March 07, 2019

Miguel Haro Ruiz presented at Notre Dame Conference on Human Rights

IA student Miguel Haro Ruiz had the opportunity of presenting his research at the Notre Dame Human Development Conference:

IA student Miguel Haro Ruiz had the opportunity of presenting his research at the Notre Dame Human Development Conference:

“Push-backs constitute a violation of international law and happen when people are forced back into the country they intended to leave shortly after crossing the border, without an opportunity to appeal their forced return. For the past two decades, the Spanish government has standardized massive push-backs as a policy to deal with irregular migration at its southern border. My research focuses on developing a series of strategies aimed at pressuring the Spanish government to reconsider its border procedures. In order to do so, I reviewed the available literature on human rights advocacy, analyzed data on asylum requests filled in Spain’s souther border, as well as evaluated a variety of reports, articles and press-releases on the crisis. Additionally, I conducted interviews with organization leaders working towards ameliorating the violations.

“At the Human Development Conference, I had the opportunity to share my project on human rights advocacy in Spain’s southern border, as well as to get inspired by other undergraduate researchers’ work and initiative. This experience showed me the importance of approaching the study of development from a multifaceted, interdisciplinary perspective.”