, where we all know people are entitled to human rights but somehow the world is structured so that every day people have their rights violated,” recalled Christopher. She completed an LLM in Human Rights at the University of Edinburgh in 2021, after earlier witnessing human rights abuses while working as a young lawyer in the Niger Delta.
The most important takeaway Christopher says she got from her Masters that has helped her in her career, came from one-on-one discussions about creating change that she had with one of her Edinburgh lecturers. He helped her see the importance of understanding where you are, who you’re in a room with, understanding their perspective and argument, and how to identify your own voice and use it to create change.
“Especially if you’re working in human rights, which is a sensitive field to work in, where things can get very personal quickly, it’s important to have objectiveness,” emphasised Christopher, now a business and human rights consultant at Synergy Global Consulting. “I need to understand why the other party is taking an opposing view, and when I understand their view I can work towards meeting them halfway. If we don’t understand their view, we’re always going to clash from a distance, never really getting closer to resolution.”
Christopher grew up as a top student from a small village in Kaduna, Nigeria, where the security situation inspired her to become a lawyer. She wanted to “make society better”, and believed law held the answers. After graduating from Nigerian Law School, she worked for the Ministry of Justice in Port Harcourt, handling cases involving child victims, and volunteered for an NGO advocating for the rights of workers and communities impacted by oil company activities in the Niger Delta.
“At that point I felt if I was to continue championing the rights of people, and get them the justice they needed, I needed more skills,” Christopher shared. She earned a MasterCard scholarship that sponsored her move from Nigeria to Scotland to undertake her LLM.
Now working as a consultant at the dynamic interface of human rights and business, Christopher said her fondest memories of her time at Edinburgh include the “nurturing process” of her course and lecturers, which helped her grow into a person comfortable with questioning the status quo, and knowledgeable and critical about international affairs.
“Coming from an NGO space, I had hesitations about working as a consultant, but being here I now see the different aspects and how we work with companies,” she explained. “We try to change their perspective from seeing human rights as legal compliance or box-ticking, to the value of having systems in place to protect rights and engage directly with communities.”
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