Rachel Williams ’03 in her official robes, during her time as an assistant defender with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, The Hague, the Netherlands, in 2007.

Justice for all

by Félix Alfonso Pena

A deep and abiding concern for justice put Rachel L. Williams ’03 in the position of helping to defend those accused of the gravest of injustices: genocide and crimes against humanity.

The place: The Hague, the Netherlands, with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

The time: 2007-2008.

The case: the largest mass murder since World War II, the slaughter of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim men in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, by forces of the Serbian Army, the VRS, in 1995.

Williams, who earned a law degree in 2007 from Florida Coastal University School of Law, was a legal assistant in the case of Prosecutor v. Popovic, et al, helping defend Ljubisa Beara, a colonel and chief of security in the VRS.

As part her ITCY work she traveled to Belgrade, Serbia, to conduct depositions and investigatory work. There she experienced firsthand the festering hatreds in which the war crimes were rooted.

“Some people are still very nationalistic,” she said. “They see the criminals as war heroes.”

Others understood the importance of holding criminals accountable under international law, Williams said, and would congratulate members of the ITCY team for their work.

But the heinousness of the crimes —murdering innocent civilians, including elderly and the very young, and raping women and girls as part of a hate campaign — inspired only vengefulness in some.

“Others would curse us,” she said. “They want to know, ‘How can you represent a monster?’”

But talking with Williams, one quickly understands that she sees injustice as the ultimate monster. “I really felt that work was so important,” she said. “Instead of immediate battlefield justice, make them accountable, set an example.

“The international tribunal is trying to set a precedent that might does not make right.”

For Williams, it is not simply a case of what happened in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but of what is happening in the world to make it a more just place. “There are a lot of great strides being made in international law that make me hopeful: in Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Rwanda — and the case against Charles Taylor,” she said.

The Kutztown native credits her parents, Ruth Fisher and Greg Williams, and her stepfather, James Steber, for instilling in her a thirst for justice and fairness, and she is quick to express gratitude that she had “knowledgeable and patient people to help me throughout high school, college and law school.”

“Albright was a major catalyst for me,” she said.

The first major influence was Philip A. Eyrich ’58, a political science professor and Albright alumnus. Eyrich, who died in 2001, showed the students that they were very much connected to the world.

She recalled warmly how, “I had him as a freshman for ‘International Relations,’ and I fell in love with that course. Headlines, theories of international relations — he put it all together. He made it a priority to show how it affects us.

“That got us interested in what our interests were,” she noted, “and I decided I wanted to go into international law or public service or with a firm that was involved with those things.”

Another political science professor, Theresa C. Smith, Ph.D., proved to be a powerful influence as well.

“I had her almost every semester for three years,” Williams enthused. “The experience was phenomenal, and her background was so amazing.”

Smith nominated Williams to attend a conference about international affairs, the future of Europe, at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. There, surrounded by Ivy League students, she found herself well-grounded in her chosen field, thanks to her Albright studies.

The experience was instrumental in cementing her decision to pursue international studies, and in spring of 2003, she studied abroad in Geneva, Switzerland. Through a Kent State University program, Williams did research for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research on issues related to nuclear terrorism and space-based weapons, along with other work.

It was not a quiet time. “That was the start of the second Gulf War, and we were staying not too far from the U.S. mission,” she said.

Protestors, irate over the US invasion of Iraq, clashed with police near the mission, she said, and the sting of tear gas was in the air as authorities tried to control the crowds.

After graduating from Albright in Dec. 2003, Williams delved into international law, including a summer program at Tulane School of Law in 2005, graduated with a juris doctor with certification in international and comparative law from Florida Coastal School of Law in May 2007, and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar that year.

While at Florida Coastal, she applied for and received an internship with the ICTY, and worked in summer 2006 in The Hague for the defense team in Prosecutor v. Prlic, et al, where she drafted motions, wrote legal memoranda, did research and helped shape defense strategies, as well as other tasks.

The internship, because of the familiarity she gained with the case and the process, was instrumental in getting her the ICTY job in 2007-2008, she said.

In 2008, she began working closer to home, as an assistant public defender in York County. Her duties included representing indigent clients who were accused of misdemeanors, as well as those others who face mental health hearings, or who needed advice on domestic relations matters, be it protection from abuse or child support.

In 2008, she took her place on the other side of court, as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia handling felony cases and prosecuting major drug dealers.

Was that a big change?

Yes, she said, but she is working in the field of public service, and the issue remains the same: seeking justice, whether it’s for the accused or the victim: “You have a great responsibility to ensure that you are fairly and accurately prosecuting, that no matter what, people are held accountable.”

In the case of Ljubisa Beara, he was found guilty along with the others, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Williams takes satisfaction in knowing that he was tried fairly and given the opportunity to defend himself.

Her passion, she said, “is giving a voice to those who don’t have a voice — to the victims of crime, to those accused of the most heinous crimes.

“In order for us to have a high quality of justice, they all need to have a voice.”