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Global Human Rights Clinic - Significant Achievements for 2022-23

The Global Human Rights Clinic (GHRC) works alongside partners and communities to advance justice and address the inequalities and structural disparities that lead to human rights violations worldwide. The Clinic uses diverse tactics and interdisciplinary methods to tackle pressing and under-addressed human rights issues. The Clinic is constantly advancing the dual aims of advancing important change around the world, and teaching students to become effective, ethical, creative lawyers. As part of this we seek to innovate and think not just about what the human rights field is, but what it could be and what it should be.

Over this past year, students worked in teams to advance justice and human rights on complex issues around the world. In particular, the GHRC worked on issues relating to justice in the context of conflict; protection of religious minorities and women’s rights; investigation and prevention of extrajudicial executions; addressing the legacies of historical atrocities; the right to health within Indigenous communities; and the rights of missing migrants. Select work from each of these strands of work is described below.

Justice in Conflict: Supporting War Crimes Investigations in The Gambia and Central African Republic

The GHRC partners with civil society organizations and multidisciplinary scientific experts to investigate war crimes and mass atrocities, and advance justice in the context of conflict. Over this past year, the GHRC supported effective investigations in The Gambia and the Central African Republic.

In The Gambia, a military regime run by autocrat Yahya Jammeh committed scores of human rights abuses between 1994 and 2016, including arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. Following the overturning of the Jammeh regime, a truth commission was created to understand what happened during the dictatorship, and a special prosecution office is being set up. Families of those killed and disappeared are searching for answers as to the fate of their loved ones.

In partnership with the African Network Against Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances (ANEKED) Gambia chapter, the Gambian Ministry of Justice, and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, GHRC students supported efforts to advance justice and the search for missing persons in The Gambia. In particular, the GHRC:

  • On October 20, 2022, conducted a one-day virtual training on the use of forensic sciences in the search for the missing for government stakeholders, civil society, and victims’ families. GHRC students presented on the international law regarding the right to life and duty to investigate suspicious deaths.
  • In June 2023, participated in a four-day assessment in Banjul, the capital city of The Gambia, meeting with families of those killed during the Jammeh regime, state prosecutors, lawyers, doctors, the Gambia Police Force, local forensic experts, and the University of The Gambia professors and lecturers. In particular, the GHRC team assessed the feasibility of investigating a 1994 massacre at a military barracks, in which 11 persons are alleged to have been killed. This assessment will provide the foundation for future forensic sciences and human rights investigations.

In the Central African Republic, the GHRC supported complex investigations into alleged mass atrocities, at the request of judicial authorities. Students worked alongside lawyers and scientific experts to conduct detailed fact-finding, prepare legal memos on evidence collection and preservation, and support the creation of investigation files of human rights abuses.

Protection of Religious Minorities and Women’s Rights in the Central African Republic

In the Central African Republic (CAR), protracted violence and conflict has had devastating impacts on the civilian population. Civilians have borne the brunt of grave human rights violations, and the country remains one of the poorest in the world. Civil society is significantly under-funded and under-resourced, frequently shut out of international human rights forums and subject to attacks and threats domestically.

The GHRC, alongside the Columbia Law School Smith Family Human Rights Clinic, partners with CAR civil society to document human rights violations against religious minorities and against women, and advocate for justice. We work with two organizations—the Collectif des Organisations Musulmanes de Centrafrique (COMUC), an umbrella network of Muslim civil society, and the Association des Femmes Juriste de Centrafrique (AFJC), a women’s lawyers’ organization, and one of the largest providers of legal aid in the country. Across the academic year, students worked closely with these two organizations, and traveled to Bangui, the capital city of CAR, in June 2023. Ongoing project work include:

  • Working with COMUC to draft a major human rights report on the right to freedom of religion and belief, and non-discrimination of religious minorities in CAR. This report documents violations of the right to life, arbitrary detention, freedom of movement, legal recognition, health, and education. The report will publish and launch in the Fall of 2023.
  • Supporting COMUC and AFJC to submit ‘shadow’ reports ahead of CAR’s universal periodic review, a unique process of the United Nations Human Rights Council, whereby States’ human rights records are reviewed every five years. These reports are vital to informing the international community of CAR’s human rights record. Traditionally for CAR’s reviews, only international NGOs participated in this process, and the clinic’s support to national civil society ensures that they have access to this important international advocacy forum.

Extrajudicial Executions: Preventing and Investigating Unlawful Deaths Globally

The GHRC provided strategic support to Morris Tidball-Binz, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, and a leading independent human rights expert appointed by the United Nations to advise on the issue of unlawful killings from a thematic perspective. The Special Rapporteur process (also known as “special procedures”) are a key pillar through which human rights is advanced at the UN. As part of their mandate, Special Rapporteurs undertake country visits, conduct annual thematic studies, and act on individual cases of reported violations by sending communications to States and international authorities.

In particular, the GHRC supported the Special Rapporteur with:

  • Preparation for his country visit to Argentina and to Honduras. GHRC students conducted detailed research, fact-finding, and analysis of concerns relating to unlawful killings in both countries, producing background research about the human rights situation in each country. The research covered legislative and policy structures, key crosscutting concerns, emblematic cases, and positive developments. During the Special Rapporteur’s actual time in-country, GHRC students provided remote, ongoing support as required.
  • Support in the research and drafting of his thematic report on femicide, or the killing on the basis of gender. GHRC students conducted fact-finding, expert interviews, and legal analysis to inform the Special Rapporteur’s thematic report on femicide, which will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in the Fall of 2023. This report will provide a groundbreaking and authoritative overview of the challenges in effective investigation of femicide, contributing to the normative advancement of international law in this area.

The UN Special Rapporteur acknowledged the contributions of the GHRC in his annual remarks to the UN Human Rights Council on June 26, 2023 (video, remarks referencing the GHRC at 1:31:40).

Additionally, the GHRC partnered with five human rights organizations in Jamaica and the Caribbean, as well as the Stanford Law School International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Transnational Law Clinic to support justice efforts relating to the murder of a transgender(?) teenager in Jamaica. The GHRC supported partners to:

  • Submit an amicus brief in the case of Dwayne Jones v. Jamaica, being heard before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Jones, a 16-year-old trans teenager, had been brutally murdered by a mob in 2013 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Our amicus brief addressed the discrimination that Jones faced due to their gender identity, and Jamaica’s failure to protect and uphold sexual orientation and gender identity rights, particularly transgender rights.

Reimagining Healthcare: Advancing the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Globally

The right to health offers an emancipatory framework for advancing the “right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”1 At the same time, the right to health is situated in a global health architecture that reinforces epistemic coloniality. Indigenous groups suffer significantly worse health outcomes, often as a result of the long-term and intergenerational impacts of settler colonialism and genocide. Additionally, within international law, the actual right to health is often understood according Western norms, at the expense of Indigenous knowledge systems as ways of interpreting health.

In partnership with Human Rights Watch and Indigenous groups in South Africa, the Navajo Nation, and Guam, GHRC students are working to tackle systemic harms within global health, and reinterpret the international human right to health in accordance with Indigenous knowledge systems. We seek to conduct this work in a participatory, impacted community-led manner, in which the expertise and agency of Indigenous communities is centered.

In South Africa, GHRC students are working alongside Indigenous Khoikhoi and San royal households. Indigenous Khoikhoi and San have been brutally discriminated against by the colonial and apartheid governments for hundreds of years in South Africa. In November 2020, a number of royal Khoi and San households reclaimed State land to which they allege rightful ancestral ownership in an area called Knoflokskraal, in the Western Cape. Within months, 4,000 persons settled into the area. The State began eviction proceedings, which the Indigenous communities successfully blocked. However, the residents of Knoflokskraal have no running water, electricity, or other essential services. The GHRC is working with Khoikhoi and San groups to advocate for their rights. In particular, GHRC students:

  • Visited Cape Town and Knoflokskraal in March 2023 to interview residents, meet with civil society, and document human rights violations.
  • Supported the Indigenous groups living in Knoflokskraal to prepare and submit an allegation letter to United Nations Special Rapporteurs documenting the ongoing human rights violations at Knoflokskraal.
  • Prepared a letter to government authorities documenting and expressing concern about destruction to property and health issues stemming from recent rains in the area.

In the continental US, the impact of Covid-19 was disproportionately felt by the Indigenous population. Life expectancy for Indigenous Americans went down by over six years during Covid-19, and the pandemic laid bare long-term inadequacies in healthcare. In particular, large numbers of Navajo elders died in nursing homes just outside of the Navajo Nation, which families attributed to neglect. Therefore, in partnership with Human Rights Watch and the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, the GHRC is supporting a multi-year investigation into nursing homes that serve the Navajo Nation. This year, the GHRC:

  • Researched and documented issues within the nursing homes in question, preparing a comprehensive legal and factual background memo.
  • Researched and developed a protocol for decolonial and participatory fact-finding, to ensure equality and Indigenous-led and owned research.
  • Prepared for and participated in meetings at the Navajo Nation in February 2023, to define the problem, hear from Navajo elders, and develop a joint multi-year strategy.

In Guam, military expansion and settler colonialism has had significant impacts on the right to health of Indigenous CHamoru residents. The military controls approximately one-third of the island, and has recently activated a new base. In partnership with Blue Ocean Law, a CHamoru led-law firm, and Human Rights Watch, the GHRC is documenting violations of the right to health in Guam. The GHRC will publish a human rights report on this issue in the upcoming year.

Historical Injustices: Advancing Truth, Reparations, and Reckoning with Colonial Crimes in Kenya

Over 90,000 people are believed to have been killed, maimed, or tortured by the British during the end of colonialism in Kenya.2 Until 2013, there was no accountability for these crimes, and even when a landmark reparations was agreed upon – it only provided compensation for a small number of individuals affected by the crimes of the British.3 Globally, there remains impunity for similar serious historical harms, which often then form the foundation for the continued and contemporary entrenchment of structures of authoritarianism.

In partnership with the Dedan Kimathi Foundation (created by the family of former anti-colonial leader Dedan Kimathi who was sentenced to death and hung by the British in 1957), the GHRC is supporting efforts to obtain redress for historical injustices in Kenya. On this project, students:

  • Traveled to Kenya in December 2022 to meet with and interview the families of the Mau Mau, and exchange information with civil society, and other key stakeholders.
  • Are currently preparing case files of victims of the Mau Mau, to be used in justice efforts, drawing on archival research and fact-finding. Additionally, students are conducting a mapping of justice efforts, and opportunities for obtaining truth and justice in the United Kingdom and in Kenya.

Missing Migrants: Advancing the Rights of African and Afro-Descendent Families along Forgotten Migrant Corridors

Thousands of Africans go missing each year attempting to cross international borders in search of safety and better opportunities. Despite the broad recognition among states of the importance and need to address the situation of missing migrants, there is a lack of formal coordination and procedures among all relevant stakeholders relating to missing migrants, and in some instances, even within a country’s government, there is a lack of information sharing.

In partnership with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, the GHRC is supporting efforts to identify missing migrants traveling from Africa to Europe, and the US. GHRC students have:

  • Researched key migrant routes from Africa, identifying hotspots and target locations to develop forensic/human rights programs.
  • Commenced analysis of existing legal frameworks for the exchange of information relating to missing migrants, and identified gaps in the law.
  • Designed a pilot program for a forensic and legal partnership to address the issues of missing migrants in Africa.

In the upcoming year, future GHRC students will build upon this work—collaborating with civil society in countries of origin to tackle this complex, transnational issue.

[1] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (entry into force Jan. 3, 1976); art. 12.

[2] Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya (2005); David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: Britain’s Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (2005).

[3] UK to compensate Kenya's Mau Mau torture victims, The Guardian (June 6, 2013), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/uk-compensate-kenya-mau-m….