About the Center

Collaborations

Achieving the scholarly and policy objectives of the Center can be greatly aided through close collaboration on specific projects with some of the key international and domestic human rights non-governmental organizations and other relevant bodies. This collaboration takes a variety of different forms, including co-organization of conferences and workshops; placement for the Fellowship Program; work on specific projects in the context of the International Human Rights Clinic; and support for particular organization initiatives.

Some examples of activities undertaken outside of the International Human Rights Clinic and Fellowship Program include:

Center staff and Clinic students present findings of joint Center and Human Rights Watch shadow report Hidden Apartheid to the U.N. Committee Against Racial Discrimination in Geneva.

• WITNESS: In June 2006, WITNESS produced Outlawed, a film on extraordinary rendition and secret detention, in partnership with the Center and 13 other human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The Center will continue to work with WITNESS and these partner organizations on follow-up to the video and its recommended actions.
• ENSAAF: The Center has collaborated with ENSAAF on a number of occasions, including, for example, in urging investigation into torture and “disappearances” in India (May 1, 2006) and to emphasize the U.S. duty to withhold extradition to risk of torture in the case of Kulvir Singh Barapind, both through a press release and through an Amicus Brief, submitted to The Hon. Dr Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State, concerning International and Domestic Law Standards Governing Applications for Relief from Extradition Under the Convention Against Torture.
• Council of Europe: The Center has provided support to the investigation undertaken by Rapporteur Dick Marty into Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states, including through providing key Center reports on this topic and meeting with the investigatory team. This contribution was recognized in Mr. Marty’s June 2006 report on this issue.
• European Parliament: In May 2006, Professor Margaret Satterthwaite met with Members of the TDIP Temporary Committee (Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners) of the European Parliament to provide expert legal advice on the international human rights and other legal standards applicable to this issue.
• European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights: On February 20, 2006, the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights held an “Exchange of views on Nepal, one year after the coup d'état.” Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), who had received the Center’s report on Nepal, raised a number of concerns regarding the treatment of Dalits in the One MEP in particular referred to the “horrifying information” that she had seen regarding the targeting of Dalits by the army, police and Maoists. Experts present at the meeting to provide testimony also raised the treatment of Dalits on numerous occasions.
• International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN): The Center has collaborated with the International Dalit Solidarity Network in a number of capacities, both through its research projects and through the International Human Rights Clinic. In December 2003, the Clinic prepared a report for IDSN that investigated the extent of caste discrimination in South Asian diaspora communities in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Center played a key role in the drafting of the Kathmandu Dalit Declaration, released at IDSN’s International Consultation on Caste-Based Discrimination in Kathmandu, Nepal in December 2004. In August 2005, IDSN coordinated the Geneva release of the Center’s report, Missing Piece of the Puzzle: Caste Discrimination and the Conflict in Nepal and has used its networks to help disseminate the report to key E.U., U.N., and international financial institution officials. Center Faculty Director Smita Narula is a IDSN co-founder and regularly attends IDSN-sponsored meetings with U.N. officials in Geneva, including the U.N. Sub-Commission Special Rapporteurs on Discrimination Based on Work and Descent.
• U.K. All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition: In December 2005, the Center was commissioned by the U.K. All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition to produce a briefing paper on international law and extraordinary renditions: Torture by Proxy: International Law Applicable to “Extraordinary Renditions" (2005). The Center continues to work closely with the All-Party Parliamentary Group to facilitate the Group’s contact with U.S. actors and to provide opportunities for the Group to interact with members of the NYU School of Law community. The Center recently co-hosted a high level strategy meeting on rendition and secret detention with the All-Party Parliamentary Group.
• MacArthur Justice Center: In March and June 2005 the Center hosted two litigation and advocacy strategy sessions on the “war on terror.” Co-convened with the MacArthur Center for Justice, these meetings provided an opportunity for concrete discussion about common strategy, the sharing of expertise, and ways to enhance organizational capacity. Several of the Center’s current projects are a direct result of these meetings.
• Human Rights Clinics: In February 2005, the Center, jointly with Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley, University of Virginia School of Law, and Yale Law School, hosted a day-long workshop on international human rights clinical legal education. Twenty-three law schools from the United States and one school from Canada were represented at the workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss collectively themes, challenges, and goals common to human rights clinics at the various schools, including the NYU International Human Rights Clinic. This conference was the first in a series of annual events to be held at law schools nationwide.