Projects and Cases

Established in 1998, the International Human Rights Law Clinic is engaged in cutting-edge research, policy work, and advocacy. The clinic has developed this work through human rights projects that utilize innovative approaches to promote the rights of victims and survivors of these abuses. The clinic currently works in the following areas:

Accountability and Transitional Justice

The clinic works to end and prevent atrocities, hold governments and their agents accountable for them, and assist societies rebuilding after mass violence. Projects include, in reverse chronological order:

• Digital Identity’s Human Rights Impact in Kenya
• Colombian State Surveillance of Human Rights Defenders
• Killings by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agents
• Independent Investigation of the Murder of Berta Cáceres
• Sexual Exploitation & Abuse in Peacekeeping Missions
• Documenting the Situation of Women & LGBTQI* Human Rights Defenders
• Supporting War Crimes Prosecutions in Uganda
• Colombia Accountability Project
• Criminalization of Peaceful Expression
• Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka
• Gender-Based Violence as Torture
• Human Rights in Armed Conflict and Mass Violence in India
• Promoting Justice for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Against Men in Uganda
• ICC Victim Participation Study
• Improving War Crimes Investigations
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
• Accountability for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
• Refugee Rights in the Great Lakes Region
• Bangladesh War Crimes Tribunal
• Guatemalan Military Death Squad Dossier Case
• Cambodian Justice Project
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Project
• Women’s Rights in Conflict/Post-Conflict Situations
• Canadian Universal Jurisdiction Project
• International Court Monitoring Project
• Stopping Genocide and War Crimes Against Humanity in Darfur and Beyond
• Human Rights and the Internet
• Reforming Africa’s Human Rights Institutions
• Alien Tort Claims Act Policy and Research
• Alien Tort Claims Act Litigation
• Bosnia Judicial Study

Promoting Human Rights Within the United States

The clinic seeks to promote recognition and compliance by U.S. authorities with international human rights standards. Projects include, in reverse chronological order:

• Killing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agents
• Unsolved Murders in Oakland
• Human Trafficking in California: Improving Investigations, Victim Services, and Prosecutions
• Missing Migrants Project
• Colombia Accountability Project
• Human Rights of Tipped Workers in the Restaurant Industry
• Immigration Policy and Human Rights
• Human Rights in California’s Central Valley
• Human Rights and U.S. Immigration Reform
• Human Rights Study on Latino Workers
• Forced Labor and Slavery Project
• Anti-Trafficking Law in California
• U.S.-Mexico Anti-Trafficking Working Group
• Human Rights Protections for Domestic Workers
• Due Process Rights and Detention of Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal Proceedings
• Asylum & Religious Persecution
• Refugee Resettlement
• Supporting Gay and Lesbian Asylum-Seekers from Mexico
• Death Penalty and Human Rights

A Rights-Based Approach to Combating Poverty: Economic, Social & Cultural Rights

The clinic’s longest-running program has pioneered a rights-based strategy to combat poverty and status-based discrimination. It creatively surmounts barriers to the judicial enforcement of economic, social, and cultural rights while building the capacity of local groups to make use of these rights. Projects include, in reverse chronological order:

• Gender Parity in International Tribunals: GQUAL Campaign
• Corporate Accountability Project
• LGBTI Rights in El Salvador
• Human Rights in California’s Central Valley
• Climate Change Policy Report Released at Copenhagen Conference
• Collective Remedies for Violations of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
• Civil Registration and Education Case (Yean v. Bosico v. Dominican Republic)
• Mass Expulsions from the Dominican Republic
• Dominican Republic and Haiti: Forced Migration Study
• The 2004 Tsunami and Human Rights
• Sri Lanka Access to HIV Medicines Project
• Mexico Labor Project