A world view on human rights and immigration
Nandini Raisurana waited in line for four hours on Feb. 18 with a crowd of people, many from the Iranian diaspora, to gain admittance to the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Sponsored by a coalition of 25 non-governmental organizations, the summit included sessions on human rights in Iran, Venezuela, Vietnam, Tibet, and other nations. Raisurana entered the Centre International de Conférences Genève just in time to hear Iran’s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi speak.
“The crown prince spoke about the need for international cooperation to address human rights abuses in Iran,” the University of Richmond senior said. “He started crying at one point, and audience members also started crying and cheering for him. I heard speeches by an Iranian protester blinded in one eye by the Islamic regime and by a mother whose son was murdered by the regime during a protest. It was incredibly inspiring, intense, and emotional.”
A Richmond Scholar majoring in leadership studies and political science, Raisurana has long been interested in the connection between human rights, refugees, and immigrants. Richmond Scholar funding supported her travel to Geneva.
“Attending the summit gave me a global perspective on human rights,” said the Mumbai, India, native. “Summits like this provide education and awareness. Only when people know about these issues will they feel a desire to make things better.”
Throughout her undergraduate years, Raisurana has explored international human rights issues. In her first year, she learned about forced displacement and immigration in Dr. Peter Kaufman’s class Leadership and the Humanities. She also started volunteering as a mentor with the Scholars Latino Initiative, a nonprofit Kaufman founded to help Latinx high school students access a college education.
A 2022 Arts and Sciences Summer Research Fellowship awarded by the Department of Political Science supported her investigation into the effectiveness of the International Court of Justice on behalf of Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees. The following summer, she received a Civic Fellowship from the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement to complete an internship with the Supreme Court of the United States.
“My duties included leading courtroom lectures and giving tours about SCOTUS’ role and history for up to 200 people at a time,” Raisurana said. “I learned a lot about how the U.S. judicial system works — knowledge that will help when I eventually pursue a career in international law.”
She spent her junior year at the London School of Economics and Political Science, studying international relations of the Middle East, international political theory, the history of the British Empire, and family law. Last summer, she returned to the U.S. to complete her Jepson School of Leadership Studies internship at the Wilson Center, a global-affairs think tank in Washington, D.C.
“As a staff assistant with the Wilson Center’s Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative, I did a lot of research and writing, including a website article about the relationship between democracy and forced displacement,” Raisurana said. “I also helped prepare for events, such as the center’s World Refugee Day program, which showcased refugee voices, talents, and skills. And I watched my boss participate in a panel discussion hosted by the newly formed Congressional Caucus on Global Migration at the U.S. Capitol.”
For her political science senior seminar last semester, she conducted a comparative study on how Donald Trump and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi incorporated populism, including anti-immigrant rhetoric, in their tweets.
“Through my leadership studies and political science majors, I’ve explored human rights, refugee, and immigration issues in an interdisciplinary, holistic way,” Raisurana said. “My majors’ emphases on research, writing, and critical thinking have given me the skills I need to be successful in this work.”