The Center strives to complement the formal WCL educational curriculum by providing experiential learning opportunities, mini-courses and candid, personal perspectives into the real work of human rights in the field. Giving students an opportunity to learn about practical aspects of human rights law helps provide them with new insights on which their future work can grow.
Human Rights Film Series
The Center co-sponsors an annual human rights film series together with the AU Center for Social Media. The films feature human rights themes and each film is followed by a discussion with expert-practitioners on the issue. Join the Center this fall to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the series.
Munching on Human Rights
Munching on Human Rights is an introductory program designed to educate and engage students, especially 1Ls, about basic issues in international human rights and humanitarian law. Held once a month during the Fall semester only, Munching gives students a great opportunity to informally interact with WCL's internationally-known faculty and get a "taste" of international law.
Nuts and Bolts of Doing Human Rights Work
The Nuts and Bolts of Doing Human Rights Work lunchtime series is designed to provide students a glimpse into the real-life experiences and challenges that face human rights practitioners out in the field. Panels will feature students, faculty, and guest speakers who will share their insights and stories. All are invited to attend and contribute their ideas.
Dean's Fellowships
Each semester, the Center hires a number of Dean's Fellows - student employees - to help administer the multitude of projects and events that the Center hosts throughout the academic year. These fellowships offer 2L, 3L, LLM and part-time 1L students the opportunity to receive a monthly stipend for up to 20 hours of work per week. Dean's Fellows provide support to the Center's many events and projects, assist with marketing Center events, manage the Center listserv, and help create innovate new programming.
Experiential Learning Projects
In an effort to cultivate new perspectives for students on human rights at home, the Center sponsors a series of semester-long Experiential Learning Projects (ELP). The ELPs take students from the classroom into the field to interact with the real people that live the issues we often discuss in the law school classroom. Our goal is to humanize the learning experience, complicate participants' understanding of an issue and charge learning with transformative potential.
Human Rights Defender Speakers Series
The Human Rights Defenders Speaker Series invites human rights defenders from around the world to discuss their work and their personal journey into the world of human rights advocacy. Speakers discuss why they do the work they do.
René Cassin Moot Court Competition
WCL is one of the only law schools in North America to compete in the Rene Cassin European Human Rights Moot Court Competition. The Competition is a simulation of an appearance before the European Court of Human Rights and is conducted entirely in French. It began in 1984, in Strasbourg, France, the seat of the ECHR, with the goal of introducing more students to the world of human rights. Students, lawyers and civil servants at the Council of Europe organize the competition and write each year's fact pattern. The Competition comprises two steps: first, researching and writing a 30-page brief and second, a 40-minute oral argument.
Rwanda Commemoration Project
The Center developed the Rwanda Commemoration Project to encourage law schools, universities, NGOs, community groups and others to hold events to commemorate the tenth anniversary of this modern-day genocide, and to use it as a lesson, reminder and warning about genocide in our time. To do this, the Center developed a resource booklet, with programming ideas, substantive issues for discussion, and a resource list. This booklet can be used as the starting point for creating your own day of commemoration. We have also developed a lesson plan for use in high schools to teach about the lessons of genocide, using Rwanda as the primary example. Genocide can happen again; it has happened and will continue to happen unless we stay vigilant and learn and apply the lessons of our recent past.
Student Advisory Board
The Center's Student Advisory Board (SAB) is a group of seven highly qualified, creative students committed to human rights advocacy. The SAB provides selected students with the opportunity to participate in the planning and implementation of Center programming, to develop tangible skills for effective advocacy and activism, and to attend special SAB-only events and networking opportunities. SAB members attend monthly skills development workshops on subjects such as grant proposal writing, media relations, campaign design and budgeting which help them learn skills to become effective activists. The SAB is a one-year commitment and is selected on the basis of a written application and interview.
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Fellowship
The Center has forged a new partnership with the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress (formerly the Congressional Human Rights Caucus) to provide outstanding WCL students the opportunity to work at the Commission with full staff responsibilities as part of an extended and specialized externship.