News | International Human Rights Clinic

Clinician Spotlight: Q&A with Aminta Ossom, J.D. ‘09

January 23, 2023

Aminta Ossom, J.D. ’09, is a Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law. Immediately prior to joining the Clinic in 2019, she served as a human rights officer at the United Nations, where she supported the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and the Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council. During summer 2022, she took a professional development leave, returning to…

Lawyer, Advocate, Therapist, Travel Agent: Maryum Jordan’s International Career and Local Impact

January 20, 2023

In the almost ten years since she graduated from Harvard Law School, human rights lawyer Maryum Jordan (A.B. ’10, J.D. ’14) has become a legal chameleon. From the lush banks of the Peruvian Amazon to the rugged shoreline of Alaska, Jordan has developed legal strategies to sue a massive mining company, documented human rights violations and provided evidence to the…

Designing a Trust Fund for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: Report Examines Precedent and Offers Proposals

January 19, 2023

As the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) moves into its implementation phase, the proposal to create a victim assistance and environmental remediation trust fund has generated much discussion among states parties and other stakeholders. The TPNW trust fund could offer significant value to the implementation process as a mechanism that would bolster the humanitarian purpose of…

OCP Spotlight: “International Human Rights Clinic Resumes Travel in Ireland, Kosovo”

December 15, 2022

This week, Olivia Klein from the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs published a feature on IHRC’s return to in-semester international travel. Check out the spotlight on two clinical trips: one to Dublin for the signing of the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated…

The Evolution and Impact of Victim Assistance

December 6, 2022

In a new article for the International Review of the Red Cross, Bonnie Docherty, lecturer on law and director of the Clinic’s Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative, examines the evolution of the concept of victim assistance and the impact of its implementation. Co-authored with Alicia Sanders-Zakre, the article analyzes the contributions of three treaties—the Mine Ban Treaty, the Convention…

On the Promise of Constitutionalism in the Arab Gulf

December 2, 2022

Lecturer on Law and Senior Clinical Instructor Salma Waheedi’s latest article in the American University in Beirut’s Al-Abhath explores constitutional review in Arab Gulf States, as part of a volume analyzing the promise of constitutionalism in the Arab Gulf. The article examines the constitutional frameworks of Kuwait and Bahrain and the main features of their judicial review models, with a…

Over 80 Countries Committed to Curb Use of Explosive Weapons, Now Comes the Hard Part

November 28, 2022

This article was first published on Just Security. Last week, more than 80 countries endorsed a new international commitment to address one of the greatest threats to civilians during armed conflict: the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. Explosive weapons include aircraft bombs, artillery, rockets, and missiles, and their use in cities, towns, and villages causes thousands of civilian casualties around…

UN Still Denies Justice to Lead Poisoning Victims in Kosovo

November 22, 2022

Editor’s Note: This OpEd first appeared in Prishtina Insight. Written by Anna Bower JD ’23, Beatrice Lindstrom, Scarlett Park JD ’24 and Jake Soria JD ’24. It is high time the UN accepted responsibility for the lead poisoning of Roma camp residents back in 1999 and compensated them, say a group of Harvard researchers and Roma activists who have been tracking the case.

The Human Rights Movement & the UDHR at 75: A Conversation with Navi Pillay

November 17, 2022

On November 1, 2022 the International Human Rights Clinic hosted an event with Navi Pillay, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge at the ICC and President of the ICTR. Watch the recording of the event below.

Negotiate Killer Robots Treaty in New Forum

November 15, 2022

New Report Identifies More Effective Routes to Protecting Civilians, Avoiding Insecurity Governments should move the stalled discussions of a treaty on autonomous weapons systems, known as “killer robots,” to a new international forum, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch said in a new report. Such weapons systems operate without meaningful human control, delegating life-and-death decisions…