I'll respond to your question first, Mr. Fragiskatos.

Our work is based on a conviction that the poor do not have access to the law; therefore, the law is not protecting the poor in the way that it is those who have greater financial resources. The truth is that very often it is members of minorities in the countries where we operate and those who have less power who suffer the most. Certainly the women and children in many societies are among the most powerless. Our work is focused on ensuring that all members of a society, even those with the least power, are able to experience the protection that the law should provide them.

We do find ourselves quite often working with minorities. We find that in India, for instance, the majority of our clients are members of the scheduled caste, the scheduled tribes in India, but it's their poverty for social reasons, for customary reasons, that has caused them to lack the protection of the law.

We find in every location that we are able to form coalitions of organizations that share our objectives and are as concerned as we are that all members of a society, even the weakest and the most vulnerable, can experience protection.

We've seen, over time, in locations like Cambodia and the Philippines.... In Cambodia, for instance, many of those who are suffering from sexual exploitation are members of the Vietnamese minority within Cambodia, so again there is a social or an ethnic dimension to the work we do.

In northern Thailand our work is focused on ensuring that the members of the hill tribes and minorities in northern Thailand receive the citizenship to which they are entitled as those who are born in Thailand.

Irrespective of the social or ethnic or cultural dimensions, the common factor in all cases is poverty, and the poor unfortunately do not receive the protection of the law that they deserve.

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