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Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: “In Accordance with the Law” – How the Military Perverts Rule of Law to Oppress Civilians

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. This post was published on the Just Security blog on April 28, 2021.) “When protestors…
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Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: Echoes of the Past, Crises of the Moment, Visions of the Future

(Editor’s Note: This article introduces a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series will brings together local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. The article first appeared on Just Security on April 26, 2021).  On Feb. 1, 2021,…
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Report Finds Haitian Government Complicit in Crimes Against Humanity

Haitian human rights coalition, Harvard clinic release new analysis of state-sanctioned massacres (April 22, 2021, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Cambridge, MA) — Three deadly massacres targeting impoverished neighborhoods in Haiti were carried out with Haitian government support and amount to crimes against humanity, according to a report released today by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and the Observatoire Haïtien des…
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Un rapport révèle la complicité du gouvernement haïtien dans des crimes contre l’humanité

Cover Image for report says, "Asasina nan tout Enpinite" and has a picture of people in Haiti protesting.
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Earth Day 2021: What the Yamuna River Teaches Us About Climate Change and Human Rights

You may have seen images of Hindu devotees immersing themselves in large clouds of white foam floating through the Yamuna River in Delhi, India. But what may seem otherworldly belies something much more sinister: a river of deep religious and life-giving significance for millions of people, teeming with toxic industrial and residential pollutants. Alongside three other Harvard Law School students…
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Earth Day 2021: Environmental Justice is a Human Rights Struggle

The United States has an environmental human rights problem. Across the country, communities of color and lower socioeconomic status are disproportionately located close to chemical processing plants, power plants, and other industrial facilities and shoulder the burden of domestic environmental contamination. Air and water quality standards frequently fail to protect these communities, leading to detrimental health impacts and continued contamination.…
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Court Upholds $10 Million Judgment Against Bolivian Leaders for 2003 Massacre

April 6, 2021, Miami — Yesterday, a federal judge rejected an attempt by Bolivia’s former president, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, and former defense minister, José Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, to vacate a $10 million damages award against them for the massacre of unarmed Indigenous people in 2003. A jury found the former officials liable under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) in…
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The Human Cost of Incendiary Weapons and Shortcomings of International Law

Please register: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ybs3ZFu4RR-s5S1MtKEVCg This online event highlights the horrific human cost of incendiary weapons and the need for a more effective international response. It features a trauma nurse who treated a girl burned by white phosphorus in Afghanistan, a survivor of an incendiary weapons attack on a Syrian school, a burn doctor with expertise in the challenges of rehabilitation, and…
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Clinic, Stimson Center publication provides guidance on arms exports and preventing gender-based violence

Today, the Clinic launched a new publication on arms exports, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), and gender-based violence (GBV) with the Stimson Center. The publication contains a questionnaire and explanatory guide that aims to help governments screen arms exports for those that could contribute to GBV, an assessment the ATT requires. The publication builds on the Clinic’s prior work in…
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Condemning Anti-Asian and Pacific Islander Violence and Discrimination

Silence in the face of anti-Asian violence and discrimination is unacceptable. We in the International Human Rights Clinic are horrified by the killings, attacks, and harassment against Asians and Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent that have only multiplied during the pandemic. We condemn the escalation of violence and hate speech against Asian and AAPI people in our…