When Jihoon Cha, LL.M. ’01, arrived at American University Washington College of Law, he carried with him a law degree from Korea and a conviction that something was missing from his understanding of human rights. Two decades later, he arrived at AUWCL's Tenley campus, this time as South Korea's Ambassador to the United Nations, stopping in Washington to visit the dean who had shaped his worldview.

Before enrolling at AUWCL, Cha attended the Human Rights Advocates Training program at Columbia University in New York City, an experience that opened his eyes to the breadth of human rights frameworks and advocacy traditions around the world. He knew he needed to learn more.

“WCL at that time was one of the big schools regarding international human rights,” Cha recalled. “So, I came here.” That decision would prove formative.

A Universal Perspective

At AUWCL, Cha found an intellectual environment that matched his ambitions. He studied under professors Claudia Martin and Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon and took courses from then-Dean Claudio Grossman, whose teaching on international human rights left a lasting impression.

“I never forgot his lectures and the classes he provided for the students,” Cha said. The curriculum pushed him beyond the domestic legal framework he had trained in and gave him what he described as a “more comprehensive, universal perspective” on human rights, one that would prove indispensable in the multilateral field.

Dean Emeritus Grossman did not mince words about his former student. “He was one of the top students here, and we're very honored that he's an alum,” Grossman said. “He's an example of what you can achieve through commitment and dedication.”

A Diplomatic Direction

After completing his LL.M., Cha returned to Korea and built a distinguished legal and diplomatic career. His trajectory eventually brought him to New York and the United Nations, where he now serves as South Korea's Permanent Representative, navigating some of the most complex security challenges of the current moment. During his tenure on the Security Council last year, his portfolio included crises in Africa, Afghanistan, and Myanmar, and he has made a central priority of the question that haunts the Council: how to respond more effectively to armed conflict in an era of geopolitical gridlock.

His legal background, he says, remains relevant even in an environment where the rules are far murkier than in a courtroom. “Diplomacy is a little bit different from the practicing law perspective,” he explained. “Lawyers want to have a more clear division of what would be right or wrong, but diplomacy is a little bit deeper. We have to be based on value. Sometimes we have to compromise in the sort of gray areas.”

For Cha, the human rights concerns he first studied in the AUWCL classrooms have never receded from view. He remains attentive to labor rights, environmental rights, and the structural inequities that fuel instability. “When I came here to New York and to the U.N., I could see there are still lots of issues we have to deal with,” he said.

He also carries a broader ambition for his country. South Korea's trajectory, from dictatorship to democracy and one of the world's significant economies, is a model worth sharing with other nations experiencing conflict. “When I came here as a diplomat to the United Nations, I wanted to identify what the specific role of South Korea is at the multilateral level as a middle power country which has experienced the transition period from dictatorship to democracy and risen from the ashes of war to become a big market economy,” he said.

A Diverse Experience

For current AUWCL students considering careers in international law or human rights, Cha's advice reflects his own experience. He came to Washington not because his Korean legal training was lacking, but because he recognized that human rights, though universal in its values, can only be fully grasped when seen from multiple vantage points. The diversity of his AUWCL cohort, students from every region of the world, was part of his education.

Grossman put it plainly: “I think he is an inspiration for other students that, with determination, you can pursue your path.”

Ambassador Cha's visit to campus was a reminder that AUWCL's reach extends far beyond the practice of law, into the halls of the United Nations, into the chambers of the Security Council, and into the ongoing, unfinished work of building a world more attentive to human dignity.