Starting slowly - ‘stepping stones’ approach
Conventional university student-facing activities – degree courses and programmes – can be used to support and host human rights defenders where programmes explicitly supporting human rights defenders are not yet possible. These are important in their own right and provide possible ‘stepping stones’ to connect to and communicate with the wider university and senior management.
Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP)
Mahidol University, Thailand
Since 1990, the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP) at Mahidol University, Thailand, has enrolled more than 60 students at risk and human rights defenders fleeing the military dictatorship in Myanmar on their postgraduate programmes. The IHRP also offers scholarships to defenders from Nepal, Sri Lanka and Cambodia who are unable to continue their human rights work in their own countries while studying. Funding for scholarships has been secured from a consortium of international donors.
Status, values and funding can all be important complementary ‘stepping stones’. The peacebuilding work of the IHRP is recognised and supported by Mahidol University as contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, the University values the role of the IHRP as a Southeast Asian regional hub for human rights and peace education and research.
Boris Nemtsov’s MA in Russian Studies
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Boris Nemtsov’s MA in Russian Studies was accredited by Charles University in 2023 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Programme originated from cooperation between the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom. The Programme’s objective is to create and maintain a vibrant community of alumni who can contribute to a future democratic Russia. Each year, the MA provides 30 places for students, with some scholarships available to cover tuition fees. Currently students are primarily from Russia, a number of whom are activists and journalists who fled the country to escape repression from the Russian state.
Cooperation with other European universities within the Erasmus framework, and with American universities, provides opportunities for students to study abroad or work on joint research projects with their peers, and for scholars to teach at other universities.
The ‘stepping stones’ here include a university-foundation partnership, foundation funding, a successful MA programme and the potential of the Programme to build international collaborations.
