In August, CHRGJ said farewell and best wishes to two long-time staff members Faculty Director Smita Narula and Executive Director Veerle Opgenhaffen. CHRGJ also welcomed Stacy Cammarano to a new position as the Managing Director, and Audrey Watne as CHRGJ’s Assistant Manager.

On September 1, CHRGJ welcomed Pablo de Greiff, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-recurrence, as a Senior Fellow.

On October 1, 2014, CHRGJ welcomed Nikki Reisch as the new Legal Director.

This Fall, Prof. Ryan Goodman provided congressional briefings on accountability for war crimes in Sri Lanka and on an authorization to use military force against the Islamic State; he was also interviewed and quoted on a wide range of national security issues for Bloomberg News, Buzzfeed, CBS News, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, and Politico.

In his first months as UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, CHRGJ Faculty Director and Co-Chair Professor Philip Alston advocated for measures that guarantee basic social protections for all and confronted the World Bank over its reluctance to engage with human rights in a meaningful way in its development work.

Through his mandate, Prof. Alston has stressed the importance of relying on a human rights based approach when confronting extreme poverty. In his first report to the General Assembly, Alston called on Governments to embrace the United Nations Social Protection Floor Initiative—to guarantee basic income security and essential social services for all. Alston denounced the World Bank’s limited concept of “social safety nets” and the absence of any meaningful reference to human rights in proposals of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals as obstacles to meaningfully addressing extreme poverty.

Prof. Alston has also cited the human rights framework when critiquing the World Bank’s draft Safeguards policies in a letter to World Bank President Jim Kim, sent as joint communication on behalf of 28 UN Special Procedures. On October 15, Alston presented the keynote speech at the Nordic Trust Fund’s annual workshop criticizing the World Bank’s unwillingness to meaningfully discuss human rights. On November 7, Alston reiterated these criticisms in a Washington Post op-ed: “The two words that scare the World Bank.”

Other News:

• Prof. Alston issues statement on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
• Prof. Alston issues joint statement with Special Rapporteurs Leilani Farha (housing) Catarina de Albuquerque (water and sanitation) on Detroit water shut-offs.

Just Security, an online forum for the rigorous analysis of U.S. national security law and policy, celebrated its one-year anniversary on September 23, 2014. In its first year, the blog quickly became a go-to resource for news outlets, policymakers, and other national security professionals. Notably, the New York Times Editorial Board relied on Just Security in a piece on the proposed USA Freedom Act—a bill aimed at curtailing NSA and other government agencies’ bulk collection of telephone records. Other prominent citations include articles in Agence France-Presse, The Guardian, The Hill, and The Washington Post, among others. 

CIA Rendition, Secret Detention, and Torture

In December, Global Justice Clinic client Mohammed Bashmilah was acknowledged in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence study on CIA detention and interrogation as having been wrongfully detained in CIA “black sites” between 2003-2005.  Also in December, the Global Justice Clinic filed a request for review of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ refusal to hear the case of another client, Mohammad al-Asad, who was wrongfully detained by Djibouti at the behest of the United States in 2004 before being disappeared into the extraordinary rendition program. This summer, the Commission dismissed al-Asad’s case at the admissibility stage on grounds that, despite the evidence introduced in the case, Mr. al-Asad had not conclusively shown that he was held in Djibouti. The Clinic, directed by CHRGJ Faculty Director and Co-Chair Professor Margaret Satterthwaite, has represented Mr. Bashmilah and Mr. al-Asad, both Yemeni nationals, for many years in their quest for justice.

The Global Justice Clinic continues to work with its Haitian colleagues to prevent human rights violations by accompanying mining-affected communities as they demand a seat at the table in decisions concerning the evolving sector.In November, Prof. Satterthwaite, Global Justice Clinic students Etienne Chenier-Lafleche, Rebecca Riddell, and Nina Sheth, and CHRGJ Legal Director Nikki Reisch visited Haiti to work with local groups in responding to prospective gold mining activities in the country. The Clinic supported the Haiti Mining Justice Collective, a platform of five Haitian social justice organizations, as they engaged with policymakers in Port-au-Prince and visited proposed gold mining sites in Northwest Haiti. The clinic is developing a toolkit for local communities to monitor the impacts of mining, and mining exploration, on the resources they value most. This trip follows a July 2014 trip to Haiti in which Prof. Satterthwaite issued a statement condemning the exclusion of mining communities as Haiti’s mining sector develops, which was covered in Le Nouvelliste [French].

On November 15, the Mining Justice Collective, with support from the Global Justice Clinic and Accountability Counsel delivered a letter  to the World Bank expressing concern over the World Bank’s assistance with the mining sector’s development in Haiti. Among several other issues, the Collective expressed concern that the World Bank was providing technical and financial support for the mining sector—including assisting the government in drafting a new mining law—without informing and consulting with affected communities and without providing necessary environmental and social safeguards.

Jean-Pictet Competition on International Humanitarian Law

NYU’s Team has been selected to participate in the 2015 Jean-Pictet Competition. Team members are Patti Shnell, Peter Speelman, and John Washington, all in the Class of 2016. The Competition, hosted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, is a unique opportunity to gain in-depth and hands-on knowledge of international humanitarian law (IHL).  It constitutes a week-long training on IHL, which uses practical simulations and role plays, whereby the Competition jury evaluates teams’ teams performance based on their knowledge and understanding of IHL. CHRGJ coordinates the selection of the NYU Team and Hauser Global Law School provides financial support. The organizers of the Competition accepted the NYU Team on November 30 after reviewing its application addressing substantive IHL issues. The 2015 Competition will be held on March 28 to April 4, 2015 in Charlottesville, Virginia. We are grateful that CHRGJ alumnus Yfat Barak-Cheney (LLM 2014) will be helping to prepare the Team for the Competition. Congratulations and good luck to the NYU Team.

Religious Actors and International Law

This Fall, CHRGJ Scholar in Residence Dr. Ioana Cismas published Religious Actors and International Law with Oxford University Press. The book examines whether religious actors constitute a new category of actors within international law. Dr. Cismas writes that religious actors uphold and promote– or transform–potentially oppressive structures or discriminatory patterns through their interpretations of their respective religion(s). The book “moves beyond the concern that religious texts and practices may be incompatible with international law, to provide an innovative analysis of how religious actors themselves are accountable under international law for the interpretations they choose to put forward.” Dr. Cismas launched her book in the U.S. with the event, “From Conflict to Accountability: Religious Actors and International Law,” a lecture with Prof. Mark Weston Janis, William F. Starr Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut, School of Law. 

CHRGJ Scholars:

This fall, CHRGJ hosted alumnae Ellie Happel and Stephanie Barbour to present at two lunchtime seminars—each an exciting opportunity for students and the greater community to connect with CHRGJ alumni and learn about their work.

Stay Connected with CHRGJ!

CHRGJ plans to continue to foster bonds between its staff, students, and alumni. We encourage alumni to share their recent accomplishments to be featured on chrgj.org, to meet with students, and to give presentations about their work and career trajectories.

The 2015 International Law and Human Rights Fellows have been selected after a competitive application and interview process. The ILHR Fellowship Program was established in 2002 and is designed to provide NYU law students with the opportunity to gain education in the theory and practice of international and human rights law. The program is coordinated by CHRGJ in cooperation with the Institute for International Law and Justice, with support from the Public Interest Law Center. Twenty-nine Fellows were selected and the confirmation of Fellowship internships at 21 international, regional and non-governmental organizations is in progress. In addition to the internships, the Fellowship includes seminars to prepare Fellows for internships and a post-internship research paper. Congratulations to the new ILHR Fellows:

Human Rights Job Board

CHRGJ launched its Human Rights Job Board last spring to help students, scholars, and professionals identify options for work, competitive scholarship, or fellowships as CHRGJ becomes aware of them. Updated weekly, the site has become popular with students and post-graduates alike for capturing a broad range of opportunities in our field.