Rejecting the Direct Service/Impact Litigation Binary
Wasserstein Fellow CJ Sandley, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, will discuss the traditional direct service and impact litigation frameworks applied at many nonprofit legal organizations and why rejecting those frameworks can lead to more holistic, client- and movement-centered advocacy and more meaningful and sustainable systemic change. CJ will share case examples involving Alabama prisons, El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ supermax facility, and ICE detention centers.
Lunch provided. RSVP below. Open to the HLS community.
The Value of Practicing International Human Rights Law in the Global South
Can we truly become experts in international human rights law if we limit ourselves to studying and working in the Global North? Are international human rights truly international if, as practitioners, we never open ourselves up to perspectives from the Global South? Join Wasserstein Fellow Elisa Vari for a discussion on the importance of studying and working outside of the US, Europe, and other Global Minority countries to strengthen our understanding of international human rights law and the meaning of these norms in practice. Elisa will discuss her experience moving to the Levant to practice international refugee law and later to East Africa, and the impact this has had on her work and worldview. She will discuss the value of learning from Global Majority colleagues and ensuring those views are included and amplified in the practice of IHRL globally, as well as the importance of avoiding harmful stereotyping and white saviorism as US-trained lawyers.
Lunch provided. Please RSVP below. Open to the HLS community.