Human Rights Program

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.

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.

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."

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.

In an April 14 speech at Harvard Law School, Major General Antonio M. Taguba called for an independent commission to investigate the Bush Administration for war crimes. Taguba is the author of the controversial 2004 “Taguba Report” exposing the detainee abuse occurring at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

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. 

James Cavallaro, clinical professor and executive director of the Human Rights Program, has litigated numerous cases before the Inter-American Court, Latin America’s human rights court.

HLS students learn the lessons of Nuremberg in Cambridge, Arusha and The Hague.

When Henry Steiner '55 and Detlev Vagts '51 published the first edition of "Transnational Legal Problems" in 1968, the collaboration marked a milestone in the field of international law.

Expanded program helps Harvard lawyers advance human rights abroad.

Professor Mary Ann Glendon and Makau Mutua LL.M. '85 S.J.D. '87 weigh in on this influential half-century-old human rights document (1948), a major topic at the fall celebration of HRP's 15th anniversary.