Human Rights

On November 26, 2013, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) released a comprehensive report titled "Bordering on Failure: Canada-U.S. Border Policy and the Politics of Refugee Exclusion." The report examines Canadian border measures designed to intercept and deflect "undesirable travelers", including asylum seekers, before they set foot on Canadian soil and make a claim for refugee protection.

Inside an unassuming yellow house on Everett Street in Cambridge, a warren of offices makes up a law firm run by Harvard Law School students…

Harvard Law School Professor Noah Feldman will give a Master Class on the 1927 Supreme Court Ruling Buck v. Bell on Oct. 9, at an event sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University. The lecture will be streamed live from the Barker Center, Room 110, Harvard University beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Harvard Law School alum Margaret Stock '92 is one of 24 recipients of the 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, more commonly known as the MacArthur "Genius Award". Stock is an immigration attorney with a focus on improving the immigration system through direct representation, policy-based advocacy and an emphasis on the idea that immigration does not threaten national security.

Crimmigration—the intersection of criminal law and immigration—is a burgeoning legal area, and one that is of great interest to students, according to Harvard Law School Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor Phil Torrey. This fall, Torrey, who supervises the Harvard Immigration Project's Bond Hearing Representation project, will be offering a new clinical course on the topic.

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,…

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.

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.

Lillian Langford’s life could have turned out much differently. Instead of graduating now with two Harvard degrees, she could have been on a remote island in the South Pacific, or on a stage playing the harp with a classical orchestra. But a series of inspiring mentors, starting with her parents, helped guide her to her life’s passion: fighting injustice.

Like others in Harvard Law School’s LL.M. class of 2013, Maryna Kavaleuskaya practiced law abroad before coming to America for additional legal training. And, like many of her 187 classmates—most of them from overseas—she had to overcome obstacles along the way. But unlike most others, Kavaleuskaya will be unable to return to a normal life back home after she receives her Harvard degree.

Last month, as an historic trial continued in Guatemala against a former dictator charged with the genocide of indigenous Mayans, Lauren Herman ’13—a student in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) —stood in court in Boston as a judge announced he was granting asylum to her Mayan client, who, with his family, had suffered persecution for decades before he came to the U.S. in 2009.

Following its second victory, the Harvard Immigration Project’s (HIP) Bond Hearing Project continues its new campaign to provide free legal representation to detained immigrants seeking release from immigration custody.

As an enthusiastic supporter of the Special Olympics who has worked for more than two decades with Special Olympics International, Harvard Law School Professor William P. Alford welcomed the opportunity to help bring about the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games, held in PyeongChang, Korea earlier this year. “One of the major messages of the Special Olympics is that having a disability need not be seen as being as limiting or disqualifying as some people might assume,” says Alford, director of East Asian Legal Studies and chair of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD).

On March 26, representatives of a number of human rights organizations gathered at Harvard Law School to reflect on the lasting impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and to discuss their efforts to hold the U.S. government accountable for problems there during the occupation and ongoing to this day.

Thirty-five years ago, after majoring in mathematics at Harvard and receiving a Ph.D. in the same subject from MIT, HLS Professor Gerald Neuman ’80 switched from the field of math to the field of law—from “truth to justice,” he said in an interview in his office in Griswold Hall. That decision has led to a career of teaching and writing on international human rights law and comparative constitutional law, and to his election last fall to the U.N.’s Human Rights Committee, a body of 18 independent experts who assess and critique countries’ records on civil and political rights.

The Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) at Harvard Law School recently welcomed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste José Manuel Ramos-Horta to the IGLP Honorary Council.

Marissa Vahlsing raised her hand in the first week of law school and spoke her mind. Right away, Ben Hoffman wanted to be her friend. Three years later they are off to work in Peru together, "the Siegfried and Roy of human rights law."