The International Human Rights Law Program at UCLA School of Law, the first program of its kind in southern California, brings together cutting-edge human rights education, scholarship, advocacy and policy-oriented research.  As one of the finest research universities in the world, situated at a major global crossroads and in one of the most diverse regions in the country, UCLA is emerging as a vital center for international human rights work.  To learn more, read the Program's inaugural report  here.

 

International Justice Clinic Issues Report on Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Throughout the 2009-10 academic year, students in the International Justice Clinic worked with members of the Cambodian-American community to document the stories of survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide.  The Clinic, working with Dr. Leakhena Nou and the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia (ASRIC), helped victims who now live in the United States to document their stories for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the hybrid court of the United Nations and the Cambodian government colloquially known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.  Clinic participants traveled to Phnom Penh, where the ECCC is located, to deliver nearly two hundred so-called victim information forms created by the Court. 

The Clinic is pleased to release its report, Victim Participation and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Involvement of the Cambodian-American Diaspora Community, available  here.  In addition to describing the work of the Clinic and the efforts of the ECCC to integrate victims into the process of accountability for Khmer Rouge crimes, the report makes a number of observations and recommendations. 

ICC Report from the International Justice Clinic

The International Justice Clinic at UCLA School of Law is pleased to announce the release of The Road to Kampala: U.S. Participation in the Review Conference of the International Criminal Court.  The Road to Kampala outlines key issues at stake in the upcoming ICC conference, the most significant diplomatic conference on international justice since the conclusion of the Rome Statute in 1998.  The report makes substantive recommendations for the Obama Administration's participation in a conference that will touch on major issues, such as the crime of aggression, the Court's ability to enforce arrest warrants, State cooperation with the Court, and the interplay of national legal systems with the Court's jurisdiction. The full report is available to download  here.  A one-page Executive Summary may be found  here.

The Review Conference, which opens in Kampala, Uganda, on May 31, will bring together delegations from around the world to discuss the work of the ICC.  Students in UCLA Law's International Justice Clinic researched and wrote the report, drawing not only on research at UCLA but also participation in a preparatory meeting in The Hague in November 2009.

Recent Events

  • The International Human Rights Program concluded the Spring Semester with  events that highlighted the work of the International Justice Clinic.  On April 7th, Brigitte Suhr of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court joined six Clinic students to talk about the upcoming Review Conference of the Rome Statute, highlighted in the Clinic's new report on the subject.  On April 14th, Clinic participants discussed issues related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cambodia.
  • Felice Gaer, UCLA Regents Professor in History and member of the UN Convention Against Torture's Committee Against Torture, discussed the Committee and key issues in the law banning torture at a lunch in March at the Law School.
  • In March, the Program sponsored Building Justice in Afghanistan with Robert O’Brien, Co-Chair, USDepartment of State, Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform inAfghanistan.
  • Together with LINK and UCLA Students Promoting Awareness About North Korea, the Program sponsored in February  a discussion with Shin Dong Hyuk, survivor of a prison camp in the DPRK, on the human rights crisis inNorth Korea.
  • Adam Michnik, leading intellectual and activist during the Polish Solidarity movement and the Polish transition to democracy,  spoke in February at the Law School, co-sponsored by the Program and the UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies.
  • In January, Jeremiah Goulka of the RAND Corporation discussed  his recent research on the Mujahedine-e Khalq in Iraq and the application (or mis-application) of the Geneva Conventions to the group.  

News
  • David Kaye writes about torture and terrorism in  Foreign Policy.
  • The  Daily Bruin covers the February 24th talk by Shin Dong-hyuk, a young man born and raised in a prison camp in North Korea. 
  • Harper's interviews Kal Raustiala about his book, Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?
  • International Justice Clinic participates in the 8th Meeting of the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC Rome Statute.  See the  story in UCLA Today.
  • David Kaye publishes ASIL Insight on  The Goldstone Report.
  • Kal Raustiala publishes ASIL Insight,  Is Bagram the New Guantanamo? 
  • UCLA faculty engage in the debate over the future of detainees at Guantanamo: Kal Raustiala in  The Huffington Post and David Kaye on  Al Jazeera International.
  • California Lawyer magazine profiles the Human Rights Program's Clinic on International Justice.
  • David Kaye participates in  three-day Dust Up exchange on the L.A. Times website concerning the release of 2002 and 2005 legal memos authorizing the Bush Administration's interrogation policy.
  • Justice Hassan Jallow, Chief Prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, delivers a  special lunchtime lecture at the Law School on April 16.
  • The Honorable Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and chief prosecutor for the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, delivers a Regents Lecture at the Law School on March 16.
  • David Kaye publishes  op-ed in the L.A. Times on implications for U.S. policy of the arrest warrant for Sudan's President Bashir.
  • President Haris Silajdzic of Bosnia & Herzegovina delivers  an important policy address at the Law School on February 17.
  • Kal Raustiala discusses implications of the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement in  an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times.

In the Spotlight: Recent Faculty Publications

  • Lara Stemple, Men, HIV/AIDS, and Human Rights. Peacock, Dean; Stemple, Lara; Sawires, Sharif; Coates, Thomas J. JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. 51():S119-S125, July 2009.
  • Kal Raustiala, Does the Constitution Follow the Flag? The Evolution of Territoriality in American Law (Oxford 2009).
  • Lara Stemple, Male Rape and Human Rights, 60 Hastings L.J. 605 (February 2009).
  • Stephen Gardbaum, The Myth and the Reality of American Constitutional Exceptionalism, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 391 (2008).
  • Stephen Gardbaum, Human Rights and International Constitutionalism, in Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law and Global Government (edited by Jeff Dunoff and Joel Trachtman, 2008).
  • David Kaye,  Complexity in the Law of War, in Miller and Bratspies, eds., Progress in International Law (Martinus Nijhoff 2008).
  • Maximo Langer, Introduction: Damaška and Comparative Law (with John Jackson and Peter Tillers) in Crime, Procedure, and Evidence in a Comparative and International Context (edited by John Jackson, Maximo Langer and Peter Tillers, Hart Publishing (2008).
  • Lara Stemple,  Health and Human Rights in Today's Fight against HIV/AIDS, 22 AIDS S113 (2008).
  • Asli U. Bali, From Subjects to Citizens? The Shifting Paradigm of Electoral Authoritarianism in the Middle East, __ J. Middle East L. & Governance __ (2008).
  • Jonathan Zasloff,  Dean's List: Power, Institutions, and Achesonian Diplomacy, 102 American Journal of International Law  __ (forthcoming, 2008) (review essay).
  • Scott Cummings,  The Internationalization of Public Interest Law, 57 Duke Law Journal 891 (2008).
  • David Kaye, Review: David Kennedy's Of War and Law, 102 American Journal of International Law 400 (2008).