News

States should make addressing the consequences of nuclear weapons a priority in order to achieve the humanitarian purpose of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Articles 6 and 7 of the TPNW include obligations for states parties to assist victims of and remediate environmental harm stemming from nuclear weapons use and testing, as well as to provide international cooperation and assistance to affected states parties.

An updated brochure on humanitarian disarmament, recently published by Harvard Law School’s Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative (ACCPI), offers an overview of this people-centered approach to governing weapons. The brochure aims to provide a better understanding of the cross-cutting concept of humanitarian disarmament as well as an introduction to the key issues it covers.

Four years after United Nations peacekeepers left Haiti amid a legacy of human rights abuses, foreign security forces are preparing to return once again. This month, the U.N. Security Council took the momentous step of authorizing a multinational force for Haiti, led by Kenya.

The International Human Rights Clinic (“the Clinic”) at Harvard Law School invites applications for a Clinical Teaching Fellow. The Fellow will be a legally-trained practitioner who has earned a law degree within the past two to five years and who has demonstrated experience in, and commitment to, human rights, including experience training or mentoring law students.

Twenty years after massacre of indigenous Bolivians, the International Human Rights Clinic and its partners settle case that secured accountability for killings  October 2, 2023  In 2007, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic filed a groundbreaking human rights suit in U.S. federal court against the former president of Bolivia and his minister of defense, seeking justice on behalf of…

Settlement preserves landmark 2018 verdict; ex-president and defense minister to compensate families of people killed by military  [En Español Abajo] September 28, 2023 – Bolivia’s former president and former minister of defense will pay an undisclosed sum in compensatory damages to family members of eight people killed by the Bolivian military, under a settlement announced today. This marks the end…

On September 7, 2023, eight international human rights and labor law experts* applied to appear before the Constitutional Court of Uganda in two cases concerning informally employed workers in the country. IHRC Clinical Instructor Aminta Ossom and Clinic partner WIEGO are two of the eight applicants seeking to appear before the Court.  In September 2022, five workers’ organizations filed the…

Investing in expanded water services could improve the situation for women and underserved communities, according to a report from Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and the Center for Economic and Social Rights 

The September 2023 edition of the IHRC newsletter.

“You may be an expert on law, but they are an expert on their reality” In the Fall of 2021, Joan Josiah (J.D. ‘23) began her second year at Harvard law School as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread around the world. During her first year, Josiah had read court opinions and learned about legal theory. She was eager to…