Through support of prison legal aid ministries and cooperative endeavors with Prison Fellowship International, Advocates has contributed to creating a more humane environment for prisoners. Spearheading this effort is Advocates ' General Counsel Wally Cheney, who served as Assistant Director and General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Prisons for nine years. Advocates has received numerous requests for assistance from officials and parliamentarians interested in bettering their prisons. Advocates ' efforts to affect prison policies and operations through consultations and law reform , thereby improving conditions of prisoners, complements the vital work of other ministries such as Prison Fellowship International. As a result of Advocates' efforts, the World Evangelical Fellowship and its Religious Liberty Commission have been granted official consultative status at the U.N. Advocates will participate with WEF at the 1999 session and serve as a voice for the persecuted.
Advocates plans to have a full-time representative in Geneva.
They joined 600 Christian lawyers and spouses at the CLS conference and built relationships that will last a lifetime. The plan is for 100 nations to be represented at the 1999 Convocation, and to conduct regional conferences in Korea, South Africa, and Bulgaria. The 1998 Convocation re-energized several national law fellowship leaders to return home to encourage Christian lawyers and judges to broaden their vision for justice. The attached, Continuing the Harvest, lists 176 activities in which Advocates has been engaged since 1991 to advance religious liberty, conflict resolution, professional ethics, and humanitarian assistance in 50 nations. The constitution has strong guarantees on religious freedom, and in 1999, Advocates will work with Albanian leaders and the courts in their implementation.