Mission
Brochure

Protecting human rights is the foundation of law. The Human Rights Program at the University of Virginia allows students to explore the range of opportunities available in the human rights field, at home and abroad, through hands-on experiences. The program is the hub for human rights activities at the Law School, and cooperates with student groups, faculty members, the Public Service Center and Career Services, and human rights organizations to coordinate speakers, events, summer and postgraduate employment, and pro bono opportunities.

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW CLINIC
Clinic Projects, 2003-11

The International Human Rights Law Clinic is the core of the program. The clinic offers students practical experience in human rights advocacy in collaboration with human rights lawyers and nongovernmental organizations in the United States and abroad. Clinic students have worked on projects with the:

ROBERT F. KENNEDY MEMORIAL CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (Washington, D.C.), collaborating on a report for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the right to education of Afro-descendant and indigenous communities in the Americas

CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY (San Francisco), writing a brief for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of persons who allege torture and extrajudicial killing during Somalia's Barre regime and consulting on an amicus curiae brief for the U.S. Supreme Court

Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos, Program on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Guatemala), conducting comparative analyses of draft legislation and policy initiatives concerning indigenous peoples in various stages in the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala

Students in the International Human
Rights Clinic recently collaborated
on writing and editing a report for
U.N. Special Rapporteur on
Violence Against Women Rashida
Manjoo

FOREST PEOPLES PROGRAM (U.K./Netherlands) and ASSOCIATION OF INDIGENOUS VILLAGE LEADERS IN SURINAME, developing a manual and workshops for indigenous leaders in Suriname on the right to education

American Civil Liberties Union National Security Project, drafting a complaint regarding the release of information on Guantanamo Bay deaths and suicide and
homicide attempts

U.N. Special rapporteur on violence against women, writing background and briefing papers for a roundtable with U.S. gender and rights advocates and for the rapporteur's official U.S. visit, and will coordinate a panel during the U.N. General Assembly session

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Program Director: Deena Hurwitz
Phone: (434) 924-4776

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