Blaise Hunter gave a short speech during the youth summit about women's reproductive health rights, and was pleasantly surprised to see support and standing ovations from both men and women. (Blaise Hunter)

By Jordan Davidson

human rights advocate

VIDEO: Nanaimo human rights advocate gets international attention at global youth summit

Apr 11, 2022 | 3:23 PM

NANAIMO — A local woman can call herself a human rights leader following a trip to Turkey for a global summit.

Blaise Hunter of Nanaimo was selected to represent Canada at the Global Youth Summit in Istanbul, from April 1-4, 2022, staged by the US Institute of Diplomacy and Humans Rights (USIDHR).

The bulk of Hunter’s advocacy is focused on women’s reproductive health rights, a cause close to her heart following three miscarriages she endured while living in Bonnyville, AB.

“I felt the lack of empathy or awareness of what’s happening in the medical system and the effects on mental and emotional health for men and women,” Hunter told NanaimoNewsNOW, who wrote a book about what she went through.

Those painful experiences inspired Hunter to partner with her local doctor and start the non-profit organization Footprints Infertility & Pregnancy Loss Support in 2019. Since then, Hunter created hand-made support bags filled with mental health resources the moment someone suffers a miscarriage or stillbirth.

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She and her husband relocated to Nanaimo the following year.

When Hunter heard about the upcoming in-person youth summit, hosted virtually the last two years due to the pandemic, Hunter applied and was selected as the representative from Canada.

At the end of the summit, all those present received the Human Rights Leader certificate from the USIDHR. (Blaise Hunter)

“I wanted to be in that room with all those world leaders and young people. People that speak four languages and are advocating for things like prisoner camps in Korea, to human trafficking, to racism, to refugee support.”

Over 150 participants from more than 50 countries were brought together to promote peace amid rising human rights challenges around the world.

Hunter gave a speech at the summit outlining her story.

“I seized the moment in that five minutes to shed light on a topic that really isn’t spoken about. So many people came up to me and said, ‘In all my years of doing advocacy I’ve never heard this discussion before’ which is really sad because it affects 50 per cent of the population, with 1 in 4 women experiencing a miscarriage,” Hunter said of her speech.

Over the course of the two-day summit, delegates heard and received training from diplomats, lawyers, and human rights specialists, with the goal of infusing human rights education back in their own communities.

“Its been an amazing experience to learn that it’s not just women’s mental health but it’s actually a human rights discussion about reproductive health rights.”

Hunter said she plans to bring some of the new ideas and tools she learned at the summit to Nanaimo, where she’s working to bring her Footprints program to the mid-Island.

Reflecting on the summit in Turkey, Hunter said it has emboldened her passion to continue advocating for women in her situation.

“It was just such an amazing learning experience to know how to go about it and how to execute a plan to get human rights moving in a positive direction.”

She also said the irony wasn’t lost on them that they were talking about how countries around the world can come together for the better of all, while at the same time peace talks were occurring between Russia and Ukraine in the same city.

For more information on Hunter and her ongoing work, you can visit her website blaisehunter.com.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow