Lowenstein Project

The Lowenstein Human Rights Project is the law school's extracurricular human rights group. Through the Lowenstein Project, small teams of students work on specific human rights issues, usually on behalf of, and with guidance from, a human rights or other public interest NGO. Teams conduct research, write memoranda, engage in advocacy activities, and organize events at the law school. The Lowenstein Project was founded in 1981 and named in honor of Allard K. Lowenstein, a U.S. Congressman and pioneering human rights activist.  Sadie Blanchard '10, Karen Kudelko '10, Nadia Lambek '10, and Sergio Perez '10 are the 2008-09 Student Co-Directors of the Lowenstein Project, and Jim Silk is the Project's faculty adviser. The Lowenstein Project regularly works with leading U.S.-based human rights organizations as well as smaller organizations headquartered in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Although the Lowenstein Project is an extracurricular group, student participants may receive one ungraded credit per semester for their participation after their first semester of law school. Many students find summer internships through their involvement in the Lowenstein Project. 

In 2007-2008, more than 50 students participated in the Lowenstein Project, joining a community of students committed to using the law to promote human rights abroad and at home.  (To see a list of past participants, click here.)  These students are working on a diverse range of human rights projects, including:  

• an amicus brief arguing that certain harsh interrogation techniques violate U.S. constitutional law;
• access to counsel by immigrants facing deportation proceedings in U.S. federal courts;
• the obligations of multinational corporate actors under international human rights law;
• the existence of racial and ethnic profiling policies and practices at European borders;
• assisting a Kosovar-based NGO with research on political landmarks toward independence in Kosovo;
• a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) challenging a sodomy law in Nicaragua;
• the right to access to clean and potable water in Haiti;
• judicial reform efforts in Jamaica;
• the development of comparative models for evaluating legal aid systems in Argentina and Cameroon;
• the connection between natural resource "spoliation" and economic, social, and cultural rights in Africa;
• a training handbook on transitional justice and international criminal law for use by human rights advocates in Liberia;
• legal and technical assistance for a video testimonial project conducted with Darfuris living in refugee camps in eastern Chad;
• the procedural rights of victims and defendants in proceedings of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon;
• health care reform legislation in the Republic of Georgia;
• intellectual property rights in Kyrgyzstan;
• juvenile criminal justice reforms in China; and
• legal research on technical questions of international law for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (click here for more info).

In recent years, Lowenstein Project teams have also carried out projects concerning:

• a lawsuit by detainees allegedly tortured at Guantánamo;
• a lawsuit against Shell Oil for human rights abuses in Nigeria;
• aliens’ right to counsel during interviews with the FBI;
• the rights of juveniles in the custody of mental health agencies;
• the reintegration of human rights victims into society;
• the obligations of European states to combat racial violence;
• the rights of homosexuals in Egypt;
• the right to non-discrimination in the financing of state-provided education in Argentina;
• a pending U.N. Convention regarding disability rights;
• a lobbying effort to convince Yale to divest from Sudan;
• research into reproductive rights decisions of the African Commission on Human Rights.

While almost all of these projects were developed in cooperation with outside organizations, students are also encouraged to initiate their own projects and solicit volunteers through the Lowenstein Project. The Lowenstein Project holds an organizational meeting each fall to recruit new members and discuss possible projects.  

If your organization is interested in working with the Lowenstein Project, please click here to learn more about our project development process.

Please contact Co-Directors Sergio Perez and Nadia Lambek with any other questions or inquiries.