About Us
HRI works closely with the broad range of human rights faculty and staff experts at the Law Center as well as leaders in the global human rights movement, and manages programs and projects to generate and advance the research, writing, and advocacy work of students, alumni, and faculty.
Our Team
Andrew I. Schoenholtz
Faculty Director
Professor From Practice
schoenha@law.georgetown.edu
Andrew I. Schoenholtz, a scholar, teacher and practitioner of human rights law, is the Director of the Human Rights Institute. Additionally, he directs the Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies and the Center for Applied Legal Studies (the asylum clinic) at the Law Center. Professor Schoenholtz also serves as the Deputy Director of Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration.
He has worked closely with students for many years helping connect them to internships and positions with advocacy organizations, government agencies, and international organizations. He also advises the Global Law Scholar students and alumni who are advancing the rights of international migrants through the development of the International Migrants Bill of Rights Initiative.
Professor Schoenholtz has represented the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as well as human rights organizations in U.S. Supreme Court litigation, published scholarship that advances the rights of refugees as well as immigrant children under global human rights treaties, and taught refugee law courses abroad. Prior to teaching at Georgetown, Professor Schoenholtz served as Deputy Director of the US Commission on Immigration Reform. He also practiced immigration, asylum, and international law with the Washington, DC law firm of Covington & Burling. He has conducted fact-finding missions in Haiti, Cuba, Ecuador, Germany, Croatia, Bosnia, Malawi, and Zambia to study the root causes of forced migration, refugee protection, long-term solutions to mass migration emergencies, and humanitarian relief operations. Dr. Schoenholtz holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. from Brown University. Please click here for his full biography.
Professor Schoenholtz was appointed Director of the Human Rights Institute in the summer of 2013. However, his history with the Human Rights Institute goes back to its origins; he served as the faculty advisor who accompanied students on the first human rights fact-finding mission to Ecuador in the spring of 2006 to interview Colombian refugees in need of protection.
Michelle Xiao Liu
Dash-Muse Senior Teaching Fellow
michelle.liu@georgetown.edu
Michelle Liu is the 2021–2023 Dash-Muse Senior Teaching Fellow.
Ms. Liu has taught international human rights law at Georgetown Law since 2018, when she became the Supervising Attorney & Teaching Fellow in the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic. Her work involved supporting NGO partners in sub-Saharan African countries to advocate for women’s human rights through litigation and legislative reform. She has led or supported human rights fact-finding missions to Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, and Lesotho. Ms. Liu is the author or co-author of several law review articles and other publications on women’s sexual and reproductive health rights. Her research areas also include women’s and girls’ rights to equality and non-discrimination in all spheres of life.
Ms. Liu has worked closely with current and prospective law students who are interested in human rights and public interest lawyering. As the Assistant Director of Admissions in the Georgetown Law Office of Admissions, Ms. Liu supported the Office of Public Interest and Community Service in identifying candidates for the Blume Public Interest Scholars Program. She continues to mentor former students at various stages of their public interest legal careers.
After graduating from law school, Ms. Liu was a corporate attorney at Linklaters, LLP in London, where she also supported several human rights pro bono matters—including on refugees and asylees, rule of law, and women’s reproductive rights in conflict areas. Before teaching at Georgetown Law, Ms. Liu was a national political coordinator on Secretary Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya from 2007 to 2008.
Ms. Liu has a J.D. and an LL.M. in Advocacy from Georgetown Law, and she was a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow from 2018 to 2019.