OUR SERVICES
Our organization helps asylum seekers who are victims of torture by providing physical and psychological forensic evaluations. With our licensed volunteer providers and professional students, we use these evaluations to develop medical affidavits for our clients which are subsequently used to support their application for asylum.
GET INVOLVED
We often receive more requests for evaluations than what we can immediately schedule. HRI is reliant on our volunteer providers and students, and are always looking to add more to our team. A training is required in order to be eligible - check out our training page for more information regarding upcoming sessions!
OUR MISSION
& ORIGINS
The Human Rights Initiative was founded in July 2014 to meet the growing needs of the asylum-seeking population of Western New York. We are a medical student-run asylum clinic that collaborates with licensed healthcare professionals to provide forensic evaluations for survivors of torture and/or persecution seeking asylum in the United States.
We are driven by the knowledge that the forensic examinations we conduct significantly increase the likelihood of asylum seekers successfully obtaining protection in the United States. Our organization also serves to bring awareness to pertinent issues affecting human rights' worldwide so we can equip the next generation of doctors with preparedness to facilitate change.