Clinics & SPOs
International Human Rights Clinic
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HLS Clinic Files UN Complaint on Behalf of Filipina-American Tortured in the Philippines
August 26, 2011
With the help of Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic, Filipina-American Melissa Roxas has filed a submission with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture seeking justice for the abduction and torture she suffered in the Philippines in 2009.
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In an Aug. 17 opinion piece in Australia’s National Times, Senior Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty '01 urged the Australian Senate to push back against proposed implementation legislation that would blunt the impact of the international ban on cluster munitions.
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The United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of the Child is currently examining Panama’s record on children’s rights with the help of a report coauthored by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic.
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IHRC files amicus curiae brief with U.S. Supreme Court
June 27, 2011
On June 17, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a petition for certiorari in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.
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In 2006, a series of coordinated uprisings in 74 detention centers and attacks on police stations and public buildings left 43 state officials and hundreds of civilians dead and brought São Paulo—South America’s largest city and financial capital—to a standstill. Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and the leading Brazilian human rights group Justiça Global have now released a comprehensive study of the attacks.
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HLS International Human Rights Clinic lobbies for humanitarian restrictions on weapons
April 18, 2011
Last month, Joseph G. Phillips ’12 and Joanne Box LL.M. ’11, students in the HLS International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), attended a U.N. disarmament conference, where they met with diplomats to urge adoption of stronger international laws regarding the use of incendiary weapons. The students worked under the supervision of HLS Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty ’01, who is one of the country’s leading legal experts on cluster munitions and has expanded her work to other disarmament issues, including incendiary weapons.
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J-term class in Costa Rica immerses students in doctrine and practice of the Inter-American human rights system
March 7, 2011
When HLS Professor Clinical Professor Jim Cavallaro decided there should be "a structured means of studying the broad jurisprudence and practice of the Inter-American system,” he and Stephanie Brewer ’07 created an on-site course in San José, Costa Rica where students can learn the law on the ground from judges, practitioners and stakeholders in the system. This January, the 20 students enrolled in “Doctrine and Practice of the Inter-American Human Rights System” came away with a deeper understanding of that system—plus an immersion in the world of human rights adjudication.
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Alston receives honorary doctorate, lectures on global justice at Maastricht University
January 26, 2011
Philip Alston, Harvard Law School’s Sidley Austin Visiting Professor of Law, received an honorary doctorate from Maastricht University in the Netherlands on Jan. 20 as part of the university’s 35th anniversary celebration.
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IHRC releases paper on incendiary weapons; Docherty publishes book on cluster munitions
January 5, 2011
A new paper released by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch calls for stronger controls of incendiary weapons, such as white phosphorus.
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Tyler Giannini appointed as Clinical Professor of Law
November 1, 2010
Tyler Giannini has been appointed as a clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School. He was formerly a lecturer on law at HLS.
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International Human Rights Clinic files amicus brief in corporate Alien Tort Statute case
October 21, 2010
Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Second Circuit in support of a petition for rehearing en banc in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) case, Kiobel, et al. v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., et al.
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HLS human rights clinic investigates the impact of mining in British Columbia (audio/slideshow)
August 26, 2010
Last year, as part of Harvard’s International Human Rights Clinic, Susannah Knox ’10 and Lauren Pappone ’11, traveled to British Columbia with Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty '01 to investigate how mining affects the Takla Lake First Nation people.
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On behalf of four Ohio citizens, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic filed a complaint with the Ohio Psychology Board on July 7, calling for an investigation into the conduct of Ohio-licensee Dr. Larry C. James, former chief psychologist of the intelligence command at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
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The special rights guaranteed to First Nations receive inadequate attention in British Columbia when compared to mining interests, the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at Harvard Law School said in a report released on June 7.
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Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of a petition for certiorari in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute case, Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc. The Clinic served as counsel on behalf of international law scholars and jurists to argue that those who knowingly aid and abet egregious human rights violations can be held liable under customary international law.
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Cluster Munitions Ban to Enter Into Force
February 25, 2010
For five years, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, in collaboration with Human Rights Watch, has advocated for the development and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. On Feb. 16, ratifications of the Convention by Burkina Faso and Moldova triggered the treaty’s entry into force.
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International Human Rights Clinic files Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of Somali torture survivor
February 11, 2010
The HLS International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), under the direction of Clinical Director Tyler Giannini and Lecturer on Law Susan Farbstein, recently filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case Samantar v. Yousuf.
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At a deadly prison in Brazil, students document human rights violations (audio/slideshow)
February 1, 2010
At the southwestern tip of the Amazon, in Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil, stands Urso Branco, a prison notorious for deadly human rights violations. It’s nowhere anyone would choose to be. But it was into this dank, dark, and volatile world that Clara Long ’11, Fernando Delgado ’08, and James Cavallaro, executive director of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, insisted on going.
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International Human Rights Clinic suit against former Bolivian president and minister of defense moves forward
November 16, 2009
The U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida has ruled that the claims for crimes against humanity and extrajudicial killings could move forward in two related U.S. cases against former Bolivian President Gonzalo Daniel Sánchez de Lozada Sánchez Bustamante (Sánchez de Lozada) and former Bolivian Defense Minister Jose Carlos Sánchez Berzaín (Sánchez Berzaín). The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School is part of the legal team that filed the two complaints against Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín.
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UN High Commissioner: Diplomacy key to securing human rights
November 6, 2009
In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the UN’s Human Rights Program, the UN’s highest human rights official, Navanethem Pillay, LL.M. ’82 S.J.D. ’88, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, came to Harvard Law School to discuss her current position as a human rights diplomat and how it differs from her previous roles as a judge and an impassioned activist.
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Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic report on gang violence in El Salvador
October 1, 2009
In February 2007, Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program issued a report on gang violence in El Salvador, "No Place to Hide: Gang, State, and Clandestine Violence in El Salvador."