News

Last month, students in the International Human Rights Clinic and Advanced International Human Rights Clinic traveled to The Hague, Netherlands, to run a multi-stakeholder meeting of experts as co-hosts with the United Nations, the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), and the Irish Centre for Human Rights. 

The meeting of approximately 100 high-level participants addressed how to improve accountability for conflict-related trafficking in persons — a topic that will be the focus of an upcoming report to the U.N. General Assembly by clinic partner Siobhán Mullally, the U.N. special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children. 

“The meeting was a core part of a larger ongoing collaboration between the clinic and the U.N. Special Rapporteur to determine how international law — particularly international human rights, humanitarian, criminal, and refugee law — can be used to improve accountability for persons who are trafficked in conflict,” said Clinical Professor Jayne Huckerby, director of the International Human Rights Clinic.

While in The Hague, the students also visited the International Criminal Court and the Leiden University Law Campus— where many of them took remote classes following their 1L summer as part of the JD/LLM in International and Comparative Law dual-degree program.

"The trip to The Hague was an invaluable opportunity to experience international law and international human rights at work. It really brought home the work that we have been doing in the clinic and a lot of the theory that we learned in the classroom into a tangible form," said Christian Rodriguez, JD/LLM '23.

Another clinic team was in The Hague to undertake fact-finding with the Dutch government, lawyers, and civil society stakeholders as part of an ongoing project with a large NGO. “The team's extensive preparatory research, analysis, and preparation for interviews was clearly evident in their interactions with key stakeholders and enabled us to elicit critically helpful information for the project,” said Clinical Professor (Teaching) Aya Fujimura-Fanselow, the clinic’s supervising attorney.

Students and faculty called the trip an excellent opportunity to craft their skills further and learn new aspects of the law.

“Working with the U.N. special rapporteur and the IDLO to host this consultation was an amazing experience,” said Jameris Ocasio Palacios, JD/LLM '23.

“Making it to The Hague meant that my colleagues and I were able to see our research and coordination efforts come to fruition and, more importantly, witness the evolution in the discourse around increasing accountability and transparency for trafficking in persons through a human rights legal framework.”