As a public defender in her native home of Honduras, Martha Isabel Ferrera first hand witnessed the mistreatment and the lack of access to basic human rights for the people. When Ferrera came to Penn State to start her masters degree in Law, she heard news from back home seven of her friends were murdered in Honduras.
"My friends were human rights defenders and even journalists," Ferrera said. "I had to be out of that violent environment to realize that my life was not safe and the lives of many Hondurans are not safe either."
Having graduated this past spring semester with a masters degree in Law, Ferrera was a student at the center for immigrant rights clinic and now works as the director of Latin and South American programs for the Law school at Penn State.
During her experience at the clinic, Ferrera said she then realized the struggle immigrants have to go through just to seek asylum or any immigration benefits in the United States to escape the terror back home.
"My main interest is to know, what does it take what is the cost of human rights, when do we have to stop the abuse?" Ferrera said.
When Ferrera heard news about the discussion panel titled ""Human Rights Around the Globe: Flourishing or Failing?" she knew she had to attend.
On Wednesday, Penn State Law, Penn State School of International Affairs and the Rock Ethics Institute sponsored a panel focused on the issue of human rights around the globe.
From the topic of DACA to the impact of social media, the six-person panel thoroughly analyzed the global and local aspects of human rights and what duty people have to enforce it.
Around 60 people filled into seats in Sutliff Auditorium at the Lewis Katz Building around 5:30 p.m. to listen in on the conversation.
The key guest speakers of the event were two Sri Lankan officials: Sri Lankan Human Rights Commissioner Deepika Udagama and Charge d'Affaires for the Sri Lankan Embassy Gamini Keerawella.
Alongside the guest speakers, professor of law and director of the center for immigrant's rights clinic Shoba Wadhia , professor of history, anthropology and religious studies Catherine Wanner and professor of geography and women's studies Lorraine Dowler participated in the discussion.
Scott Gartner, the director of the school of international affairs, moderated the panel. Gartner started the discussion with a question: give an example of where human rights are going well or are worsening.
Wanner discussed during her time in the Ukraine as an anthropologist doing research, she was surprised with Ukraine's progression of religious tolerance of after seeing evidence of religious groups using the Ukraine as a base to establish theological schools and humanitarian aide.
"Given the other difficulties they've been through with the transition from communism to capitalism, I think they've done remarkably well to build a sense of tolerance for religious differences," Wanner said.
Wanner also discussed the worsening of conditions in the Ukraine with the example of Russia using the international human rights law against itself as a justification to violently intervene into the Ukraine with weapons because they wanted to protect an ethnic group.
Gartner then brought up the issue of duty into the discussion.
Udagama said she thinks that the topic of duty can only be discussed when people can freely enjoy human rights.
Dowler talked about the importance for the duty to care for another.
As a geographer, Dowler completed research in Northern Ireland where she noticed that while the country is in a post-conflict society, there has been an increased level of violence against women, increased violence by former military groups that are now gangs and increased violence against South East Asian ethnic groups who moved to Northern Ireland
Dowler said now the youth generation are challenging the notion on what peace actually means in their country.
"When we look at traditional human rights, we see that things are fine in Northern Ireland," Dowler said. "But things are not fine in Northern Ireland."
When the topic of dignity was brought up, Wadhia discussed the loss of dignity when it comes to President Trump’s actions on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA.
Wadhia said for five years DACA infused dignity into the country by giving immigrants the dignity to have a document, a work permit, to drive, to go to school and work. By getting rid of DACA, Wadhia said it takes away people's dignity as human beings.
"If you look at our detention system, our largest detention systems are funded by immigrants," Wadhia said. "In any given day, there are 40,000 immigrants sitting in incarceration in civil detention systems."
On the topic of social media, Udagama talks about the pros and cons she has noticed throughout the years.
While social media can be a great place for strong debate and sharing of different opinions, Udagama said it could also be used in a negative way by extremists sharing hate speech.
Udagama also exclaimed how conflicts in the United States can be seen in a positive light.
"This is going to bring the best out of the United States," Udagama said. "Despite executive orders, you managed to find legal communities rising up for the challenge to help. The law failed you, so now you have to rely on community activitism to fight for your rights."
At the end of the formal discussion, Gartner opened up the floor to the audience to ask questions.
Some students expressed frustrations in their countries with the lack of respect for human rights, and Ferrera said the perspective of human rights is always different based off of where you live.
"You can go to different countries and see that the things that they are complaining about for us is a luxury," Ferrera said. "In some countries like mine, just getting the access for electrical service is something that we are fighting for."
Ferrera said hosting the panel is very important for people to acknowledge the inequalities occurring worldwide.
"It's mainly important for people to talk about it, to stand up and not be afraid," Ferrera said. "When you come from countries where your freedom of speech is limited, you are scared no matter where you are. You have to break that cultural limitation."
