Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Human Rights News & Events

WCL Events

 

1. PUBLIC INTEREST ALUMNI/STUDENT PANEL
Tuesday, February 17, 12:00pm - 1:20pm, Rm. 601
WCL alumna Erin Scheick (Skadden Fellowship recipient) and members of the class of 2009, Amalia Greenberg (Soros), Adnan Sultan (Prettyman) and Gillian Chadwick (Equal Justice Works) will discuss the application and selection process for a variety of post-graduate fellowships. The session will be held in room 601 and pizza will be provided to those who register on CareerLink.

2.. WCL SUMMER PROGRAMS FAIR
Tuesday, February 17, 4:00pm - 6:00pm, JD Student Lounge
Come learn about exciting opportunites for summer studies at WCL. WCL's summer programs are held in D.C. and locations abroad, and focus on topics such as human rights, international arbitration, environmental law, health law, and international law. These intensive programs offer participants unparalleled opportunities to network with peers from across the globe while gaining academic or CLE credit through courses taught by distinguished faculty and leading practitioners. Contact Hilary Lappin at (202) 274-4317 or hlappin@wcl.american.edu for more information on the fair.

3. SHOULD MEN AND WOMEN BE PAID THE SAME? ALICE PAUL FEMINIST JURISPRUDENCE ESSAY CONTEST AWARD RECEPTION
Tuesday, February 17, 4:00pm - 5:30pm, Rm. 600
Sponsored by the Women and the Law and Legal Rhetoric Programs of Washington College of Law

• Do you think that women and men should be paid the same for performing the same work?
• Is it fair to pay men and women the same amount for performing different work?
• What can the law do to eliminate the gender pay gap in the United States?
• Should the government tell private businesses how much to pay their employees?
  

Join us for an evening of dynamic legal scholarship, interesting discussion and good food, as we celebrate WCL’s long history of exciting feminist jurisprudence written by law students.  Michelle Larson-Krieg, will address these issues and much more as she presents her essay Comparable Worth in Minnesota and Ontario: Implications for U.S. Policy, winner of the 2008 Alice Paul Feminist Jurisprudence Essay Contest.

Please register online at http://www.wcl.american.edu/secle/founders/2009/20090217a.cfm.

4. IMMIGRANTS" RIGHTS COALITION GENERAL MEETING
Thursday, February 19, 12:15pm - 1:15pm, Rm. 504
The WCL Immigrants' Rights Coalition (IRC) invites YOU to come find out about our upcoming events and challenges you to get involved as an advocate for the rights of immigrants and refugees at WCL. The IRC’s first general meeting of the semester will be held at 12:15 pm on Tuesday, February 19th in Room 504. Please come by and meet our energetic and inspirational board over lunch. We will be discussing our various Founder’s Day events and community service projects, and we welcome new members and ideas!
The IRC is a student organization dedicated to defending and promoting the rights of immigrants. We organize several events each semester including community service opportunities, experiential learning projects, and lunchtime discussions with legal practitioners and representatives from the DC-area immigrant advocacy community. The IRC is currently composed of five Committees: Policy Advocacy, Detention, Refugee & Asylum, Labor & Trafficking and Domestic Violence Outreach. IRC is open to new projects and Committees contingent on student initiation and participation. The Refugee & Asylum Committee is currently accepting applicants for two Vice-Chair positions. Interested students should e-mail irc.cochairs@gmail.com.

5. CIVIL RIGHTS LITIGATION IN THE ROBERTS COURT ERA
Friday, February 20, 9:00am - 5:00pm, Rm. 402
One of the nation's leading experts on constitutional law and civil rights litigation, Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the new law school at UC-Irvine, will deliver a keynot speech on the future of 1983 and Bivins litigation. Register online at www.wcl.american.edu/secle/cle_form.cfm.

6. THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE PREVENTION OF TORTURE AND OTHER ILL TREATMENT
Monday, February 23, 9:00am - 4:45pm, Rm. 602
This timely conference, co-sponsored by the Association for the Prevention of Torture, will convene a diverse group of high-level international experts, including policymakers, lawyers, civil servants, NGOs, and scholars to analyze key national, regional, and international legal frameworks and review detention practices that can prevent torture and other ill-treatment. Issues to be discussed include: whether adequate legal; frameworks are in place at the domestic level; how laws are applied and detention practices are reformed; and the access of independent experts to all places of detention. Register online at www.wcl.american.edu/secle/cle_form.cfm.

7. ILSP NEGOTIATION EXERCISE
Friday, February 27, 2:00pm - 6:00pm, Rm. TBA
Interested in practicing your negotiation skills? Want to improve your oral skills in English? Interested in working with JDs? The ILSP and the Legal Rhetoric Program are organizing a joint negotiation exercise on Friday, February 27th from 2pm-6pm. We will pair up LLM students with JDs and ask you to negotiate portions of an agreement against other teams of LLMs and JDs. The exercise will be followed by a short reception, and certificates of attendance will be awarded to all participants. If you are interested in this fun-filled activity, please contact Cathy Schenker at schenker@wcl.american.edu.

8. DOES SEXX REALLY MATTER? WHAT A DIFFERENCE A "Y" MAKES! SPRING 2009 HEALTH LAW SYMPOSIUM
Tuesday, March 3, 9:30am - 4:00pm, Rm. 603
This program will feature topical issues involving women’s health care research, genetics, and sexuality.  The program will feature leading speakers from academia, research institutions, government and private pharmaceutical and medical device industry companies. To register, please go to www.wcl.american.edu/secle/registration.

Community Events

 

1. SECURITY WITHOUT EMPIRE: NATIONAL ORGANIZING CONFERENCE ON FOREIGN MILITARY BASES
Friday, February 27 - Monday, March 2, Multiple Locations, American University
The United States has an astonishing 1,000 military bases located outside the 50 states and Washington, DC. In addition to increasing the likelihood of war, foreign bases undermine national autonomy, democracy, and human rights, cause enduring and sometimes deadly environmental pollution, result in increased crime including rape and other sexual violence, increase the risk of life-threatening military accidents, and are often built on property that has been seized from people living in "host" communities. Military bases are also expensive: At a time of economic crisis, U.S. bases overseas divert an estimated $138 billion a year from addressing human needs and revitalizing our economies in the United States and abroad.

To expand a growing national and international movement against foreign bases, The Project on Military Bases, a coalition of fifteen national and community based organizations, will be joined by leading anti-bases activists from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and Europe.  The conference will provide a unique opportunity to learn about the dangers and damage that come with foreign military deployments and to join in the process of organizing to win the closure and withdrawal of these bases.

Together the conference attendees will

*       Share information about U.S. military bases and resistance;
*       Develop strategies for and expand the U.S. anti-bases movement;
*       Raise the visibility of the U.S. and international anti-bases movements;
*       Apply pressure on Congress to close and reduce the number of foreign bases.

Speakers will include leading U.S. activists, scholars, and allies from the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Guam, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Okinawa, and South Africa. Additionally, we have arranged twenty workshops to allow participants to explore issues and campaigns more deeply and to develop new strategies.  Monday, March 2, will be a lobbying day on Capitol Hill when conference participants will meet with members of Congress to ask for the closure and withdrawal of foreign bases. For more infor mation, contact Genevie Gold at ggold@afsc.org or (617) 661-6130, ext. 137.

Announcements & Professional Development Opportunities

1. HELP IMPROVE THE CENTER'S WEBSITE
The Center is always looking for new ways to improve our website to help you get the information and resources that you need. Please take a moment to fill out our 6 question, confidential survey about the site. The survey should take no longer than five minutes to complete but your responses will greatly help us fulfill the needs of our diverse group of online visitors. To access the survey, please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3yCkXudsuSOB3Q0vnQiRng_3d_3d.

2. APPLY FOR THE UNROW HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACT LITIGATION CLINIC! (Applications Due February 19th!)
Are you interested in human rights? Did you come to law school to make a difference? Do you want to learn important litigation skills? The UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic is accepting applications for student attorneys for the 2009-2010 academic year.

What is the UNROW Clinic?  The Clinic student attorneys work on complex human rights cases involving international and domestic claims in federal (and international) courts under the supervision of Professor Ali Beydoun.  The Clinic focuses on litigation with the potential for a broad impact on human rights law and policy.
What do students do?  Students are involved in all aspects of the cases including legal research, writing legal memoranda, developing case theories, drafting pleadings, managing discovery, preparing for depositions, oral arguments, and ultimately trials and appellate hearings.  We are accepting applications from 1Ls and 2Ls.

Meet and Greet with UNROW Members: Chat with current clinic members, get candy. In the Cafeteria from Monday, February 16 through Wednesday February 18. 

Application Deadline and Interviews: Applications are due by e-mail to unrowclinic@wcl.american.edu on Thursday, February 19. Interviews will be held on Friday, February 27 and Saturday February 28.

Questions?  Send an e-mail to unrowclinic@wcl.american.edu.

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