News

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

2024-25 Advocate Thehoya Dy, the head of the anti-trafficking unit at Center for the Alliance of Labor and Human Rights in Cambodia, was interviewed by Radio Free Asia about the pervasiveness of online scams in Cambodia. He noted that the high number of online scams in Cambodia could hurt the country's economy as tourists and investors may avoid the country out of fear. He called for the government of Cambodia to cooperate with civil society and the international community to investigate the network behind the scams to make sure that no more people become victims of online scams.

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

HRAP arranged a lunch at Faculty House in late February for the advocates and their faculty mentors to meet one another in an intimate setting and to discuss their work while looking for potential areas of synergy. This year's faculty mentors include first-time mentors Suzanne Goldberg of the Law School, Joanne Csete of the Mailman School of Public Health and Peter Twyman of Columbia Global Centers and longtime mentors Widney Brown of Barnard, Elsa Stamatopoulou of ISHR, Daniela Romero Amaya of Teachers College, and Yasmine Ergas of SIPA. 

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

During the last week of February, HRAP participants visited DC for networking meetings with the State Department, RFK Human Rights, the National Endowment for Democracy, Amnesty International-USA, Free the Slaves, Human Rights Campaign, Vital Voices, Washington Office on Latin America, and the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable. Not one meeting was cancelled; in fact, meetings continued to be scheduled up until the day before we left for DC. 

Monday, February 24, 2025

On February 11th, 30 students, alumni and faculty attended “A Conversation with Human Rights Advocates on the Current State of LGBTQI+ Rights Around the World” on the Morningside Campus. Stephanie Grepo of ISHR opened the event and introduced Luiza Drummond Veado of UNDP who moderated the conversation with four participants in the 2024-25 Human Rights Advocates Program.

Thursday, February 20, 2025

1993 Advocate Luis Felipe Polo returned to Columbia University in February to meet the current HRAP cohort at the ISHR Winter Reception. He shared with them his memories of HRAP as well as his Columbia ID card--which he still carries with him! While at the reception, he was thrilled to see retired Columbia Professors Joan Ferrante and Carey McIntosh who regularly hosted HRAP advocates, including him, at their home in Western Massachusetts during the first two decades of the program.