The Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights (WCCHR) is a medical student-run human rights clinic dedicated to providing forensic medical evaluations to survivors of torture seeking asylum in the United States.
WCCHR was founded in 2010 through a partnership with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and is the first student-run asylum clinic at a U.S. medical school. PHR has described WCCHR as a “model for future asylum evaluation programs.”
Due to the evolving COVID-19 situation, Weill Cornell Medicine is prohibiting medical students from being physically present at WCCHR evaluations. Our clinicians face similar restrictions in seeing patients for non-essential purposes in their practices. As such, we will not be scheduling in-person evaluations until further notice.
In order to continue serving the asylum community during this difficult time, we are offering the option of remote mental health evaluations via Zoom. Though tele-evaluations are not conducted regularly, many of our clinicians have experience conducting telemedicine visits. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is sharing best practices for conducting tele-evaluations with asylum clinics nationwide to ensure that we provide the best care possible to asylum seekers.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to wcchr@med.cornell.edu with any questions or concerns.
Spanish and French translations also available in the Resources Tab.
