The protection of human rights is intrinsically linked to global human mobility. As people move across borders due to factors such as conflict, economic disparities and environmental challenges, the intersection of human rights and immigration law becomes increasingly complex. The responses to migration — shaped by political polarization, the rise of authoritarianism and a lack of political will from political leaders — often pose significant challenges to human rights protection. These same factors also influence migration trends, creating a complex interplay between human mobility and the safeguarding of fundamental rights.
The Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program allows students to engage with these intersections and also explore the full range of opportunities available in the human rights and immigration fields, at home and abroad, through hands-on experiences. Courses and extracurricular opportunities allow students to learn about the key legal and public policy issues involved in immigration and human rights, including international legal enforcement for human rights, political asylum, the impact of immigration on the economy and on national security, the role of nations and the challenges of building an effective immigration management system.
While the program directly serves students pursuing careers in immigration and human rights, it also enriches students in various legal fields by exploring connections to business, criminal, family and administrative law, as well as public policy, offering all a more comprehensive legal perspective.
The Law School provides an ideal setting for considering philosophical and theoretical concerns posed by immigration and human rights, including the meaning of national membership and cultural identity, the ethics of international relations, and the link between policy and international human rights. Students also build practical skills through immigration and human rights clinics and several pro bono programs offering aid to clients. The program brings in expert speakers on immigration and human rights, including leading attorneys and policy advocates, immigration judges and government officials.
Professor Camilo Sánchez, director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic and co-director of UVA Law’s Human Rights Program, describes the school’s offerings in the international human rights field and why this is an exciting time to study the subject. This session was part of UVA Law’s 2022 Admitted Students Open House.
This paper describes the response of George Washington's administration to a plea for emergency war financing from French colonists who were trying to...
This paper describes the response of George Washington's administration to a plea for emergency war financing from French colonists who were trying to...
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Many view constitutional incorporation of international human rights treaties as the most effective way to enforce treaty rights domestically. Three...
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On the Frontlines gives a comprehensive overview of the post-conflict terrain as it is experienced by women across multiple jurisdictions and in the...
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Clinic students are responsible for individual immigration cases that range in complexity and urgency. All students are tasked with investigating their cases, maintaining contact with their clients, briefing their cases and potentially representing their clients in immigration court. The clinic focuses on complicated cases for humanitarian relief, removal defense and impact cases arising out of emerging areas of the law.
Directed by professor Nelson Camilo Sánchez León, 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 in the following areas:
Reparations for slavery and other historical injustices
Deprivation of migrants’ liberty
Gender equality and sports
Human rights defenders at risk
Human rights impacts of air pollution
Access to health care in Venezuela
National security in the war on terror
Freedom of information and expression
Gender-based violence, women’s and LGBT rights
Rights of indigenous people
Legal literacy and empowerment
Right to life and prohibition against torture
Human rights in the Middle East
Corporate liability for human rights violations
Land law and housing rights
Transitional justice/responsibility to protect and fulfill human rights
Clinic students have worked on the following projects:
U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Organized a roundtable with U.S. gender and rights advocates; drafted briefing paper on the due diligence standard; coordinated and edited five civil society briefing papers for the special rapporteur’s official U.S. visit; contributed to the special rapporteur’s 2013 thematic report on the development of due diligence standards and consistency between international and regional treaties
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Researched Israel’s legal obligations with regard to land and housing rights of its indigenous population for a published report: “Off the Map: Land and Housing Rights Violations in Israel’s Unrecognized Bedouin Villages”
WOMEN’S JUSTICE INITIATIVE (Guatemala, founded by Kate Flatley ’08) Designed training modules on international human rights law, gender-based violence, and inheritance and property rights for indigenous Guatemalan women
CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS (New York) Researched for plaintiffs’ legal team in the case of Al Shimari v. CACI, a federal lawsuit brought by four Iraqi torture victims against private U.S.-based contractor CACI International Inc. and CACI Premier Technology Inc.
CENTER FOR JUSTICE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (Washington, D.C.) Wrote amicus brief for the Inter-American Court on Human Rights in support of petitioners in the case of Benito Tide Méndez et al. v. Dominican Republic
CENTRO PARA LA ACCIÓN LEGAL EN DERECHOS HUMANOS, PROGRAM ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (Guatemala) Prepared comparative analyses of draft legislation and policy initiatives concerning indigenous peoples in the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala.
CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY (San Francisco) Consulted with U.S. Senate staffers on a U.S. Supreme Court amicus curiae brief in Samantar v. Yousef regarding congressional intent as to whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act should be a bar to remedies under the Torture Victim Protection Act, and drafted the brief for the proceeding in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
FOREST PEOPLES PROGRAM (U.K./Netherlands) and ASSOCIATION OF INDIGENOUS VILLAGE LEADERS IN SURINAME Developed a manual and workshops for indigenous leaders in Suriname on the right to education
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION NATIONAL SECURITY PROJECT Drafted a complaint regarding the release of information on Guantanamo Bay deaths and detainees’ suicide and homicide attempts
Students from the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law reflect on their recent trip to Santiago, Chile, where they worked with partners to continue pursuing justice on behalf of victims of a government crackdown on protesters in 2019.
Lobsang Sangay, regent of the Central Tibetan Administration, delivers the Human Rights Program spring lecture. Sangay discusses his experiences leading a government in exile, representing the Tibetan diaspora, and advocating for political autonomy and power for greater Tibet.
The Law School curriculum has included a number of courses focused on human rights in recent years. The following is a list of courses offered during 2024-26. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2023-24 is coded (24), 2024-25 is coded (25) and 2025-26 is coded (26). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong.
Border Policy and Politics (24,25) Citizenship: The Law, History and Politics of U.S. Citizenship (26) Constitutional Law II: Survey of Civil Liberties (24,26) Crimmigration Law: Law and Policy at the Intersection of Immigration Law and Criminal Justice (24) Human Rights Study Project (YR) (24,25,26) Immigration Law and Policy Lecture (24,25,26) International Human Rights Law (24,25,26) Law and Inequality Colloquium (24,25) Law and Public Service (24,25,26) Law of Armed Conflict (24,25) Political Prisoners (SC) (24,25) Shifting Priorities in Humanitarian Immigration (26) U.S. Refugee and Asylum Law Seminar (25,26)
Archi Pyati, chief of policy for the Tahirih Justice Center in Washington, D.C., and Sabrina Talukder ’14, staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of New York City, discussed the history of domestic violence asylum in the United States and the ways in which their organizations are addressing new hurdles in asylum law.
The project’s mission is to further the study of law affecting the protection of basic rights in foreign countries. Each year, a project team of students and a professor travel abroad to research human rights issues in a specific country and report their findings. Participating students receive course credit.
Run by the student group the Latin American Law Organization, the Migrant Farmworker Project works with the Legal Aid Justice Center's Immigrant Advocacy Program to assist an isolated population often in need of legal counsel. The program represents immigrants and farmworkers throughout the state. Although the center handles mostly employment law cases, it also takes housing and discrimination cases. Student members of the Migrant Farmworker Project visit migrant farm labor camps and inform workers about their rights. The project also seeks to increase awareness about the substandard treatment of immigrant workers and conditions in which they live and work in Virginia. Students do not need to speak Spanish to participate. Story
Legal Aid Justice Center Immigration Project
Students gain experience in immigration issues through a pro bono project sponsored by the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville.
International Refugee Assistance Project
UVA Law is home to one of 29 student chapters of IRAP, which develops and enforces a set of legal rights for refugees and displaced persons.
John Bassett Moore Society of International Law
The J.B. Moore Society is a driving force in international law activities at the Law School. Each year, the Society hosts a symposium on topics such as the war on terror and corruption in foreign governments, as well as a lunch lecture series in which international law faculty and foreign graduate students present papers. The society also sponsors a Jessup International Law Moot Court team.
University of Virginia School of Law students participating in the Human Rights Study Project recently traveled to the Dominican Republic to learn more about the human rights challenges caused by climate change.
Students in the Human Rights Study Project at the University of Virginia School of Law took part in a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Nepal in January 2019. They were joined by alumni for a trek to Mount Everest base camp. The trip was sponsored by philanthropist David C. Burke ’93.
Clinics at the University of Virginia School of Law represented inmates seeking parole, helped tenants facing eviction and taught teens about state government, among other accomplishments in the past year.
Kolleen Gladden-Sorensen ’21, Jennifer Carl Brickfield ’16, Tim Cook ’11 and Shannon Pierce ’01 share what they’ve been up to since graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Students from the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law reflect on their recent trip to Santiago, Chile, where they worked with partners to continue pursuing justice on behalf of victims of a government crackdown on protesters in 2019.
A panel of immigration experts moderated by UVA Law professor Kevin Cope discuss how immigration issues may influence the upcoming election, and how the outcome could shape U.S. immigration policy. Panelists include National Foundation for American Policy Executive Director Stuart Anderson, attorney Tanishka V. Cruz, UVA Law professor Amanda Frost and UVA professor Jennifer Lawless. The event was sponsored by UVA Law’s Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program, and co-sponsored by the Miller Center, the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society.
Terrica Redfield Ganzy ’02, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, spoke about the importance of public service in her life at the Public Service Kickoff. Dean Leslie Kendrick ’06 and Assistant Dean for Public Service Ryan...
Professor Camilo Sánchez, director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic and co-director of UVA Law’s Human Rights Program, describes the school’s offerings in the international human rights field and why this is an exciting time to study the subject. This session was part of UVA Law’s 2022 Admitted Students Open House.
Lobsang Sangay, regent of the Central Tibetan Administration, delivers the Human Rights Program spring lecture. Sangay discusses his experiences leading a government in exile, representing the Tibetan diaspora, and advocating for political autonomy and power for greater Tibet.
Third-year University of Virginia School of Law students Lara Chuppe, Anna Figueroa and Abigail Justis have been named among this year’s recipients of the Immigrant Justice Corps’ two-year Justice Fellowship.
UVA Law faculty mentor students on fellowship and career opportunities, and students are invited to join an email list to regularly receive job and fellowship announcements. The faculty, many of whom have worked abroad, also offer a significant networking resource for those interested in human rights work. Students who intend to work in the United States and abroad have access to UVA Law Public Service Summer Grants of $5,000 (first year) and $8,000 (second year).
The Law School offers grants, from approximately $5,000 to $78000, to help fund a broad array of summer public interest opportunities. In recent summers, students worked for:
Asylum Access (Quito, Ecuador)
Center for Human Rights Legal Action (Guatemala City)
Institute for International Law and Human Rights (Washington, D.C.)
International Bridges to Justice (New Delhi, India)
International Center for Transitional Justice (Cape Town, South Africa)
International Justice Mission (Guatemala City and Manila, Philippines)
Minority Rights Group International (London)
Parliamentary Monitoring Group (Cape Town, South Africa)
Center for Applied Legal Studies, Gender Unit, University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa)
U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Arusha, Tanzania)
Several opportunities for public international law related fellowships are available to Virginia graduates, including:
International Law Fellowship for the International Court of Justice Judicial Fellows Program
The University of Virginia School of Law has successfully placed several candidates in the International Court of Justice’s Judicial Fellows Program. When a candidate is selected, the UVA Law International Law Fellowship provides a stipend of $50,000 to assist with travel, living expenses and health insurance.
Provides a total of $10,000 for one or two students to pursue a public international law project of their own during a summer internship, during their third year, or after graduation. Application Information
University of Virginia School of Law student Uma Vishnuraman ’27 is learning about human rights issues in Malawi and South Africa with help from a Public Service Summer Grant.
A panel of immigration experts moderated by UVA Law professor Kevin Cope discuss how immigration issues may influence the upcoming election, and how the outcome could shape U.S. immigration policy. Panelists include National Foundation for American Policy Executive Director Stuart Anderson, attorney Tanishka V. Cruz, UVA Law professor Amanda Frost and UVA professor Jennifer Lawless. The event was sponsored by UVA Law’s Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program, and co-sponsored by the Miller Center, the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society.
How do organizations working on issues like immigration, environmental protection, poverty and human rights raise the resources they need to make an impact? Emily Fan ’03, general counsel at The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, will discuss the growing role of private philanthropy in supporting efforts to strengthen communities and address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Lunch will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
Freedom Studio uses technology, storytelling and creative advocacy to support social change through civic engagement and democratic organizing. Nishchhal (Nish) Kharal, the organization’s co-founder, will share lessons from this work and reflect on how shifting international funding priorities are reshaping the landscape for human rights and democracy initiatives around the world. Lunch will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
Professor Camilo Sánchez will give an overview of career and internship opportunities in the area of international human rights. Food provided with RSVP in Symplicity by Oct. 20.
Join Student Legal Forum for a discussion with Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American activist and lawyer, on her work with the International Solidarity Movement and the occupation of Gaza. Food will be provided.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
UVA Law’s Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program will host The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, a team appointed by the United Nations to investigate and report on violations, providing independent analysis and recommendations for justice in the Central American country. Join the program for an informational session featuring two U.N. experts: Jan-Michael Simon, a German legal advocate with extensive experience combating impunity in Latin America, and Ariela Peralta Distefano, a human rights lawyer from Uruguay working with vulnerable communities across the Americas. Hear firsthand how the U.N. is addressing human rights violations in Nicaragua and beyond. Lunch will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
Join members of the ILS x IRAP community to chat about the state of immigration affairs and learn more about the experiences that 2Ls and 3Ls have had working in these fields. Food will be provided.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
Professor Camilo Sánchez will give an overview of career and internship opportunities in the area of international human rights. Food provided with RSVP in Symplicity by Oct. 20.
Eager to learn more about what a career in immigration and refugee work may look like? Hear from people who have devoted a large portion of their career to these fields. Food will be provided.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
Join AFL to hear from Anna Nalle, prevention and awareness coordinator at New Creation VA, who will be speaking about human trafficking in Central Virginia and how the community can help prevent it. Food will be provided.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
Join AFL to hear a speaker discuss the impact of human trafficking and the efforts of lawmakers and human rights advocates in stopping it. Food will be provided.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
Anna Nalle from New Creation VA, a nonprofit counteracting human trafficking, will discuss federal and Virginia human trafficking laws, local efforts to prevent trafficking and how human trafficking affects our communities.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
Professor Camilo Sánchez will give an overview of career and internship opportunities in the area of international human rights. Food provided with RSVP in Symplicity by Nov. 5.
A panel of immigration experts moderated by UVA Law professor Kevin Cope discuss how immigration issues may influence the upcoming election, and how the outcome could shape U.S. immigration policy. Panelists include National Foundation for American Policy Executive Director Stuart Anderson, attorney Tanishka V. Cruz, UVA Law professor Amanda Frost and UVA professor Jennifer Lawless. The event was sponsored by UVA Law’s Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program, and co-sponsored by the Miller Center, the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society.
