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Clinics & SPOs

International Human Rights Clinic

  • The Wasserstein Center illuminated from the inside, with the words 'innovation@hls' overlaid at the top

    Harvard Law champions entrepreneurship and innovation

    April 15, 2015

    For law students interested in entrepreneurism and startups—as entrepreneurs themselves, as lawyers representing startups, or both—there is a wealth of growing and intersecting opportunities at Harvard Law School and across the university.

  • Clinic investigation: Senior Myanmar officials implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity

    November 10, 2014

    On Nov. 7, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School released a legal memorandum, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Eastern Myanmar, which examines the conduct of the Myanmar military during an offensive that cleared and forcibly relocated civilian populations from conflict zones in eastern Myanmar.

  • Man teaching in front of a classroom.

    Harvard Law Thinks Big! A series of short talks on big ideas (video)

    June 19, 2014

    Five Harvard Law School professors presented a sampling of their innovative ideas in late May at the 2014 Harvard Law School Thinks Big lecture, an annual event that challenges faculty to explain those big ideas in short talks.

  • Giannini Receives 2014 Sacks-Freund Teaching Award (video)

    May 27, 2014

    Clinical Professor Tyler Giannini was selected to receive the prestigious Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence. He was selected by the Class of 2014 in recognition of his teaching ability and general contributions to student life at the law school.

  • Black and white vintage photo of Nelson Mandela

    In Honor of Nelson Mandela: When, if ever, is violence justifiable in struggles for political or social change? (video)

    March 28, 2014

    A panel of scholars gathered at Harvard Law School March 14 to examine the legacy of Nelson Mandela with a discussion about the use of violence for political or social change.

  • Human Rights Clinic: ‘Myanmar Military Must Reform Policies’

    March 27, 2014

    In a memorandum released on March, 24, Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic stated that the Myanmar military must reform policies and practices that threaten civilian populations in the country.

  • William P. Alford, Alonzo Emery, Robert C. Bordone, Michael Stein, Matthew Bugher, Tyler Giannini, Noah Feldman, Vicki Jackson, Howell E. Jackson, David Kennedy, J. Mark Ramseyer, Hal Scott, Matthew C. Stephenson, Jeannie Suk, David Wilkins, and Mark Wu

    HLS Focus on Asia: Faculty and clinical highlights

    January 1, 2014

    Some recent faculty and clinical highlights—from research on anti-corruption efforts to conferences on financial regulation.

  • Maeve O’Rourke

    Getting Ireland to Come Clean

    January 1, 2014

    just 24 years old, Maeve O’Rourke LL.M. ’10 went to the United Nations with a bold and unprecedented case against the Irish government. Appearing in Geneva before the Committee Against Torture in 2011, O’Rourke argued that Ireland had allowed the enslavement and forced labor of thousands of women throughout most of the 20th century. What she wanted, she told the committee, was for the government to acknowledge its complicity, to apologize and to pay reparations to the victims.

  • IHRC: Nepali war victims need long-term, expanded assistance

    September 30, 2013

    According to a new report by Harvard Law School's International Human Right's Clinic, civilian victims are still struggling in the absence of effective help from the government seven years after the end of Nepal's armed conflict.

  • IHRC: Chile fails to protect rights of its indigenous people

    September 18, 2013

    In a new book released last week, Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic has charged the Chilean government with failure to guarantee its indigenous people the right to free, prior, and informed consultation. Former IHRC student Daniel Saver '12, who began working on the project during his 2L year, is one of the principal authors of the book.

  • Farbstein, Kornblith, Giannini and Alexander

    A Question of Accountability

    July 4, 2013

    Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic argues that the Alien Tort Statute applies to corporations From left: Assistant Clinical Professor Susan Farbstein ’04,…

  • Docherty, Nomamiukor and Pyetranker at an NGO forum

    Clinical Voices: Jonathan Nomamiukor ’13 reflects on his experience

    July 3, 2013

    Read more about what compelled Jonathan Nomamiukor ’13 to take a break from law school, his work with Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic on the issue of fully autonomous weapons, and the mentorship he received from Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty.

  • IHRC’s Giannini, Farbstein represent families of 2003 Bolivian massacre victims

    June 26, 2013

    On June 24, 2013, family members of those killed in government-planned massacres in Bolivia in 2003 filed an amended complaint, with extensive new allegations that the defendants, former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and former Defense Minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, had devised a plan to kill thousands of civilians months in advance of the violence. The family members are being represented by a team of lawyers, including Tyler Giannini and Susan Farbstein of Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic,

  • Clinic and Human Rights Watch: Obama should urge Jordan to stop sending asylum seekers back to Syria

    March 25, 2013

    While Jordan has accommodated more than 350,000 refugees since the start of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, it is routinely and unlawfully rejecting Palestinian refugees, single men, and undocumented people seeking asylum at its border with Syria, according to Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch.

  • Six from Harvard Law School awarded Skadden Fellowships

    January 9, 2013

    Six from Harvard Law School recently were chosen by the Skadden Foundation to receive two-year fellowships to support their work in public service. This year’s recipients include current students Haben Girma ’13, Hunter Landerholm ’13, Adam Meyers ’13 and Mara Sacks ’13, and recent graduates Robert Hodgson ’12 and Daniel Saver ’12.

  • IHRC report outlines concerns about ‘killer robots’

    November 21, 2012

    Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and the independent human rights organization Human Rights Watch have authored a report titled “Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots.” The report, released Nov. 19, argues that governments should pre-emptively ban fully autonomous weapons because of the danger they pose to civilians in armed conflict.

  • Illustration of a shell shape with a hair pik through it

    A Question of Accountability

    October 1, 2012

    In a Supreme Court case, the International Human Rights Clinic argues that the Alien Tort Statute applies to corporations.

  • Giannini and Neuman appointed co-directors of HLS’s Human Rights Program

    August 17, 2012

    Tyler Giannini, Clinical Professor of Law, and Gerald L. Neuman ’80, J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign and Comparative Law, have been appointed co-directors of the Human Rights Program (HRP) at Harvard Law School.

  • Explosive Situation: Qaddafi’s Abandoned Weapons and the Threat to Libya’s Civilians

    IHRC report finds Qaddafi’s weapons pose threat to civilians

    August 6, 2012

    Abandoned weapons that were once part of Muammar Qaddafi’s vast arsenal threaten civilian lives in Libya, according to a report released Aug 2 by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), in partnership with CIVIC and the Center for American Progress.

  • Namibian women living with HIV report violations of sexual and reproductive rights

    July 30, 2012

    Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic has co-released a report documenting the Namibian health care system’s maltreatment of women living with HIV. A joint product of the clinic, the Namibian Women’s Health Network and Northeastern Law School, the 49-page report, entitled “At the Hospital There Are No Human Rights,” was released on July 26 during the International AIDS Conference, in Washington, D.C.

  • Protest and Assembly Rights Project flyer

    Protest and Assembly Rights Project releases report on human rights violations during Occupy Wall Street

    July 26, 2012

    Under the leadership of Harvard Law School Clinical Instructor Deborah Popowski, HLS’s International Human Rights Clinic is participating in the Protest and Assembly Rights Project, formed in January 2012. On July 25, the first report in the Protest and Assembly Rights Project series was released, calling on New York City authorities to stop the pattern of abusive policing of Occupy Wall Street protests.