Tania Bernath
Tania Bernath is an experienced human rights researcher/humanitarian protection specialist who has worked all over the world in her 25-year career. She has worked on a whole range of political, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights issues including child protection, human rights campaigns, human rights defenders, women’s rights, land and environmental rights, reproductive rights, rule of law, gender-based violence, protection, health, and transitional justice. About a decade ago Tania shifted her career to the evaluation and learning field where she designs and implements quantitative, qualitative, and participatory methods which include surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation in her work. She now leads multicultural teams of 1-10 staff in-country, multi-country program/project evaluations, baseline studies, and research and provides technical expertise on human rights and humanitarian issues and processes for UN agencies, donors, I/NGOs, consulting firms, universities, and governments. Tania finds working in cross-cultural teams best, as the complementarity of the skills is most clear and especially values eliciting views on strategy and relying on local knowledge, language skills, access, and contacts of team members. The range of countries that Tania has worked in and on includes 15 counties throughout all of Africa including Liberia, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia to name a few, the Asia-Pacific region including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, and PNG, the Americas/Caribbean including Haiti and Dominican Republic, and the Middle East including the OTP, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Northern Iraq.
She is also the co-author of the book “Becoming an International Humanitarian Aid Worker” that she wrote together with Chen Reis (@ChenReis1). You can follow Tania on @nehemiah77
Tania was profiled for ATLAS by Lisa-Marie Rudi, a freelance international lawyer and consultant. She currently works on a multi-country study on reparations for conflict-related sexual violence with the Global Survivor’s Fund in her capacity as consultant legal officer at REDRESS. Learn more about Lisa’s work at the end of this profile.
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What pulled you towards human rights as a career? And what were your first steps?
I went to Columbia’s Teachers’ College for graduate school, where I was introduced to human rights. I took some courses on human rights education that really pulled me in and I ended up writing my thesis on how to apply human rights education to different programs.
One of my mentors, J Paul Martin, in that program sent me to Liberia on a three-month fellowship to work with a local human rights organization. It was 1994, so the Liberian civil war was raging. I still can’t really believe that Columbia sent me there during that time as I was fresh out of graduate school. I remember that ECOMOG (the West African Peacekeeping Force) was doing shows of force every night beating people up in the streets, and I could see that from my balcony.
My first job for this local organization was to research the Harbel massacre. It was my first experience doing human rights documentation work. I interviewed people to try to understand what had happened to them and I was immediately hooked on the work. After the fellowship, I stayed on in Liberia and worked for other organizations such as UNICEF and the Lutheran World Federation. Through my work with civil society, I became a key contact for human rights researchers coming in from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Liberia was an active conflict zone at the time and in 1996, there was a total breakdown of law and order and active fighting in Monrovia, the capital. I was one of the 2,500 people evacuated to neighboring Senegal. I ended up being sent to Côte d’Ivoire to work across the border until it was safe to return to Liberia. I found that these types of experiences can either completely turn you off to this type of work or further commit you to a situation. I remember feeling that somehow this work was a good fit for me. I noticed that I responded well in crisis situations.
When I came back home, I got a job in New York, but I very quickly became restless and wanted to work internationally again. I joined MSF as a humanitarian affairs officer and continued to work in this position on and off in different contexts for periods of between three months to one year. Besides Sierra Leone (2000), I also worked in Ethiopia (2003) northern Uganda (2004), Northern Nigeria (2012) Myanmar (2013) and Amsterdam (2001, 2014).
After the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, I also worked for Amnesty International, first as a volunteer and then as the Regional West Africa Researcher. I was thrilled to be back working on Liberia and Sierra Leone because I had field experience and contacts in both countries, which was critical for the work. I especially wanted to stay in touch with Liberia. When I returned, people were lining up at my door to tell me their stories of the war. It was very clear that people needed to talk to somebody, and I was there to listen. The focus of the research was transitional justice issues and gender-based violence.
What would you say are the moments of your career that resonate most for you?
When I was with MSF in Sierra Leone, I was sent to Mile 91, a town which was being flooded with civilians coming from the North where the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group was in control. I was told that the RUF were probably attacking places further north in Makeni, causing people to flee South. After studying the conflict, this analysis didn’t add up for me. From interviews with those who had fled, I learned it was actually the government bombing marketplaces that was forcing people to move. Based on the findings from the interviews, I wrote a report that MSF took to the UN Security Council. The pressure from the release of the report resulted in stopping the bombings. This experience taught me how important it is not to make assumptions and ask the right questions of people affected by the situation.
This early lesson served me very well throughout my career as I encountered many more similar situations where I had to use evidence-based research to counter assumptions. There was nothing I enjoyed more than doing thorough research by interviewing a lot of different people to document their experiences and expose something which then led to change. Overall, I always felt grateful that I worked for organizations that gave me a platform to do fantastic work and to have access to the right places and people. My challenge was to make sure that I was asking the right questions to ensure that I got the information that could actually help.
What are one/some challenges that you've had, and how have you tackled them?
Organizational Politics: There are also some disadvantages to operating in these types of organizations. I love doing the content of the work, such as doing research and putting a report together. But I was less interested and skilled at dealing with organizational bureaucracy and politics. Sometimes you cannot do what you think is important because of organizational reasons.
In 2013, while based in Rakhine State in Myanmar with MSF, I researched and wrote a report about the human rights violations against the Rohingya population following the 2012 violence there. Although Human Rights Watch had done incredible work exposing the extent of the violence and human rights violations, the media attention did not meet the gravity of the situation there. Despite the thoroughness of the research with many interviews done throughout Rakhine state, MSF did not end up publishing a report because of organizational constraints and for fear that it would put our national staff at risk. As an organization based in the country, MSF’s voice had power. Not only was it really important for the world to know what was happening to the Rohingya, but I also felt a responsibility to the people who I had interviewed. They had given me consent to tell their story. When we did not use the report in any way, I felt that we really had let them down and missed an opportunity to make a difference. I was sad and frustrated. Later, MSF reviewed their advocacy in Myanmar.
When I came back home to New York, I realized I still had all of this information and knowledge that I could share, albeit in a different format. I did presentations about the Rohingya situation and that became an outlet for me to not get stuck in the frustration. I tried to focus on what I learned from the experience. Being able to share what I have learned has been a coping strategy even if it does not lead to the outcome and impact I may have been hoping for.
Burn-Out: Another challenge, especially when working for Amnesty International, was that I got burned out and I wasn’t totally aware of it. One time while in Liberia, I was interviewing a young man who had been a child survivor of the Maher Massacre that took place in Liberia’s second war in 2002. I became so intensely focused on getting the story and on trying to figure out if he was telling the truth in this account that I felt I lost perspective. I had a moment of pause and realized that I had not stopped to think about what it was like for this young man to have survived this massacre that devastated his entire village. I had become desensitized. While compartmentalizing can be a very necessary strategy to deploy in both human rights and humanitarian aid contexts there is a delicate balance that must be met between getting the truth and holding the space with compassion for the person you are interviewing. After that experience, I became more aware of the need to strike this balance and feel I have become a better interviewer for it.
You are the co-author of “Becoming an International Aid Worker”–what led you to write this book?
I was doing a presentation on the Rohingya issue at a school in Denver. I talked to students afterwards and they asked a lot of questions about how to become a humanitarian aid worker. I could not think of a single book I could recommend to them.
Although I have not been good about promoting the book, there are chapters on how to go into the field and how to take care of yourself that to me are the most important and meaningful. They apply to both human rights work and humanitarian work. The book also provides tried and tested strategies for getting a job. We also found that networking is hugely important there.
The best part is that I like knowing that I am giving people advice that is based on evidence-based research rather than just sharing my own experience of how I got into the work.
Do you have any advice for people–especially women–who embark on a career in human rights research/advocacy or protection work?
Take the time to reflect on your motivations. When I wrote the book about how to become a humanitarian aid worker, I did a lot of research about why people get into this field, and we found that many people who come to this work have this idea that they want to “help”. I don’t love that concept and I don’t see myself as somebody who helps. That you are going somewhere to “help” is a little patronizing to those you will work with and on behalf of. It also raises very high expectations for yourself that you cannot fulfill. I have seen it happen–people, early in their career, go just on one mission and have all these expectations of the impact that they are going to have. Then they see corruption and other systemic issues, which can make it very hard to effect sustainable change. As a result, they often burn out quickly.
Be honest with yourself about what career paths work for you, especially women and those who want to have a family. There are two key issues that came up in the research that center on being in the field. While people often say they really want to “go into the field” and like the idea in the abstract, it is so important to see if you even like it or are suited for it. Some people find out that they actually don’t like it or get traumatized by it. I always recommend going on a shorter mission to start and see if you like it. You need to ask yourself why you want to do it and don’t feel bad about not liking it. Also, actually doing it as a career can have a tremendous impact on your personal life and be really challenging for women, especially if having children is really important to them. Of course, it is also possible to have a career and have a family, for both men and women, but it is so important to stay conscious of what you want and plan for it.
Work on your communication skills. As a human rights researcher, it is so important to learn how to listen, talk to and interview people. It sounds so simple, but it is a key skill in this field. I have heard of people doing harm when interviewing victims of human rights violations. I don’t think there is enough training on how to interview people, how to listen to another human being. I encourage people to learn how to do it well and for organizations to train their staff. There is also sometimes this idea that the interviewer feels shy to ask about things for fear of being too intrusive. While it’s important to respect somebody’s boundaries; in my experience, most people really want to talk about what has happened to them if you ask appropriately.
Working with translators that you know, and trust is also so important. You need to make sure that your translator is not saying harmful things to the people you are interviewing or intimidating them in any way. Working with a bad translator can be hugely damaging because there can be so many cultural attitudes and judgments coming through in the words that he or she uses which can cause harm.
For women who are navigating difficult work environments, I have some more specific advice:
Learn to read situations, do your due diligence, and pick your battles. You have to be aware that you will encounter some measure of sexism anywhere - either in your team or outside of it. I hate saying this because the burden should not be on you, but it is the reality that you have to take care of yourself as much as you can and try not to get into compromising situations. You need to learn to read situations and do your due diligence before accepting an assignment. You also have to put up a bit of a wall in some situations and not appear to be vulnerable. Again, being very self-aware around these kinds of situations is key.
You also need to pick your battles. I have never called anyone out through a formal process. I have, however, called people out to their face when I felt it was safe enough for me to do so. It is important to hold bad and criminal behavior to account if you feel that is something that you feel you want to do. It is also important to remember that if they are doing this to you they are probably doing this to others who may find it more difficult to call out or act on. If you are having a tough time in a workplace with inappropriate behavior, getting advice from people you know around you about what you should do is really important. In chapter 9 of our book, we offer some practical advice to women, including available services such as Report the Abuse, which are great options for those encountering issues in the field.
I also want to give some specific advice on how to navigate moving into being a consultant or freelancer.
Do it only if the lifestyle appeals to you. For me, it was very much a conscious and deliberate choice to become a consultant. I stepped out of the structures of organizations because I did not like to deal the organizational politics. Working as a consultant, I can have a job that I intensely focus on for a period and then I can complete it and I then move on to the next thing. If you are somebody who cares a lot about the implementation and wanting to do a project from the start to the end, maybe being a consultant is not for you.
I have a lot of alone working time and not a huge number of regular meetings,. For some people, this might feel lonely. I love planning my day and making space for things that are important to me. Sometimes I prefer to work at night, so I can do other things during the day, for example. I think the pandemic has forced people to question the usefulness of sitting in an office all day and a good deal might consider becoming a consultant because of that. But you really need to do what fits your personality type.
Asking yourself questions about what you want to do and what is important to you is necessary. I care about doing a great job and delivering high quality work. But I have never cared about hierarchies or moving up the ladder. If you are really ambitious, then own that and work on how to make it happen.
Plan your work and priorities well. When I first became a consultant at the beginning, it was very stressful and full of insecurity. The assignments also took a lot more work than I initially expected. I did not handle it particularly well initially. I wish I had done some things to have more security in the beginning. For example, if you are working for an organization before going freelance, see if they might hire you as a consultant because you know their work and then you have a definite client for a while and more freedom to do other things. You need to plan how you will manage things and be deliberate and intentional about it. At the beginning, you might not reject jobs, but it is important to always be clear, at least for yourself, on what type of work you ideally want to do.
Clarify expectations with clients early on. When you take a contract, it is important to get really clear on expectations of your client. The contracts need to state clearly what the terms are and what your assignment is. I do a lot of evaluations now, so it is straightforward what is expected of me. But if you take on a research project, it can be vaguer. As a consultant you have to guide people and ask them to be clear about expectations and outputs because nobody else will do it.
Focus on learning in between jobs. If you are somebody who constantly wants to learn, this lifestyle might be for you. If you have some savings and maybe focus on well-paying jobs in the beginning, you can hopefully build a financial cushion and allow yourself some downtime during which you can be ready to work on self-improvement. I have a list of things (courses, workshops etc.) that I want to do whenever I have some free time. I am also always learning On-the-job. I am currently working with a new team and a new software and tools that I did not know before. I have worked for a few different consultancy firms and every time I learn something new. As a consultant I shy away from being called an “expert”, because while you want to be confident in what you are doing at the same time I always try to keep that learning mindset.
Finally, take care of yourself:
Taking breaks from the work to focus on yourself. After Myanmar, I went to India to focus on my self-development. It felt like I had to be reprogrammed a little to bring back together all of my parts. I felt in some ways that I had become an expert at compartmentalizing, and it felt like I was two people who were not connected. This disconnection has had a huge effect on my personal life and my ability to connect with my emotional self and other people on a real level. I remember in India somebody asked me why I was always looking up and not looking at her. Looking up was my way of coping when things got too emotional. Recognizing this was so important to me. My advice if you are in this line of work is to get a buddy in your organization who checks in on you. I have those kinds of people in my life.
“Getting out” at the right time: You need to recognize when you have been doing the work for too long–whatever too long means in your particular situation. I know some people who were just going from one field mission to the next and then looked at their lives and realized that they had invested as little into their personal life as they had wanted to. Looking back, they may wish that they had gotten out sooner.
Keep in touch with people who are not in your field. You spend a lot of time with your team, and it can feel like they are the only people you can relate to. Relationships in your organizations can be based on and around trauma. It is important to keep in touch with your friends at home. People can lose sight of where they come from. It's tough to come back from a mission and feel you don’t fit in anymore. I’m talking about long-term humanitarian situations, but it could even happen when you are not based “in the field” but doing intense work that exposes you to a lot of these issues.
About 10 years ago I knew it was time for me to “get out” and I shifted my professional focus towards evaluating programs where I based myself in my home and only go out for short periods. Now, as a consultant I have personal rules about how long I go to the field and what type of work I will do.
Lisa-Marie Rudi (she/here) is a freelance international lawyer and consultant. In her capacity as consultant legal officer at REDRESS, she currently works on a multi-country study on reparations for conflict-related sexual violence with the Global Survivor’s Fund. Lisa is a trained investigator and spent 6+ years building universal jurisdiction cases at Civitas Maxima, where her last position was Deputy Head of the Legal Team. Lisa also worked with the civil party team on the Hissène Habré case, and for the Berkeley Human Rights Center, where she conducted a comparative study of accountability mechanisms for sexual violence. She has worked in and on Cambodia, Liberia, Chad, Kenya, and Côte d’Ivoire. She holds an LL.M. with a specialization in international law from the UC Berkeley School of Law. Lisa is also currently training to become a certified transformational coach for individuals and teams. She strives to implement trauma-informed as well as a survivor-centered approaches in her work and to actively fight oppression and structural inequalities in our sector and beyond. You can follow her on Twitter @LisaMarieRudi