At the core of the Advocates’ work at Harvard, campaigns are meant to build long-term support around a focused human rights issue. Campaigns enable Harvard College students to use their academic skills to make a positive and substantial impact in the real world. Members of the Advocates are encouraged to submit campaign proposals at the beginning of the fall or spring semesters. Campaign submissions will be reviewed by a five-member committee including the Advocates co-presidents and faculty advisors.
Current Campaigns
- Corporate Responsibility in Latin America
- Cultural Survival (Reports on Indigenous Rights for the UN Universal Periodic Review)
- Freedom From Fear: Human Rights in Burma
- Jerusalem as Model and Reality
- Soldier Testimony
- Torture and Detention
Campaign Descriptions
1. Corporate Responsibility in Latin America
Amanda Lynch
aclynch(at)fas.harvard.edu
This campaign centers around the relationship between international oil corporations and indigenous populations. The current situation is not simply a reiteration of “David and Goliath”; foreign oil companies can benefit indigenous populations, local governments play an important but seldom acknowledged role in these interactions, and harming indigenous groups is not on the agenda of any major corporation, though abuses often happen.
The shorter term goal is to organize a panel discussion featuring both indigenous rights experts and oil company representatives in order to better understand the complex situation presently facing the Amazon region. The longer term goal is to assemble a handbook of consultative practices that clearly enumerates how best to pursue this kind of economic cooperation in a way that respects indigenous rights every step of the way.
2. Cultural Survival (Reports on Indigenous Rights for the UN Universal Periodic Review)
Martin Eiermann
eiermann(at)fas.harvard.edu
The Cultural Survival Campaign is a collaboration between the Human Rights Advocates and the Cambridge-based NGO Cultural Survival. We research and write short, concise reports on the status of indigenous rights in various countries. These reports are submitted to the UN Human Rights Council for inclusion in the official reports produced during the Universal Periodic Review, the main mechanism the UN uses to review its members’ commitment to human rights. In the past, parts of our reports have been included in the final UN reports and have had a tangible impact on indigenous rights policy. Usually, two students will collaboratively work on one (5-page) report. The work that goes into producing these reports is new to most students, so don’t worry if you have no experience in this area. Throughout the project, we will be working closely with our project advisor Ted MacDonald and NGO staff at Cultural Survival to introduce students to the issues surrounding the drafting of the reports.
3. Freedom From Fear: Human Rights in Burma
Maya Sugarman
sugarman(at)fas.harvard.edu
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 14 out of the last 20 years in house arrest after winning the 1990 elections, has been in the news lately, as her detention was recently extended with no basis. However, although she may be the face of the struggle, she is far from the only political prisoner in Burma. While exact numbers are not known, there are likely more than 2000 political prisoners in Burma who are prevented from speaking out against the many human rights abuses the plague the country. The Harvard College Advocates will be working with students from the Kennedy School and from the Harvard Law School Human Rights Advocates as part of the Harvard Burma Network, “a forum for students, faculty, and members and friends of the greater Harvard community to come together and act in support of the movement for human rights and democracy in Burma.” Actions planned for this year include film screenings, facilitation of a visit from monks who were part of the Saffron Revolution, coordinating an art exhibit, doing a public art project, and moving into op eds and political advocacy.
4. Jerusalem as Model and Reality
Abdelnasser Rashid
arashid(at)fas.harvard.edu
Jerusalem is undergoing dramatic transformation; Israel is actively and rapidly judaizing the city based on a simple principle — maximal Jewish and minimal Arab presence. Besides the Palestinian homes already destroyed and families evicted, hundreds more have been and will be given demolition orders. Settlers continue to occupy Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, yet these are not given the attention of other West Bank settlements. The reality in Jerusalem is consistent with Israel’s actions throughout the territory, and it is this reality that helps one understand the larger significance of Jerusalem . This campaign will seek to (a) educate students about the urgent situation in Jerusalem, (b) publish a series of op-eds in newspapers around the nation, and (c) work on legislation with Congressmen that demands that these activities be halted immediately. Other ideas for this campaign are welcome and encouraged.
5. Soldier Testimony
Ahmed Mabruk
amabruk(at)fas.harvard.edu
All too often, the individual soldier’s voice is missing from discussions about violent conflict. In the case of human rights abuses, a simplistic aggressor-victim dichotomy is reproduced by a polarized public discourse. On the one hand, politicians and commanders seek to isolate “bad apples” and to avoid blame for their own strategic decisions. On the other hand, human rights groups speak only for the victims of abuse. In accounts of conflict, soldiers are presented (by others) as heroes or villains, but rarely human. Direct soldier testimony can offer powerful commentary on the larger systems in which soldiers operate and paint a more detailed picture of humanity in conflict. The Soldier Testimony Project aims to present soldier testimonies in an accessible medium. The Project seeks to encourage reflection on the circumstances and institutional arrangements that facilitate the perpetration of human rights abuses, while still inviting condemnation of their occurrence.
6. Torture and Detention
Chiara Kovarik
ckovarik(at)fas.harvard.edu
The overarching goals of the Campaign on Torture and Detention are two-fold: first, to achieve a full accounting of post 9/11 violations of human rights in U.S. counterterrorism operations and, second, to obtain justice for the victims of these human rights violations. The Advocates will partner with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents several Guantanamo detainees, to set up outreach/education events for the Harvard community around the closing of Guantanamo and to help directly with resettlement of some of their clients. The Advocates also will partner with Stephanie Skier ‘05 of the Institute for Intermediate Studies to put on a production of Stephanie’s play, WATERBOARD - a play about torture, at Harvard’s Adams Pool Theatre in Spring 2010.