Week 11 - HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

"Healing Human Rights Abuses with Social Enterprise" - That is the article by Janet Tafel, the executive director of Hagar USA, which supports the work that Hagar International carries out in developing countries such as Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. The mission of Hagar is to raise awareness about Hagar's model of social rehabilitation and economic empowerment and about egregious human rights abuses suffered by Hagar's beneficiaries.

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The genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia was a trauma that caused massive cultural, social, and psychological distress and dislocation in that country. Some of the worst victims have been women and children, who are frequently the victims of poverty, violence, and trafficking for sex among other human rights abuses. 

Tafel mentions the work Hagar is doing to help such individuals develop productive and meaningful lives. She outlines how the organization tends to physical and psychological needs first, and then provides job training and opportunities for social entrepreneurship.

This reminded me of the sharing by Ms Sylvia Lee, founder of Lotus Culture when she came down for one of Mr Damien's NPODEV classes. She spoke about Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman who has become an advocate for human rights against women who are forced into sex slavery and/or human trafficking after having lived through such torture in her past. She set up AFESIP, an organisation that has transformed the lives of thousands of victims in the aforementioned illegal trade since it begun in 1996, and she is now regarded as one of the most prolific human rights activists fighting sexual slavery in this century. I am awed by the numerous success stories of girls that have been saved as a result of Somaly Mam's efforts. She's an amazing woman, an amazing social entrepreneur, and an amazing human rights advocate - she's become another inspiration for me ♡

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There is a local organisation that carries out similar work as that of Hagar International. Access to Justice Asia (AJA) was co-founded by husband and wife, Mahdev and Vinita Mohan in 2008, with an aim of providing legal aid and representation to the underserved groups of people living in the Asian region.

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Made up of mostly pro-bono human rights defenders as well as legal scholars, it focused on justice and capacity development of those victimised as a result of large-scale crimes in Asia. Most of AJA’s efforts to date have been carried out in Cambodia, towards victims of the Khmer Rouge. Mahdev had also been appointed the international counsel for victims by the Tribunal and the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC). He is the very first Singaporean to have achieved such great authority in the legal system of Cambodia and is thus able to successfully push for human rights for the many Cambodians who have been oppressed. (Mohan, 2009). To date, AJA has managed to represent a total of 132 Khmer Krom clients before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal to date.

"The aspiration for democracy and respect for fundamental human rights is as important to the people of Africa and Asia as it is to those in Europe or the Americas. But of course, it is often those people who are deprived of their human rights who are least able to speak up for themselves. The responsibility rests with those of us who do enjoy such freedoms." - Dalai Lama

 

References

Mohan, M. (2009, January). An introduction to the khmer rouge tribunal for singaporeans. In Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved on 6th January 2013 from http://www.siiaonline.org/?q==programmes/commentary/an-introduction-khmer-rouge

Shiromany, A.A. (1995). The spirit of Tibet, universal heritage: Selected speeches and writings of HH the Dalai Lama XIV. Bombay: Allied Publishers Limited.  

Tafel, J. (2009, November 9). Healing human rights abuses with social enterprise. In Stanford Center for Social Innovation. Retrieved on 6th January 2013 from http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/healing-human-rights-abuses-social-enterprise