Human Rights Institute

The Human Rights Institute (HRI) is the focal point of human rights at Georgetown Law and helps ensure the Law Center’s place as a center of excellence in human rights teaching and training and in producing policy-relevant and influential human rights ideas and research.

Now accepting applications for the Human Rights Associates Program!

August 30, 2021

Are you a first-year J.D. student interested in human rights law? HRI is now accepting applications for the 2021-2022 Human Rights Associates Program. The program is designed to introduce Georgetown Law students to the breadth of human rights practice and institutions, expose students to a number of cutting-edge issues in human rights, and help students to navigate career choices in human rights law. Open to first-year J.D. students, including evening students.

Applications are due September 12, 2021.

You're invited to our annual Welcome Event!

September 9, 2021 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM

Institute staff, joined by faculty and representatives from student groups, will briefly introduce the various human rights opportunities at Georgetown Law and discuss the ways for students to become involved during the academic year. This event is open to members of the Georgetown Law community (including current students, faculty, and staff).

Jacqueline Lewis and Jessica Doumit are Awarded the 2021 Bettina Pruckmayr Award for Human Rights

May 21, 2021

The Human Rights Institute is proud to announce that Jacqueline Lewis (L’21) and Jessica Doumit (L’21) are this year’s recipients of the Bettina Pruckmayr Award. The Bettina Pruckmayr Award is our community’s major human rights award. The award honors Bettina Pruckmayr, a 1994 Law Center graduate who served as the Director of the World Federalist Movement’s International Criminal Court Project. Before her life was cut short tragically by a violent mugging, Bettina dedicated herself to using her law degree to advance international human rights.

Elisa Massimino Appointed as HRI Executive Director

June 29, 2021

Longtime human rights advocate and former Human Rights First President and CEO Elisa Massimino has been named executive director of Georgetown University Law Center’s Human Rights Institute.

The creation of an executive director position at the Human Rights Institute—and Massimino’s appointment to lead it and serve on Georgetown Law’s full-time faculty—signals a decision to deepen the Law Center’s investment in training the next generation of human rights advocates.

Elisa Massimino — Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Chair in Human Rights Urges Advocates to Embrace Chutzpah and Humility

March 18, 2020

At the annual Drinan lecture on human rights, Massimino addressed Georgetown Law students, faculty, and guests, including military officials who backed the anti-torture campaign.

She shared lessons from three decades in the trenches of human rights advocacy, including a decade as president and CEO of Human Rights First. And she remembered Drinan, a preeminent human rights advocate who mentored her early in her career and who taught at Georgetown Law until his death in 2007.

At the heart of her message was an exhortation to embrace two “seemingly opposite” virtues: chutzpah and humility.

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Human Rights Institute

500 First Street, NW (202) 661-6528

humanrightsinstitute@georgetown.edu