Author: Lena Smith
Occidental students may soon have another outlet for engaging in global issues, through a campus chapter of Amnesty International (AI). Chris Weeks (first-year) is in the process of starting a chapter of AI, a human rights advocacy group, at Occidental. Arabic Professor Alexandra Daher-Roman is helping with the implementation and will be the club’s faculty adviser.
“Occidental has a rich [Diplomacy and World Affairs] program, in addition to a politically active student body, and I believe that Amnesty International will be an effective outlet for the Oxy community,” Weeks said. “Defending human rights is something everyone can agree on.”
Both Weeks and Daher-Romans have previously been involved with AI; the former as part of a student group in high school and the latter as a member since 2000.
“[Weeks] is one of those students who is passionately driven, willing to put in the work to get things done,” Assistant Director for Student Organizations and Leadership Justin Gerboc said.
Daher-Romans chaired Santa Monica’s AI group for 3 years. Her motivation for participating in AI is personal, she explained, because she grew up in Lebanon during the Civil War. “I did not know life without war until I left the country,” she said.
AI may only be able to operate provisionally on campus this semester because of the time-consuming processes that both Occidental and AI maintain for forming a group.
Weeks plans to sponsor events depending on the issues most important to the group members. Among the possibilities are Human Rights Day, Women’s Day and participating in the Doo-Dah parade, a flamboyant Pasadena celebration based on satire. Pasadena’s AI group typically participates in order to to spread awareness for human rights issues, most recently by cross-dressing to protest human trafficking.
AI’s local and student chapters sponsor events around the world designed to engage their communities in human rights activism, according to its website. Its letter writing campaigns are particularly effective, reaching both political prisoners and their captors, according to Lucas Kamp, Co-Coordinator of AI Group 22 in Pasadena. AI chapters support each other as much as possible, and Kamp said his group could collaborate with Occidental’s. “The main thing would be to go to each other’s events,” he said.
The last time AI was active at Occidental was during the ’07-’08 school year, but Weeks and Daher-Romans have faith that they can rekindle its popularity at the college. “When you’re doing something for the community that is engaging, people get excited,” Daher-Romans said.
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