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Between 1989 and 2023, more than 350 advocates from nearly 100 countries have attended the program. HRAP participants have ranged from early-career advocates who cut their teeth in very urgent human rights situations to mid-career advocates who have founded organizations. HRAP alumni have served as UN special rapporteurs, in the ministries of their governments, and at leading human rights organizations around the globe. They have been recognized with honors including the Rafto Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, the highest acknowledgment from the international human rights community.
Below are the biographies of current Advocates and descriptions by select alumni as to why they became human rights advocates.
To see a list of additional past Advocates click here.
To read about more about the work of our Advocates click here .
Ghana, 1990
Former Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa
Professor Kwame Karikari is the former Executive Director of the MFWA. He has been for several years, a professor in journalism and mass communication at the School of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana. He has also been involved in training journalists in several countries in Africa over the years.
Prior to that and during all those years, he practiced as a journalist, including serving as director general of the public Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in the early 1980s. He has also been an activist pursuing social justice and human rights causes, in Africa, including democratic reforms in Ghana. He serves on the boards of a number of African and international rights organisations and on the editorial boards of academic publications.
He was educated at the City College of New York and Columbia University in New York.
Uruguay, 1990
Member of the House of Representatives, Uruguayan Parliament
1990 Advocate Felipe Michelini Delle Piane, Esq., visited ISHR during a trip to NYC in the spring of 2011. He informed us of his activities: “I am a member of the House of Representatives in the Uruguayan Parliament for Nuevo Espacio, one of the political parties that comprise the governmental left-wing coalition of the Frente Amplio. I have a seat at the key Legal and Constitutional Committee and at the Special Committee on Human Rights and Violence, among others. I also serve as a member of the Uruguayan delegation to the MERCOSUR Parliament. In addition to my political duties I teach International Human Rights Law at the University of the Republic of Uruguay.” Between 2005 and 2009, he was the Deputy Minister of Education and Culture and I chaired Uruguay's delegation to UNESCO.
We asked him how HRAP affected him both professionally and personally. He replied: “My participation in HRAP gave me a broad and full overview of human rights issues and a basic approach to international law. It was an opportunity to meet the society of New York and America as a whole . To experience the Columbia campus life was also a key ingredient of the program. Finally I was able to build an international network in the area, that has lasted since those times until these very days.” After HRAP, he earned the LL.M. at Columbia Law School.
When asked what he felt was the greatest benefit of his participation in HRAP, he replied: “The greatest benefit of having attended the Columbia HRAP is to be part of a worldwide community of human rights advocates who share the same experiences and the same commitment.”
—Article composed by Stephanie V. Grepo, Director, Capacity Building, April 2011
Palestinian Authority, 1990
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Raji Sourani, a 1990 graduate of the HRAP, writes, “My life would have been very different without my experience at HRAP.”
Since he finished the program, Sourani, a human rights lawyer, has gone on to achieve notable professional accomplishments. In 1995, Sourani co-founded the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), a non-profit organization based in Gaza dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and upholding democratic principles in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Since then, PCHR has become the leading human rights organization in the Gaza Strip, serving as an independent legal body in Gaza that documents and investigates human rights abuses and provides legal aid and counseling to victims.
HRAP provides advocates with unique access to a range of human rights organizations, institutions and policymakers that are based in New York City. Sourani says that these networking opportunities greatly enhanced his work at PCHR: “The professional and personal relationships that I developed during my time at HRAP have lasted until today, remain ever present, and are of invaluable importance in the work of PCHR.”
When reflecting on his experience in HRAP and its impact on his current work, Sourani concludes: “My participation in HRAP has significantly helped my work in human rights advocacy and litigation. My time at Columbia University was an eye-opening experience and provided me with access to an international legal network, and especially within the New York human rights community. It has expanded the reach of my work and that of PCHR immensely.”
Sourani has held prominent executive decision-making positions at various international human rights organizations. He served as the president for 2 terms, and as a member of Board for 3 terms, of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, Cairo, Egypt (2011–2016); as a vice-president of the Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme for 3 terms, Paris, France (2001–2013); and as a board member at International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland (2006–2012). Currently, he is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Legal Assistance Consortium (since 2015) and a member of the International Executive Committee of the International Human Rights Commission (since 2003).
He has received several awards for his work in Gaza, including the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights in 2002, the International Service Human Rights Award in 2002, the Human Rights Prize awarded by the Republic of France in 1996, and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award with Israeli lawyer, Avigdor Feldman in 1991. Sourani received the 2013 Right Livelihood Award for his work defending and promoting human rights for all in Palestine and the Arab World for 35 years.
- Article composed by Allison Tamer, Program Assistant, April 2013, updated in January 2014, and in July 2019 by Chiora Taktakishvili, Fulbright Exchange Visitor.
