A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Michael Keller and Home for Human Rights (HHR)

Michael Keller is in the fourth of a five-year program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he expects to graduate in 2005 with both his BS and MS in Foreign Service. He speaks Italian, French and German and currently studies both International Development and International Politics. In the past, Michael has worked as a summer-school teacher, a research assistant at a counter-terrorism consulting firm, an intern at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris, and a consular intern at the US Consulate General in Naples. 

As part of AP's 2004 Summer Internship Program, Michael Keller, a graduate student at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, worked at the Home for Human Rights (HHR), one of Sri Lanka\'s foremost human rights monitoring organizations.


Alas Garden Refugee Camp school, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, 2003.

Based in Columbo, HHR was established twenty years ago by Francis Xavier, a well known Sri Lankan human rights advocate. It was one of the first organizations to draw attention to the root causes of the conflict between Tamils and Sinhalese, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives since it erupted in the early 1980s.

HHR’s courageous monitoring has created some tension with the government. It is now playing an important part in the peace process, by calling for an explanation of disappearances, and insisting that human rights issues be built into any long-term agreements.

HHR’s main strength is in human rights monitoring.  However, it is still struggling to get its message out to a wider audience. The partnership between The Advocacy Project and HHR is an important step towards achieving this goal, and Michael’s internship focused on strengthening HHR’s communication capabilities.

During the summer, Michael posted weekly reports in the form of web logs (blogs). The blogs offer a unique view into the day-to-day operations of a grassroots organization, and into Michael’s own personal experience as an intern.

• Michael Keller's blog