Human Rights

As a renowned international attorney and a Holocaust survivor, Samuel Pisar LL.M. '55 S.J.D. '59 has experienced mankind's capacity for genius and madness. His survival was a triumph of human spirit. His advocacy for peaceful coexistence is a message from one who has lived through hell on earth.

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.

Few students admitted to Harvard Law School question whether they should build roads instead. But when Rebecca Hamilton '07 spent the summer of 2004 in Sudan trying to help thousands of displaced people get home, she found herself longing for such concrete solutions for the war-torn country.

Kenneth Scott '79 makes sure there's no whitewash after ethnic 'cleansing'

Through literature and law, Larissa Behrendt LL.M. '94 S.J.D. '98 speaks for aboriginal rights.

After her people were slaughtered by neighbors, Geraldine Umugwaneza LL.M. '05 knows that forgiveness is elusive, but she is determined to help Rwanda move forward.

A sampling from this year's crop of 3L papers.

Expanded program helps Harvard lawyers advance human rights abroad.

Charlotte Sanders '05 and José Rodriguez '06 did legal outreach this summer to help workers who pick America's produce. They reached out all the way to Mexico.

In his more than 20 years working and teaching in the field of international law, Professor David Kennedy '80 observed something he thought no one was talking about--the negative consequences of good intentions. Kennedy discusses his book on the topic, "The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism," published by Princeton University Press this spring.

Best known for his mystery novels and a memoir about his first year at HLS, author Scott Turow ' 78 spoke on campus in mid-October about a weightier issue: the death penalty.

It was December 2000 in Ingushetia, Russia, where 170,000 displaced citizens of neighboring Chechnya were hiding from Russia's federal forces. Leonard Rubenstein ' 75 sat talking with a young man, one of dozens of Chechens he interviewed during his monthlong stay.

When Brett Dakin '03 was living in Laos, he sneaked into a performance not meant for foreigners, commemorating the founding of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.

Designers of the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C., debated whether to depict the 32nd president in the wheelchair he hid from the nation. But according to Charles Gamer '66, they should have thought a little more about people in wheelchairs today.

Amnesty International still fights torture, arbitrary detention, and unfair trials, says Secretary General Irene Khan LL.M. '79, but now it's also taking on hunger, illiteracy, and discrimination.

Professor Mary Ann Glendon set out to write a straightforward history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But Eleanor Roosevelt would not let her do it.

Casey Martin’s legal battle to use a golf cart during PGA tournaments will not affect many other golfers. Yet the case could affect the lives…

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.