Human Rights Activist Project (HRAP) - New York City, USA

Through discussion and exploration of human rights issues of major importance in their own lives and the lives of others, HRAP members choose an issue to investigate. Discussion has revolved around youth empowerment and youth leadership; human, immigrant, and education rights; and discrimination and social justice. HRAP then determines how to advocate around this issue, selecting the most effective way they can use their collective voice to organise a campaign. Through the development and implementation of the campaign, HRAP consults and works with a range of human rights, student, and community groups as well as city-wide activists, elected officials, lawyers, professors, the media, and other young people.

Here are two examples of past HRAP campaign efforts; visit the HRAP page on the GK site for more details, including photos and youth journals. First, in 2001-2002, 12 students worked on a campaign related to immigrant rights and public higher education. After September 2001, the City University of New York (CUNY) passed a law that doubled tuition for students who are in the country without papers, or are "undocumented." As a result of this law, students throughout New York began educating themselves and organising to change the law; HRAP decided to wage their own efforts, describing the mission as follows: "We are a group of students organizing to equalize access to education. We believe that immigrants are an invaluable resource to this country and deserve to be treated as such. We also believe that access to education, specifically higher education, is fundamental to the success of a democratic society and therefore should be available to everyone who wants it." HRAP's campaign had 4 facets, each of which was geared toward reversing CUNY's decision:

1. Lobbying elected officials to reverse the decision - e.g., HRAP met with 6 New York State Assemblymen and 3 New York State Senators; as part of International High School Outreach week, HRAP collected 650 signatures for a petition to the governor.
2. School- and community-based outreach to educate the public about the issue - e.g., HRAP spoke on the Board of Education radio station WNYE 91.5 and presented a skit about the issue at the Global Kids Annual Conference in front of 500 young people.
3. Coalition and networking with other groups, individuals, and organisations working to reverse the decision - e.g., HRAP attended local demonstrations at the CUNY graduate school.
4. Organisation of a student-led march, rally, and vigil in front of City Hall on April 30 2002 - 20 HRAP members recruited more than 80 of their peers from various high schools and colleges citywide for a march from Union Square to City hall.

In June 2002, following the 6-month campaign, the CUNY decision was reversed.

A second campaign was created to lobby support for the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Forty students from different high schools in New York City learned about human rights issues and helped to draft this Act, which would grant undocumented students permanent residency and enable them to go to college. To begin, in October 2003, as part of a local effort coordinated by the New York Immigration Coalition, GK youth leaders who were students at the International High School joined with other immigrant groups to meet with congressional representatives, encouraging them to pass the bill. In April 2003, GK students participated in the New York State DREAM Act task force day of action by dancing, reading poetry, and talking to the media. A HRAP campaign emerged. The young participants wrote a script for a street theatre production to educate people about DREAM and performed it on one day in June 2003 to audiences around the City. The skit, which included characters such as the government, the Statue of Liberty, and immigrants, was followed by the circulation of a petition that called on President Bush to support the legislation. By the end of that day, HRAP had collected more than 1000 signatures.

Youth, Rights.

Global Kids is a NYC-based educational organisation dedicated to supporting urban youth's development as community leaders and global citizens.