The Annual Columbia Law School Human Rights Student Paper Symposium aims to foster the development of student scholarship and stimulate debate on human rights challenges and opportunities. We welcome submissions that critically engage with and advance knowledge and debate about any human rights issue, whether related to the law, policy, advocacy, theory, methods, and/or practice of human rights.
The student authors of papers selected for the Symposium are invited to present their work to a panel of faculty, practitioners, and students for feedback and commentary. Feedback is designed to assist students to further develop their paper for publication. Following student presentations, the floor opens to the audience for continued collaborative discussion.
Details of Past Symposia
March 29, 2024 | At this year’s annual Columbia Law School Human Rights Student Paper Symposium, students presented scholarship that critically engaged with important human rights challenges such as accountability, gender discrimination, migration, state repression, and transitional justice. The symposium, showcasing novel, impactful, and creative scholarship, fosters the development of student writing and stimulates debate on human rights obstacles and opportunities.
“The student scholarship this year was innovative and exceptional,” said Professor Sarah Knuckey, Director of the Human Rights Institute and Clinic. “Student papers tackled key challenges in human rights, and the expert commentators in the conference also provided extensive feedback to support students as they develop their papers further.”
Fourteen students presented, including 1Ls, 2Ls, 3Ls, and LLMs. For each paper, an academic or practitioner commentator provided feedback to support the students to further develop their papers. They presented papers in conference themes that included: tackling state immunity for rights violations; perspectives on gender, consent, and legal protections; human rights and migration; futures of punishment, reparations, and transitional justice; and international accountability frameworks.
“The HRI Student Paper Symposium was an incredible demonstration of the wide-ranging and brilliant work my peers are doing related to human rights, and left me feeling truly inspired,” stated Skylar Gleason ‘25. “The symposium attracts the best faculty and they are so generous with their time and feedback, which is invaluable for students.” She presented her paper, Rethinking Transitional Justice and Reform in South Sudan: A Fourth Pillar Approach at the symposium.
Presentations were followed by commentary and discussion from Columbia faculty and staff, including the Director of HRI’s project on War Crimes and Mass Graves, Priyanka Motaparthy, who said that “it was inspiring to see the level of student scholarship and the thoughtful, engaged debate around challenging human rights issues.” Commentators also included academics and practitioners affiliated with EarthRights International, Human Rights Watch, CLS Environmental and Climate Justice Clinic, Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University, Interpeace USA, and Rights CoLab.
The Symposium is co-sponsored by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School Human Rights Association, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, and the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. The symposium included six sessions that were moderated by student group representatives, LLM human rights fellows, and HRI staff. The full program is available here.
Session I: Tackling State Immunity for Rights Violations
Iben Vagle ‘24:
“Delineating the Contours of Erga Omnes (Partes) Standing.”
Rhiannon Adams LLM ‘24:
“Transnational Repression and Spyware: A Case for Reimagining State Immunity Doctrine to Provide Redress.”
Session II: Challenging Impunity in the Pursuit of Justice
Christine Gibbs ‘24: “The Potential Legal and Moral Justifications for Assassinations, Extrajudicial Killings, and Targeted Killings.”
Jackeline Carcamo ‘24: “Between Amnesty and Imprisonment: Deconstructing Punishment Under International Criminal Law.”
Session III: Perspectives on Gender, Consent, and Legal Protections
Linny Ng, LLM ‘24:
“The International Legal ‘Regime’ Against Child Marriage: A Haphazard Framework.”
Maryam Jami, LLM ‘24:
“Testing the Limits of Human Rights’ Dynamism: A Comparative Study of Afghan Women’s Rights Under the Taliban Regimes (1996, 2021).”
Session IV: Human Rights and Migration in the United States
Sabriyya Pate ‘25:
“Accountability: Situating the Supreme Court’s Treatment of the ATS in a Time of Flagrant Corporate Abuses.”
Sara Gomez Bohorquez ‘25:
“Undocumented, DACAmented, Documented: Toward a Language of Immigrant Sociolegal Belonging.”
Session V: Futures of Punishment, Reparations, and Transitional Justice
Arman Antonyan ‘25:
“Transnational Justice in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict: Prospects and Challenges.”
Safia Karasick Southey ‘26:
“Roadmap to Reparations: A Global Exploration into the Past and Future of Financial Reparations Programs.”
Skylar Gleason ‘25:
“Rethinking Transitional Justice and Reform in South Sudan: A Fourth Pillar Approach.”
Session VI: Perspectives on International Accountability Frameworks
Michael Weaver ‘25:
“Who Shall Bear this Burden: Using Burden-Shifting to Disrupt Impunity for the Systematic Use of Enforced Disappearance.”
Samuel Sontag ‘24:
“Beyond Punishment: Toward a Transformative Penology of Accountability.”
Amra Ismail LLM ‘24:
“Advancing Socio-Economic Justice Through Transitional Justice Mechanisms: The Case of Military-Occupied Land in Sri Lanka.”
March 25, 2022, New York – Columbia Law School students presented innovative perspectives on human rights in law, government, economy, and conflict at the Human Rights Student Paper Symposium. This day-long event, showcasing inventive student papers and personalized expert commentary, cultivated and inspired student scholarship and vitalized debates about human rights controversies, challenges, and opportunities. The symposium was co-organized by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute (HRI) and Smith Family Human Rights Clinic, the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Rightslink, and the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.
Fifty presenters and commentators were featured in the symposium as audience members joined in-person at the Law School and virtually around the globe. “Students presented original, progressive, and well-researched papers, greatly contributing to international human rights discourse,” said the Assistant Director of Programs at HRI, Jessica Pierson. “Furthermore, each academic and practitioner commentator offered unique, constructive critiques and observations from their invaluable experience in the field.”
All twenty-five student papers contended with pressing human rights issues, from weapons and conflict, to identity-based harms, business and human rights, reparations, the criminal justice system, global enforcement, and the role of states in protecting rights. Student authors conducted their analyses through exploring contemporary and historical examples, examining human rights theory, and considering potential solutions in practice.
“The symposium was a great scholarly experience and it certainly will remain as one of the highlights of my educational journey at Columbia Law School,” said Alan Haji, LLM, who presented his paper, “Cyber Operations and the International Humanitarian Law Paradigm: Reconfiguring the Applicable Legal Framework and the Criteria for Classifying Armed (Cyber) Conflicts” at the Symposium. “Not only did I have the chance to share my thoughts and ideas with a select group of learned scholars of my peers and professors, it was also a unique opportunity for me to learn about my fellow students' research interests and to broaden my horizons through exchanging thoughts and constructive feedback on each other's work. It was, overall, an intellectually rewarding and joyful experience.”
Additional student presenters at the Symposium included Dana Ahdab (2L), Nausherwan Ahmed Aamir (2L), Graham M. Glusman (2L), Ayushi Jain (LLM), Sana Shahzad (3L), Chineze Osakwe (1L), Yaron Covo (JSD), Sophia Westen (LLM), Manny Zhang (LLM), Lucía Soley Saborío (LLM), Anivesh Bharadwaj (Visiting Scholar), Molly Bodurtha (2L), Nabila Khan (LLM), Max Frank (2L), Anna Ventouratou (Visiting Scholar), Ray Gdula (3L), Tanner Larkin (2L), Nathan Michael Bodger (2L), Ethan Singer (2L), Stephanie Abrahams (LLM), Ines Zamouri (LLM), Fatima Anwar (LLM), Christina Schiciano (2L), and Kathrina Dabdoub (2L).
From Columbia University, this year’s academic commenters included Amber Baylor, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Founding Director of the Criminal Law Clinic, Columbia Law School; Anjli Parrin, Associate Director, Project on War Crimes and Mass Graves, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School; Anna Macdonald, Practitioner-in-Residence, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School; Christopher Morten, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Founding Director of the Science, Health, and Information Clinic, Columbia Law School; Gabor Rona, Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School; Graeme Simpson, Director, Interpeace USA; Senior Adviser to the Director-General, Interpeace; Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School; Gulika Reddy, Acting Director, Smith Family Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School; Jeffrey Fagan, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; Joanne Bauer, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs, SIPA; Senior Researcher for the Business and Human Rights Program, Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights; Founder, CoRights Lab; Katharina Pistor, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law, Columbia Law School; Kayum Ahmed, Director, Access and Accountability Division, Open Society Foundations Public Health Program; Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School; Kerry McLean, Assistant Director, Human Rights & Public International Law, Office of Social Justice Initiatives, Columbia Law School; Elizabeth Emens, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; Madhav Khosla, Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; Maeve Glass, Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; Philip Genty, Vice Dean for Experiential Education, Everett B. Birch Innovative Teaching Clinical Professor in Professional Responsibility, Co-Founder of the Prisoners and Families Clinic, Columbia Law School; Priyanka Motaparthy, Director, Project on Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School; and Yasmine Ergas, Director, Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights; Director, Specialization on Gender and Public Policy, SIPA; Senior Lecturer, Discipline of International and Public Affairs.
Human rights practitioners who joined as commentators were Alex Moorehead, Human Rights Officer, United Nations Human Rights; Chris Albin-Lackey, Business and Human Rights Lawyer and Advisor at Atelier Aftab; Esha Bhandari, Deputy Director, Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, ACLU; Patryk Labuda, Assistant Professor of (International) Criminal Law, Amsterdam Center for International Law, University of Amsterdam Law School; Sarah Saadoun, Senior Researcher, Business and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch; Singo Mwachofi, Deputy Director, Security Research & Information Centre (SRIC); Lecturer of Political Science & Public Policy, University of Nairobi; and Sofia Minieri, Legal Advisor at Women Enabled International.
The day included seven panels that were moderated by LLM Human Rights Fellows and student group representatives. Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Olivia Martinez delivered opening remarks. Closing remarks were shared by Christina Schiciano, Editor-in-Chief of Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 61). The full program is available here.
Columbia Law School students presented fresh perspectives on human rights law, advocacy, and theory at the March 19th Human Rights Paper Symposium. This day-long event, which fosters student scholarship and stimulates debate on human rights challenges and opportunities, was co-organized by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute (HRI) and Human Rights Clinic, the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Rightslink, and the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.
The virtual symposium featured 34 presenters and commenters, and audience members tuned in from around the globe. “Every year, student authors display innovation and intellect, and this year’s students continued to raise the bar,” said HRI Assistant Director of Programs Jessica Pierson. “The papers were forward-thinking, creative, and well-researched, and each of our practitioner and academic commentators offered invaluable insights from their work in the field.”
Seventeen student authors presented papers grappling with human rights issues ranging from digital rights and the impact of technology in conflict, to the rights of vulnerable groups such as refugees, tribal law, reproductive justice and sexual violence, and racial justice and police brutality. Students explored contemporary themes in human rights theory and practice, while grounding their inquiries in history and offering solutions for the future.
Presentations were followed by commentary from academics and practitioners affiliated with EarthRights International, NYU’s Technology Law and Policy Clinic, Interpeace USA, Open Society Foundations Public Health Program, the Amsterdam Center for International Law, and the Security, Research and Information Center. Columbia Faculty joined HRI’s Faculty Co-Directors, staff from our Security Force Monitor, TrialWatch, and HRI’s project on War Crimes and Mass Graves as commenters. Feedback aimed to aid students as they develop papers for publication.
Symposium Sessions
Session I: Capitalism, Corruption, and Rights in a Digital Age
Session II: Exploring Pathways to Justice Through International Law
Session III: Racial Justice Examined Through a Comparative Framework
Session IV: Advancing Racial Equity Through Environmental Justice and Immigrants' Rights
Session V: Rights for All: Reproductive Justice, Trans Human Rights, and Workers' Rights
Session VI: Examining New Pathways Toward Justice for Identity-Based Harms
Session VII: Weapons, Conflict, and Peace
Symposium Papers
Richard Ong, 2L
“Hard Drive Heritage”
Anita Kapyur, 3L
“Digital Rights Under Siege? Internet Shutdowns as Modern Blockades and their Fundamental Rights Implications”
Austin Collier, 3L
“Rediscovering Tribes: Understanding and Protecting Contemporary Tribal Groups Through International Law”
Natalie Chu Sin Ping, LL.M.
“Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: Deepening the Dialogue between International Human Rights Law and International Criminal Law”
Anivesh Bharadwaj, L.L.M.
“Genuinely willing” investigations: a tool against shielding or leeway to shield against ICC’s admissibility?”
Tolu Sogade, 1L
“A Human Rights Framework to Consider Issues of Police Violence in the US and Nigerian Movements against Police Violence in 2020”
Natasha Almanzar-Sanchez, 1L
“A Comparative Look at How the Intersectionality of Race and Religion Created Hispaniola’s Ongoing Human Rights Crisis”
Bridgett McCoy, 2L
“Critical Infrastructure, Racial Geography, and Protest: A Case Study of Cancer Alley, Louisiana”
Ali Dawud, L.L.M.
“The African Refugee: Representation, Protection, and Racial Equality”
Rosario Grima Algora, L.L.M
“Advancing Reproductive Justice in Latin America Through a Transitional Justice Lens”
Kim Mejía-Cuéllar, 3L
“Domestic Workers Organizing for Change: A Fight for Federal and State Labor Protections”
Sania Anwar, L.L.M.
“Count Me In/Out: Census-Taking and Trans Citizenship in Pakistan”
Rachel Rein, 2L
“Suffering at The Margins: Applying Dis/ability Critical Race Theory to Trafficking in the United States”
Yaron Covo, J.S.D.
“Reverse Mainstreaming”
Nausherwan Ahmed Aamir, 1L
“Unmanned, not Uncontroversial: U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan Examined Under International Law”
Emily L Drake, 2L
“Evaluating Autonomous Weapons Systems: a Dichotomic Lens of Military Value and Accountability”
Shant Eulmessekian, 1L
“A Step Toward Peace: The Remedial Right of Secession”
Columbia Law School students presented new research and findings on human rights law, advocacy, and theory at the Fourth Annual Columbia Law School Human Rights Student Paper Symposium. The event was held virtually, for the first time, on March 27, a few weeks after Columbia University shifted to online learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It featured 30 presenters and commenters, and audience members tuned in from around the globe.
Twelve student authors presented papers critically engaging with and advancing knowledge and debate about environmental rights, transitional justice, decolonization, and equality and anti-discrimination. Many of the students discussed forward-looking and innovative approaches to human rights advocacy, like using the International Criminal Court to prosecute international environmental crimes, preventing genocide by revitalizing the Genocide Convention’s Article II(c) on the inherent right to health, and capitalizing on user-generated open-source video content as evidence of mass atrocities.
Presentations were followed by commentary from academics and practitioners affiliated with the International Dispute Resolution Group, Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic, Columbia University’s Eric Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights, CUNY School of Law, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, HRI, and Open Society Foundation. Feedback aimed to assist students to further develop their papers for publication.
Symposium Sessions
Session I: Environmental Rights: Theorizing New Pathways, Experimenting to Advance Justice
Session II: Writing Wrongs: Transitional Justice, Decolonialization, and Remedy
Session III: Pushing Boundaries: Imagining and Demonstrating New and Innovative Ways to Advance Human Rights
Session IV: Challenging Discriminatory Laws: Protecting Religious Freedom, Indigenous Populations, and Those with Intellectual Disabilities
Symposium Papers
Adi Radhakrishnan, 2L
“Revitalizing Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention: Clarifying Obligations to Prevent Genocide Through an Inherent Right to Health”
Alexander T. Canzoneri, 2L
“Unreasonable Science: The Impossibility of Georgia's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Standard for Intellectual Disability”
Clare Skinner, LL.M.
“Transitional Justice in Consolidated Democracies: A Case for Truth in Australia”
Elizabeth Orem, 2L
“Discretion and Discrimination in the Mexican National “Migration Institute: Using Evolutionary Learning to Combat Racial Discrimination by Street-Level Agents”
Isabelle Canaan, 2L
“In Bad Faith: Anti-Sharia Laws, the Constitution, and the Limits of Religious Freedom”
Libby McAvoy, 3L
“User-Generated Video Content and Open Source Truth-Telling”
Lily Grisafi, 3L
“Prosecuting International Environmental Crime Against Indigenous Peoples: Methods for Redress at the International Criminal Court”
Maria Emilia Mamberti, J.S.D.
“Experimentalism and Housing Rights of Vulnerable Communities in Argentina”
Natalie M. Roy, 2L
“Climate Change's Free Rider Problem: Why We Must Relinquish Freedom to Become Free”
Nathan Turk, LL.M.
“‘Outcasting’ in the Enforcement of International Human Rights Law”
Shannon Marcoux, 2L
“Trust Issues: The Duty to Decolonize and the Search for a Remedy on Ebeye”
Udodilim Nnamdi, 2L
“Truth, Memory, Reform, & Reparation: A Gateway to Transitional Justice and Reconciliation After Biafra”
Symposium Academic and Practitioner Commenters
Alexis Hoag, Practitioner-in-Residence, Eric Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights, Columbia University
Anjli Parrin, Associate Director, Project on War Crimes and Mass Graves, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Ashika Singh, Litigation Associate, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; Member, International Dispute Resolution Group
Bert I. Huang, Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Chris Rogers, Senior Program Officer, Human Rights Initiative, Open Society Foundations
Colleen Flynn Shanahan, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Jason Parkin, Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law
Kayum Ahmed, Director, Access and Accountability Division, Open Society Foundations Public Health Program
Olatunde Johnson, Jerome B. Sherman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Priyanka Motaparthy, Director, Project on Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Rahma Hussein, Former Research Scholar, Project on Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict, and Human Rights, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Tony Wilson, Director, Security Force Monitor, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School students presented new research and findings on human rights law, advocacy, and theory at the Third Annual Columbia Law School Human Rights Student Paper Symposium. The symposium facilitated compelling discourse about human rights challenges among students, faculty, and leading human rights practitioners.
During the symposium, seventeen student authors, nearly double last year’s number, presented their work to a diverse panel of human right and international law academics and practitioners on topics including transnational justice, economic sanctions, national courts, presidential term limits, arms export regulations, and human trafficking in detention centers. The students and visiting scholars were given an opportunity to develop their scholarship, while having stimulating conversation on human rights challenges and opportunities with peers, professors, and human rights advocates, including experts from the Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute and Clinic, Human Rights Watch, NYU, the International Arbitration Practice, the International Dispute Resolution Group, and Open Society Justice Initiatives. For more information, click here.
Symposium sessions
Session I: Applying Human Rights Frameworks in National Contexts
Session II: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
Session III: Engaging with International Human Rights Treaties and UN Accountability
Session IV: Analyzing Armed Conflict and Counter-terrorism
Symposium papers
Elizabeth Aghili, 2L
“Comprehensive Economic Sanctions on Iran: A Human Rights Violation?”
Eyvana Maria Bengochea, 3L
“In Treaties We Trust: Assessing The UN Framework and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Why a Treaty on Business and Human Rights Presents the Best Solution to Create Global Accountability and Transnational Enforcement”
Annabelle Bonnefont, LL.M.
“Counter-terrorism Measures: An Abuse from Derogations to Shield a ‘Permanent State of Emergency’”
Alicia Yanique Bowen, LL.M.
“The Haiti Cholera Crisis: From Immunity to Impunity”
Marion Crepet, LL.M.
“The Allegations of Sexual Exploitations and Abuses Perpetrated by the Sangaris Forces in the Central African Republic under the Scrutiny of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies”
Brittany Davis, 3L
“Human Trafficking in Detention Centers across the United States”
Emma DiNapoli, 3L
“Place Annihilation and Property under Assad: Examining Reconstruction and Neoliberal Authoritarianism in a ‘Postwar’ Syria”
Lily C Grisafi, 2L
“Living in the Blast Zone: Sexual Violence Piped onto Native Land by Extractive Industries”
Devyn J Hébert, 2L
“The Power of Command Responsibility: Prosecuting ISIS Leaders for Crimes against the Yazidi at the ICC”
Julian Huertas, LL.M.
“National Courts and Human Rights Enforcement: The Resistance to the Decisions of International Tribunals by Domestic Courts”
Martin Lockman, 3L
“’If God Gives me Life and Health’: Human Rights and Presidential Term Limits in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia”
Olivia Minatta, LL.M.
“Individual Cases before the UN Treaty Bodies System: A Contribution to Rethink Their Role”
Diana Carolina Moreno, LL.M.
“Transitional Justice and Sustainable Development Goals: Possibilities for the Colombian Context”
Oyinkansola Muraina, 3L
“Justice Denied: Is There a Case for the Community-Driven Operational Level Grievance Mechanism in the Niger Delta?”
Victoria Ting, LL.M.
“Hearings from and Hearings for Victims: An Analysis of Rule 92 BIS of the ICTY’s RPE, from the Perspective of the Victim-Witness”
Sophia Maria Wistehube, 3L
“Enforcing Arms Export Regulations through International Criminal Law Aiding and Abetting Liability of German Government Officials Granting Licenses for Arms Exports to Saudi Arabia for War Crimes in Yemen under Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute”
Vincent Wong, LL.M.
“The Missing Piece: Domestic Civil Society Access to Human Rights Treaty Bodies”
Symposium academic and practitioner commenters
Kayum Ahmed, Doctoral Fellow, Teachers College, Columbia University
Maya Alkateb-Chami, Managing Director, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Antonella Angelini, Visiting Scholar, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Richard Dicker, Director, International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch
Jeffery Fagan, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Maeve Glass, Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Benjamin Hoffman, Deputy Director, Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School
Chloe Marnay-Baszanger, Practitioner-in-Residence, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Alex Moorehead, Director of the Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights Project, Human Rights Institute
Claire O’Connell, Associate, King & Spalding, Member, International Arbitration Practice
Christina Duffy Ponsa-Kraus, George Welwood Murray Professor of Legal History at Columbia Law School
Gulika Reddy, Clinical Teaching Fellow, Human Rights Institute
Nikki Reisch, Legal Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU Supervising Attorney, Global Justice Clinic, NYU
Ashika Singh, Litigation Associate, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Member, International Dispute Resolution Group
JoAnn Kamuf Ward, Director, Human Rights in the U.S. Project; Lecturer-in-Law
Columbia Law School students presented new scholarship on human rights law, advocacy, and theory at the Second Annual Columbia Law School Human Rights Student Paper Symposium, held at Columbia Law School in April 2018. The spring scholarship conference brought students, faculty, and leading human rights practitioners into dialogue about key human rights challenges. The event was co-sponsored by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, Human Rights Clinic, Human Rights Law Review, Rightslink, and the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.
During the half-day symposium, nine student authors presented their original work to a panel of international law, civil liberties, and human rights academics and practitioners. Papers covered a range of topics, including de-facto regimes and effective power in international human rights law, state responsibility for aiding torture, victims’ identity and intersectionality in international criminal law, gender-based sexual violence, responsibility under international criminal law for indoctrination to hatred in education systems, and informed consent in human rights research. For more information, click here.
Symposium sessions
Session I: Human Rights Obligations of State and Non-State Actors
Session II: Internatinoal and Foreign Laws in Domestic Jurisprudence
Session III: Comparative Approaches to Applying International Human Rights Legal Protections
Session IV: International Justice and Accountability
Symposium papers
Daron Tan, 2L
“Filling the Lacuna: De Facto Regimes and Effective Power in International Human Rights Law.”
Sophie Tarazi, 2L
“Globalizing Corporate Responsibility: Business and Human Rights Post-Jesner v. Arab Bank”
Sophia Wistehaube, 2L
“Investigating your Partner in Crime: Investigating Allegations of State Responsibility for Aiding and Assisting Torture.”
Kathryn Witchger, 3L
“Toward an Understanding of Informed Consent in Human Rights Research.”
Anna Dannreuther, LL.M.
“Up-Skirting as Gender-Based Violence Against Women: Fulfilling the CEDAW Obligation to Effectively Criminalize.”
Madeline Cameron Wardleworth, LL.M.
“New Girls: Has the International Criminal Court’s Victim Regime Done the Work of Intersectionality?”
Alexandra Bodo, 2L
“Prosecuting Boko Haram’s Gender-Motivated Sexual Violence as What it Really Is.”
Tom Nachtigal, LL.M.
“Responsible Education: Responsibility under International Criminal Law for Indoctrination to Hatred and Violence in Education Systems.”
Symposium academic and practitioner commenters
Kayum Ahmed, Doctoral Fellow, Teachers College, Columbia University
Richard Dicker, Director, International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch
Benjamin Hoffman, Deputy Director, Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School
Katharina Pistor, Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law, Director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation, Columbia Law School
David Pozen, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Rose Cuison-Villazor, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, UC Davis School of Law
Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Great Lakes region, Amnesty International
Kate Kelly, Legal Fellow, Human Rights in the U.S. Project, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Anjli Parrin, Legal Fellow, Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School
The symposium was co-sponsored by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, Human Rights Clinic, Human Rights Law Review, Rightslink, and the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.
Symposium sessions
Session I: Innovative Approaches in Domesticating International Human Rights Law
Session II: International Justice, Transitional Justice, and Accountability
Session III: Extraterritoriality: Limits and Possibilities
Session IV: Comparative Approaches to Applying International Human Rights Legal Protections
Symposium papers
Rachel Fleig-Goldstein, 2L
"The Russian Constitutional Court versus the European Court of Human Rights: How the Strasbourg Court Should Respond to Russia’s Refusal to Execute ECtHR Judgments."
Julie-Irene Nkodo, 2L
"The China-Angola Partnership: The Impact on Labour Rights in Angola.”
Ria Sawhney, LL.M.
"Rights-Based Legislation on Social Rights in South and Southeast Asia."
Jacob Bogart, 2L
"Families Claiming Rights: The Case of the Abu Salim Prison Massacre and the Coordination Committee of the Families of the Victims."
Elise Bonine, 2L
“'International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Those Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011' and Its Role in the Syrian Conflict."
Gina Mitchell, LL.M.
"Transitional Justice and Reparations: America’s reckoning with the legacy of slavery."
Kate Berry, 2L
"Mental Health, Extraterritorial Obligations, and Armed Conflict: Applying the Maastricht Principles to Saudi Involvement in Yemen."
Yasmin Dagne, 2L
"The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality in Theory and Practice."
Benjamin Nussberger, LL.M.
"Home State’s Duty to Take Regulate Extraterritorial Conduct as Key for Bridging the Governance-Gap? The Interplay of Positive Obligations in the European Convention on Human Rights, Extraterritoriality and the Principle of Non-Interference."
Simi Obatusin, 2L
"Customary Law in Africa as a Tool for Human Rights Advocacy."
Clemency Wang, 2L
"The Police are Innocent as Long as They Honestly Believe: The Human Rights Problems with English Self-Defense Law."
Symposium academic and practitioner commenters
Kayum Ahmed, Doctoral Fellow, Teachers College, Columbia University
Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Richard Dicker, Director, International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch
Jeffrey Fagan, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Benjamin Hoffman, Senior Clinical Teaching Fellow, Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School
Rahma Hussein, Legal Fellow, Project on Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict, and Human Rights, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Olatunde Johnson, Jerome B. Sherman Professor of Law and Vice Dean, Columbia Law School
Sarah Knuckey, Faculty Co-Director, Human Rights Institute, Director, Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School
Akshaya Kumar, Deputy United Nations Director, Human Rights Watch
Tehtena Mebratu-Tsegaye, Legal Researcher, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Alex Moorehead, Director, Project on Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict, and Human Rights, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
Jason Parkin, Visiting Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; Associate Professor of Law, Pace Law School
Katharina Pistor, Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law, Director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation, Columbia Law School
David Pozen, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Graeme Simpson, Director, Interpeace USA, Senior Adviser to the Director-General, Interpeace; Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School
Peter Strauss, Betts Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Holly Stubbs, Human Rights Methodology Lab
Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law, Co-Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Culture, Columbia Law School
Kristen Underhill, Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School