Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a visit to the law school.
Research and Projects
The Center provides legal analyses that inform policy debates and advocacy efforts. This engaged scholarship falls into a few main areas, and we highlight some major activities below.
Detainees and the “War on Terror”
The Center’s reports and legal memoranda on extraordinary rendition, disappearances, and detainee abuse have been cited in the Council of Europe’s major report on secret flights and prisons in Europe, distributed to members of the U.K. Parliament, and used by numerous non-governmental organizations.
We are currently conducting a joint project, with Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First, to provide the first comprehensive accounting of credible allegations of torture and abuse in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. The U.N. Committee Against Torture made use of a preliminary report on our findings.
Read more on projects on Detainees and the “War on Terror”
Racial Profiling & the "War on Terror"
Recent work has analyzed the discriminatory consequences of “shoot to kill” policies.
Read more on projects on projects on Racial Profiling & the "War on Terror"
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Caste DiscriminationWe provided new insights into the conflict in Nepal with a report that focused on human rights abuses against Dalits (so-called untouchables). The reports findings have been cited by key actors, including the head of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Nepal. |
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
We have brought together in the same room high-level representatives from Amnesty International, the International Monetary Fund, Human Rights Watch, and the World Bank, leading to several published volumes that bridge the divide between the development and human rights communities.
We have also given testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Commission on the rights of migrant domestic workers in the US and on the role of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti.
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Read more on projects on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project on Extrajudicial ExecutionsThe Center supports the work of Philip Alston, the Center’s Chair, in his capacity as United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Correspondence with governments has prevented unlawful executions, reports have clarified legal standards ranging from the duty to investigate deaths during armed conflict to the public availability of death penalty statistics, and fact-finding missions have resulted in significant reforms. The Special Rapporteur has conducted fact-finding missions to Guatemala, Lebanon and northern Israel, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. His visit to Nigeria pushed forward the investigation of a major incident of extrajudicial executions by the police, and President Obasanjo later publicly acknowledged scope of the problem. His report on Sri Lanka has played a major role in the ongoing development of effective human rights monitoring mechanisms. Read more on the work on the Project on Extrajudicial Executions Transitional Justice |
Philip Alston makes a statement to the press while on mission in the Philippines as UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. |
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In partnership with the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Center has offered the Transitional Justice Essentials Course in New York, an intensive course for mid-level and senior staff of multilateral agencies, governments, NGOs, foundations, and universities, and hosts an annual transitional justice lecture. |
