By Michelle Heims
This summer when I am abroad in Prague I will be learning about human rights, social justice, and international affairs, which is why I believe that anyone around the world can be a stakeholder both directly and indirectly. Human rights and social justice advocacy and involvement can and should be partaken by everyone, no matter where they are from or where they reside. Similarly, people deserve to have their human rights respected. As stakeholders, people can be indirectly involved through education, support for human rights organizations, ethical consumerism, civic engagement, how they treat others, and more. People and organizations can also be directly involved through human rights work, advocacy, political efforts, and support. In my opinion there is a gray area between being directly and indirectly involved with this issue. Everyone is affected by human rights issues just on a different scale, and being a stakeholder can look different for everyone. Long story short, I believe everyone can be a stakeholder no matter their background and while I’m in Europe I will be interacting with NGO employees, but also regular civilians just like me.
When I said that everyone is affected by human rights issues and that people deserve to have their human rights respected, I truly mean it. When I was in seventh grade my class watched a documentary on climate change and the United Nations. That documentary truly changed my life and shaped my future. Not only did it expose me to the devastating effects of climate change, global warming, and other environmental issues, but it also exposed me to a plethora of other global issues that I had been shielded from learning about. I want to ensure that people are treated fairly and that people are all seen as human beings and through this program I want to learn how countries work towards this especially in difficult times. I am grateful to live in the United States where I have privileges that unfortunately many do not have, but I hope that one day that isn’t the case and that I can learn from this experience how to shape policy to help others as opposed to using it to discriminate against groups of people.
So far in my research it has mostly consisted of varying perspectives from academic scholars within the field of international relations, and while my research focuses heavily on foreign policy, it would be interesting to read more about those being affected by the implemented policies. The perspectives of government officials do not always align with the country’s citizens who lived through the history that I am researching about. I want to bring their perspective to the table because even though they are not the one’s representing the country’s foreign policy measures, they are affected by it and they lived through the factors that influenced it.
Although I believe that my role will change, in the end I want to be “the advocate”. Currently, I see myself more-so being “the helper”, but when I am older I want to work directly with foreign policy and I want to use the knowledge I gain from this experience to impact policy. I might not always be able to do it on a large scale, but I think if I am able to recognize flaws in the system or learn about things that are often swept under the rug, I can advocate for better policy.
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