The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2009

50 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / J U L Y - A UGU S T 2 0 0 9 A F S A N E W S 2009 AFSA CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT AWARD WINNERS (By Francesca Kelly with input from Leyla Ones) J eff Collins has never had an easy assignment. He went from the consular line in Havana to Embassy Baghdad, then on TDY to a special counterterrorismmission on the Iraq-Iran border. As soon as he arrived in Ankara in 2006, Collins jumped into the hard work of promoting human rights in Turkey and raising awareness of the need to reform the State Department’s system of human rights reporting. Collins’ perse- verance on these two critical issues has earned him the 2009 William R. Rivkin Award for Constructive Dissent. In Turkey, issues such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion are still decidedly controversial; diplomats who raise such topics may find themselves shunned by government inter- locutors. Collins was sensitive to the need to reach out to human rights activists while not alienating the Turkish government. Collins strongly believed that the immense pressure faced by human rights activists — some of whom were receiving death threats — required the United States to pro- vide all-out support. He called emergency human rights defender meetings at his home, spending his own money to host the events. Tragically, in January 2007, human rights activist and Armenian Turk Hrant Dink was brutally gunned down in front of his Istanbul office. Collins immediately raised concerns within the diplomatic community, particularly with his European counterparts, regarding other human rights activists facing serious threats. Their pressure on the Turkish government resulted in 24-hour state security being provided to five prominent activists. Recognizing that face-to-face meetings and in-the-field action achieve the best results, Collins began questioning the efficacy of State’s current human rights reporting process, which mandates that each post produce a series of often-duplicative reports. Collins made it a personal mission to fix the process and offer creative solutions. Toward that end, he designed, created and managed the U.S. government’s first Intellipedia site for human rights issues — a series of classifiedWeb pages where officers from different agencies can update facts and add analysis. On his own initiative, Collins introduced the concept to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and to the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs during travel to Washington, encouraging them to use Intellipedia or its unclassified counterpart, Diplopedia, as a way to streamline what is gener- ally a labor-intensive annual exercise. Though generally welcomed, Collins’ fresh proposals har- nessing the latest communication technology have not yet produced an official change in human rights reporting procedures. Yet Collins persevered in keeping a focus on his readily acces- sible solutions and initiatives, detailing his assessments in a memo to the political counselor and front office and timing it to coincide with the February release of this year’s Human Rights Report. He then persuaded the ambassador to send the memo as a front-channel cable (09 Ankara 398) to DRL. Collins is quick to credit others for the success he achieved in advancing human rights issues on the ground in Turkey “under frequently inhospitable conditions.” In particular, he lauds Foreign Service National Jale Ersoy for “patiently educating me about the complex dynamics in Turkey and nudging me to reach out to marginalized minority groups.” Born in San Diego, Calif., Collins attended Stanford University and Northwestern Law School. He worked as a federal law clerk and attorney prior to joining the Foreign Service in 2002. One of his most unusual Foreign Service assignments was aboard the USNS Mercy in Timor-Leste. He is married to Sally Collins. William R. Rivkin Award FOR A MID-LEVEL FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER Jeffrey Collins Top: Jeffrey Collins, left, has tea with Black Sea shepherds in the Kaçkar Mountains, Oct. 14, 2007. (Collins’ dog Lucita is also in the photo.) Bottom: Collins on TDY in Timor-Leste, July 15, 2008. ROBERTO QUIROZ SALLY COLLINS