Required Class Component: Strategic Leadership & Advanced Human Rights Advocacy (2 fall classroom credits). This clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in this clinic will automatically enroll you in the required course.

Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: Prior semester of the International Human Rights Clinic.

By Permission: Yes – applications are due by April 6, 2020.

Add/Drop Deadline: June 1, 2020.

LLM Students: Due to the pre-requisite, LLM students are not eligible to apply.

Placement Site: HLS.

Through the International Human Rights Clinic – 3L Leadership Training, students continue to develop core skills necessary to become more effective human rights advocates. Students again work in small teams on critical human rights issues in collaboration with leading international and local organizations. Those in the Clinic have the opportunity to deepen and refine a range of skills to advance the interests of clients and affected communities. Students may focus on more advanced techniques related to existing skills, or they may explore new skill areas altogether. For example, students may interview survivors and document abuses; undertake legal, factual, and strategic analysis; formulate policy; and/or build media campaigns to advocate for human rights – all under the close supervision of the Clinic’s human rights practitioners. When appropriate, students travel to investigate abuses or pursue advocacy outside Cambridge, including participating in sessions before intergovernmental bodies or supporting arguments before courts.

In any given term, the Clinic delves into a wide range of issues, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and criminal justice; the unlawful use of cluster munitions and other weapons; civilian protection in armed conflict; sexual and reproductive rights; human rights and the environment; business and human rights; accountability litigation, including under the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act; transitional justice; civil and political rights; economic, social, and cultural rights; and many more. Our clinicians have expertise in numerous regions and countries, including in Latin America, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, and North America, including the United States. This wide range of skills, as well as thematic and geographic knowledge, exposes students to a variety of strategies and innovative techniques for promoting and protecting human rights.