The Human Rights Center has hosted many scholars over its thirty years of research. Some of those individuals were persecuted in their countries of origin, and came to the Center for refuge and opportunity to continue their important work.
Partners
Current HRC Scholar: Omar Gómez Trejo
Omar Gómez Trejo is a visiting scholar at the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law. For more than three years, he was the lead prosecutor of the Special Unit for the Investigation and Litigation for the infamous forced disappearance of 43 student teachers in Ayotzinapa, Mexico in September 2014. He was also the executive secretary of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts for the Ayotzinapa case. Gómez Trejo is a lawyer from UNAM and has a Master’s degree from FLACSO. He worked for 12 years in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN in different countries. As a visiting scholar with the Human Rights Center, Gómez Trejo continues to work on the Ayotzinapa case. he also guest lectures at UC Berkeley.
Afghan Scholars Project
UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, in partnership with San Jose State’s Human Rights Institute and the UC Berkeley Afghan Student Association, created the Afghanistan “Scholars at Risk Fund” on behalf of our campuses to respond to the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and the urgent need to help journalists, lawyers, and other academics — especially women — flee the country. We raised $251,000, matched with a $100,000 grant from the the UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Research Opportunity Fund and $50,000 from San Jose State University. Those funds supported six at-risk Afghan women and their family members to come to UC Berkeley and San Jose State. Funds support legal and visa fees, travel, and modest stipends. We supported three women at the Human Rights Center, their details can be found below.
Burmese Activist and Scholar Wai Wai Nu
Wai Wai Nu was a 2019-2022 visiting scholar at the Human Rights Center. Graduating from Berkeley Law in 2018, she used the resources at the HRC to further her work on the Rohingya crisis. Nu’s family is Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, and has a history of advocacy. In 1990, Nu’s father was elected to parliament, receiving harassment for promoting labor rights. He was eventually sentenced to 47 years in prison for “alleged state security and immigration violations” in 2005. Soon after, Nu and the rest of her family were given 17-year sentences under the same allegations.
Upon being released in 2012, Nu set out to fix Burma’s legal system. After receiving her law degree, she established the Women’s Peace Network-Arakan and later co-founded Justice for women, a network of female lawyers that promotes democracy- and peace-building efforts. Her soared after initiating the #MyFriend campaign. This campaign urged participants to post photos of themselves with friends from diverse backgrounds in order to counter the widespread discrimination and hate on social media. Watch Wai Wai deliver a special message to our community for Human Rights Day 2018.
News
July 26, 2024
A Safe Harbor: Omar Gómez Trejo Finds Welcoming New Home at Berkeley’s Human Rights Center
Photo by Philip Pacheco HRC in the News — Berkeley News: A Safe Harbor: Omar Gómez Trejo Finds Welcoming New Home at Berkeley’s Human Rights
November 11, 2023
A Harrowing Journey for Afghan Journalist and Berkeley Law Scholar Maria Raheen
Berkeley Law: Featuring Afghan Scholar Maria Raheen.
August 8, 2022
A Life in Limbo: After Fleeing Afghanistan, Judge Basira Qazizada Finds a Stopgap Oasis in Berkeley
Judge Basira Qazizada is welcomed during a reception at Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center with fellow Afghan Visiting Scholar Khwaga Ghani (left) and Faculty Director Eric Stover among those in attendance. Image by Brittany Hosea Small.
March 22, 2022
At long last, the U.S. recognizes what the Rohingya already knew
Photograph of Rohingya Refugee’s. Image by SH Saw Myint via Unsplash Commentary — The Washington Post: At long last, the U.S. recognizes what the
November 21, 2021
Taliban gunshots echo through Khwaga Ghani’s new life at Berkeley
After the fall of Kabul, it took Khwaga Ghani and some members of her family nearly two months to escape Afghanistan and make their way to California. She is the first fellow in an ambitious program, co-sponsored by UC Berkeley, to support
August 29, 2021
More Universities, Higher Ed Groups Step Up To Help Afghan Refugees
A U.S. Marine lifts an infant over a barbed wire fence during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. (Photo by – / Courtesy of Omar Haidiri / AFP). HRC in the News —
August 20, 2021
How Bay Area universities are helping Afghans during the Taliban coup
HRC in the News — NBC Bay Area: How Bay Area universities are helping Afghans during the Taliban coup, with mention of SJSU’s Human Rights Institute and Human Rights Center’s
August 20, 2021
Berkeley students, staff and faculty launch Afghan scholar rescue campaign
Hundreds of people gathered outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. UC Berkeley has launched a fundraising rescue operation for Afghan scholars at risk. (AP Photo).
January 19, 2018
‘The world has not forgotten us’: a Rohingya Activist Speaks as Myanmar Faces Genocide Case
Commentary — Time Magazine: ‘The world has not forgotten us’: a Rohingya Activist Speaks as Myanmar Faces Genocide Case, by former HRC Visiting Scholar Wai Wai Nu.