On May 5, ISHR hosted a farewell luncheon for the 2024-25 Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) cohort at Faculty House. The chair of the ISHR faculty advisory board, Prof. Andrew J. Nathan, presented the advocates with their Certificates of Participation. Selected by the cohort to speak on their behalf, Connex Khomba spoke about how they were going to apply what they had gained from HRAP to their work. CU Law Professor Suzanne Goldberg who served as a faculty mentor to the cohort highlighted how the advocates enriched academic life at Columbia. Prof. Goldberg also offered to lead a study group for the advocates. Stephanie Grepo of ISHR urged the advocates to continue to grow the bonds they developed with one another over the program. 2009 Advocate Nazibrola Janezashvili reminisced about her experience in the program and highlighted how it contributed to her development as a leading human rights advocate in Georgia. 2019 Advocate Wisdom Kwame Bebli spoke of how he has supported the program in recent years by interviewing shortlisted HRAP applicants. Also in attendance were Professors Widney Brown of Barnard and James Holtje of SIPA, Adrian Coman of the Arcus Foundation and Boyan Konstantinov of UNDP. More info on the cohort is available here.
