Projects

UN Human Rights Committee Work (“HRC Team”)

The HRC Team supports Ms. Marcia V.J. Kran, a distinguished Canadian member of the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC). As part of the team’s efforts to bolster the HRC’s work, clinicians engage in substantive research to craft comprehensive remarks and questions for the review of the party states’ human rights records and their adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Over the past year, clinicians have actively contributed to the review processes of several countries, including the USA, Kuwait, Cyprus, the State of Palestine, Sri Lanka, and Turkmenistan. The Team continues to prepare memoranda examining and enhancing the jurisprudence of the HRC. A notable case in point is the significant decisions in K. v Russia Federation (2992/2017), where the HRC determined that Russia had violated the ICCPR by failing to establish a legislative basis to investigate discrimination against LGBT+ individuals. This decision was being voted as the best UN treaty bodies decision of 2023 in a poll held by the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany. The HRC team may travel to Geneva during the Committee’s October session to work side by side with HRC members.

Magnitsky Act Legal Advocacy (“Magnitsky Team”)

The Magnitsky Team is part of an international consortium of lawyers working to develop submissions to countries with the Magnitsky Acts, which include Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The team is working with pro-bono counsel in USA, UK, and Canada, as well as with esteemed partners such as Human Rights First from New York, Redress from the United Kingdom, Open Society from Europe, and the International Lawyer Project to develop specific case files on human rights abusers and corrupt officials who could be added to the Magnitsky Act visa ban and asset freeze lists. The Team actively engages in comprehensive research, fact-finding exercises, report publications, and participation in workshops and conferences organized by national and international NGOs and human rights entities. The team has thus far made submissions on 32 individuals and entities in different jurisdictions. In the past year, our clinicians submitted files on foreign corrupt officials to address significant corruption issues in North Macedonia and El Salvador. 

Office of the International Co-Prosecutor, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (“ECCC Team”)

The ECCC was created to prosecute the senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea, and those most responsible for the crimes and serious violations of Cambodia laws related to crimes, international humanitarian law and custom, and international conventions recognized by Cambodia, that were committed between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979. The ECCC Team is assisting the Office of the International Co-Prosecutor in its work on cases before the Court, through fact and legal analysis, information processing and management, and legal research. The OCP conducts preliminary investigations, prosecutes cases throughout the investigative, pre-trial, trial and appellate stages, processes victim complaints, and participates in judicial investigations. The nature of the work varies based on the OCP’s docket as well as the stages and development of proceedings, but the ECCC Team is gaining practical exposure to the core aspects of building criminal cases in an international context.

Corporate Liability and Deterrence (“Corporate Deterrence Team”)

How does criminal prosecution of business actors, as opposed to civil litigation or regulatory enforcement, impact actual business practices? Is criminal liability for human rights abuses considered in business risk assessment and to what degree? The Corporate Deterrence Team is drafting a report exploring the utility in expanding current international criminal definitions to capture the actions of corporate actors, and asking whether international criminal law would be more effective in deterring the actions of such actors than in the deterrence of religious extremists, rebel fighters, or warlords.