Roxanna Altholz ’99 is an international human rights lawyer and scholar with extensive experience in international and national fora. Altholz has won several ground-breaking judgments from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, provided expert testimony before UN human rights groups, and initiated legal actions on behalf of human rights victims in U.S. federal courts. She has also developed advocacy and research initiatives to address human rights violations suffered by asylum seekers and migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, to examine the human rights impacts of unsolved murders in Oakland, and to understand accountability mechanisms for private companies receiving international financing.
Prior to teaching at Berkeley, Altholz served as a legal advisor for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (1999-2000) and a staff attorney at the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) in Washington, D.C. (2000-2005). At CEJIL, Altholz handled a docket comprised of approximately 40 cases involving massacres, extrajudicial killings, torture, disappearances, and discrimination in the United States, Colombia, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, and Ecuador before the Inter-American human rights system.
Altholz’s most recent publications include, “Living with Impunity: Unsolved Murders in Oakland and the Human Rights Impact on Victims’ Family Members,” “Dam Violence: The Plan to Kill Berta Cáceres,” and “Chronicle of A Death Foretold: The Future of U.S. Human Rights Litigation Post-Kiobel,” appeared in the California Law Review (2014). She is the recipient of the 2013 UC Berkeley Law Young Alumni Award and the 2013 UC Berkeley’s Foundation for Change Thomas I. Yamashita Prize.
Education
B.A., Brown University (1995)
J.D., UC Berkeley School of Law (1999)
Roxanna Marie Altholz is teaching the following courses in Spring 2025:
• 283.1H sec. 001 - Advanced Human Rights Clinic Seminar
• 283H sec. 001 - Human Rights Clinic Seminar
• 295.5H sec. 001 - Human Rights Clinic
• 295.5I sec. 001 - Advanced Human Rights Clinic
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title | Fall 2025 | 283.1H sec. 001 | Advanced Human Rights Clinic Seminar | 283H sec. 001 | Human Rights Clinic Seminar | 295.5H sec. 001 | Human Rights Clinic | 295.5I sec. 001 | Advanced Human Rights Clinic | Fall 2024 | 283.1H sec. 001 | Advanced Human Rights Clinic Seminar | 283H sec. 001 | Human Rights Clinic Seminar | 295.5H sec. 001 | Human Rights Clinic | 295.5I sec. 001 | Advanced Human Rights Clinic | Spring 2024 | 283.1H sec. 001 | Advanced Int'l Human Rights Clinic Seminar | 283H sec. 001 | Int'l Human Rights Law Clinic Seminar | 295.5H sec. 001 | International Human Rights Law Clinic | 295.5I sec. 001 | Advanced International Human Rights Clinic |
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Opinion: In the U.S. there is no standard for police use of lethal force. SCOTUS can change that
Roxanna Altholz, director of the UC Berkeley School Law’s Human Rights Clinic, Medha Raman the Dale and James J. Pinto Fellow at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Ricky Garza the Border Policy Counsel for Southern Border Communities Coalition argue that the Supreme Court case Barnes v. Felix is a long-overdue opportunity to address a systemic problem: the United States’ woefully inadequate standards for law enforcement use of deadly force.
Human Rights Clinic Adds Expanded Domestic Agenda to Pathbreaking International Work
After a quarter century of pathbreaking international work, the Human Rights Clinic expands its domestic agenda, with Professor Roxanna Altholz ’99 at the helm.
Berkeley Law Hosts National Workshop Addressing Challenges for Latinas in the Legal Academy
Latina law faculty share experiences and strategies for collective and professional development for Latinas, who comprise just 1.6% of tenured and tenure-track law professors.
Prosecuting Police: Berkeley Law Hosts Training for Attorneys Handling Fatal Use-of-Force Cases
Prosecutors from across the country recently gathered at Berkeley Law for the first-ever national conference on how to effectively prosecute police officers accused of using excessive force.
Timely Business-Related Offerings Among Berkeley Law’s Deep Reservoir of New Courses
A whopping 18 courses are available to Berkeley Law students for the first time this semester, including 3 focused on emerging areas in the corporate sector.
Berkeley Law brings US law enforcement death to international human rights body
“It came as no surprise in 2015 when the Department of Justice decided to close the criminal investigation in the United States and decided not to pursue charges against the agents,” said Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic co-director Roxanna Altholz.
Border Patrol agent’s murder trial the latest in string of incidents stirring distrust
“For years, CBP has also struggled with fully investigating and disciplining its own agents for using excessive force on the job,” said Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. “Federal law prohibits victims from successfully filing civil lawsuits against Border Patrol agents, making accountability of them even more difficult.”
Faculty, Students Help Bring U.S. Law Enforcement Killing to International Stage for First Time
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recently considered the 2010 fatal beating of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, thanks to years of work from the International Human Rights Law Clinic.
Standing Firm: How Berkeley Law Faculty and Students are Stepping Up to Advance and Defend Basic Rights
With basic rights in peril at home and around the world, the law school community is answering the call.
Full Steam Ahead: Clinical Program Names Roxanna Altholz ’99 and Ty Alper New Co-Directors
A change in leadership of Berkeley Law’s clinics arrives as the surging program adds faculty and plans to add more clinics.
Former Energy Executive Charged in Connection to Environmental Activist’s Murder
International Human Rights Clinic Co-Director Roxanna Altholz discusses the sentencing of energy executive Roberto David Castillo in Honduras for arranging the 2016 murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres.
International Human Rights Clinic Fights Growing Surveillance of Victims and Advocates
IHRLC co-directors Roxanna Altholz and Laurel E. Fletcher and clinical students help the Fundación Para la Justicia file a criminal complaint against the Mexican attorney general’s office for illegal surveillance, among other assistance.
These Migrants Made It Over the Border. Then They Were Killed in Phoenix.
Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses the murder of two men and a teen – all from the same town – whose bodies were found in Phoenix. The families believe human traffickers were behind the killings.
U.S. misses critical deadline in human rights case of man killed by border agents
Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, says the United States’ failure to respond to evidence presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding the 2010 killing of Anastasio Hernández Rojas at the hands of U.S. border agents, goes against the president’s campaign commitment that immigration agents “abide by professional standards and are held accountable for inhumane treatment”
U.S. misses filing deadline in international human rights case over killing at border
Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, says that by the United States not responding by the set deadline in the international human rights case involving the killing of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, it gives authoritarian regimes in the Americas permission to do the same
U.S. Court Issues Landmark Ruling on Paramilitary Violence in Colombia
Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses the landmark ruling against paramilitary violence in Columbia and her years long effort to to have the testimonies of the families of victims included in U.S. criminal proceedings against the Colombian paramilitary leaders
Oakland homicides surpass 2020 totals, leaving victims’ families in stunned grief
Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses the long term impact of unsolved homicides on victims’ families
Berkeley Law helps uncover the ‘Truth’ in San Francisco policing
A working paper by the International Human Rights Law Clinic synthesizes 40 years of research and public information and finds a San Francisco police department historically mired in deep racism and violence
Can Oakland’s Department of Violence Prevention succeed?
Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses her 2020 report, “Living with Impunity: Unsolved Murders in Oakland and the Human Rights Impact on Victims’ Family Members” and the systemic violence affecting Black Oakland residents
Filing Claims Interference In 2010 Border Patrol Death Probe
Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses new evidence of a cover-up by US Customs & Border Patrol in the case of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas’s killing by federal agents