Clinics & SPOs
International Human Rights Clinic
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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."
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Sierra Leone is losing its youth to diamond mining
August 7, 2009
Last year, Matthew F. Wells ’09 traveled through Sierra Leone visiting more than two dozen artisanal diamond mines, under the auspices of the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School.
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A Year of Living Dangerously: Erica Gaston ’07 helped rebuild shattered lives by building trust
July 31, 2009
“From 2007 to 2008, the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan’s ongoing conflict rose 40 percent, according to U.N. figures.” So begins the report co-written by Erica Gaston ’07, with Rebecca Wright, during Gaston’s Henigson Fellowship year in Afghanistan, which started in January 2008.
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A new report issued by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School calls for the UN Security Council to act on human rights abuses in Burma. The report, “Crimes in Burma,” comes in the wake of renewed international attention due to the continued persecution of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi.
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HLS students work on historic corporate lawsuit involving human rights abuses during apartheid
April 23, 2009
The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program has been working since 2005 on corporate Alien Tort Statute (ATS) litigation involving human rights abuses committed in apartheid South Africa.
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Chris Rogers ’09, advocate for a ban on cluster weapons
December 10, 2008
Christopher Rogers ’09 has spent the better part of the past year in HLS’s International Human Rights Clinic working on issues related to cluster munitions, particularly surrounding the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
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Hands On
July 25, 2008
There are now 16 clinics at HLS, enabling students to do fieldwork at home and abroad. Here are stories from three of them, taking students inside inner cities and inner sanctums.
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HLS International Human Rights Clinic co-releases report assessing prosecutions of apartheid-era crimes
June 20, 2008
The International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at Harvard Law School and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) have joined together to release "Prosecuting Apartheid-Era Crimes? A South African Dialogue on Justice," a report examining recently intensified questions about prosecuting crimes committed during apartheid.