After much ado, the fourth issue of the Harvard College Human Rights Review has been completed and published online. Despite being a small student organization, our Review attempts to go big: to extend its focus beyond the campus bubble and into the curious, complicated, and catastrophic study of human rights around the world.

 

Fellows have traditionally worked hard throughout the academic year to research and write on their selected topic, and this cohort is no exception. This year, our Fellows explored and opined on topics ranging across three continents, from Palestinian occupation to forced labor in North Korea, from organ markets in India to terrorism in Spain.

 

A new addition to this year’s issue is a spotlight series on members of the Harvard Scholars at Risk Program, a globally recognized initiative to provide sanctuary to academics and intellectuals at risk in their home countries. Selected scholars are given academic positions at Harvard, and live in Cambridge for the duration of their term. Many of these scholars face persecution or other rights abuses in their home countries, and offer valuable insight for our campus and for our publication.

 

Much like the world around it, the Review was upended by COVID-19’s rapid proliferation. Many Fellows were unable to complete their pieces, and we were unable to publish or distribute a paper issue. This accelerated the Review’s longterm vision to transition to an online journal, and gaps in schooling provided time to track down and upload past issues to the website. We hope to broaden our audience with an online format, though still intend to maintain a paper publication in future years for campus consumption.

 

Thanks are in order to our advisor Jacqueline Bhabha, to the wonderful team running the Scholars at Risk Program, in particular Jane Unrue, to our respected Scholars Chibuihe Obi and Mosab Abu Toha, and to our incoming Editor-in-Chief Jelena Dragicevic. I am eager to see the continued development of the Review as we continue the transition online and re-establish our campus roots in the eventual wake of COVID-19.

 

Please enjoy the 2019-2020 edition of the Harvard College Human Rights Review.

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