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Karyn Kaplan
2009 Columbia University Human Rights Advocate
Co-Founder, Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group
What led you to participate in Columbia’s Human Rights Advocates Program?
Over the past two years, I had seen on the Web advertising for the Human Rights Advocates Program, and actually helped a Thai friend apply to participate, which she did. I was very excited to hear about the program and read about the program, and really wanted the opportunity to get out of my day-to-day work, which is very intense. I hadn’t been able to get an opportunity to do that in such a stimulating, educating environment with other rights advocates working on different issues.
What you were doing before you joined the Human Rights Advocates Program?
Before I came to the Human Rights Advocates Program, I had been working as the director for policy and development for the Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group in Bangkok. We are a community based organization, which I founded with my partner, Paison Suwannawong, who is a leading HIV positive activist in Thailand. Most of our staff are living with HIV, and we do a lot of treatment-access for highly marginalized populations, such as injecting drug users, migrants, and people in prison.
What have you learned this fall that you want to take back with you?
I have learned so much this fall through the Human Rights Advocates Program that I’m going to take back to Thailand. Not only new contacts, because the importance of a human rights advocate network cannot be underestimated. But ideas, ways of thinking of approaching difficult issues in my work. Ways of dealing with stress, which we rarely think about for ourselves, but often think about for our clients and participants and people directly affected by human rights violations. So I’ve learned many different things that I’ll take back with me, especially ways of supporting my staff, and also new contacts, and new policy advocates partners.
What have you learned from your fellow advocates?
I’ve learned a lot of from the other eight people in my program, who come from all corners of the earth, Afghanistan, Mexico, Sudan, Georgia – and they’re working on very different issues – transitional justice in Mexico, women’s rights in Afghanistan. These are areas that I knew very little about. But I found interesting connections between my work and their work. And just learning about different human rights situations in different parts of the world gives you a new perspective, fresh perspective, on the way that you look at your own work and how you do it by hearing from them.
What has it been like to interact with other Columbia University students?
It’s been so cool interacting with other students, whether it’s the school of public health, or the law school. We’ve been asked to give presentations on human rights advocacy and how you do it. Or to just talk about what it’s like to do human rights work on the ground in our countries. And learning from them in the classroom. We’re privileged to be able to take classes at Columbia on human rights issues and learn from the right discussions. We rarely get to enjoy an academic environment where can talk about theory and application in our day to day work.
I think the fact that the program is in New York City is really important. There’s a real diversity of advocacy targets at the United Nations., even donor organizations, who might benefit from learning about the work of human rights advocates from all the different countries. We can travel easily to Washington, D.C., and the program supports that, for a week of advocacy and meetings. It’s a really extraordinary experience to be in such a culturally, ethnically resource-rich city.
What would you tell someone who is considering applying for the Human Rights Advocacy Program? What advice would you give them?
Apply before the deadline! It’s very competitive and there are so many incredible human rights advocates out there. Focus on how you’re going to use the experience back in your home country, because that’s really the idea. It’s not just about you as an individual and what you personally get out of it. But how you can bring back resources, skills, contacts to bolster what you do on the ground in your own country.