Welcoming 2011 Human Rights Advocates: Participant Highlights

by Sarah Flatto, TC ‘12

Top: Salima Namusobya (left), Nadia Bazán; Bottom: Lydia Cherop (left), Gisèle Ngunga

ISHR warmly welcomed fourteen outstanding individuals to the 2011 Human Rights Advocate Program. This unique opportunity provides skill-building and experiential learning for leaders and enables them to participate in dialogues on human rights issues with members of the academic, NGO, policy, and corporate communities. Here is a selection of our accomplished advocates’ goals, objectives, and thoughts in their own words.

Salima Namusobya, Uganda

For me, the networking that comes with the Human Rights Advocates Program is a very rare opportunity that I intend to use to the best of my ability. The program has given me the privilege of meeting, learning and sharing experiences with a diverse group of people ranging from fellow advocates, students, lecturers, funders, other human rights organizations as well as individuals. For my organization, the Refugee Law Project, I hope to create strategic partnerships, raise the profile of the organization and share experiences about the work that we do, as well as engage in advocacy on some of the issues that the organization is working on. Once I return to Uganda, I hope to share acquired knowledge with colleagues in the organization, and implement good practices that I will have learnt during my stay at Columbia. Regarding my personal growth, I aim to improve my presentation skills and public speaking, build my fundraising skills,and create constructive relationships. I also hope to learn from other people and deepen my understanding of subjects I am exploring at the university, specifically the courses that I am taking on gender and sexuality and transitional justice. I hope to share practice based knowledge on forced migration as it affects refugees, asylum seekers, Internally Displaced Persons, and Deportees, as well as the relationship between forced migration and the various thematic areas that the Refugee Law Project works on, including gender, transitional justice, child rights, durable solutions, access to justice, torture and mental health.

Nadia Bazán, Colombia

My goals during this program are to improve my skills and knowledge in the areas covered by the program, and through the courses available to us at Columbia; to learn about the human rights situations in the countries where the advocates comes from, and the strategies they are developing in order to transform their respective situations in a positive way. I’m also very much looking forward to the networking part of the program as I hope that there will some fruitful meetings for the future of my organization, the Urgent Action Fund of Latin America and the Spanish Speaking Caribbean for Women’s Human Rights (FAU-AL).

Lydia Cherop, Uganda

My main goal is to build a critical mass of human rights activists who can share with me experiences and challenges they face. I also seek to promote the rights of rural women and to explore different ways in which they can be protected from human rights violations and rescued from poverty. Finally, I hope to network with ISHR advocates and alumnae so as to mobilize funds to achieve our vision for rural women at Teso Women Peace Activists (TEWPA), which is a rural women’s organization located in the Teso sub-region of Uganda.

Gisèle Ngunga, Democratic Republic of Congo

I am a lawyer and an activist for human rights in Lubumbashi. I represent ALFA (Action Large des Femmes Advocates) and I am also on the list of assistant lawyers of the International Criminal Court. My participation in HRAP is a wonderful opportunity for Wide Action of the Women Lawyers (ALFA). For my part, no country in the world can pretend to guarantee an individual’s fundamental human rights without introducing education (teaching), training and information on human rights. Education in human rights therefore constitutes an effective strategy of prevention to fight against human rights violations, just as it promotes a culture of peace and democracy. More specifically, this opportunity allows me to speak about Congolese women who suffer from sexual- and gender-based violence, who are defenseless, without a support system and forced to live with their pain in silence. Our generation has a moral obligation to bring justice to those bruised, humbled and broken Congolese women, or humanity will judge us! This program is going to help me to weave a strong network for the Congolese cause.

Published in RightsNews Volume 30, no. 1, November, 2011.
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