Typical Student Practice

The two semesters of the IWHR Clinic offer students a number of work options from which to choose. In the course of a year, students work directly on one or more cases or projects. Some students represent individual clients, while others work with legal and activist partners here and abroad on various advocacy projects. Because we encourage collaboration, students are assigned to teams and also often work with lawyers outside the clinic. The teams meet weekly with their supervisors, as well as individually if necessary, to discuss their projects and benefit from each other's experiences.

Some of our recent projects include:

• Representation of immigrant domestic workers in federal litigation involving domestic and international issues under the Alien Tort Claims Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and domestic law claims. For example, we represent a South Asian domestic worker suing the Government of Kuwait and a high-ranking Kuwaiti diplomat for the damages she suffered when she was trafficked to the United States and held in slave-like conditions in the diplomat's Manhattan home. This case is the first seeking to hold a foreign government responsible for the acts of its diplomats, and part of a larger effort to restrict diplomatic immunity for such offenses. A copy of the Complaint filed in the action can be accessed here. A copy of the Court's decision permitting service on the Diplomats in France using alternate means of service can be accessed here. The Clinic also recently filed an action on behalf of the former domestic worker of two United Nations employees who was paid about 50 cents per hour for seven years of work, despite United Nations and United States State Department regulations requiring that domestic workers brought to the United States by employees of international organizations be paid at least the minimum wage. A copy of the Complaint filed in the action can be accessed here.
  
  
• Preparation of amicus curiae briefs for international and domestic courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, the international criminal tribunals and national courts considering issues with human rights dimensions. We have submitted briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding enforcement against domestic violence in Brzonkala v. Morrison (a copy of the Brief filed by IWHR can be accessed here) and City of Castle Rock v. Gonzales (a copy of the Brief filed by IWHR can be accessed here), to the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia resulting in recognition of rape as torture and genocide and, on behalf of local advocates, to foreign courts regarding a challenge to the Slovakian criminal abortion law. We are currently preparing an amicus brief for the Peruvian courts urging prosecution of sexual violence as torture that occurred during the civil war.
  
  
• Drafting of legislation and international documents, such as draft legislation for the U.S. Congress to revise the 2006 Military Commission Act and a draft of a General Comment on prevention of torture now under consideration by the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT).
  
  
• Preparation of critical reports in conjunction with various UN bodies, including the UN human rights treaty bodies. Last year we prepared a shadow report (critical NGO report) to the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) critiquing the U.S. for the gender violence and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and for non-effective enforcement of laws in the U.S. against domestic violence. Another shadow report to CAT prepared with Chilean colleagues addressed the coerced confession and torture perpetrated by Chilean hospitals and police on women suffering from complications of abortions by withholding medical treatment until the women either confessed to self-abortion or identified who had performed the procedures. CAT concurred with our position and firmly censored Chile.
  
  
• Preparation of petitions and amicus briefs for the Inter-American Commission on Human rights. We are preparing an amicus brief supporting the right of a lesbian judge in Chile to regain custody of her children taken from her by the local courts. We are supporting the ACLU's petition on behalf of the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, City of Castlerock v. Gonzales, for redress of U.S. failure to ensure the enforcement of her protective order. On behalf of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and others, we prepared a petition challenging violations of economic and social rights in the U.S. in regard to cutbacks on access to welfare, housing and health, and have filed numerous communications on gender violence with the participation of Haitian women's groups, the first resulting in the first declaration by a human rights body that rape is torture.
  
  
• Preparation of written materials and presentations for UN discussions and negotiations. In l997-2000, IWHR was legal secretariat to the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, enabling students to research and vet Caucus positions, submitted as Recommendations and Commentary, and to participate in its international delegations in the negotiations.
  
  
• Providing expert support to NGO human rights initiatives. Students served as assistant legal advisors to and drafted the Judgment for the Judges of the International Women's Criminal Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery (Comfort Women).