“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?” Eleanor Roosevelt, a beloved former first lady and renowned human rights activist, said. “In small places, close to home.”
In our age of globalization and interconnectedness, every person and institution holds a certain responsibility to reflect the ethos of a human rights-based framework.
Academic institutions hold an increased responsibility to provide resources and spaces to discuss world events and provide opportunities for students across disciplines with academic, professional and experiential opportunities regarding human rights.
Currently, the majority of Big Ten institutions, have dedicated programs and course offerings focusing on human rights education and community action, except the University of Illinois, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Oregon.
Due to this critical gap in programming, UO doesn’t have the resources to empower students to engage critically in human rights-centered dialogue focusing on local, national and global levels.
As of Oct. 30, the Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO) Senate unanimously passed a resolution in support of establishing a task force for the human rights center; this proposal was sent to the Office of the Provost to officially establish the task force for the human rights center.
The three main goals of the proposal are to enhance understanding of global human rights frameworks, expand opportunities for students and create a platform for ethical discussion on global human rights issues.
The UO Coalition for a Human Rights center is comprised of a broad coalition of supporters, notably two student organizers, Charles Petrik and Sophia Barghouti.
Petrik, a senior studying global studies and geography, talked about some of the reasons behind advocating for the human rights center on campus.
Petrik said the encampment and protests on campus last year highlighted the need for dedicated spaces on campus to discuss global human rights and promote free inquiry surrounding larger social issues.
“When something happens here, or when something happens at home, or what’s going on about the homelessness crisis in Eugene, there’s just a lack of institutional support there for students to be discussing different perspectives,” Petrik said.
The center would also provide institutional support to manage the different interests of a variety of students, which was something the university particularly struggled with last year.
Barghouti, a junior studying political science, Middle Eastern and North African studies and Arabic, said that with the Israel-Hamas war, there was a lack of critical dialogue happening. Barghouti, during discussions she hosted within her dorm to share her experiences as a Palestinian-Lebanese student, realized that “this is something that the University of Oregon needs to institutionalize.”
“We believe that the university should speak out in a way that protects the core function … and the university is a place where students come to learn and pay to get an education, and anything that inhibits the sustainability of that (goal), the University should speak on directly,” Petrik said.
With a volatile federal government and constant international changes, the university needs to be receptive to their students and create spaces for students to engage with topics independent of university influence.
Barghouti and Petrik met with a few directors across the Big Ten regarding the establishment of the center and reported back with the different structures available to integrate the center onto campus.
“The goal of the university is to enhance career pathways and experiential learning, and the Human Rights Center would solve one of those key goals that the university wants to solve,” Barghouti said.
