PIHRL on Facebook!1997 Summer Interns
In 1997, the introductory year of the PIHRL Summer Internship Program, two students worked as overseas interns.
Ms. Toma Guha
('98) worked for the South
Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC), in New
Delhi, India. The SAHRDC is a non-governmental organization that investigates,
documents, and disseminates information about human rights violations
in South Asia. It focuses on violations such as torture, political
imprisonment, summary and extra-judicial executions, disappearances,
and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
Ms. Guha drafted a chapter of a human rights 'know your rights' manual disseminated in India; she researched international human rights and development issues; and she researched and wrote about human rights of women imprisoned in India. She met with various Indian lawyers, foreign diplomats, and representatives of international organizations based in New Delhi.
Mr. Aklilu Tedla
('98), worked at the
United Nations Centre for Human Rights (now under the office
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) in Geneva, Switzerland.
The UN Human Rights Centre is the nerve center for all UN activity
worldwide, related to promoting and protecting human rights. Mr. Tedla
worked with Human Rights officer Alan Parra, under the mandate of
a UN Special Rapporteur, Mr. Param Cumaraswamy, who investigates and
reports on human rights abuses related to the independence of judges
and lawyers. Violations include threatening or causing violence to
lawyers because they handle politically sensitive or unpopular cases,
corruption within a national judiciary, and inability for fair trials
to be had because of undue influences on the judiciary.
Mr. Tedla reviewed complaints filed by individuals and groups from around the world, drafted communications to governments accused of violations, and drafted portions of reports filed within the UN system.
(L-R) Professor George Edwards, Mr. Ravi
Nair (South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre), Ms. Toma Guha
Aklilu Tedla in Geneva, Switzerland