The International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic (IHRAC) offers students hands-on experience representing individual human rights survivors and international non-governmental organizations engaged in human rights advocacy. Participating students gain experience in areas including fact-finding, evidence collection, research, reports, advisory memoranda, viability assessments, litigation, amicus briefs, UN standard setting, and norm development. They also develop a variety of skills including interviewing, persuasive writing, media, collaboration, leadership, professional identity, trauma-informed advocacy, cross-cultural lawyering, and methods to cope with vicarious trauma. In addition, students discuss current events in human rights and the role lawyers play in the human rights movement (values, obligations, opportunities, and constraints).
Interested in learning about the International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic? Watch this brief video.
How to Apply
Students interested in enrolling in the International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic should complete the PILC application and contact Professor Darby Kerrigan Scott to schedule an interview. There are no prerequisites for this clinic, and CLI status is not required. The clinic is open to all students beginning the summer after 1L year.
Clinic Work
Southern Africa Litigation Centre Pamphlet: Know Your Rights – a resource for people in Eswatini | July 2024
Human Rights Advocacy Centre Flyer: Know Your Voting Rights | May 2024
Human Rights at Home Blog (A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network): One Thing the U.S. Must Do to Protect Human Rights in the Immediate Aftermath of the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights| December 2023
Southern Africa Litigation Centre Policy Brief: Revitalizing the campaign against sedition and insult offences in Africa | October 2023
Response to Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Call for inputs: Human Rights Council resolution 51/12 on local government and human rights | September 2023
Bravo Trial Monitoring Project | July 2022
- Read the featured story about this project
- View the students' full reports
- View the students' shorter, daily report
Submission to UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Collaboration with the Farmworker Association of Florida, Inc. | June 2022
Recent News
International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic student Nicolas Lower's opinion piece, "The International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic’s" was featured in the Tallahassee Democrat.
The International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic’s work was recently cited in a UN report. The clinic partnered with the Farmworker Association of Florida, Inc. in responding to a call for submissions by the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance for its 2022 Report on Climate and Racial Justice to the General Assembly. Read more here.
