Home / Research Programs / Overview / Child Advocacy Program
Take a virtual tour of CAP.
For Frequently Asked Questions about the Clinic, click here. For more about the Clinic (Spring and Winter/Spring options in 2014), click here.
CAP's "Art of Social Change" course is serving as a model for courses for students studying journalism, public policy and social work in California. Click here to read more. Or click here for PDF version of the article.
HLS students can stop by the Clinical Fair -- organized by HLS's Office of Clinical Programs -- to learn about the Child Advocacy Clinic. We'll be hosting a table during the second half of the Fair, from 7-8 PM, Milstein B&C in WCC.
Join CAP and HLS LLM Candidate Sedoo Manu to discuss his work-in-progress. Meet in CAP's offices (WCC 4133) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here.
Join CAP and HLS JD Candidate Melissa Friedman to discuss her work-in-progress. Meet in CAP's offices (WCC 4133) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here.
CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet is a guest on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook in a show entitled "The Future of Adoption: International and Domestic." Click here for more.
Join CAP and HLS SJD Candidate Claire Houston to discuss her work on the construction of the child in domestic violence law. Meet in CAP's offices (WCC 4133) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here.
Join CAP Faculty and Affiliates for an Open House for HLS Graduate Program students. SJD candidates, LLMs, and Visiting Researchers and Scholars will have the opportunity to get to know others at HLS who share an interest in children's issues. Meet in the CAP Offices (WCC 4133) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here.
CAP's Fall "Art of Social Change" course is launching on Thursday, Sept 15, from 5:00 - 7:00 PM. Course topics include: Substance Abuse & Child Maltreatment, Education Reform through Community Organizing, Bullying, Model Schools in Juvenile Facilities, Principles Behind Successful Social Change Efforts, and more. For the course description, schedule, and speaker biographies, click here.
CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet discusses CAP's Prevention & Protection Brainstorming Workshop held at HLS on May 10-11, 2012.
Visit CAP in our new home. Hear about our courses and the clinic. Learn about CAP's law reform projects, events, and more. Come to WCC 4133 at noon. Lunch will be provided. HLS students RSVP here.
For Frequently Asked Questions about the Clinic, click here. For more about the Clinic (Spring and Winter/Spring options in 2013), click here.
Join CAP and HLS Visiting Researcher Celina Beatriz Mendes de Almeida to discuss her draft paper "The Street Children of Rio de Janeiro." Meet in CAP's new offices (WCC 4133) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here.
Join CAP and HLS SJD Candidate Lisa Kelly to discuss her draft paper. Meet in CAP's new offices (WCC 4133) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here.
Join the Center for Adoption Policy and HLS's Child Advocacy Program for this upcoming conference entitled "International Adoption: The Evolving Terrain" at New York Law School. Click here for details and to register. The admission fee for Harvard Law faculty, staff and students has been waived.
Join CAP and HLS Visiting Researcher Mahyad Hassanzadeh-Tavakoli to discuss her draft paper "Prosecuting the Recruitment of Child Soldiers as a War Crime before the International Criminal Court. A Critical Reading of the Lubanga Case." Meet in CAP's new offices (WCC 4133) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here.
Join a lunch discussion with Mike Bochenek, Director of Law and Policy at Amnesty International. Bochenek is one of the leading lawyers at Amnesty International’s Secretariat in London. He is an expert in children’s rights and economic, social, and cultural rights. Previously, Bochenek was Deputy Director of the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch (HRW). Event is sponsored by: the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, HLS Advocates for Human Rights, and the Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program. RSVP here.
Each Fall CAP offers a course entitled "The Art of Social Change: Child Welfare, Education, and Juvenile Justice." View our 2011 slideshow which includes a series of dynamic guest lecturers debating cutting-edge issues impacting children.
Screening of film “We Are Foot Soldiers." Followed by panel discussion with: Oishik Sircar (Documentary Filmmaker & Assist. Profess., Jindal Global Law School, India), Elizabeth Bartholet (Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law, Harvard Law School), and Janet Halley (Royall Professor of Law, Harvard Law School). Moderated by Lisa Kelly (S.J.D. Candidate , Harvard Law School). 7:15 - 9:00 PM, Hauser 104, Harvard Law School. Dinner provided. RSVP here.
CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet was interviewed for this documentary by Paul Feine, detailing the negative impact that closing international adoption in Guatemala has had on children. The film also documents UNICEF’s role. Click here to view on CAP's website. Click here to view on You Tube (with the option of full-screen mode).
Join CAP Faculty and Affiliates for an Open House for HLS Graduate Program students. SJD candidates, LLMs, and Visiting Researchers and Scholars will have the opportunity to get to know others at HLS who share an interest in children's issues. Meet in the CAP Offices (Pound 407) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here.
CAP's Fall "Art of Social Change" course is launching on Thursday, Sept 15, from 5:00 - 7:00 PM. Course topics include: Creating a Children's Movement, Confronting the Achievement Gap, Evaluating the Harlem Children's Zone, Problem-Solving Courts for Children & Families, StreetSafe Boston (a gang prevention program), the Prostitution of Children, and more. For the course description, schedule, and speaker biographies, click here.
CAP's "Art of Social Change" course is open to cross-registrants at Harvard University. Click here for cross-registration details.
Authored by CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet, this paper summarizes what she believes can be learned from the evidence presented at the January 2011 Race & Child Welfare Conference. That conference was co-sponsored by Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago on what has generally been termed racial disproportionality. Click here for the paper.
TDH Ontario -- a long-time Canadian charity supporting a range of projects for children across the globe -- reports on the recent attacks on international adoption. TDH's July 2011 quarterly newsletter references CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet's extensive writings on international adoption. Click here for the newsletter and to learn more about TDH Ontario's work.
Elizabeth Bartholet, Fred Wulczyn, Richard P. Barth, and Cindy Lederman co-authored a paper summarizing their views on the January 2011 CAP-sponsored conference "Race and Child Welfare: Disproportionality, Disparity, Discrimination: Re-Assessing the Facts, Re-Thinking the Policy Options." That paper, detailing the Conference’s significance, appeared in a Chapin Hall Issue Brief, “Race & Child Welfare," published June, 2011.
Join us for a Town Hall event on education for foster care children. The event is being organized by Fostering Media Connections, along with CAP and the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. To RSVP and for more detais, click here. Click here to watch the Town Hall. For the HLS news story, click here.
CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet is interviewed for a PBS "Need to Know" story: "Left in limbo: Nepalese adoptions halted: Adoptive parents on the verge of bringing home a child find themselves caught between two governments." Bartholet responds to the U.S. State Department suspension of adoption of abandoned Nepalese children. Click here for the video recording of the full story.
Join CAP and HLS LL.M. candidate Benjamin S. Luis to discuss his draft paper "A Second Look at Schools for Indigenous Children." Meet in the CAP Offices (Pound 407) at noon on March 23. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here: http://www.jotform.com/form/10403028801.
CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet examines the pros and cons of the US ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child. See her article in the January 2011 Annals volume, "The Child as Citizen," and listen to her interview here.
Join CAP and HLS LL.M. candidate Caetano Penna Franco Altafin Rodrigues da Cunha to discuss his draft paper "Solutions in Human Rights and the Library Tree Project: creating educational opportunities for children in development and underdeveloped countries." Meet in the CAP Offices (Pound 407) at noon on March 23. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here: http://www.jotform.com/form/10401219797.
CAP hosts a conference exploring questions of race and child welfare entitled: "Race and Child Welfare: Disproportionality, Disparity, Discrimination: Re-Assessing the Facts, Re-Thinking the Policy Options." Visit: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/faculty-research/cap-conference-race-and-child-welfare.html. For more, including links to conference-related materials and conference videos, visit: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/about/cap/cap-conferences/rd-conference/rd-conference-index.html.
In conjunction with our Art of Social Change course, CAP is screening the 82-minute documentary "Family Affair" by director/producer Chico Colvard. The event is from 5:00 - 7:00 PM at Austin West in Austin Hall. Chico will provide brief remarks after the screening and be available for Q&A. For more and to RSVP visit: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/about/cap/cap-events/familyaffairscreening.html
Join CAP Faculty and Affiliates for an Open House event for HLS Graduate Program students. SJD candidates, LLMs, and Visiting Researchers and Scholars will have the opportunity to get to know others at HLS who share an interest in children's issues. Meet in the CAP Offices (Pound 407) at noon. Lunch will be provided. RSVP here: http://tinyurl.com/2dspago
CAP's Fall "Art of Social Change" course is launching on Thursday, Sept 2, from 5:00 - 7:00 PM. Course topics include: Obama's Race to the Top Education Contest, Social Enterprises for Children, the Prostitution of Children, Beyond Juvenile Incarceration, Childhood Homelessness, and more. For the course description, schedule, and speaker biographies, visit: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/about/cap/art-of-change/index.html.
Harvard Graduate School of Education student Kimberly Snodgrass, who enrolled in the Child Advocacy Program's course "Art of Social Change" in Fall 2010, created a "Forward Advocacy Foster Care Video." Click on the above link to view the video on YouTube.
Increased attention has been focused on international adoption following the return of an adoptive child to Russia by his adoptive mother. CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet speaks about the importance of international adoption on "Today" a news magazine show broadcasting live in Beijing, China; Canberra and Perth, Australia; Ottawa and Toronto, Canada; and California, Texas and Hawaii, USA.
The website Connect for Kids featured the Child Advocacy Program and two of our remarkable alums in a recent article. Learn more about how these CAP alums are using Skadden Fellowships to work on behalf of children and youth.
Read CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet's piece in the New York Times "Room for Debate" blog reacting to the suspension of Russian adoption in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the return of an adopted child to Russia.
In the wake of the controversy surrounding the return of an adopted child to Russia, the Russian government has suspended all adoption of Russian children by American families. CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet speaks about the implications of this controversy on international adoption. To listen, go to: http://tinyurl.com/y8yo3td.
Join CAP and HLS Visiting Scholar F. Frederic (Ric) Fouad to discuss his draft paper "The Chocolate Heist: How Pennsylvania authorities converted the Hershey Trust, America's largest childcare charity, into a shield for corporate insiders and piggy bank for local interests." Meet in AUSTIN EAST (NOTE change in location) at noon on April 13. Lunch will be provided. RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/ybtg9h3.
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, ten Americans were arrested for transporting 33 Haitian children out of Haiti. The controversy over international adoption in post-quake Haiti mirrors the intense global debate over this issue. HLS Prof. Elizabeth Bartholet, a renowned expert on international adoption, will share her insights on this pressing issue. Sponsored by Child and Youth Advocates, HIRC, and HCLA. Meet at noon in Lewis 301. Lunch will be provided.
Join CAP and HLS Visiting Researcher Rashad Ibadov to discuss his draft paper "Religious Freedoms in Public Schools: Theoretical and Practical Problems Related to the Rights of Children." Meet in the CAP Offices (Pound 407) at noon on March 23. Lunch will be provided. RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/y8kspx4.
Join the Center for Adoption Policy and HLS's Child Advocacy Program for this upcoming conference entitled "Permanency for Children" at New York Law School. Click on the above link to register now.
Join CAP for the "Juvenile Justice: Passages, Prevention, and Intervention" conference hosted by the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville.