Columbia Human Rights News

Physicians for Social Justice (PSJ), a community development organization founded by 2006 Advocate Chukwumuanya Igboekwu will receive the Red Ribbon Award for outstanding leadership in defending the right of people living with HIV/AIDS in rural Nigeria at the XVIII International AIDS Conference taking place from July 17 to the 23 in Vienna, Austria.

ISHR has just released its HRAP Alumni Profiles. See where the HRAP graduates are today and how their participation in HRAP has helped them along by going to: Alumni Profiles.

Are you an HRAP graduate who would like to be featured in the Alumni Profiles? Please contact Director Stephanie Grepo for more information by sending an email to: sg2670@columbia.edu.

This week, Time Magazine has published a feature article on 1996 Advocate Twesigye Jackson Kaguri and his work at the Nyaka AIDS Orphans School in Uganda. Read the article.

Kaguri is also releasing a book this Thursday, entitled The Price of Stones – Building a School for my Village. To learn more about the book, visit http://www.thepriceofstones.com/.

In May 2010, Foreign Policy magazine named 1989 Advocate Hina Jilani as one of the world’s top dissidents. The magazine reports: “Jilani and her sister Asma Jahangir have been warriors for human rights in Pakistan since the 1980s when they were arrested for protesting gender-discriminatory legislation. Jilani, an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, has warned that a return to military rule could start a process of Balkanization in Pakistan. During her career, she has held numerous positions with international organizations and served as the U.N. secretary-general's special representative on the situation of human rights defenders from 2000 to 2008.”

2002 Advocate Petar Antic recently became the Deputy Minister of Human and Minority Rights in the Republic of Serbia. He was previously the Executive Director of the Minority Rights Center.

Ladi Alabi reports that she recently signed a contract with UNICEF Nigeria and is now working in the Kaduna Field Office as a child protection specialist.

The Open Society Institute recently named 2007 Advocate Zachary Norris one of 18 2010 Soros Justice Fellows. Norris is the Field Director of the Books Not Bars campaign. Based out of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California, Books Not Bars is a nationally-known effort to redirect California's resources away from youth incarceration and towards youth opportunities. The 18 Soros Justice Fellows will receive a stipend of $45,000 to $108,750 for each of 17 projects lasting 12-18 months. Since 1997, OSI has awarded more than $15 million to Soros Justice Fellows as part of a broader effort to curb mass incarceration and ensure a fair and equitable system of justice in the United States.

2008 Advocate Peter Mulbah, the Executive Director of the Skills and Agricultural Development Services in Liberia, was recently named a 2010 Kinship Conservation Fellow. The Fellows are typically mid-career field practitioners with an interest in market-based conservation principles. As one of the 18 Kinship Fellows, Peter will engage in seminars and mentoring sessions with elite faculty, participate in working groups with peers, and advance his commitment to conservation by developing a project of importance to his work. The Program will take place in the state of Washington from late June to late July.

Mikheil Mirziashvili (HRAP 1999) is the Senior Project Manager in Peace, Mediation and Dialogue with the Brussels office of Crisis Management Initiative. Martti Ahtisaari founded CMI in Finland in 2000.

Dr. Alejandro Rivera (HRAP 2008) reports that he has been promoted to a position with the National Center for AIDS Prevention and Control with the Health Institute of Chiapas (Mexico). He has also been elected General Director of the Collective for Family Health (CIFAM), where he has been advocating for communities of people marginalized for their age, sex, gender identify, sexual orientation, or HIV/AIDS status since he co-founded the organization. Finally, he wrote that CIFAM was recently awarded a grant from the Human Rights Small Grant Scheme of the Australian Agency for International Development.

Nazibrola Janezashvili (HRAP 2009) has been accepted in the PhD Program at the Caucasus School of Law. She was also recently elected chairperson of Article 42 of the Constitution.

SIPA News interviewed 2009 Columbia University Human Rights Advocate and Co-Founder of Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group Karyn Kaplan.

Both text and audio versions of the interview are available.

SIPA News interviewed 2009 Columbia University Human Rights Advocate and >Co-Founder of Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group Karyn Kaplan.

Both text and audio versions of the interview are available.

2008 Advocate Peter Mulbah of Liberia hosted a Fellow from the Advocacy Project (AP) in the summer of 2009. A DC-based non-governmental organization, AP works with community-based advocacy around the club. Every year, AP recruits graduate students from North America and Europe to volunteer as Fellows with community-based organizations. Most serve for three months in the field where they provide valuable support for their hosts. The Fellows publicize the work of their hosts and advise them on developing information tools such as websites and newsletters. Many Fellows also continue to promote the work of their host after they return, through events at their university and outreach to local schools and civic associations. This builds cross-cultural bridges and a constituency of support for their host’s advocacy.

Watch a brief interview that the AP Fellow conducted with Peter

Recent HRAP participant Mary Akrami of Afghanistan was interviewed recently by the editor of WeNews. Please see http://www.womensenews.org/story/the-world/091127/afghan-women-would-rather-talk-about-recovery