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The Human Rights Brief

AUWCL’s Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law established the student-run Human Rights Brief as part of its long-standing commitment to human rights education and excellence in legal analysis and writing.  For nearly 30 years, the Center has worked with students, faculty, and the international legal community to provide and support concise, cutting-edge legal analysis of human rights issues.  The Human Rights Brief continues to enjoy great success contributing articles, editing pieces, representing the Center at human rights events around Washington, D.C., and working with practitioners around the world to further human rights scholarship.   

The Latest Issue

Volume 26, Issue 1

Volume 26, Issue 1

2023

The Human Rights Brief (HRB) is an electronic publication at American University Washington College of Law (WCL). The HRB, WCL’s oldest Brief, was founded in 1994 in partnership with the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Today, the HRB maintains global readership, and it is supervised by an eight-person Faculty Advisory Board. Student staff members participate in creating and editing content in a variety of mediums, and they learn valuable skills through workshops, events, and mentorship opportunities.

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Volume 26, Issue 2

Volume 26, Issue 2

2023

The Human Rights Brief (HRB) is an electronic publication at American University Washington College of Law (WCL). The HRB, WCL’s oldest Brief, was founded in 1994 in partnership with the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Today, the HRB maintains global readership, and it is supervised by an eight-person Faculty Advisory Board. Student staff members participate in creating and editing content in a variety of mediums, and they learn valuable skills through workshops, events, and mentorship opportunities.

Read more
Volume 26, Issue 2

Volume 26, Issue 2

Spring 2023

In Spring 2020, the Human Rights Brief made the switch to an issue-based publication model. This page will be updated quarterly with the latest in human rights coverage, developments, and legal analysis. Past issues of the Brief can be found AUWCL's archive, Digital Commons.

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Inside the Latest Volume

practitioner articles

  • The Forgotten Sexual and Gender-Based Violence of the Vietnam-American War: Is Justice Too Late for Vietnamese Victims and Survivors?
    • Madison P. Bingle 
  • Unwinding "Law and Order": How Second Look Mechanisms Resist Mass Incarceration and Increase Justice 
    • Destiny Fullwood & Cecilia Bruni 
  • The International Criminal Court's Arbitrary Exercise of Its Duties Under the Rome Statute to the Benefit of Western Global Supremacy
    • Azadeh Shahshahani & Sofía Verónica Montez 

student columns

  •  A Double Standard in Refugee Response: Contrasting the Treatment of Syrian Refugees with Ukrainian Refugees
    •  Deanna Alsbeti 
  •  Striking Out: How the MLB's Baseball Academies Interfere with Children's Human Rights in the Dominican Republic
    • Crystal Nieves Murphy
  • AECA and the United States War Crimes Connections in Yemen 
    • Rachel Hage
  • How the Overturning of Roe v. Wade Disproportionately Affects the Immigrant Asian American Population in the United States
    • Amy Lyons
  • Second Chance Pell Experiment: How the United States is Starting to Recognize Education as a Right 
    • Brittany Walker

Regional Systems coverage

  • One of Many: The Power of Publication in the Human Rights Regime 
    • Amanda Lorenzo
  • ECtHR Halts Forced Deportation of Uyghur Couple Seeking Asylum in Malta: Latest in a Series of Breaches of European Convention on Human Rights 
    • Tesa Hargis
  • Religious Discrimination and Violation of Property Rights in Turkey
    •    Andre Taylor

Special Symposium Column on Movement Lawyering

  •  Movement Lawyering: Rebuilding Community Power & Decentering Law
    • Sami Schramm, Naima Muminiy, Madison Sharp, Angela Alteri, Thea Cabrera Montejo
  •    Lessons In Movement Lawyering from the Ferguson Uprising
    • Maggie Ellinger-Locke
  •  Movement Lawyering for Georgia Worker Cooperatives
    • Julian M. Hill

Special Joint COVID-19 Issue

Special Joint COVID-19 Issue

Special Joint COVID-19 Issue

Summer 2020

The pandemic has both demonstrated and exacerbated massive inequalities in our global system; it has provided an excuse for governments to claim authoritarian powers, and it has caused vulnerable communities to suffer disproportionally. This issue aims to provide both an overview of a few responses to the pandemic as well as a few legal frameworks in which to begin to address the underlying problems.

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