Africa
In re South African Apartheid Litigation
Since 2005, the Clinic has worked with a team of South African and U.S. attorneys to litigate an Alien Tort Statute case known as in Re South African Apartheid Litigation. The case, in which the Clinic has served as co-counsel since 2008, seeks to hold major corporations accountable for aiding and abetting human rights violations committed by the apartheid government, including torture, extrajudicial killing, and denaturalization. In April 2009, the district court largely denied defendants’ motion to dismiss, and the case is currently on appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. The Clinic has taken multiple trips to South Africa to work on the case, most recently in August 2010. (For more on this case,click here.)
Gold Mining in South Africa
Gold mines have seriously contaminated the water, soil, and air of impoverished communities near Johannesburg, South Africa with uranium and other toxins to which residents are exposed daily. Building on its past experience with extractive industries, the Clinic will investigate and analyze the effects of mining on the communities of the West Rand through a human rights lens.
Kiobel, et al. v. Royal Dutch/Shell
In September 2010, a divided panel of the Second Circuit held that corporations cannot be subject to suit in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) for violations of international law. In June 2011, the Clinic served as counsel for an amicus curiae brief on behalf of legal historians filed in support of a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court. The brief argues that interpreting the ATS to not allow cases against corporations would run counter to the text, history, and original purpose of the statute.
Sexual and Reproductive Rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo
As part of a broad project on access to justice, the Clinic is partnering with the International Center for Transitional Justice—Kinshasa and local human rights NGOs to investigate human rights violations relating to sexual and reproductive health in Eastern DRC. Specifically (and among other issues) we will examine the denial of abortion services as both a cause and consequence of discrimination and stigma against women. Eastern DRC is a region where sexual violence has reached epidemic proportions, and ending impunity for these violations, and fostering gender justice, requires more than court centric remedies. This project will focus on the health as well as the justice sector, and involve an in-country investigation of all key actors and institutions.
Documenting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Violations of HIV-positive Women in Namibia
Working with the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) and the Namibian Women's Health Network (NWHN), the Clinic is documenting violations of sexual and reproductive health rights in Namibia. In April 2010, a clinical team traveled to Namibia to conduct on-site research for a report to be released Fall 2011. The project will continue to document violations of the rights of HIV-positive women, and contribute to ongoing efforts to litigate sexual and reproductive rights in Namibia.