Speak Your Truth: Asia-Pacific Perspectives on Human Rights – AMSAHK

Name of the activity: Speak Your Truth: Asia-Pacific Perspectives on Human Rights 

Country/NMO: AMSAHK China, Hong Kong

Program: Ethics and Human Rights in Health

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Education

Focus area: Rights of patients, doctors and medical students

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)

General description:

This event aims to encourage discussion among medical students from across the Asia-Pacific region by presenting common human rights issues and violations in their countries based on an article of the UDHR. Hosted by SCORP AMSAHK, this event was held in conjunction with AMSA-Australia, MSAI India, CIMSA-Indonesia, KazMSA Kazakhstan, AMSA-KG (Kyrgyzstan) and AMSA Singapore. The format of our event is a 2-day international virtual workshop, with one week between the two days of the event.

Problem statement:

There is insufficient coverage of human rights and peace issues in the Asia-Pacific region, with only some serious issues being brought to light in media, such as the employment scams affecting Asia over the summer of 2022.  In the spirit of the 75th anniversary of the UN UDHR’s ratification, we hosted this event to support the importance of every human right and shed light on each NMO’s perspectives. Therefore, we hope to build connections between AP NMOs, and encourage future collaborations.

Target groups:

• Medical students

Beneficiaries:

• Medical students
• Healthcare Students
• Other Students

Objectives:

1) To present different pressing and common human rights and peace issues shared among NMOs, based on articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2) To encourage discussion and critical thinking on underrepresented human rights and peace issues in the region

3) For participants to take away increased knowledge and sensitivity regarding perspectives on human rights in other NMOs

4) To allow collaborations and exchanges between National Officers (NORPs), Local Officers (LORPs), and general interested members of different NMOs in the AP region

5) To facilitate intercultural exchange between participating NMOs in further support of discussing intersectional human rights issues of today

Indicators of Success:

1) Assessed by our participation rate among NMOs, i.e. number of participants and signups from each NMO 

2) Shown by marked improvement in motivation to advocate for these topics as seen by comparing data from our pre- and post-event evaluation form 

3) Shown by marked improvement in understanding for these topics as seen by comparing data from our pre- and post-event evaluation form 

4) Shown by having at least 6 collaborating NMOs

5) Measured by the engagement and positive reception of Day 1 and Day 2 presentations seen based on post-event evaluation form qualitative data/feedback

Methodology:

On Day 1, participants had icebreaking in breakout rooms, and then each of the collaborating NMOs shared their NMO’s culture, main human rights issues faced, and any SCORP activities. This was to facilitate intercultural exchange and for participants to be introduced to the intersectional human rights issues present across the region. In their mixed-NMO groups with fair representation of all participating NMOs, participants chose a UDHR article and a related topic. They had a week to complete their tasks, before on Day 2, they presented on topics ranging from access to justice, to barriers in healthcare access due to identity and differing living standards. Each presentation included each NMO’s perspectives, a link to healthcare, examples of youth advocacy, and related IFMSA policies. Afterwards, participants and observers then formed smaller discussion groups to consider the topics raised, and gain insight into others’ perspectives in the process.

Plans for evaluation:

To allow the Organising Committee to improve future workshops, we included a pre- and post-event evaluation form. Participants completed a pre-event evaluation form upon signing up; it primarily served to gauge current perceptions of Asia-Pacific human rights issues through open and close-ended questions. After Day 2, participants completed a post-event evaluation form with the same questions, alongside asking for reflections on what they gained from the event and feedback. This allowed us to gauge improvement in understanding and, therefore, objective achievement.

Upon analysing the post-event results, participants showed improvements and increased awareness in answers to both quantitative and qualitative questions. For instance, participants consistently ranked their understandings as either very confident or confident after the event, compared to a much wider range of confidence previously. Much positive feedback was also received, demonstrating fulfilled indicators of success.

External collaborations:

none