Our Advocates

1995 HRAP participant Carmen Reinoso Becerra currently serves as the Program Coordinator for Knowledge and Innovation Management and Organisational Learning (KIM-OL) at OXFAM Novib, a Dutch organization for international aid and development. Reinoso Becerra is responsible for providing strategic development and implementation of the KIM-OL framework.

Reinoso Becerra began working in human rights in Peru, where she advocated for gender justice and human rights. She reflects that HRAP “gave [her] the opportunity to broaden [her] vision and to understand the complex, multilayered context in which human rights practitioners must work.” The training she received in the program gave her the tools to take a rights-based approach in the design and implementation of organizational and policies and strategies.

HRAP allowed her to expand her perspective, gaining the experience and knowledge of other advocates from around the world. It also gave her, she said, “the sense of belonging to a broader community that despite difference on languages and cultures, share a common vision of respect to humanity and protection to fundamental human rights.”

After completing HRAP, Reinoso Becerra received a Master’s in International and Public Affairs from Columbia’s SIPA in 2000.

—Written by Alexandra Watson

After HRAP, 1995 Advocate Michelle Gueraldi decided to study at Harvard Law School. She then served as a lawyer for the Organization of American States Human Rights Court in Costa Rica. While in Brazil, she worked primarily on human rights advocacy in human trafficking and children’s rights as an attorney. She published a book about human trafficking, Em Busca do Éden: Tráfico de Pessoas e direitos humanos, experiência brasileira, in 2012.

As of 2018, Gueraldi is a PhD student at the Law School of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal.

When asked about the greatest benefit of HRAP, she writes that all aspects were beneficial for her work as a human rights lawyer. She writes: “HRAP gave me the tools to push my career forward as a human rights advocate. If it wasn’t for this program, I may not have been able to continue working in the human rights field. This program helped me discover new ways both globally and locally to continue my work.”

—Article composed by Allison Tamer, Program Assistant, April 2013

—Updated by Claire Kozik, Program Assistant, Summer 2018

U M Habibun Nessa is a 1995 graduate of HRAP from Bangladesh. She is an associated lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. She is also an active member of Naripokkho, a women's membership-based organization working on the women's advancement and entertainment, elimination of discrimination against women and establishing justice for all. She pro-bono handles the Naripokkho lawsuits and assists the organization’s activities.  

In UM Habibun’s words, “participation in HRAP was an amazing beginning of understanding the theory of human rights, its history and practice. Later, I became a known human rights lawyer and created work opportunities for others.” She says that she greatly benefited from the fundraising skills training offered by HRAP and enjoyed the internship experience that the program provided.

UM Habibun continues to work on women’s rights focusing on the issues of gender discrimination, violence against women, child protection, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the Rohingya refugees.

 - Article compiled by Chiora Taktakishvili, Fulbright Exchange Visitor, July 2019.

In the words of Chanthol Oung, a 1995 graduate of the Human Rights Advocates Program, the greatest benefits of HRAP included “the knowledge on human rights tools to support me in advocating for human rights, learning many practical programs/initiatives from the visits, fundraising skill, and power of networking.” HRAP impresses these skills on participants during a four month stay in New York City with a short visit to Washington, D.C. Many advocates who take part in the program find that they have adopted a whole new set of professional qualifications.

Oung returned to her home country, Cambodia, after participating in HRAP and became Executive Director of the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center, which she founded. She led the organization for ten years, and the Center now has more than a hundred full-time staff and thousands of community volunteers who provide legal services, counseling, skills training, and community organizing as well as rescue victims of trafficking and provide loans and scholarships to girls from landless families. When asked about the assistance HRAP may have provided to her to complete her work, Oung says, “I always work for the promotion of human rights by using what I learned (International Human Rights Instruments) from Columbia to guide my direct service, to raise awareness for public attitude change toward the respect of human dignity and fundamental rights, and to challenge policy and legal reform for equality between men and women and non-violence.”

The quality and strength of Oung as a Human Rights Advocate also shined forth in other areas during her time at the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center. She was elected Chairwoman of the NGOs CEDAW Committee, composed of 67 NGOs. In this role, she spearheaded programs to lobby governments to pass laws on domestic violence as well as advocated for many other governmental policies and programs to advance women and children. This role required her to regularly sit with the Board of Directors of many prominent legal, human rights, adhoc-Committees, and donor agencies.

The achievements Oung has made since her participation in HRAP have been recognized from a wide array of prestigious national and international organizations. She received the award for International Women of Courage from the State Department of the United States, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership from the Philippine President, the Japanese Parliament Award for Human Rights, and was nominated for the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize.

When reflecting on her experience in HRAP and its effect on her current work, Oung concludes, “HRAP has been very instrumental to my human rights work at anywhere I live and work.” Today, Oung is living in the United States and pursuing a PhD in Public Policy and Administration, having completed a Master’s Degree in Law in Hong Kong in 2003 with a specialization in International Human Rights Law as well as having completed a MBA in Cambodia.  She is also currently working as Program Coordinator of the Marriage Enrichment Program for the Cambodian Association of America where her duties include supervising multi-cultural staff, doing case management, developing training curriculum, increasing public awareness of the program, and reporting to both the Executive Director and grantor, the United States federal government.

- Article composed by Andrew Richardson, Program Assistant, June 2010

January 2014 update: Oung is currently working towards a PhD.

1995 Advocate Elena Popovic is currently serving as Secretary and General Counsel at Media Development Investment Fund, Inc. (MDIF) in New York, which is formerly known as the Media Development Loan Fund. MDIF is an investment fund that provides affordable financing and business management training to professional and independent news media companies in emerging democracies. She is responsible for the legal oversight of operations as well as program coordination, evaluation, and analysis of financial and management needs.

When asked about how HRAP assisted in her work of human rights advocacy, she highlights that HRAP provides opportunities to explore academic topics on human rights issues as well as practical skills for human rights advocates. She states, “HRAP helped systemize my knowledge of human rights and international human rights protections. The program also improved my fundraising and report-writing skills.”

After HRAP, she was nominated for the 1995 Reebok Human Rights Award and completed her master’s degree in International Law from New York University School of Law, prior to being admitted to the New York State Bar. When asked about the greatest benefit of HRAP, she replies, “My classmates! Although my classmates lived and worked in very different environments, the pattern of human rights violations proved similar to what I saw in my country, the former Yugoslavia. So we could share experiences and learn from each other.”

—Article composed by Junghwa Lee, Program Coordinator, June 2011