The Center provides unique training opportunities for legal practitioners, academics, activists and students to explore cutting-edge issues in the development of human rights and humanitarian law.
Summer Law Program in Israel
On May 30-June 28, 2010, the American University Washington College of Law will hold the first Summer Law Program in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. Participating U.S. law students will receive six credits for successfully completing two courses during the program: Rights, Liberties and Environment; and Intellectual Property and High Tech Law. The courses will be taught by well-known experts from premier universities and NGOs in Israel and overseen by members of the WCL faculty. The program is currently pending accreditation by the American Bar Association. For more information, click here.
Teaching International Humanitarian Law
The second Teaching International Humanitarian Law (IHL) workshop will be held October 2-3, 2009 in Washington, DC. The Workshop provides an opportunity for law teachers to think creatively about their teaching of IHL and network with others to support and expand their teaching of the topics. The Teaching IHL Workshop is an outcome of the 2007 ICRC/WCL study, Teaching International Humanitarian Law in US Law Schools, which concluded that student demand for IHL courses is high but faculty needs better resources, materials and support to expand the teaching of IHL in law schools in the US. To learn more about the Workshop, click here.
WCL/University of Peshawar Collaborative Exchange and Capacity Building Program
In 2006, the American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (WCL) began a multi-year collaboration with the University of Peshawar (UP) to build capacity with the UP faculty regarding its human rights and gender studies programs. The ongoing project, which includes visits from UP faculty to WCL, seeks to enhance the UP Human Rights Studies Centre and provide support to its Gender Studies Department, the only such departments for gender studies and human rights in Pakistan.
Project on Human Trafficking and Forced Labor
In 2008, the Center launched its new Human Trafficking and Forced Labor Project. Directed by Ann Jordan, the former Director of Global Rights' Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons, this project was created to raise awareness of the widespread trade and exploitation of human beings and also to promote a rights-based approach to combating this issue. By focusing on the effects of the sex trade as well as the consequences of forced labor, this program seeks to widen the debate to promote effective and far-reaching solutions at both the international and local level to combat all aspects of human trafficking. The Project's website is currently under construction.
The Israel-US Civil Liberties Law Program
2009 will mark the twenty-fifth year of the New Israel Fund's Israel-US Civil Liberties Law Program. Co-sponsored by the American University Washington College of Law (WCL), the program and its graduates have transformed the Israeli legal scene by offering two years of academic and professional experience to Israeli lawyers specializing in civil rights advocacy. Each year, two participants - an Arab Israeli citizen and a Jewish Israeli citizen - travel to Washington, DC and enroll as LLM candidates in the Civil Rights Law program at WCL. In addition to their academic studies, participants also gain hands-on experience as interns at human rights and civil rights organizations in the United States. Following the year of study and work in the United States, the particpants return to Israel to work with local human rights NGOs such as Adalah (The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights), ACRI (The Association of Civil Rights in Israel) and Itach-Maaki (Woman Lawyers for Social Justice).
Genocide Teaching Project
This lesson plan was developed to teach about genocide and the lessons learned from Rwanda in high school classrooms. The lesson runs for approximately 90 minutes, but can be split up into two sessions, or can be expanded to take more time. The lesson asks students to contemplate the types of behavior and actions which may lead to genocide and teach them the definition of genocide. In addition, the lesson empowers students to teach each other about various aspects of the genocide in Rwanda and encourages them to contemplate actions that they can take - as individuals and as a group - to ensure that genocide does not happen again. In the Fall of 2004, an additional module about the current situation in Sudan was added to the lesson plan. The lesson plan was written and designed by WCL students Sarah Hymowitz and Amelia Parker. For additional information, please click here.
Gender and Legal Education in India
The Center, together with the WCL Women and International Law Program, has launched an initiative to facilitate and support gender mainstreaming in legal education and law reform in India. The project has helped to develop the Gender and Law Association in India (GALA)which seeks to be an interdisciplinary network for exchange and collaboration for Indian academics and activists working on women's legal rights. For additional information, please click here.