This spring, the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law (Center) has launched three new, exciting initiatives related to access to justice, election monitoring, and public finance. These efforts will engage several of the Center’s high profile core projects, including the Anti-Torture Initiative, and will produce high impact scholarship, provide students with opportunities for research and professional development, and strengthen AUWCL’s collaborative ties with partners from around the world to reduce spaces of vulnerability and protect the rights of those most marginalized.
READ: Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law to Celebrate 30th Anniversary
PROJECT ON ADVANCING JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN MEXICO
The Center was awarded a one-year $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to support the Project on Advancing Justice and Accountability in Mexico. The Project will allow the Center’s renowned Anti-Torture Initiative (ATI) to strengthen and enhance justice and accountability efforts in Mexico on the issues of femicide and enforced disappearances through research, advocacy, and litigation support. The Project will analyze major trends on femicide in Mexico and conduct targeted awareness-raising efforts with civil society and international human rights bodies. It will also conduct specialized research and prepare amicus curiae on the applicable international norms and jurisprudence relevant to the Ayotzinapa case and increase accountability mechanisms in order to combat impunity. The Project will be led by Center faculty co-director Professor Juan E. Méndez and AUWCL alumna Vanessa Drummond (J.D. ’17) and will ensure continued opportunities for students to work on strategic outreach, research, and capacity building in the area of anti-torture.
PROJECT ON PUBLIC FINANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The Center launched the Public Finance and Human Rights Project, a joint initiative with the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights and the University of Connecticut’s Business and Human Rights Initiative. Funding for the project supports research on the intersections between human rights, central banking, financial regulation, and development finance. The Project will also build a network of scholars, practitioners, and policy makers interested in examining the relationship between public finance, human rights, and environmental and social sustainability. The Project expands upon the Center’s previous collaboration with AUWCL Professor Emeritus Danny Bradlow and will continue to involve students interested in exploring these emerging intersections.
INITIATIVE ON ELECTION MONITORING IN THE INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM
The Initiative on Election Monitoring in the Inter-American Human Rights System is a collaboration with the Due Process of Law Foundation and the Center for Justice and International Law, which seeks to advance efforts to strengthen transparency and improve the nomination and election processes for judges and commissioners to the IAHRS. With funding from the Ford Foundation, the Center supports the work of an Independent Panel of Experts who evaluate the qualifications of candidates applying to serve as commissioners and judges. The Center acts as Panel’s Secretariat and provide opportunities for AUWCL visiting scholars and students to engage directly in this endeavor.
