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Movement Lawyering and Social Change: A Spotlight on LGBTQ Advocacy in Lebanon

Register for Movement Lawyering and Social Change here. Please join us to discuss community-oriented movement lawyering in Lebanon and the ways in which activists and lawyers engage with the country’s most vulnerable communities to build, support, and amplify transformative social movements. We will explore movement lawyering strategies and linkages with grassroots activists and communities, with a particular focus on cause…
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Rethinking MSIs: Time to Bury MSIs?—Not so Fast

MSI Integrity’s Not Fit-For-Purpose report is the culmination of a decade of examination of 40 standard-setting multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) focused on corporate accountability and human rights. Its release in July 2020, coincidentally but significantly, comes amid the epic disruption of a global pandemic and a historic movement for racial equality. Both COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter have separately and together exposed (literally)…
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“An Era of Violence?”: Comparing Trends in State Violence Around the World

Register at http://bit.ly/EraOfViolence to get the Zoom link! From Myanmar to the United States, the world has seen a rise in state and state-backed violence against citizens. These instances of violence don’t just cost the lives and livelihoods of those victimized; they also undermine international norms and normalize state violence in other nations. Join HLS Advocates for Human Rights for a candid…
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Launch of the Principles on the Prevention of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Detention Settings

Register for this launch event here. As recognised by the Security Council in Resolution 2467 (April 2019), detention settings are a key context of vulnerability to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), particularly for men and boys. The Principles on the Prevention of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) in Detention Settings draw from existing international law – primarily international human rights law and…
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Confronting conflict pollution: new principles argue for greater assistance for victims of toxic remnants of war

Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, irreparably damaging the environment and disrupting the lives of the people who called the area home. When Bonnie Docherty ’01, associate director of armed conflict and civilian protection in Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, visited the islands in March 2018, she spoke with survivors who…
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Muslim Women Creating New Futures: The Campaign for Justice in Muslim Family Laws

Please join us for a webinar that highlights the voices of Muslim women activists campaigning for egalitarian reform in Muslim family laws across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. We will discuss discriminatory laws in their political and historical context, explore key issues and challenges that inform experiences and advocacy strategies in different Muslim countries,…
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Litigating Identity Systems Guide

Last week, Privacy International, a longstanding International Human Rights Clinic partner, published “A Guide to Litigating Identity Systems,” which draws on comparative research students Maithili Pai LLM ’20 and Spencer Bateman JD ’20 undertook with the Clinic’s Assistant Director, Anna Crowe LLM’12, last academic year on the human rights implications of national identity systems — data-intensive government programs that link…
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Susan Farbstein Publishes Article about Apartheid Litigation in Harvard International Law Journal

The most recent print edition of the Harvard International Law Journal, published today, features an article by Susan Farbstein, International Human Rights Clinic Co-Director and Clinical Professor at Harvard Law School, about the long-running Apartheid suit.  Entitled “Perspectives from a Practitioner: Lessons Learned From The Apartheid Litigation,” the piece draws on her work as co-counsel in the Alien Tort Statute case that sought to hold corporations accountable for their role facilitating human rights abuse in…
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WATCH: Navigating Black Identity in the Human Rights Field

On September 24, the Human Rights Program hosted the first event in a series exploring racial justice in the human rights field. Aminta Ossom, Clinical Instructor in the International Human Rights Clinic, convened the series and moderated the first event, Advocating While Black: Navigating Black Identity in the Human Rights Field. Read an interview with Ossom on our blog about…
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Event Series Explores Racial Justice and Human Rights

During the 2020-2021 academic year, the Human Rights Program (HRP) at Harvard Law School is organizing a series of virtual events on racial justice and human rights. Convened by Aminta Ossom JD’09, Clinical Instructor in the International Human Rights Clinic, the series aims to foster dialogue between students, scholars, and practitioners on the role that race plays both in the…