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In March 2004, as International Women's Human Rights Clinic (IWHRC) students and faculty sat in the courtroom, the justices of the Constitutional Court of Uganda read their decisions from the bench. The next day's Kampala Monitor newspaper (pictured above) sensationalized the holding, but what the court had done was spectacular: for the first time, Uganda's Constitutional Court had used the gender equity provisions in the Ugandan Constitution and in human rights treaties to invalidate a discriminatory law. The court extended to wives the right to divorce based on a husband's adultery that the old law gave only to him - a right of great importance in the era of rampant HIV/AIDS. The attorneys of Law and Advocacy for Women - Uganda (pictured below in the Constitutional Courtroom just before the decision was handed down) had won an amazing victory. But it was a victory for the Georgetown's International Women's Human Rights Clinic as well: the case had begun life as a joint project between IWHRC and LAW-U. Clinic students drafted the Constitutional Court petition and brief, working in tandem with the lawyers who later filed the case in Uganda.
“I learned more about being a lawyer in one semester of the IWHR Clinic
than I have in the rest of law school combined.”
– Alexandros Papanikolaou
In the Fall 2002 Clinic, Alex worked on a Nigerian Supreme Court appeal of Amina Lawal,
who had been sentenced to death by stoning for zina (“adultery”
between a divorced woman and a single man).
Amina Lawal’s death sentence was overturned on appeal.
Under the guidance of acting director and visiting professor Tzili Mor and an attorney teaching fellow, 2008-09 Clinic students will spend a semester developing human rights advocacy skills while working on an international women's human rights project with a non-governmental organization (NGO) or other partners. The clinic partner is most often based in an African country but some clinic partners are located in other parts of the world (e.g., the Philippines; Poland; the Middle East). In the fall semester, students usually work on litigation projects; in the spring, on fact-finding trips, human rights reports, and draft legislation. The clinic may also work with regional and international bodies on country- or theme-specific submissions.
Every student project addresses violations of international and regional human rights law. Governments routinely violate their duty to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, and punish violations of women’s human rights to life, health, liberty, security of the person, and freedom from cruel treatment by leaving in place laws and practices that subject women to many forms of violence and discrimination. Past semester students have addressed these human rights violations in working on such issues as domestic violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation/cutting, so-called “honor” crimes (murders of women by family members), trafficking, domestic servitude, and the deprivation of access and control over land, property, and inheritance. Student projects apply national, comparative, regional, and international human rights law. Depending on the project, students may craft proposed bills and human rights reports; litigation papers for domestic courts, or submissions to regional or international bodies. If change at the national level is not feasible, the clinic with partners may pursue submissions before regional and international human rights bodies, such as the U.N. Human Rights Committee or the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
All international human rights treaties require equality between men and women and equal protection of the law. Nations ratify these treaties but may not fully comply with their treaty obligations to change or implement laws to provide equality. Many of these laws curtail women’s opportunities and condemn them, and frequently their children, to a life of destitution. For example, laws in some countries deny women the right to own or control land. They may give husbands sole ownership and control of property acquired during marriage, depriving wives of decision-making power over the fate of their marital home. Other laws deny women any right to inherit property either as wives or as daughters. Still others prevent women from working at night or in mines, require them to retire from work at a younger age than men, and prohibit work unless a wife has her husband's consent. The Clinic projects can help persuade courts or legislatures to grant women the equal protection of the law and thus ensure their economic rights as well.
During the 2007-2008 academic year, the IWHRC fall semester litigation projects tackled human rights violations in Namibia and South Africa caused by laws that deny women inheritance, permit husbands - but not wives - in customary marriages to divorce adulterous or abusive spouses, grant husbands control over marital property, and permit men to marry multiple women. During the spring semester, students focused on Kenya, drafting legislation, fact-finding, and human rights reports to seek legislative remedies to grant women equal rights with men to own and control land and other property and to inherit from fathers and husbands. During spring break, the students plan to travel to Kenya (funding and security conditions permitting) to conduct about 80-100 interviews with victims of human rights violations, NGO activists, human rights organizations, lawyers, journalists, government ministers and staff, judges, members of Parliament and other stakeholders. The fact-finding interviews allow students to understand the problem in depth and to write powerful human rights reports, persuasive legislative memorandums, and effective legislation. Although projects, topics, and host countries vary from semester to semester, all emphasize the application of international, regional, and national human rights standards in the domestic context and all require extensive comparative analysis with such standards in other countries.
Local NGO lawyers, expert colleagues, and clinic faculty collaboratively choose the projects and supervise the work. Students work closely with local women's human rights lawyers and organizations to develop policy, strategy, and proposed legislation and court papers. They exchange drafts of their work with each other and with their international partners by email, and they teleconference with their international partners frequently. Students also have many opportunities to improve their interviewing and oral advocacy skills through formal class presentations, reviews of their performance, and a final simulated hearing before a court or a mock presentation to a legislative or international body.
“The opportunity to participate in the IWHRC was one of the main reasons
I chose to come to Georgetown, and it lived up to all my expectations....
My work in the clinic trained me in many of the investigatory and advocacy skills necessary in crafting a human rights campaign, and solidified my techniques in making arguments that are not just morally forceful, but also legally compelling.” -Eric Tars
In the Spring 2003 Clinic, Eric traveled to Ghana to conduct factfinding for a report on integrating queenmothers (traditional women leaders) into the National House of Chiefs.
In the Clinic's twice-weekly two-hour seminars, students study the host country's or thematic laws and their context, present drafts of their work in progress, critique each other's work, and develop interviewing and oral and writing advocacy skills. Outside the classroom, supervisors work with individual students and teams to provide in-depth guidance on a variety of skills, from setting agendas, holding professional conferences, and interviewing to developing policy and law and persuading an intended audience. During the semester, each student completes a minimum of three complete drafts of his or her Clinic project, which typically includes a legislative bill and supporting human rights report; litigation papers, including a petition or notice of appeal, along with a supporting legal brief and affidavits; or submissions to human rights bodies applying the relevant law and policy.
“The Clinic was amazing on so many levels. Not only as a law school class did I learn more in this past semester than I ever would have anticipated, but, and more importantly, it was a great feeling to actually able to use the law in order to improve the lives of others. It was wonderful that at the end of the semester instead of having a grade on an exam, we have produced an end product that will directly benefit the lives of women in South Africa.”
- Maeve K Townsend
In the Fall 2007 Clinic, Maeve worked on a constitutional challenge to polygamy in South Africa
Funding permitting, Spring 2009 clinic students may travel during spring break to conduct a human rights fact-finding. Interested Fall 2008 students will be assisted in pursuing summer internships with the Clinic’s partners and contacts to allow them to continue their clinical work overseas.
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