Soldier Testimony
The Web site www.soldiertestimony.org was created in 2004 as part of a
Ford Foundation supported project to explore links between
testimony by state agents and human rights. Its database will include first-hand testimonies, newspaper articles, court transcripts,
bibliographic references, and other materials highlighting the unique role that “perpetrator-side” testimony can play in the process of
national reckoning and reconciliation during a period of political transition. The clinic is researching case law and commentary about
the legal regimes in various countries that govern persons in uniform who might wish to speak publicly about human rights incidents.
Students are looking at questions such as to the balance of free speech and human rights on one hand, and a society’s interest in controlling
security-related information, among other questions.
Chemical Trespass
With legal and NGO allies, the Environmental Health Fund and the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN) are developing a long-term strategy to promote environmental protection and human rights principles surrounding body burdens and toxic chemicals. A body burden is the amount of a harmful substance that is present in a person’s body. Usually expressed in mass units, the substance may be radioactive or chemically toxic. Humans are exposed to these toxic substances through food, air, and water, sometimes for a short period of time (such as with a chemical substance like arsenic, which is typically excreted by the body within 72 hours of exposure), or for a persistent period of time (DDT, for instance, which can remain in the body for upwards of 50 years). With more than 80,000 toxic chemicals in commerce today, few have been tested for neurotoxicity, mutagenicity, or reproductive toxicity. The students working on this project have been researching international and U.S. law on body burdens.
Environmental Guardianship for Future Generations
Several years ago, the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN) began to partner with the
Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) to
articulate a link between the Precautionary Principle and the concept of
Guardianship for Future Generations. The Precautionary Principle
states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public at large, in the absence of a scientific consensus
that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action. Many indigenous groups assert that the
Precautionary Principle is essentially the Seventh Generation Principle, a concept articulated by an Iroquois chief more than 700 years ago,
that all decisions should be made with the seventh future generation in mind.
Students working on this project are looking at the legal question of how guardianship for future generations can be translated into hard
law for sovereign tribes. Working with SEHN, students are assisting in drafting constitutional provisions, model ordinances and resolutions
that can be used by tribal and first nation governments to serve as a basis for tribal law, as well as a model for international law and U.S.
state, county, and municipal law.
Developing a Framework for Evaluating the Efficacy of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs)
In 1991, the Center for Human Rights convened an international workshop to review and update information on existing human rights institutions.
The workshop participants drafted a comprehensive series of recommendations on the role, composition, status and functions of national human rights
institutions, known as the Paris Principles. In 1992, the
UN Commission on Human Rights endorsed the Paris Principles, and the Principles are now
the starting point for discussions with governments on NHRIs.
In 2006-2007, the clinic will initiate a research project to develop a new framework for evaluating NHRIs. This research will move beyond a basic
understanding of the Paris Principles, and toward a focus on NHRIs efficacy based on a series of factors, including, but not limited to: the degree
of independence of decision-makers (based on selection process, control over budget, etc.); the jurisdiction of NHRIs, including scope of mandate and
substantive powers; and technical capacity. The end result will be a policy paper offering a thorough set of guidelines and standards for
evaluating the efficacy and relevance of NHRIs.
Corporate Accountability and Forced Migration
Students with the International Human Rights Clinic are working with Betsy Apple, Deputy Director of the
Women’s Environment & Development Organization,
to prepare a submission on the intersection of corporate accountability and forced migrations. Students are focusing on the responsibilities of multinational
corporations that, in the course of their activities such as natural resource extraction, cause local residents to flee. Students are researching direct
liability cases in the UK and Australia, decisions handed down by regional human rights bodies in Africa and Europe, and ATCA cases in the U.S., to argue
that there is an emerging trend suggesting corporations ought to be held liable in their host countries, for the activities of their subsidiaries abroad.