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, coordinating speakers and other events, and cooperating with student groups, faculty and human rights organizations. The program director mentors students, helps them find jobs and internships, and connects them with alumni and others who have similar interests.

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW CLINIC
Clinic Projects, 2003-09

At the core of the program is the International Human Rights Law Clinic, one of a handful of such clinics nationwide that takes on a full range of human rights projects. The clinic offers students practical experience in human rights advocacy in collaboration with human rights lawyers. Clinic students have worked on projects with:

• Human Rights First, on national security legislation and policies in Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore and the Philippines since Sept. 11, 2001.

• Human Rights Watch, on the report “Off the Map:  Land and Housing Rights Violations in Israel’s Unrecognized Bedouin Villages.”

• Human rights NGOs, participating in drafting an amicus brief for the Supreme Court in the Alien Tort Statute case Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain.

• Greensboro (N.C.) Truth and Reconciliation Commission, reviewing trial documents and secondary sources in the various federal and state cases involving a 1979 clash between labor and civil rights demonstrators and the KKK and American Nazi party, and analyzing for procedural violations under international law

• Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (Washington, D.C.), finalizing a report on “The Right to Education of Afro-Descendant and Indigenous Communities in the Americas (with Country Profiles of Columbia, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic),” and presenting it to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with the RFK Center and the Cornell Law School Human Rights Clinic

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

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

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