The College Fix

Was ‘touched’ to hear tales of ‘stress and trauma’ suffered by college protesters

The United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and association told a Harvard Law School audience on Tuesday that it needs to battle the Trump administration by standing up for “free speech principles.”

Gina Romero, a Colombian national who’s an “expert in dialogue, mediation, building and managing networks” with a focus on “marginalized groups, gender and youth,” also implored the university to “protect international students against deportation threats,” according to The Crimson.

“Universities need to figure out on what side of this power struggle they are going to be,” Romero said. “This is a very powerful institution. We are not talking about a very small, poor university in a small isolated place.”

Romero (pictured) also said American universities’ dismantlement of pro-Hamas encampments via police represented “bias” against black and Arab students.

She also criticized changes in schools’ protest policies and added the fear of deportation will make international students think twice about exercising their rights of free expression and assembly.

From the story:

“I cannot see students that are afraid of doing or going to a protest because they don’t want to be deported,” Romero said. “Universities need to protect their own students from those threats and then resist the pressure from external actors.

“Coming to the university shouldn’t be a traumatic experience for exercising your rights,” she added.

At the Tuesday event, Romero also discussed her own transition to working at the U.N. from the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy. She described receiving the special rapporteur position with the instruction to look into several potential human rights violations in the context of pro-Palestine protest.

She said that in many cases reported to the U.N., organizations had maintained “double standards” in their response to protest — specifically restricting pro-Palestine movements. She cited doxxing attacks, physical violence, and “administrative sanctions” at universities.

On Thursday, Romero tweeted she was “touched” to hear all the anecdotes of “terrible stress and trauma” suffered by Harvard students and staff as victims of “repression on freedom of expression and assembly.”

Thanks to the International Human Rights Clinic at @Harvard_Law for the invitation. It was touching to hear all the stories of the terrible stress and trauma that the whole repression on freedom of expression and assembly had created in students and faculty members.…

— Gina Romero (@Ginitastar) March 13, 2025

Earlier in the month, Romero reminded her X followers of the UN’s concerns regarding discipline against those “who participated in the pro-Palestinian mobilizations” at Columbia University.

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Gina Romero holds a free speech placard; Gina Romero/X

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