2012-2013 Clinical Staff
Full-time Clinical Supervisors
Clinical Director and Clinical Professor of Law:
Tyler Giannini
Tyler Giannini is a Director of the Human Rights Program, a Co-Director of the International Human Rights Clinic, and a Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is an expert on human rights and the environment, business and human rights, and Alien Tort Statute (ATS) litigation with particular experience with Southeast Asia and South Africa. He served as co-counsel in the landmark Doe v. Unocal case, a precedent-setting Alien Tort Statute (ATS) suit about the Yadana gas pipeline in Burma, which successfully settled in 2005. He is currently co-counsel in In re South African Apartheid Litigation, a major ATS case that seeks to hold multinationals liable for their support of human rights violations committed by the apartheid state. He is also co-counsel in Mamani v. Sánchez de Lozada, which brings claims against the former Bolivian president and defense minister related to a 2003 civilian massacre. Giannini has authored numerous amicus curiae briefs including,to the United States Supreme Court in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., Samantar v. Yousuf and Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman. Prior to coming to Harvard, he was a founder and director of EarthRights International (ERI), an organization at the forefront of efforts to link human rights and environmental protection. Giannini spent a decade in Thailand with ERI conducting fact-finding investigations and groundbreaking corporate accountability litigation.
Giannini has authored numerous publications and reports including Corporate Accountability in Conflict Zones: How Kiobel Undermines the Nuremberg Legacy and Modern Human Rights, 52 Harv. Int'l L.J. Online 119 (2010) (with Susan Farbstein); Prosecuting Apartheid-Era Crimes? A South African Dialogue on Justice(Human Rights Program, Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2009) (with Susan Farbstein, et al.);Confronting a Rising Tide: A Proposal for a Convention on Climate Change Refugees, 33 Harv. Env. L. Rev. 349 (2009) (with Bonnie Docherty); Crimes in Burma (2009) (with Julianne Stevenson, et al.);Down River: The Consequences of Vietnam’s Se San River Dams on Life in Cambodia and Their Meaning in International Law (2005) (with Eric Rutkow and Cori Crider); and Earth Rights: Linking the Quests for Human Rights and Environmental Protection (1999) (with Jed Greer). Giannini holds graduate degrees in law and foreign policy from the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the law review. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar and speaks Thai.
Clinical Director and Assistant Clinical Professor:
Susan Farbstein
Susan Farbstein is a Clinical Director of the Human Rights Program and an Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Law School. Her work focuses on Alien Tort Statute litigation and on transitional justice issues. She is co-counsel in In re South African Apartheid Litigation, a suit against major multinational corporations for aiding and abetting human rights violations committed by the apartheid state. She is also co-counsel in Mamani v. Sanchez de Lozada, which brings claims against the former Bolivian president and defense minister related to a 2003 civilian massacre. She participated in litigating Wiwa v. Shell, which charged Shell with complicity in the torture and killing of non-violent Nigerian activists in the mid-1990s and successfully settled in 2009. For her work as a member of the Wiwa legal team, Farbstein was honored as finalist for the 2010 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. She has authored numerous amicus curiae briefs, including to the Supreme Court in Samantar v. Yousuf (on behalf of human rights organizations), Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman (on behalf of international law scholars), and Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (on behalf of professors of legal history). At the Clinic, she has worked on transitional justice issues in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Burma, and Thailand. Her recent publications include Corporate Accountability in Conflict Zones: How Kiobel Undermines the Nuremberg Legacy and Modern Human Rights, 52 Harv. Int’l L.J. Online 119 (2010) (with Tyler Giannini); Prosecuting Apartheid-Era Crimes? A South African Dialogue on Justice (Harvard University Press, 2009) (with Tyler Giannini, et al.); and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in Zimbabwe: Options for Constitutional Protection (Harvard Law School, International Human Rights Clinic, 2009).
Before joining the Human Rights Program, Farbstein worked at the Cape Town office of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Prior to that, she clerked for the Honorable Morris E. Lasker of the Southern District of New York. She was an intern with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and has provided research assistance to the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Human Rights First. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.Phil. in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, and an A.B. from Princeton University.
Senior Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law:Bonnie Docherty
Bonnie Docherty is a Senior Clinical Instructor at the Human Rights Program and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. She is also a Senior Researcher in the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch. She is an expert on disarmament and international humanitarian law, particularly involving cluster munitions and civilian protection during armed conflict. Since 2001, she has played an active role, as both lawyer and field researcher, in the campaign against cluster munitions. Docherty participated in negotiations for the Convention on Cluster Munitions and has promoted strong implementation of the convention since its adoption in 2008. Her in-depth field investigations of cluster munition use in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Georgia helped galvanize international opposition to the weapons. Docherty has documented the civilian effects of armed conflict more broadly in Gaza, Israel, and Iraq and done research and advocacy surrounding incendiary weapons. She also has expertise in human rights and the environment, particularly the effects of mining on disadvantaged communities, and in freedom of expression.
Docherty has written widely on these topics. Her publications on international humanitarian law include:Meeting the Challenge: Protecting Civilians through the Convention on Cluster Munitions (Human Rights Watch, 2010);The Convention on Cluster Munitions: A Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2010) (contributing author); and Breaking New Ground: The Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Evolution of International Humanitarian Law, 33 Human Rights Quarterly 934 (2009). Her publications on human rights and the environment include:Bearing the Burden: The Effects of Mining on First Nations in British Columbia (IHRC, 2010) (co-author);Confronting a Rising Tide: A Proposal for a Convention on Climate Change Refugees, 33 Harvard Environmental Law Review 349 (2009) (with Tyler Giannini); and Challenging Boundaries: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and International Environmental Law Protection, 10 NYU Environmental Law Journal 70 (2001). Docherty received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Environmental Law Review, an executive editor for the Harvard Human Rights Journal, and an article editor for the Harvard International Law Journal.
Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law:
Fernando Ribeiro Delgado
He previously worked as a Global Human Rights Fellow on Justiça Global’s national prison reform project in partnership with Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program. Prior to that, he was an Alan R. and Barbara D. Finberg Fellow at Human Rights Watch, where he researched and wrote Lethal Force: Police Violence and Public Security in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (2009). Delgado also worked as a Henry Richardson Labouisse ’26 fellow at Human Rights Watch in 2004-2005, when he co-researched and co-authored two reports: In the Dark: Hidden Abuses against Detained Youths in Rio de Janeiro (2005) and “Real Dungeons:” Juvenile Detention in the State of Rio de Janeiro (2004). Fernando holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an A.B. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law:
Deborah Popowski
Deborah Popowski is a Clinical Instructor at the Human Rights Program and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. A former Skirball Fellow, Deborah supervises clinical students working on accountability for U.S. health professionals involved in torture and other human rights violations. Deborah is co-counsel in a professional misconduct complaint filed with the Ohio Psychology Board against retired U.S. Army Colonel Larry James, a former senior intelligence psychologist at Guantánamo and now Dean of Wright State University’s School of Professional Psychology.
Before joining Harvard’s International Human Rights Clinic, Deborah was at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where she supported legislation to reform state health professional codes; consulted on the filing of complaints before state licensing boards; created a public education website; and provided support for Guantánamo habeas counsel advocating on behalf of clients who suffered medical and other health-related abuse. She has also held internships with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the UN Committee against Torture, and Justiça Global, a Brazilian non-governmental organization that litigates before the Inter-American system of human rights. Deborah holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was co-president of the Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights, and a B.A. in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia.
Clinical Advocacy Fellow:
Meera Shah
Meera Shah is a Clinical Advocacy Fellow at the Human Rights Program. Her work examines the intersection of international human rights and humanitarian law, with a focus on displacement, national security policies, and issues of prolonged military occupation. She has a regional focus on the Middle East, where she spent several years working and studying.
Before joining HRP, Meera was a law clerk to the Honorable Andre M. Davis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Baltimore, Maryland. She has held internships with the Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights First. Meera received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she served as an articles editor for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review and was awarded the Lowenstein Fellowship for graduates pursuing public interest law. Meera also holds an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University.
Part-time Clinical Supervisors
Academic Director:
Mindy Jane Roseman
Mindy Jane Roseman is the Academic Director of the Human Rights Program and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. Before joining HRP, Roseman was an Instructor in the Department of Population and International Health at Harvard School of Public Health, and a Senior Research Officer at the International Health and Human Rights Program, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health. Roseman researched and reported on a range of health and human rights issues, with special focus on reproductive and sexual rights, including HIV and AIDS, and women’s and children’s rights. Before coming to Harvard she had been a staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York, in charge of its East and Central European program. After graduating from Northwestern University Law School in 1986, she clerked for Judge John F. Grady, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District, IL. She also holds a doctorate in Modern European History, with a focus on the history of reproductive health, from Columbia University.
Her publications include Reproductive Health and Human Rights: The Way Forward (Laura Reichenbach, co-editor),Interrogations, Forced Feedings and the Role of Health Professionals (co-edited with Ryan Goodman, Harvard University Press 2009), Women of the World (East Central Europe): Laws and Policies Affecting Their Reproductive Lives (CRLP, 2000), and Beyond Words: Images from America’s Concentration Camps (co-authored with Deborah Gesensway) (Cornell University Press 1987). Her current research projects include an assessment of international legal norms and their relationship to sexual health, and the effect litigation has had on the implementation of the right to health. She is also interested in the manifestation of gender bias in social science research and its translation into government policies and programs.