Center Faculty/Staff News
Daniel D. Bradlow, Professor of Law and Director of the Washington College of Law (WCL) International Legal Studies Program (ILSP), was hired with the ILSP by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) in October 1999 to prepare an 11-country study of the issues that dam projects raise, including the impact on indigenous populations, sustainable development, and human rights. Professor Bradlow will act as the principal investigator for the study. The ILSP will submit the study to the WCD in March 2000 and it will become part of a larger report that the WCD will issue in the summer of 2000.
Robert K. Goldman, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Center), is serving as the president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In June 1999, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) elected Professor Goldman to a second four-year term as a member of the IACHR. In October 1999, as president of the IACHR, he delivered a speech on human rights and the law to members of the World Bank legal department in Washington, D.C. In November 22, 1999, in connection with the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the American Convention on Human Rights hosted by the Costa Rican government in San José, he delivered a speech on behalf of the IACHR to foreign ministers and members of the diplomatic corps of the OAS countries. In November 1999, Professor Goldman also traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina with the IACHR Executive Secretary for a final meeting with Carlos Menem, the outgoing-president and meetings with members of Argentinas newly elected government.
Claudio Grossman, Dean, Co-Director of the Center, and member of the IACHR, gave the keynote address at the UN Judicial Colloquium on the Application of International Human Rights Law at the Domestic Level in Vienna, Austria on October 28, 1999. The title of the address was "Domestic Violence in International Law and the Inter-American System." On November 5, 1999, Dean Grossman gave the keynote address at the inaugural conference of the Center for the Freedom of the Press in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On November 18, 1999, the District of Columbia Courts Hispanic Heritage Committee honored Dean Grossman with the Legal Community Award for 1999, recognizing his contributions in the area of international law and human rights. "On December 8, 1999, Dean Grossman gave welcoming remarks at the inauguration of the "International Symposium of Jurists on Human and Civil Rights," held in the Knesset Building in Jerusalem, Israel. On December 9, 1999, he also gave the opening remarks at the "International Symposium of Jurists on Human Rights," at Tel Aviv University, Israel. The symposium celebrated the 15th anniversary of the WCL and New Israel Funds Civil Liberties Law Fellowship Program and the beginning of a new initiative to promote and recruit pro bono work performed by the Israeli legal community.
Beth Lyon, Practitioner-in-Residence at the WCL International Human Rights Law Clinic (IHRLC), spoke on the international standards governing the right to culture at a multi-disciplinary workshop organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science on October 22, 1999, in Washington, D.C. She also co-moderated a workshop on gender in legal education at the Souvenir on the Inaugural Conference of Global Alliance for Justice Education, which took place on December 7-16, 1999, in Trivandrum, India.
Claudia Martín, Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the WCL Inter-American Human Rights Digest Project (Digest Project), organized a program for judges and lawyers on the "Functioning of the Inter-American System on Human Rights: The Inter-American Commission: Functions and Competence." The Lawyer Bar Association of San Juan, Argentina coordinated the event, which took place in San Juan on November 10-12, 1999. At the conference, Professor Martin lectured on the "Functions and Jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights."
Diane F. Orentlicher, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center, published an article in the Cornell International Law Journal (Volume 32, Number 3) in November 1999 on the legal objections of the U.S. government to the Rome Statute for an International Criminal Court. In early November 1999, Professor Orentlicher participated as a lead discussant at a conference on justice and reconciliation hosted by International IDEA in Stockholm, Sweden. On November 19-20, 1999, she attended a meeting of experts sponsored by Duke University Law School on the subject of jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over non-party nationals. In December 1999, she chaired the plenary session at a seminar for the Independent International Commission on Kosovo, chaired by Justice Richard Goldstone, at New York University Law School. Under Professor Orentlicher's supervision, WCL has agreed to provide research assistance to the Commission. Also in December 1999, Professor Orentlicher participated in a panel at WCL for the launching of the book Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know, edited by Roy Gutman and David Reiff. Along with WCL Professor Kenneth Anderson, Professor Orentlicher has been participating in a year-long series of roundtable discussions examining contemporary challenges to the human rights movement. The series began in November 1999 and is being co-sponsored by the Open Society Institute and the New York Institute for the Humanities.
Jan Perlin, Practitioner-in-Residence at the IHRLC, joined the faculty of WCL in the fall of 1999. Prior to joining WCL, she provided legal counsel to the Guatemalan Historic Clarification Commission, which documented human rights violations that occurred during the 36 years of armed conflict in that country. Professor Perlin delivered a paper about genocide in Guatemala at the International Law Association "International Law Weekend," in New York City on November 4-6, 1999.
Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the Digest Project, lectured on "Regional and International Mechanisms for the Promotion and Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights—A Comparative Evaluation" at a conference sponsored by the Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC). The conference was titled Breathing Life into Words: The African Commission on Human Rights and took place in Lagos, Nigeria from September 3-4, 1999. Professor Rodriguez presented a paper titled "The Ombudsman as Guarantor of the Right to Honor, Reputation and One's Own Image," at the Fourth Annual Congress of the Ibero-American Association of Ombudsman (FIO) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on September 27-29, 1999. He lectured for judges and lawyers on the "Functioning of the Inter-American System on Human Rights: The Inter-American Commission: Functions and Competence," co-organized with Claudia Martin of the Digest Project and the Lawyer Bar Association of San Juan, Argentina in San Juan on November 10-12, 1999.
Herman Schwartz, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center, participated in the 15th anniversary celebration of the WCL and New Israel Funds Civil Liberties Law Fellows Program in Israel on December 8-10, 1999, which featured addresses by Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak and Justice Arthur Chaskalson, President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. On December 13-16, 1999, Professor Schwartz consulted with the Georgian government on reform of the Constitutional Court and Georgian governing structures.
Rick Wilson, Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center, Director of the IHRLC, and Acting Director of the WCL Clinical Program, was a conference convenor, with Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón and Claudia Martín, at the Mexico-Central America Regional Seminar of University Human Rights Professors, sponsored by the Center, the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, and Mexican NGOs, in Mexico City on October 4-5, 1999. At the event, he spoke on "Structure and Procedures of the Organs of the Inter-American Human Rights System." Professor Wilson gave a plenary presentation on "The Law and Politics of the Pinochet Case," and a panel presentation on "Innovations in Teaching International Law: International Law Clinics," at the International Law Association "International Law Weekend," in New York City on November 4-6, 1999. He also participated in the program "Human Rights Training Course in the Republic of Georgia," sponsored by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, in Gudauri, Georgia on December 13-17, 1999.
Special Announcement
Adalah, the first Arab-Israeli nonprofit legal center in Israel, introduced its new journal, Adalah's Review, in December 1999. The General Director of Adalah, Hassan Jabareen, and the Chairperson of its Board of Directors, Muhammad Dahleh, as well as staff attorneys Jamil Dakwar and Marwan Dalal, are graduates of the Washington College of Law LL.M. Program. Adalah's Review is intended to provoke discussion of the Israeli law, legal system, and legal discourse, specifically with regards to the status of the Palestinian minority in Israel. The journal is published in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. The English edition, containing slightly different content, provides general background for debates between the Palestinian minority and the Israeli Jewish state, and introduces Adalahs work to a broader international community. To learn more about Adalah's Review, visit their website at www.adalah.org.
The proper citation for this article in the Human Rights Brief Volume 7, Issue 2, beginning at page 30 is: 7 No. 2 Hum. Rts. Brief 30 (2000).
