Human Rights Institute announces the 2019 awardees of its Commendation for Leadership and Commitment in Human Rights

Human Rights Institute Announces the 2019 Awardees of its Commendation for Leadership and Commitment in Human Rights

June 10, 2019, NEW YORK – The Human Rights Institute is pleased to announce this year’s recipients of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute Commendation for Leadership and Commitment in Human Rights. In recognition of their outstanding leadership in human rights during their Law School careers, the Institute honors six remarkable law students: Brittany Davis ’19 J.D., Sijuwade Falade ‘19 J.D., Abbie Gotter ’19 J.D., Darshana Mitra ’19 LL.M., Oyinkansola Muraina ‘19 J.D., and Vincent Wan Shun Wong ’19 LL.M.

Awardees are selected based on their commitment to advancing human rights opportunities at Columbia, engagement in activities in and out of the law school, mentorship of their peers, and deep commitment to advancing the human rights field.

This year’s award recipients were nominated by their peers and selected by the Human Rights Institute Faculty Co-Directors Sarah Cleveland and Sarah Knuckey and staff Maya Alkateb-Chami, Ben Hoffman, JoAnn Kamuf Ward, Sarah Mehta, Alex Moorehead, Anjli Parrin, Gulika Reddy, Maya Shemtov, and Tony Wilson.

The Human Rights Institute faculty and staff congratulate Brittany, Sijuwade, Abigail, Darshana, Oyinkansola, and Vincent for their extraordinary achievements.

	Brittany Davis ‘19 J.D. devoted her time at Columbia Law School (CLS) to advancing human rights causes both on campus and in the broader community. As a student at the Human Rights Clinic, she worked closely with the Clinic’s partner organizations in the Central African Republic (CAR) on a number of projects, including advocacy efforts during the country’s Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations in Geneva, and co-facilitation of a legal reform workshop. She also led the law school’s student organization Rightslink as Co-President and was instrumental in developing the Human Rights Institute’s 1L Advocates Program. During her second year, she was a Douglass Fellow at the Human Trafficking Institute and ran the Global Initiative against Gendered Violence (through her 3rd year). As a 3L, Davis chaired the student management team leading the Human Rights Institute (HRI) 1L Advocate Program and led the Global Initiative Against Gender Violence. Through these roles, she sponsored a series of events and trainings, which included hosting former Vice President Joe Biden at CLS.
Sijuwade Falade ’19 J.D. is committed to supporting groups and movements to tackle such problems as human trafficking, police brutality, and institutional discrimination and injustice fueled by racism, misogyny, and xenophobia. At CLS, she was a leader of several student organizations including Rightslink, the Black Law Students Association, and the Law in Africa Association. Through these positions, she engaged in planning social justice events and providing and coordinating mentorship opportunities. Falade was also involved in the Human Rights Clinic as a 1L volunteer and 2L student. She supported the Clinic’s projects by strengthening forensic investigations of war crimes in the Central African Republic and challenging the criminalization of human rights defenders in Peru. She was also an intern with Advocates for Community Alternatives in Ghana, supporting community-led development and challenging harmful business practices. Falade was awarded the Leebron Fellowship for her continued commitment to human rights, and will spend the coming year working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya, where she will launch her career promoting women and children’s rights and gender equality and combating sexual- and gender-based violence and trafficking within the African context.
	When Abigail Gotter ‘19 J.D. arrived at CLS, she already had experience working with international human rights NGOs and an interest in exploring how to promote and protect human rights while respecting culture and identity. She joined the CLS human rights community as a 1L volunteer with Rightslink’s Research and Advocacy Program, and contributed to several of HRI’s Human Rights in the U.S. Project initiatives, including a report on Cities for CEDAW - the international Women’s rights convention -, and research on best practices in addressing discrimination and xenophobia in collaboration with U.S. State and local agencies. During her time at CLS, Gotter interned with Women Enabled International and Human Rights Watch. She was a Harlan Fiske Stone and James Kent Scholar and served as a Managing Editor on the Columbia Law Review. As a student in the Human Rights Clinic, Gotter demonstrated leadership, a strong work ethic, and a commitment to constantly learning and growing. As a 3L, she contributed to advancing gender justice in Papua New Guinea and in New York City, furthering her contribution to advancing human rights.
Darshana Mitra ’19 LL.M. was a source of inspiration and support to the CLS human rights community. Focusing her legal work on supporting disenfranchised and marginalized groups, she brought to Columbia a wealth experience and insight from working as a human rights lawyer in India for six years, representing survivors of gender-based and sexual violence and immigrant populations navigating the complex legal and bureaucratic structures governing immigration and workers’ rights. Over the course of her LL.M. year at CLS, Mitra was instrumental in supporting the Human Rights Clinic's work to document the mental health consequences of armed conflict in Yemen and advocate for improvements in the right to education in Kashmir. She also presented on concerns about Yemen’s human rights record at the United Nations in Geneva, spoke at the Leitner Center at Fordham, and moderated a film screening on the forced statelessness of millions of people in Assam, India. She also contributed to organizing solidarity events for human rights violations in South Asia while in New York.
	Oyinkansola Muraina ’19 J.D. is a fierce advocate for business and human rights, racial justice, and sustainable development. She worked tirelessly with the Human Rights Clinic to support activists in Papua New Guinea and Peru resisting the negative social and environmental impacts of large gold mining operations. Muraina worked in Uganda with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative following her first year at the law school, exploring the impact of poverty on access to adequate legal representation. She was President of the Law in Africa Student Society, organized reading groups on contemporary legal issues in Africa, and interned with the Open Society Justice Initiatives, where she supported a broad array of legal cases. She was instrumental in the mentorship of dozens of students from underprivileged backgrounds and actively promoted social justice and human rights throughout her three years at CLS.
Before joining CLS, Vincent Wan Shun Wong ’19 LL.M. was a Staff Lawyer in Toronto for the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, he provided free legal services to low-income members of Ontario’s Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian communities who don’t speak English and often experience racism, criminalization, and mental health issues. After joining CLS and through the Human Rights Clinic, Wong worked in partnership with a range of stakeholders in Kashmir to advance the right to education in the region. During his LL.M year, he also played a key role in curating two public programs on the internment of Uyghurs and other Muslim populations in China, and on Asian Americans and Affirmative Action in the U.S. He also presented on issues related to migrant sex workers in Canada and civil society’s access to human rights treaty bodies, and served on HRI’s Student Advisory Committee. After graduation, Wong plans to focus on advancing scholarship on the intersection between critical race theory, immigration and citizenship law, and undocumented populations in Canada.

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The Human Rights Institute advances international human rights through education, advocacy, fact-finding, research, scholarship, and critical reflection. We work in partnership with advocates, communities, and organizations pushing for social change to develop and strengthen the human rights legal framework and mechanisms, promote justice and accountability for human rights violations, and build and amplify collective power.

Founded in 1998 by the late Professor Louis Henkin as the anchor for human rights within Columbia Law School, the Human Rights Institute promotes engagement and knowledge of human rights within the law school, throughout the University, and around world. Across the many substantive areas of its work, the Institute builds bridges between scholarship and activism, develops capacity within the legal community, engages governments, and models new strategies for progress.

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