The Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic focuses on gender-based violence, reproductive rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, economic and social rights, children’s rights, and anti-trafficking work.
Human Rights and Gender Justice (HRGJ) Clinic students engage in cutting edge human rights work under close clinical supervision. The Clinic maintains a diverse docket of projects, providing students broad experience in human rights practice. Through the clinical seminar and project work, HRGJ students develop a sound understanding of international human rights and sharpen lawyering skills necessary for effective law reform-oriented advocacy work applicable in both U.S. and international contexts.
Widely recognized for its expertise and contributions to gender jurisprudence and human rights practice, the HRGJ clinic advocates before international and regional human rights bodies and national and local courts and legal institutions. Our projects combat gender discrimination and sexual violence, advance reproductive and sexual rights and economic and social rights, and promote women’s participation and empowerment. By addressing problems through the lens of human rights, HRGJ students use international human rights law and institutions to challenge and expand rights protections in both domestic and international fora.
Learn more about HRGJ Clinic’s initiatives and projects
Gender Persecution: Gender-Based Violence and LGBTQ+ Issues
Founded in 1992 by CUNY Law Professors Rhonda Copelon and Celina Romany, the HRGJ Clinic has been instrumental to winning recognition of gender persecution as a crime under international law. From its founding forces to today’s grassroots efforts to win accountability for gender persecution worldwide under international law and in local courts, the HRGJ Clinic is a leader on the global stage.
Reproductive Justice and Defense of Pregnant People
The Clinic’s ongoing research, projects, and reports with stakeholders and partners such as If/When/How, Pregnancy Justice (formerly National Advocates for Pregnant Women), the Center for Reproductive Rights, UN Human Rights Experts, and more shape advocacy efforts and policy work across the United States and around the globe.