Liberia Trainings
This project, which included an October 2006 field mission, exposed students to the inner-workings of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Students
assisted with legal research and memo writing, drafting a memo comparing various legal accountability standards to assist the Commission in determining
whether to recommend prosecution for minors under the age of 18. Students also helped outline a research proposal looking at various models for
handling juvenile offenders in conflict areas.
The project also focused on the work of child protection agencies, where students went into the field
with child protection agency staff, traveling to three special-needs schools and one orphanage. Working with a coalition of NGOs and child protection agencies,
students also ran a training for child protection agency staff. Students compiled an interviewer checklist to assist in interviewing child witnesses, and also
put together several role-playing exercises as part of the training.
Advocacy on Behalf of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission
Following outspoken and independent work by the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, the body has come under fire by many within the Kenyan
government. The Commission's director has been accused of corruption, and there are allegations of efforts underway that seek to stall and undermine
the work of the national human rights commission.
The International Human Rights Clinic is working to investigate the situation, and draft a report that will be published by a human rights organization. Students
participated on an October 2006 field mission to Kenya, and have also worked with an NGO to develop a press strategy to pressure Kenya's government and to bring
attention to this situation.
Analysis of a Proposed NGO Law in Kenya
In a step to better control and limit activities by the NGO community in Kenya, the Kenyan government has put out a sessional paper (the first step
toward enacting a bill into law) on NGOs. The International Human Rights Clinic, working with a human rights NGO, is helping to analyze this proposed law
and flag potential areas of concern. This analysis will be the basis of a report to be published by a human rights organization, and distributed to
NGOs within Kenya.
Crimes Against
Humanity in Ethiopia
In January 2006, three students and a supervisor traveled to a conflict region of Ethiopia to investigate inter-ethnic fighting and potential
crimes against humanity. The students interviewed approximately 80 victims and witnesses, as well as NGO aid workers. They found evidence of killings,
rapes, beatings, and looting as well as an escalating armed conflict. The team has issued a report,
We are now hoping for death:" Grave human rights abuses in
Gambella, Ethiopia, documenting their research.
This report updates an earlier Human Rights Watch report on the subject, keeping pressure
on the Ethiopian government to bring peace to the region.
Mechanisms to Promote and Protect Women’s
Human Rights
Designated International Women’s Year by the United Nations, 1975 also saw
the first World Conference on Women and the adoption of the World
Plan of Action for the promotion of gender equality. This Plan was designed to guide and encourage the international community in achieving
three main objectives: full gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination; the integration and full participation of women in
development; and an increased contribution by women in the strengthening of world peace (Source: UN). The World Conference on Women called
upon governments to develop national strategies and mechanisms to promote the equal participation of women. It is within the context of these
three decades of advocacy that HRP collaborated with the Women Living Under
Muslim Laws Network (WLUML) and undertaking an in-depth
case study of South Africa’s Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) in order to understand this
model and share the insights gleaned from its
experiences with stakeholders in the international women’s rights movement. In a broader sense, the question explored was whether gender
commissions and/or women’s commissions are among the “best practices” to be employed in the international struggle to attain gender equality.
South Africa was a useful case study because of the intensity with which women’s rights activists in that country took up the UN’s call to
action. During the late 1980s, in the midst of the already-contentious democratic transition in South Africa, women’s rights activists
forced the nation’s political stakeholders to focus on gender equality as they had never done before. Created by the constitution and formally
established after the enactment of its enabling act in 1996, the CGE represents the culmination of
these efforts. The commission is an
independent body with a mandate to protect, develop, promote respect for, and attain gender equality in South Africa. The commission’s
enabling statute authorizes a wide range of actions to fulfill this mandate.
International Human Rights Clinic students conducted constitutional, legislative, and historical analysis of the
CGE and its impact on the
current status of gender equality in South Africa within the context of the ambitions and recommendations of the international women’s movement.
These efforts formed the groundwork for a fact-finding trip to South Africa, where the team exchanged ideas with policy makers, NGO’s, women’s
activists, and academics with firsthand experience in the struggle for gender equality. The resulting report served two purposes. First,
it was submitted to relevant stakeholders within South Africa as an in-depth analysis of gender commissions as one instrument in the
promotion and protection of women’s human rights. In addition, the report was presented at an international conference sponsored by WLUML.
Muslim Personal Law Project:
South Africa
Bringing personal status laws into conformity with international and constitutional equal rights provisions is an imperative for the
protection of women’s human rights. Multicultural secular democracies face a challenge in effectively and meaningfully guaranteeing
the right to equality and the right to religion and culture.
Currently, Muslim marriages are not legally recognized in South Africa. This creates problems for women, especially in the family law
arena. South Africa is in the process of considering separate legislation that will recognize Muslim marriages. The South African Law
Reform Commission has approved a report containing recommendations and a proposed “Muslim Marriages Act” on the recognition of Islamic
marriages. This draft bill attempts to codify Muslim personal law. The South African Commission on Gender Equality introduced an alternative
draft bill, the “Recognition of Religious Marriages Bill.” This draft bill provides for recognition of all religious marriages and avoids
issues of codification of specific religious tenets so as to comply with constitutional imperatives.
HRP students conducted desktop research on the constitutional validity, impact, and consequences of these bills. Research also included
a comparative analysis, seeking to identify practices and legislative models in other countries. HRP students conducted fieldwork in
October 2005 in South Africa, including interviews with academics, community members, and government officials. These findings and debates
were written up in the form of a submission, presented to the Commission on Gender Equality
to use in its further advocacy
efforts with the legislature and with communities.
Plural Legal Systems and the Issue of Gender Equality:
Customary Law Reform in South Africa
Equality between men and women is a key component of international human rights law and vital to the protection of women’s rights.
Constitutional democracies with plural legal systems face significant challenges in ensuring that women realize their right to equality,
while continuing to maintain traditional legal systems. Since gaining independence from European colonialists, many African countries have
engaged in debates over the best methods for reconciling customary law – the lived law for many communities, particularly in rural areas –
with constitutional, statutory, and common law. Ultimately plural legal systems must be administered in a way that ensures the right
to culture as well as the right to equality.
The South African Parliament considered a bill, the Traditional Courts Act, on customary courts. The bill intends to assign
limited adjudicative authority to traditional courts, both existing and future courts that are to be set up within communities living
under customary law. The goal of the clinical project is to submit recommendations to Parliament on the bill, with a particular view to
addressing the issue of gender equality. The bill at issue not only empowers these courts to hear cases determinable by codified traditional
law but also restricts its influence in areas to which women are particularly susceptible to gender bias: marriage, divorce, inheritance,
and succession. The project methodology has been quite comprehensive. In order to be able to provide reasoned opinions on the bill, clinical
students spent the majority of the semester researching broad questions on the theory, practice, and problems associated with
legal pluralism.
In addition to looking at South Africa, students also examined this debate from a theoretical and comparative perspective. They researched the
following African countries with varying colonial and political backgrounds viz. Senegal, Tanzania, Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, and Botswana.
In order to gain a broad understanding of the effect of legal pluralism on women, students looked at issues that generally have the greatest impact
on women’s rights: land, marriage, divorce, inheritance, and succession. Additionally, students looked broadly at the role of traditional leaders
and customary courts. The desktop research attempted to address both the formal legal framework as well as its efficacy in practice. The
product of this research was a lengthy report, used to inform questions for a January 2006 fact-finding mission.
South Africa Apartheid Litigation
During the fall 2005 semester, the International Human Rights Clinic, working with human rights lawyer Paul Hoffman, researched and briefed issues
for plaintiff-appellants reply brief in the South African Apartheid litigation, currently on appeal with the 2nd Circuit. The case alleged
that defendant corporations were complicit in apartheid, and that in so doing they violated established norms of customary international
law, which are actionable under the ATS. [See In re South African Apartheid Litigation, 346 F. Supp. 2d 538 (S.D.N.Y. 2004).] The appeal
raised critical questions about aiding and abetting theories of liability, which are central to corporate accountability claims under
the ATS. Students also assisted with preparation for the oral arguments, held in January 2006 in New York.
African Commission on Human Rights and UNHCR – Angola (2004-2005)
The Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy (AJPD), a leading human rights organization in Angola, was founded in 2000 and has
complied with all legal requirements to register as a non-profit organization. Despite this, and despite domestic litigation to force
authorities to recognize the organization’s status, to date, the authorities have failed to allow the NGO to register without offering
any justification. In November 2000, a group of Angolan citizens sought to stage a public protest in solidarity with Angolan journalists
in Luanda. The provincial government of Luanda prohibited the demonstration, without adequate legal basis. The protest organizers filed
an action with the first instance court with jurisdiction which, according to Angolan law, should have decided on the merits within 48 hours.
Eventually, this court ruled against the petitioners who appealed to the Supreme Court.
These matters might provide a basis for actions before the African Commission on Human Rights
and U.N. High Commissioner on Human
Rights. The International Human Rights Clinic and
Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights are worked with
AJPD to research the requirements and procedural hurdles for bringing claims to these
and other bodies.
Background research on African Union Mechanisms (2004-2005)
The African Union (AU) has created new mechanisms to deal with conflict
resolution and good governance, including the
Peace and Security Council and the African Court of Justice. While weak and nascent, the AU is showing increasing promise as a force for
progress on these issues. Human Rights Watch (HRW) requested
Harvard Law Student Advocates
for Human Rights conduct background research on these AU
mechanisms’ human rights protections, mandates, and procedures. Advocates worked with HRW to extend that research into a more formal
and detailed handbook for NGOs interested in using the new AU mechanisms to promote human rights in their countries of interest.
Attacks Against Rwandan Human
Rights Defenders
In June 2004, a Rwandan parliamentary commission made unfounded accusations of genocide against several civil society NGOs involved in
promoting human rights in the judicial and rural sectors. The government’s main targets are LIPRODHOR,
Rwanda’s only truly independent
human rights NGO, and FOR, a forum of farmers’ organizations in northwest Rwanda. The attack on these human rights defenders is the
culmination of a long-term strategy to suppress independent civil society in general, and human rights monitoring in particular.
In October 2004, the International Human Rights Clinic and
Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights conducted investigative trips
to Rwanda, Uganda, and Brussels in coordination with
Front Line, the International Association to Protect Human Rights Defenders.
Working with supervisor Lars Waldorf, students interviewed Rwandan government officials,
journalists, Rwandan human rights defenders--both in Rwanda and in exile in Uganda--NGO representatives, and a cross-section of
international observers. The report, which was published
by Front Line in early 2005, documents attacks against Rwandan human rights defenders, journalists, rural organizations, and the
status of international donors and agencies ten years after the genocide.
Rwanda: Research
Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights researched and
drafted papers submitted to the Rwanda/Burundi researcher for Amnesty International. The first paper
considered legal flaws in the recently adopted 2003 Rwandan Constitution (Constitution), the 2002 Law Instituting Punishment for
Offences of Discrimination and Sectarianism (Sectarianism Law), the 2002 Law Governing the Press (Press Law), and the 2003 Law
Governing Political Organizations and Politicians (Political Parties Law) which all contain sanctions on the ill-defined crimes of
“divisionism” and “sectarianism.”
Burundi
Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rightsworked with
Amnesty International to analyze ways in which the Arusha Agreement, the 1986 Land Code, the Code of
Persons and the Family (as reformed in 1993), and customary inheritance laws affect the rights and abilities of refugees and
internally displaced persons (IDPs) to reclaim land and settle conflicts upon return to their property in Burundi.
The Sexual Violence Project:
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) (2003-2004)
Students on this project prepared a memorandum for Human Rights Watch, analyzing ICTR jurisprudence in
relation to sexual violence as well as an expert report analyzing the ICTR’s rape database for Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law Binaifer
Nowrojee’s testimony before the ICTR. The memo specifically critiqued the ICTR’s recent (and inflammatory) Semanza Judgment
in relation to its Akayesu Judgment and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) jurisprudence. The memo
addressed the latest thinking on sexual jurisprudence (sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, forced marriages, etc.) and was
circulated among trial attorneys at the ICTR.
Freedom of Speech and Assembly in Angola
In this project, students worked with the Angola researcher for Human Rights Watch,
to analyze international standards on freedom of speech and assembly for a Special
Report on Angola.
Angola, a former Portuguese colony, is recovering from 40 years of civil war. A ceasefire agreement signed on April 4, 2002, between the
Angolan Armed Forces and the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola,
or UNITA) ended an armed conflict dating back to the 1960s. The last years of the civil war were marked by severe restrictions on the
freedoms of expression, association, and assembly in Angola. Journalists were frequently detained without trial, and only pro-government
groups were permitted to demonstrate. The end of the conflict has encouraged Angolans to start exercising again their right to debate the
future of their country. The HRW Report found that the free speech gains made since the end
of the war are largely contained to the capital, and calls for Angola to spread its commitment to reform to the interior of the country.