Upcoming events

Join us at the intersection of human rights, law, and technology to help build practical tools for fair trial advocacy and to fight authoritarianism.

Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute is excited to invite Columbia students and alumni to the TrialWatch FairTrial & AI Hackathon on October 9-10, 2026.

This event brings together participants across law, technology, data, and policy to build practical tools for the intersection of freedom of expression and fair trial advocacy.

• When:  October 9-10, 2026
• Where: JG Annex, Columbia Law School

Participants will work across three tracks:

• Track 1: Identifying Emblematic Cases-How can computational tools help rank and identify important cases earlier?
• Track 2: Observation to Legal Evaluation-How can we automatically detect fair trial violations from trial monitoring notes?
• Track 3: Advocacy, Accountability, and Early Warning- How can we identify recurring language across legal documents to reveal broader patterns of repression and/or inform our advocacy?

Stand up for human rights alongside an interdisciplinary community of Columbia students and alumni.

Prizes and networking included.

Please register here by October 6: https://luma.com/lzb07zxy

Event Contact Information:
Marian Da Silva
[email protected]

Join us for an exciting opening panel kicking off the FairTrial AI Hackathon, hosted by the TrialWatch Project and the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School.

We are bringing together technologists, lawyers, and human rights advocates to tackle one of the most urgent questions of our time: how can technology protect fair trial rights and freedom of expression around the world?

Whether you are a law student, Columbia student, or just someone who cares about justice and technology, this panel is for you. Bring your questions, bring your friends, and stay for lunch!

Speakers:

• Tejal Jesrani is the Director of the TrialWatch Project, Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute. 
• Kate Berry is a Senior Corporate Counsel, Human Rights Law at Microsoft. 
• Anna Diakun is a Senior Staff Attorney & Managing Attorney at Fellowship Program, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
   
• When: 11:00 am, Friday, Oct 9, 2026
• Where: JG Annex, Columbia Law School

This event is free and lunch will be provided after the event!

Hosted by Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute & TrialWatch.

Registration must be done through LUMA by Oct 8 (12noon): https://luma.com/dlc7m8ix 

Event Contact Information:
Marian Da Silva
[email protected]

Join us for a discussion with Gina Romero, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association since May 2024. Her mandate focuses on promoting, and ensuring respect for, the rights to freedom of assembly and of association around the world, and in identifying key areas in which the content of these rights can be progressively developed.

In this one-hour discussion, she will present her newest report as a UN Special Rapporteur, titled "Youth Activism: From Systemic Exclusion to Real Participation," which recognizes the value of youth activism and analyses the persistent and heightened barriers and threats to its exercise. In her report, she provides youth-informed recommendations for protecting and sustaining youth activism as an essential tool for the political participation of young people, the sustainability of democratic institutions, and the protection of rights and freedoms worldwide.

• Speaker:  Gina Romero, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association
• Moderator:  Maroun Maalouf, Supervising Staff Attorney, The Smith Family Human Rights Clinic, Columbia University Law School

• When: Wednesday, October 14, 2026, 12:30-1:30pm
• Where: JG 102-A, Columbia Law School

Lunch will be served.
Please register below:

• Register with my Columbia UNI
• Register as a Guest

Join us for a screening of Gazelle (2025), a powerful independent drama following Yakup, a Turkish music teacher forced into exile in New York after political unrest at home. Undocumented and separated from his wife and daughter, Yakup confronts an impossible moral dilemma as legal pathways to reunite his family stall - a story that lays bare the psychological toll of displacement and the human cost of broken immigration systems. Directed by Nadir Sarıbacak and Samy Pioneer in their feature debut, Gazelle premiered at the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival and offers a timely, deeply personal lens on exile, identity, and the fight to keep a family together. The screening will be followed by a discussion connecting the film's themes to the human rights and immigration issues at the heart of our community's work.

• When: Monday, October 19 | 6:00-8:30 PM
• Where: JG 107

Speakers: 

• Nadir Sarıbacak (Co-Writer / Co-Director / Lead Actor)
• Büşra Çoduroğlu (Assistant Director)

Food will be served.

Please register below:

• Register with my Columbia UNI
• Register as a Guest

Join us for a conversation marking the 40th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the General Assembly in 1986. The right to development holds that every person and all peoples have the right to participate in, contribute to, and share in a process of development that realizes all human rights and freedoms. Drawing on the work of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, this conversation looks back at what's been achieved and what remains unfinished — including the long-pending push for a binding international covenant on the right to development.

Speaker: Juana María Ibáñez Rivas, Chair, UN Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development (EMRTD)

When: Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 12:30–1:30 p.m.
Where: JG 107, Columbia Law School

Lunch will be served. 
Please register below: 

• Register with my Columbia UNI
• Register as a Guest

Join the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute for a conversation with Steve Crawshaw, author of the new book, “Prosecuting the Powerful”. At a time of ongoing armed conflicts and growing challenges to accountability for atrocity crimes, Crawshaw will discuss the pursuit of international justice and what it takes to hold powerful actors accountable for the world's gravest crimes. The conversation will explore themes from the book alongside current developments in international criminal justice, including efforts toward a future Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity.

• When: Tuesday, November 17 | 12:30-1:30 PM
• Where: JG 107, Columbia Law School

Speaker: Steve Crawshaw, British author, journalist, and human rights advocate, and former Human Rights Watch UK Director and UN Advocacy Director

Lunch will be served.

Please register below:

Event Contact Information:
HRI
9172917093
[email protected]

• Register with my Columbia UNI
• Register as a Guest