News | International Human Rights Clinic

Reporting on Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty’s Victim Assistance, Environmental Remediation Obligations: Clinic Recommends New Guidelines

In the Vienna Action Plan, adopted in 2022 at the first annual meeting of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), states parties resolved to establish reporting guidelines on victim assistance, environmental remediation, and international cooperation and assistance. By regularly reporting on national measures taken to implement their Article 6 and 7 obligations, states parties could significantly enhance…

Reflections on Iraq 2003: Witnessing History, Documenting Civilian Harm

Twenty years ago, on May 12, 2003, I crossed a US Navy-built bridge into southern Baghdad and a world most people knew only from TV coverage. The capital city had fallen about a month earlier to US forces, and I was part of a three-person Human Rights Watch team sent to document civilian casualties from the hostilities.

Harvard Law Today Spotlight: ‘PSVF support has contributed significantly to the work I do’

Editors note: this article was originally published in Harvard Law Today . The military offensive by the Burmese government against the Karen people in their country had been going on for years before Jason Gelbort ’13 got involved. His participation in a fact-finding mission with Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic changed the course of his career.

Stop Killer Robots Global Meeting Showcases Campaign’s Strength

The Stop Killer Robots campaign’s recent global meeting in San José, Costa Rica, highlighted the campaign’s vision for a new international legal instrument on autonomous weapons systems, what it will take to get there, and how the campaign has progressed to reach this point. The Digital Dehumanization Conference, the campaign’s first global meeting since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, convened campaigners from around the world from February 20-22.

Syrian Voices from the 2023 Earthquake: Emergency Responses and Long-Term Impact

On February 28, 2023, the International Human Rights Clinic hosted a panel discussion on the impact of and emergency response to the recent earthquakes in northwest Syria. For more than a decade, armed conflict has devastated the civilian populations in the region. The February earthquakes have exacerbated the situation, retraumatizing and displacing some of Syria’s most vulnerable communities. Despite the…

Latin America and Caribbean Nations Rally Against Autonomous Weapons Systems

This article was first published on Just Security. The push to prohibit and regulate autonomous weapons systems made significant progress last month when nearly every country in Latin America and the Caribbean endorsed a new communiqué calling for the “urgent negotiation” of a binding international treaty.

New US Policy on Autonomous Weapons Flawed

February 16, 2023

A new United States Department of Defense directive concerning development of autonomous weapons systems is an inadequate response to the threats posed by removing human control from the use of force, the International Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch said in a report issued this week. Instead of creating adequate controls on the development of these weapons, the directive…

Harvard Law Today Spotlight: Holding the United Nations Accountable

February 8, 2023

A team of Harvard Law students seeks justice for Roma exposed to lead poisoning under the U.N.’s watch Editors note: this article was originally published in Harvard Law Today and was written by Brett Milano. Last November, Harvard Law students with the school’s International Human Rights Clinic travelled to New York and Kosovo, under the direction of Clinical Instructor Beatrice Lindstrom,…

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…