Esther Choo /
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) /
NYC, USA /
After working remotely the past few months and reflecting on various human rights issues, I found myself asking more questions of “why”: why is this specific issue happening; why is it crucial to include it in our conversations; why are we approaching this issue now; why isn’t anyone recognizing it or doing more about it, etc.
Personally, I think it was to check (almost reassure) and make sure I understood the issues that we were tackling, but also because I often found myself bogged down by details if I wasn’t asking questions along the way. As we sifted through many archives and analyzed reports of egregious yet normalized abusive language and actions, I’d remind myself of the bigger picture: contribute to identifying human right violations and advocate for the dismantlement of detrimental norms.
Reflecting on our primary work, it has been baffling to see detention centers continuously retaliate and blatantly disregard the rights of detainees. Media exposure of the squalid conditions and gross treatment brings back fundamental questions about why people are being detained in the first place. And, particularly during a global pandemic, why is it our automatic reaction to contain individuals and subject them to torture and cruel treatment? It’s become alarmingly standardized behavior, and now is the critical time to be working on these human rights issues. So, for next steps, after recognizing specific abuses in U.S. detention centers, how can we further address and advocate for detainee rights that are being violated?
Last week was my final week at PHR, and I’m thinking back to all the valuable discussions the team had. It has been and continues to be a process of learning and unlearning, and this experience has opened up how I see human rights advocacy and my potential place in it. I hope I can continue to ask questions and fuel that future role.