Our Advocates

Oscar Vilhena Vieira is a 1991 graduate of HRAP. He has worked at the Center for the Studies of Violence of the University of São Paulo and the Teotonio Vilela Human Rights Commission, Brazil.

He is now the dean and a professor of law of the School of Law of the Getulio Vargas Foundation where he teaches constitutional law and human rights. He is also a member of the board of several organizations, such as Conectas Human Rights, Pro Bono Institute, Open Society Foundations (Human Rights Initiative) and Arns Human Rights Commission – a recently founded organization that aims to cope with human rights violations in Brazil. He is a columnist at Folha de S. Paulo where he writes on human rights and democracy. Oscar Vilhena Vieira is also a practicing pro-bono lawyer in human rights cases. 

Vieira says: “Participation in HRAP was essential to define my carrier as a human rights lawyer and scholar. First, it opened a broader perspective about the human rights movement around the word and the challenges to promote human rights globally.  It also contributed to my education as a human rights lawyer about the intricacies of international machinery and allowed me to have a better comparative perspective on the use of domestic law to promote human rights.”

Vieira was able to use the networking opportunities provided by HRAP for forging partnerships and accomplishing his human rights initiatives: “In the last decades, as director of Conectas Human Rights and Pro Bono Institute – and later member of the board of both institutions - I kept in contact and made partnerships with several organizations that I had an initial contact during my period in HRAP. To cite some: Human Rights Watch, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Vera Institute, and funders as Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundations. I would like to highlight that the creation of Conectas Human Rights and SUR Journal counted with the contribution of [former ISHR director] Professor J. Paul Martin and HRAP.”

When asked what the greatest benefit was of his participation in HRAP, Oscar Vilhena Vieira responds: “Sense of belonging to a larger, global community of human rights advocates, inspiring tutorial experience with Paul Martin, access to academic resources at Columbia University.”

Oscar Vilhena Vieira holds a B.A. in law from the Catholic University of Sao Paulo, an LL.M. from Columbia University, an M.A. and a Ph.D in political science from the University of Sao Paulo.

 - Article compiled by Chiora Taktakishvili, Fulbright Exchange Visitor, July 2019.

Professor Kwame Karikari is the former Executive Director of the MFWA. He has been for several years, a professor in journalism and mass communication at the School of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana.  He has also been involved in training journalists in several countries in Africa over the years.

Prior to that and during all those years, he practiced as a journalist, including serving as director general of the public Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in the early 1980s. He has also been an activist pursuing social justice and human rights causes, in Africa, including democratic reforms in Ghana. He serves on the boards of a number of African and international rights organisations and on the editorial boards of academic publications.

He was educated at the City College of New York and Columbia University in New York.

1990 Advocate Felipe Michelini Delle Piane, Esq., visited ISHR during a trip to NYC in the spring of 2011. He informed us of his activities: “I am a member of the House of Representatives in the Uruguayan Parliament for Nuevo Espacio, one of the political parties that comprise the governmental left-wing coalition of the Frente Amplio. I have a seat at the key Legal and Constitutional Committee and at the Special Committee on Human Rights and Violence, among others. I also serve as a member of the Uruguayan delegation to the MERCOSUR Parliament. In addition to my political duties I teach International Human Rights Law at the University of the Republic of Uruguay.” Between 2005 and 2009, he was the Deputy Minister of Education and Culture and I chaired Uruguay's delegation to UNESCO.

We asked him how HRAP affected him both professionally and personally. He replied: “My participation in HRAP gave me a broad and full overview of human rights issues and a basic approach to international law. It was an opportunity to meet the society of New York and America as a whole . To experience the Columbia campus life was also a key ingredient of the program. Finally I was able to build an international network in the area, that has lasted since those times until these very days.” After HRAP, he earned the LL.M. at Columbia Law School.

When asked what he felt was the greatest benefit of his participation in HRAP, he replied: “The greatest benefit of having attended the Columbia HRAP is to be part of a worldwide community of human rights advocates who share the same experiences and the same commitment.”

—Article composed by Stephanie V. Grepo, Director, Capacity Building, April 2011

Raji Sourani, a 1990 graduate of the HRAP, writes, “My life would have been very different without my experience at HRAP.”

Since he finished the program, Sourani, a human rights lawyer, has gone on to achieve notable professional accomplishments. In 1995, Sourani co-founded the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), a non-profit organization based in Gaza dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and upholding democratic principles in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Since then, PCHR has become the leading human rights organization in the Gaza Strip, serving as an independent legal body in Gaza that documents and investigates human rights abuses and provides legal aid and counseling to victims.

HRAP provides advocates with unique access to a range of human rights organizations, institutions and policymakers that are based in New York City. Sourani says that these networking opportunities greatly enhanced his work at PCHR: “The professional and personal relationships that I developed during my time at HRAP have lasted until today, remain ever present, and are of invaluable importance in the work of PCHR.”

When reflecting on his experience in HRAP and its impact on his current work, Sourani concludes: “My participation in HRAP has significantly helped my work in human rights advocacy and litigation. My time at Columbia University was an eye-opening experience and provided me with access to an international legal network, and especially within the New York human rights community. It has expanded the reach of my work and that of PCHR immensely.”

Sourani has held prominent executive decision-making positions at various international human rights organizations. He served as the president for 2 terms, and as a member of Board for 3 terms, of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, Cairo, Egypt (2011–2016); as a vice-president of the Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme for 3 terms, Paris, France (2001–2013); and as a board member at International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland (2006–2012). Currently, he is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Legal Assistance Consortium (since 2015) and a member of the International Executive Committee of the International Human Rights Commission (since 2003).

He has received several awards for his work in Gaza, including the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights in 2002, the International Service Human Rights Award in 2002, the Human Rights Prize awarded by the Republic of France in 1996, and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award with Israeli lawyer, Avigdor Feldman in 1991. Sourani received the 2013 Right Livelihood Award for his work defending and promoting human rights for all in Palestine and the Arab World for 35 years.

- Article composed by Allison Tamer, Program Assistant, April 2013, updated in January 2014, and in July 2019 by Chiora Taktakishvili, Fulbright Exchange Visitor.