HRAP Links

There is an image missing. It should be here. John Caulker discusses issues of empowerment with his colleagues during a Roundtable presentation.

Human Rights Advocacy Program

The Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at Columbia University is designed to prepare proven human rights leaders from the Global South and marginalized communities in the U.S. to participate in national and international policy debates on globalization by building their skills, knowledge, and contacts. The Program features a four-month residency at Columbia University in New York City with a structured curriculum of advocacy, networking, skills-building, and academic coursework.

Since 2004, HRAP has concentrated its support on individuals and organizations that address issues broadly related to globalization.

The four-month intensive capacity building program focuses on the following key issue areas:

Special attention is given to the above issues and their intersection with gender, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, and/or other sources of marginalization.

HRAP’s current focus has emerged in recent years as a response to the negative effects of globalization on those with the least access to decision-making processes. Given their physical and symbolic distance from centers of power, grassroots leaders are typically unable to lobby for equitable outcomes from global policymakers.

The design of HRAP is intended to help level the playing field for those lacking the access and relevant skills or knowledge to lobby effectively for their causes. The Program provides advanced training, support, and networking opportunities to respected human rights leaders. The focus is both on strengthening the skills of the individual Advocates and providing tools to build sustainable organizations that advocate for disadvantaged peoples.

Support

The Center for the Study of Human Rights is grateful to the following foundations, organizations, and individuals for their support of the Human Rights Advocates Program:

HRAP 2007

Joan Ferrante and Carey McIntosh
American Jewish World Service
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development
Eileen Fisher
General Service Foundation
The John Merck Fund
Open Society Institute
Sperry Fund

HRAP 2006

An Anonymous Foundation
Ford Foundation – Lagos Office
General Service Foundation
Henry M. Jackson Foundation
Open Society Institute’s Law and Health Initiative
Open Society Institute
Social Accountability International
Sperry Fund
Third Millennium Foundation
Adrian Coman
Sarah Beth Fascitelli
* Joan Ferrante
Cheryl Franks
Judy Gearhart and Rainer Braun
* Nicholas G. Hansen
 * Peter Juviler
Suneeta Kaimal
Rachelle Olivia Kassimir
Violeta Krasnic
Aparna Kumar
Margaret Ladner
Thomas Lansner
J. Paul Martin
Alice Miller
Andrew Nathan
Alan Potts
Sara Rakita
Bess Rothenberg
Gayatri Spivak
Michael Stanislawski

*These individuals have generously contributed over $1000 to HRAP.

What some HRAP Alumni/ae have said about the Program

“HRAP 2006 was an awesome experience of a lifetime. We went in like ‘ore,’ we came out as ‘refined precious gold.’”
    — Chukwumuanya Igboekwu , Nigeria , HRAP 2006

“Networking opportunities provided by HRAP through meetings (formal and informal) with similar issue based groups and networks, have presented opportunities for us to share contextual information on the situation in our respective countries and get valuable information to improve international networking and advocacy on issues which have international implications on the work I do…Such networks will ultimately serve as pressure points on multi national corporations in the diamond and extractive industry, to ensure that they operate in line with international human rights standards.”
    — Agnes Sia Tamba, Sierra Leone, HRAP 2006

“The most important gain for me… has been the possibility of being able to put [my organization’s] work in a broader context at the political scene and the international human rights scene. Adding that to a solid analysis for strategic planning, I think I am able to figure out the real needs and opportunities for [my organization] and other women's organizations in Mexico and other Latin American countries…On a very personal level, I feel transformed with a new vision about the global scenario for human rights and its actors, along with a new say to interact with them: utterly empowering for me.”
    — Miriam Ruiz Mendoza, Mexico, HRAP 2006

“For me personally, it has changed my mind, my understanding of human rights… For my organization, now we have one more person with faith in the future of my country and a strong desire to change the situation for the better…”
    — Oksana Drebezova, Belarus, HRAP 2001

“[After the Advocates Program] Now I truly play a linking role between suffering Burmese migrants and the international community, most recently going to the UN Human Rights Commission.”
    — Nan Htay Htay Win, Burma , HRAP 2000

“The advocates training program was as much inside the classroom as it was outside, meeting people who had similar interests…the oral histories group, the classes I attended, the brown bag presentations, the support staff, the students I met, the outings, and the sheer availability of materials to read and read…for me personally the learning goes no…As a woman I grew wings after 40 and to fold them after a decade would be as hard as it was unfolding them.”
    — Maya Sharma, India , HRAP 1999

“Because of these new perspectives, my NGO opened a very constructive relationship with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independent Judiciary. Moreover, we now have routine media links to the EU, the Dutch and the Australian governments.”
    — John Rumbiak, Indonesia, HRAP 1999

“I have been able to create a network around a main issue that my organization works on the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project and the prosecution of Hissen Habre the former dictator of Chad .”
    — Delphine Djiraibe, Chad, HRAP 1999 and 2004 Recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

“I learned the necessary skills to represent my organization’s conception of human rights well, to fundraise…it was more responsibility than I had before…networking is not something that I would have done on my own initiative, the program’s stress on this point was fundamental.”
    — Michelle Gueraldi, Brazil , HRAP 1995

Advisory Board

Clarence Dias, International Center for Law in Development
Cathy Feingold, Solidarity Center
Joan Ferrante, Columbia University, Comparative Literature
Cheryl Franks, Columbia University, School of Social Work
Ian Gary, Oxfam America
Paulina Garzón, Centro de Derechos Económicos y Sociales
Judy Gearhart, Social Accountability International
Sofia Gruskin, Harvard University
Zelma Henriques, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Ali Miller, Columbia University, School of Public Health, SIPA, & CSHR
Nikki Reisch, Bank Information Center
Peter Rosenblum, Columbia University, Law School

HRAP Inquiries
or call
+1 212.854.7372