About The Clinic

Welcome to the world of the International Human Rights Clinic. We’re an independent arm of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School. Our goal is to train the next generation of human rights advocates, and we can be kind of lofty about that. But we also laugh a lot.

We’re not experts in everything related to human rights, but we are pretty well recognized experts in the following:

Alien Tort Statute litigation (Tyler Giannini and Susan Farbstein)

Criminal Justice in Latin America (Fernando Delgado)

Weapons (Bonnie Docherty)

Sexual and Reproductive Health (Mindy Roseman)

Health Professionals and Torture (Deborah Popowski)

Corporate Accountability (Tyler)

Environment and Human Rights (Tyler and Bonnie)

One thing you should know about the Clinic: we’re very focused on practical learning. By practical learning, we mean discussing national security with the head of Paraguay’s police force; researching the UN’s response to reports of war crimes in Burma; interviewing survivors of forced sterilization in Namibia; and lobbying in Geneva for stricter arms controls.

By practical learning, we mean drafting reports, conducting legal analyses, going on fact-finding trips, assisting in litigation, speaking to the media, working with concerned citizens, navigating ethical dilemmas- all the things you’d have to do as a human rights lawyer, our students have done.

The Clinic is a pulsing kind of place, with projects on every major continent, and a personality all its own. This site will take a look inside, with regular news items; features on the people behind the issues; notes from students and alumni; and a growing resource of pages devoted to each of our areas of expertise.

For more information on the Human Rights Program, please see our nice, official-looking Website, chock full of information about fellowships, past projects and other insider stuff about the program.  It’s a great resource for students and others interested in HRP overall.

If you have suggestions, or want to contribute, please email me, Cara, the communication coordinator, at csolomon@law.harvard.edu.