Susan Farbstein

Susan Farbstein is the Director of the International Human Rights Clinic and a Clinical Professor at Harvard Law School.

Her current practice investigates and seeks justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine; examines the implications of new technologies in warfare, including drone use; considers the role of civil proceedings in writing history and shaping collective understandings of past abuse; and promotes gender equity and women’s leadership in human rights organizations and institutions. She is an expert on South Africa, having worked on a variety of human rights and transitional justice issues in that country for more than twenty years. Her writing has been published in scholarly journals including the Harvard Law Review and the Harvard International Law Journal, as well as popular media outlets including The New York Times, Just Security, and SCOTUSBlog. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly has named her one of the Commonwealth’s Top Women of Law, the Harvard Women’s Law Association has honored her as a Woman Inspiring Change, and she has received a Harvard Impact Labs Fellowship and a Harvard President’s Innovation Fund Grant for her cutting-edge work.

As a litigator, Farbstein served as co-counsel in Mamani v. Sanchez de Lozada, a landmark case in which a federal jury found the former Bolivian president and minister of defense liable for extrajudicial killings carried out by the Bolivian military in 2003. She also participated in litigating Wiwa v. Shell, which charged Shell with complicity in the torture and killing of non-violent Nigerian activists in the 1990s and successfully settled in 2009. For her work as a member of the Wiwa legal team, Farbstein was honored as finalist for the 2010 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. She was also co-counsel in In re South African Apartheid Litigation, a suit against major multinational corporations for aiding and abetting human rights violations committed by the apartheid state. She has authored numerous amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on legal questions ranging from corporate accountability for human rights abuse to the immunity of former foreign government officials.

As an advocate, Farbstein has engaged on a range of accountability and transitional justice issues including in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, South Sudan, The Gambia, Myanmar, Thailand, Argentina, and Mexico. In the Clinic, she has led projects that seek accountability for apartheid-era abuses in South Africa; advance the rights to equitable, quality education, access to water, and access to land guaranteed by South Africa’s constitution; secure justice for extrajudicial killings and disappearances in The Gambia and in Mexico; consider models for the provision of post-harm assistance to survivors of the conflict in South Sudan; offer options to promote and protect economic, social, and cultural rights in Zimbabwe; and suggest policy reform to improve civilian protection and change military behavior in Myanmar.

Before joining the Harvard Law School faculty, Farbstein worked at the Cape Town office of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Prior to that, she clerked for the Honorable Morris E. Lasker of the Southern District of New York. She holds a B.A. from Princeton University, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Clinic Work

At the cutting edge of education and advocacy, the International Human Rights Clinic drives tangible change in human rights.  

We work in partnership with international, grassroots, and movement-based organizations across the globe, as well as communities and individuals directly affected by abuse. Students are at the heart of our Clinic and involved in all aspects of their projects—conceptualizing goals and formulating strategies, researching and drafting reports and legal briefs, interviewing witnesses and stakeholders, and presenting findings before courts and international bodies. Students work in small teams under the close supervision of expert clinicians, who provide guidance, mentorship, and continual feedback.

Our work encompasses international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international labor law, and public international law more generally. Our docket draws on our expertise and networks in six broad areas, while remaining dynamic and responsive to emerging needs and the evolving field: (1) accountability & remedies; (2) armed conflict & civilian protection; (3) climate justice & the environment; (4) gender, race & non-discrimination; (5) protecting fundamental freedoms; and (6) social & economic justice.

Our recent projects span Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa), the Americas (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, United States), Asia (India, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand), Europe (France, Kosovo, Russia, Ukraine), and the Middle East (Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia).