NYU School of Law

International Human Rights Clinic

Introduction

The International Human Rights Clinic provides students with an opportunity to explore multifaceted approaches to human rights advocacy in both domestic and international settings. Through Clinic projects and weekly seminars, students focus on a wide range of issues at the heart of struggles to ensure fundamental rights, substantive equality, and economic and social justice. 

Course Description

Fieldwork

In the fieldwork component of the Clinic, students work closely with: 1) grassroots human rights and community-based organizations in the U.S. and abroad; 2) international NGOs and solidarity networks; and 3) U.N02. experts and bodies to document and investigate rights abuses and formulate policy and legal responses to current human rights problems. Fieldwork focuses on a wide range of issues, such as: economic and social rights; human rights and counter-terrorism; business and human rights; and the human rights of groups marginalized on the basis of caste, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, and sexuality, among other categories. The Clinic works closely with NYU School of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) in a number of its projects. Examples of past and current projects include:

Promoting corporate accountability, and securing economic and social rights

Business activity has a profound influence on the lives and livelihoods of people around the world. Yet attention to the negative effects of business activity on human rights often emerges in response to specific controversies, covers a limited set of rights, or applies selectively to individual companies or industries or particular regional contexts. Students work to address this problem by: laying bare the enormous impact that businesses have on a wide spectrum of human rights in a variety of industries across the world; analyzing gaps in the international protection regime; advocating for the development of stronger and more effective legal standards and enforcement strategies to curb the negative impact of business on human rights; and supporting the protection of economic and social rights. Past and current projects include:

• Working with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food to investigate and analyze the human rights impact of large-scale land acquisitions in Africa and Asia by biofuel and agribusiness companies; and produce a report on the role of the agribusiness sector in the realization of the right to food (with Law Students for Human Rights).
• Partnering with the International Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) and CHRGJ to develop the Business and Human Rights Documentation (B-HRD) Project, a cutting edge web-based legal and advocacy tool and strategic resource for advocates seeking to ensure corporate accountability for human rights abuses.
• Working with Human Rights Watch (HRW) to survey a decade of HRW reporting and draft a report illustrating how everyday business decisions have significant implications for the human rights of workers, local communities, suppliers, and consumers. 

Working to dismantle caste systems and ensure global recognition of Dalit rights

More than 260 million people worldwide continue to suffer under a “hidden apartheid” of segregation, exploitation, and violence by reason of their birth into a particular caste. The practice of “untouchability” and other forms of caste-based discrimination impose enormous obstacles to the fulfillment of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. The Clinic’s work in this area has focused on the rights of Dalits (so-called untouchables) in South Asia. Students work closely with Dalit advocates, grassroots campaigns, and with the International Dalit Solidarity Network to investigate and document caste-based abuses; challenge governments’ denials of this “hidden apartheid”; monitor the enforcement of measures designed to combat caste-based discrimination; link grassroots priorities to international and national mechanisms and institutions; and propose strategies to close the gap between legal protections and social reality. Past and current projects include:

• Drafting and presenting a “shadow report” to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination regarding India’s failure to uphold its international human rights law obligations.
• Devising the international arm of an advocacy campaign against “manual scavenging”—a caste-based occupation—in Gujarat, India and advocating for the rights of children of manual scavengers to be free from discrimination and forced labor practices in schools.
• Preparing testimony for a U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus briefing on “The Plight of Dalit Women” and supporting the introduction of a historic U.S. resolution on the practice of “untouchability” in India.
• Analyzing proposals for Nepal’s Constitution under international human rights law and engaging with Nepalese lawmakers to provide concrete recommendations for closing critical gaps in constitutional rights protections.
• Investigating and documenting the discriminatory impact of Nepal’s “People’s War” on Dalits in Nepal and advocating for the inclusion of Dalit rights in Nepal’s transitional justice mechanisms.

Exposing and countering the use of illegal and discriminatory profiling in counter-terrorism and immigration policies

Governments around the world have institutionalized the discriminatory profiling of individuals and communities deemed to be terrorism “suspects” on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity and/or national origin. Students work with community-based and immigrants’ rights organizations and with international human rights NGOs to expose and counter the disparate impact of these counter-terrorism measures on South Asian, Middle Eastern, Arab, and Muslim communities both within and outside the United States. Past and current projects include:

• Producing a documentary film to expose the racial profiling that is at the heart of U.S. citizenship delays and border-crossing detentions and delays and working with community-based and immigrant rights organizations to use the film as an advocacy tool to influence immigration and counter-terrorism policies.
• Documenting and analyzing under international human rights law the rights implications of: “shoot-to-kill” policies; behavioral profiling; anti-radicalization initiatives; terrorist “watchlists”; and ethnic profiling in the European Union.
• Preparing submissions to U.N. human rights treaty bodies and special procedures on the U.S.’ lack of compliance with its human rights obligations, and filing an amicus brief in a lawsuit challenging unreasonable delays in processing citizenship applications because of expanded FBI name checks.
• Enhancing the capacity of community-based organizations to incorporate human rights law and methodology into their advocacy efforts on behalf of affected immigrant communities in New York and beyond.

Other past projects include:

• Drafting ATCA and TVPA complaints against defendants accused of genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, and crimes against humanity.

Seminar

In the seminar component of the Clinic, students gain substantive exposure to international human rights law and are encouraged to reflect critically on the difficult questions of what it means to practice human rights in domestic and transnational contexts. Case studies illustrate some of the most crucial debates in human rights and examine the factors that influence human rights strategies. Skills sessions emphasize the development of practical tools for human rights advocacy, such as: investigating, documenting, and publicizing human rights violations; bringing claims before domestic, regional, and international human rights mechanisms; and managing trauma in human rights work. Project rounds enable direct reflection on the relationship between theory and practice, providing an opportunity for collaborative discussions and feedback on clinic work. Students also address questions of ethical, political and professional accountability related to human rights work.

Application Procedure

Students interested in applying for the clinic should submit an application, a résumé and a grade transcript via CAMS. Selected student applicants will be contacted by Susan Hodges for an interview. For further application instructions, or if you have any questions or comments, please contact Susan Hodges.

Student Contacts

It is recommended that students interested in the International Human Rights Clinic speak to students from the 2010-11 International Human Rights Clinic.

* 3 clinical credits and 3 academic seminar credits are awarded each semester for a total of 12 credits.

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