Human Rights Program at Harvard Law

🔦 2026-2027 Henigson Fellow Spotlight:

Tupalishe Mulwafu is a Malawian public interest lawyer who will serve as a Henigson Fellow with the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU). Her work will include extractive sector accountability, cross-border advocacy, capacity building, and strategic litigation within the African regional human rights system. The Henigson Fellowship marks a deliberate transition from domestic public interest practice to regional and international human rights advocacy.

Click here to learn more: https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/2026-2027-henigson-fellowship/

🔦 2026-2027 Henigson Fellow Spotlight:

Namashya Ratnayake is a Sri Lankan attorney with research interests in constitutional law, human rights and development. She will be a Henigson Fellow with the Law & Society Trust (LST) to advance access to justice for persons affected by microfinance-based predatory loan schemes in Sri Lanka. Through the fellowship she aims to partner with communities to build legal knowledge, collective power, and strategic pathways for change.

Click here to learn more: https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/2026-2027-henigson-fellowship/

We are excited to announce that HRP has awarded its 2026-27 Henigson Fellowship to Namashya Ratnayake LL.M. ‘26 and Tupalishe Mulwafu LL.M. ’26.

Click here to learn more about our Henigson fellows: https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/2026-2027-henigson-fellowship/

HRP’s post-graduate fellowships are designed to help launch the careers of students who have demonstrated great promise as human rights-engaged students and advocates while at HLS. Fellowships are intended to enable students to make a valuable contribution to human rights during the year of the fellowship and to help students to build human rights work into their careers.

HRP Announces Recipients of 2026-2027 Henigson Fellowship - Harvard Law School | Human Rights Program We are excited to announce that HRP has awarded its 2026-27 Henigson Fellowship to Namashya Karuna Arachchige LLM ‘26 and...

We invite you to read our most recent piece on Harvard Human Rights Reflections by Nariman Salem Hame LL.M. ’26 titled, “Fragmented Justice: Accountability for ISIS’ Atrocities against Yazidis”.

This article recaps a panel hosted by the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World featuring Professors Alex Whiting and Ioannis Kalpouzos, who analyze the promises and limitations of the legal landscape in pursuing justice for atrocities committed against Yazidis. The discussion evaluates two primary alternative pathways: the expansion of domestic universal jurisdiction cases across European courts, and pioneering corporate accountability litigation—specifically highlighting the unprecedented financing and complicity proceedings against French cement giant Lafarge.

Click the link to read the article:

Fragmented Justice: Accountability for ISIS’ Atrocities against Yazidis - Harvard Law School | Human Rights Program August 3, 2014 marked the beginning of a collective nightmare for the Yazidis, a small ethno-religious community in Iraq. On...

Last week we finished an inspiring week at the Business & Human Rights Symposium. This marks the third year that the Human Rights Entrepreneurs Clinic partnered with HRP to welcome students and professors from the University of Ghana School of Law.

Throughout the week, our faculty guided the cohort through a rigorous, multi-disciplinary curriculum. Participants explored the historical limitations of the UN Guiding Principles and the application of systems lawyering in supply chain litigation with Senior Clinical Fellow Emily Ray. The classroom discourse was further enriched by Valerie Beck, who led a case study on the cacao industry, and a practical site visit to Taza Chocolate to study transparent sourcing models firsthand. To close the week, Clinical Professor Tyler Giannini led a critical analysis and simulation regarding the intersection of BHR, social entrepreneurship, and climate change litigation.

It was an intellectually demanding week, demonstrating the vital need for continued cross-border collaboration in the pursuit of human rights.

HRP Associate Director, Dr. Abadir M. Ibrahim, and Florida International University College of Law Assistant Professor, Dr. Angela Hefti, have published a new article on “Contributions of the African Human Rights System to International Climate Law”.

Published in Vol. 51 of the Yale Journal of International Law, the co-authored piece explores how African regional legal frameworks can offer innovative approaches to the global climate crisis. Observing that climate litigation is proliferating, and that jurisprudence on climate law is rapidly developing around the world, the authors argue that the African human and peoples’ rights system possesses unique potentialities to emerge as a normative leader in shaping global climate jurisprudence.

This potential for normative leadership is deeply rooted in the African system’s distinct normative structures and mechanisms. These include the recognition of collective rights, the availability of actiones populares, and the justiciability of the right to a healthy environment, all of which provide a strong foundation for addressing climate-related harms. Building on existing regional treaties and jurisprudence, the authors show how these elements can be extended to support the recognition and protection of a right to a healthy climate, the rights of nature, and a robust framework of state obligations to mitigate emissions and address transboundary environmental impacts. Ultimately, by embracing legal pluralism, and thus an openness to normative input from Indigenous and traditional normative systems, the authors argue that the region can draw on its biocentric traditions to offer profound African solutions to global climate challenges.

Read the article here:https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Ibrahim__Hefti.pdf

We are thrilled to wrap up days 1& 2 of the Business and Human Rights (BHR) Workshop with the Human Rights Entrepreneurs Clinic and the University of Ghana School of Law.

Led by Emily Ray, today’s session critically examines the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights—exploring both their achievements and their limitations. Participants were also challenged to collaborate on envisioning a "Community-Centric" approach to BHR.

😊 We look forward to an engaging week of collaboration, shared learnings, and actionable insights with this incredible cohort.

In a new commentary, Mathias Risse reflects on Harvard's 2026 Commencement as a symbol of the university's resilience. The commentary argues that Harvard's defense of academic freedom demonstrates why universities remain vital institutions for democracy, scientific progress, and global collaboration.

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Today, May 29, marks the anniversary of the 1923 African Bill of Rights, issued by the South African Native National Congress. A landmark document 25 years before the UDHR, it called for justice, equality, and rights, especially land ownership rights, for African and colored people, emphasizing that there should be "no taxation without representation." This foundational declaration inspired future liberation movements in Southern Africa.



Photo credit: National Library of South Africa, Cape Town

📣New Chapter by Professor Neuman on the U.S. & International Law

A chapter by Gerald L. Neuman, HRP Director and J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law, titled “The United States Will Need International Law” is featured in an upcoming book to be published on July 7, 2026.

America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance, edited by Alexandra Natapoff and Guy-Uriel Charles, is a collection of essays by legal scholars from the Harvard Law School faculty. The book brings together the country’s leading legal experts to analyze the dramatic experiment in American governance that began in 1776—an experiment that remains highly contested 250 years later.

🔗Click here to preorder America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance:

America Unfinished It is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. is grappling with foundational challenges to its laws, institutions of governanc...