“My internship with the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights this summer is absolutely marvelous, and my supervisor, coworkers, and fellow interns are from all over the world, speak multiple languages, and are wonderful to work with. I am learning a great deal about international human rights law and how countries execute (or not) the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments. I spend most of my time writing, editing, and translating reports, but I’ve also been able to sit in on both the Committee of Ministers’ and the Parliamentary Assembly’s sessions this summer. While the reports I work on are entirely based on facts and law, it has been unbelievable to see how the different states interact with one another at the sessions and how political the discussions become.”
Category Archives: Fellowships and Grants
Lauren Herman (JD ’13), 2012 Chayes Fellow, on her work with Adalah–The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
“I just got back from a day in court where my organization was defending two cases. The first was for a group of Druze sheikhs who were indicted for traveling to Syria and the second was for the Arab member of the Knesset who helped organize the trip for them (and was claiming parliamentary immunity). This is the third case so far this summer where Adalah has represented members of parliament; it’s been really interesting. Above is a picture of Jerusalem from ourfirst trip to the Supreme Court last month.”
Meet the 2012 Chayes Fellows
Twenty-six Harvard Law School students were awarded the 2012 Chayes International Public Service Fellowship this summer. They are working abroad in Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Israel, the Kyrgyz Republic, Morocco, the Netherlands, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, and Thailand, as well as in New York City and Washington, D.C. Please click here to read brief biographies and descriptions of their summer placements submitted by the students.
Jordan Baehr (JD ’13), 2011 Chayes Fellow, on his summer work in Hong Kong
“I have spent the bulk of my time conducting research and developing educational materials based on the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, which requires certain companies to publicly disclose their ‘efforts to combat slavery and human trafficking in their supply chains.’ Because the materials I have produced are for a wide range of audiences (including some of the companies affected by the act, suppliers and vendors who might be American or East Asian, and local Chinese factories) the research required me to look into a wide range of California, US, and international law, and to carefully consider their commonalities, differences, interactions and implementations. I also had to learn about common Chinese factory practices, both through published reports by NGOs, the US Government and the UN and through visits to factories, conversations with our staff and study of the records and reports that they have produced. All in all this has been incredibly fascinating, both in its sheer breadth and in the opportunities it has afforded to connect legal text, theory and practice with the social realities with which they are concerned.”
2011 Chayes Fellow Elizabeth Freedman (JD ’13) on her summer position with the Council of Europe in France
“My summer here has been an interesting, eye-opening experience. The general European baseline perspective on human and civil rights varies significantly from that of the US and Latin America–and is often more liberal in affording positive freedoms than we are…I spent the first week of my internship attending a meeting of the Committee of Ministers, Subcommittee of Experts on the Reform of the Court. I listened to representatives from each country and the Registry of the Court debate different proposals. The following weeks were spent meeting with the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Secretariat, and conducting interviews with various judges from the European Court of Human Rights, Registry lawyers and members of the Committee of Ministers Secretariat…Although it is frustrating to have to navigate around such diverse interests from each State Party, as well as the fragmented Council of Europe bodies, I have hope that the end result of my work will actually help to bring some change, and allow the Court and the Council as a whole to function more effectively and efficiently.”