Burma Human Rights Documentation Manuals (2006)
The International Human Rights Clinic, along with a coalition known as the Human Rights Documentation Coordinating Committee (HRDC), have been
collaborating to standardize the usage of human rights terms and create a database of collected information that can enhance analysis of trends
of violations in Burma and eventually assist with a transitional justice mechanism. The Clinic and
Harvard Law Students Advocates for Human Rights
have supported the development of a legal framework for these efforts, including drafting a model documentation manual on “Killings &
Disappearances” for the coalition.
Se San River Dams in Cambodia (2005-2006)
The International Human Rights Clinic undertook a field mission in Spring 2005 to investigate human rights violations associated with dams in
Vietnam, and their effects on communities living along the Se San River in Cambodia’s northeast. The investigation led to the publication of
Down River, by the
NGO Forum on Cambodia, and concluded
that over the past 10 years, dam operations
have caused numerous drowning deaths from water releases, as well as reduced food availability and living standards generally--contravening Vietnam's
and Cambodia's international legal obligations. The Clinic did a follow-up advocacy trip to meet with government officials during the Fall 2005 semester,
and a student also spent January 2006 in Cambodia continuing efforts to advance the rights of the affected communities.
Cambodia Right to Property (2004-2005)
The Phnom Penh Municipal Government announced road expansion plans that would require significant government takings of residential
property. As compensation, the government relocated many property owners to lands that are less desirable, inaccessible, or unsustainable to
living needs.
Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights
wrote a memo for the Public Interest Legal Advocacy Program (PILAP), a major new project of the
Community Legal Education Center (CLEC)
in Cambodia. The memo included policy recommendations on “just compensation” for land takings, a provision
that is in the Cambodian Constitution. The memorandum looked both to international sources (United Nations, bilateral/multilateral treaties, etc.) and
other countries (United States, United Kingdom, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.) for precedent and interpretations of “just compensation.”
Cambodia: Freedom of Expression and Public Demonstrations (2004-2005)
The law governing demonstrations in Cambodia suffers from a lack of specificity as to both the scope of its protection (the ends) and its protective
methodology (the means). Little appears beyond the standard, abstract prescriptions—namely, that all citizens enjoy rights to freedom of expression
and assembly and that such rights remain unfettered except where their exercise assumes violent forms, harboring the potential to endanger others. As
the law suffers, so do the Cambodian people for whom the laws are designed. The police, themselves uncertain of their responsibilities in regulating
protest, routinely preempt the formation of legally protected demonstrations, dispersing would-be gatherings without serious regard for whether their
ultimate realization will, in fact, contravene the sole obligation of demonstrators to nonviolence.
A minister in the Cambodian government requested that Harvard Law Student Advocates
for Human Rights and HRP's International Human Rights Clinic draft a memorandum examining the laws and practices of various foreign
jurisdictions in the regulation of public assembly and protest. The research surveyed eight jurisdictions, necessarily—and not regrettably—overrepresentative
of the developed world: the United States of America; Canada; Northern Ireland; South Africa; the United Kingdom; Hong Kong; France; and India.
Burma: The Shwe Natural Gas Pipeline (2004-2005)
The construction of the Yadana pipeline through Burma to Thailand brought forced labor, suffering, and severe human rights abuses to thousands
of residents along the pipeline's route. Now, a new natural gas pipeline, called Shwe, is being constructed by a consortium of South Korean and Indian
corporations to service a massive natural gas field in the Gulf of Bengal, off the coast of western Burma. The Shwe pipeline would supply gas to India.
An alarming number of similarities already exist between the Yadana Pipeline and the proposed Shwe Pipeline. If nothing is done, it appears likely
that history will repeat itself.
Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights has partnered
with EarthRights International, which has been engaged in litigation against a similar
multinational consortium project,
in which U.S. and French companies proceeded with a pipeline project knowing that the labor of many of the workers supplied by the Burmese was
forced. Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights worked
with EarthRights on strategizing ways to ensure that the Shwe project is either forestalled or carried
out in a way that does not involve forced labor and other human rights abuses, and researched domestic and international legal mechanisms for
holding the corporate participants accountable.
Burma: Forced Labor (2004-2005)
Forced labor and modern slave-like practices are an epidemic in Burma. The International Labour Organization (ILO)
and other international decision-makers
request ongoing information on the situation of forced labor in the country every six months to review at meetings in Geneva and determine relevant action
and measures to pressure the ruling military junta in Burma.
In October 2004, HLS Advocates made an investigative trip to the Thai-Burmese border in coordination with EarthRights
International and other local
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Students interviewed recent refugees about forced labor and other human rights abuses, and wrote briefings for
embassy officials and key ILO officials following the situation in the country. Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights also compiled the interviews
into a report for the ILO for their March 2005 meeting on Burma.
East Timor (2004-2005)
East Timor is a country endowed with significant petroleum resources. The country is in the
process of promulgating a new petroleum law and establishing a “petroleum fund” to manage the wealth from this resource. During the fall 2004,
La’o
Hamutuk, an East Timorese NGO, requested assistance from Harvard Law Student
Advocates for Human Rights to prepare comments for the government. Harvard Law
Student Advocates for Human Rights produced two sets of
public comments, providing a human rights-centric analysis first for the draft petroleum law, and later for the proposed petroleum fund. These memoranda
were incorporated into the La’o Hamutuk's submission to the government.
Forced Disappearances in Punjab, India (2003-2004)
Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights filed an amicus curiae brief
with Human Rights Watch in support of the Committee for Information
and Initiative on Punjab’s petitions before the Supreme Court of India. The brief
concerned the jurisdiction of the National Human rights Commission of
India (NHRC) to investigate 2,097 illegal cremations that had been carried out by Indian security agencies in crematoria in Amritsar, Punjab. These
illegal cremations first came to light in January 1995 when human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra released copies of official documents showing
that security agencies in Punjab had secretly burned thousands of bodies after labeling them “unidentified/unclaimed.” Khalra maintained that these
bodies belonged to victims of state repression during the “dirty war” in Punjab. That September, security forces abducted Khalra from his home.
He has not been seen since.
The brief, written by students, and signed by
Human Rights Watch, argued that the Indian government is obligated to investigate all such
cases of alleged forced disappearances pursuant to the Indian Constitution and as a party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Ahmadiyya Project – Bangladesh (2003-2004)
The Ahmadiyya community
is a small religious community that considers itself to be part of the larger Muslim community, but for doctrinal reasons, is considered by some
to fall outside the pale of Islam. Students traveled to Bangladesh in March-April 2004 to research incidents of abuse against Ahmadiyya community members,
speak with NGO activists,
lawyers, and government authorities. Students wrote a report that
details the various events of violence and agitation against the Ahmadiyya community and the government’s failure to fulfill its obligation to
protect the rights of the Ahmadis to freely practice and profess their own religion.
As part of this project, Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights member Amjad M. Khan wrote an article,
Different, Banned, published
in the Wall Street Journal, condemning Bangladesh’s recent ban on "the sale, publication, distribution and retention of all books and booklets
on Islam published by the Ahmadiyya." Khan argued that the ban violates the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and religion
guaranteed in Bangladesh's constitution.
