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The Pursuit of Human Rights

Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights offers the J.S.D. in International Human Rights Law and the LL.M. in International Human Rights Law. The Center’s academic programs provide J.D., LL.M. and J.S.D. students from around the world the opportunity to study human rights from the perspective of the international legal process. Because it is one of the few U.S. law schools to do this, the Center provides leadership in the field of human rights. > Read More

Independent International Panel

The Center for Civil & Human Rights has formed an independent international panel to conduct a human rights impact assessment of gold mining operations at the Goldcorp Inc. Marlin Mine in San Marcos, Guatemala. > Read More

CCHR Announces Advisory and Faculty Committees

williamson-hesburgh The CCHR is pleased to announce the formation of an Advisory Committee and a Faculty Committee; both bodies were present at a joint meeting at the law school on November 14, 2008. The committees will render both substantive and development counsel to the CCHR.

Events

CCHR Obama HR The Center for Civil & Human Rights Presents:

“The Obama Administration’s Record on Human Rights and Terrorism: The First Sixty Days”

A panel discussion with Prof. Doug Cassel and Steven M. Watt ’01 LL.M., ACLU Human Rights Program

Friday, March 27, 3:00pm, Faculty Meeting Room (Room 2130) in the Eck Hall of Law

As part of its Advisory Committee Meeting, the CCHR will present a panel discussion entitled “The Obama Administration’s Record on Human Rights and Terrorism: The First Sixty Days”. Panelists include Steven M. Watt, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program and graduate of the Center for Civil and Human Rights LL.M. program and Doug Cassel, Director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights. The presentation will begin at 3:00 p.m. and will be held in the Faculty Meeting Room (Room 2130) in the Eck Hall of Law.

Later in the day, at 5:45 p.m., the Center for Civil and Human Rights will host an open house for all to visit the Center’s new space in the new Eck Hall of Law.

Steven M. Watt is a senior staff attorney with the Human Rights Program, specializing in litigation before federal courts and international tribunals. Watt is counsel in El Masri v. Tenet, and Mohamed v. Jeppesen, challenges to the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program; Ali v. Rumsfeld, a suit challenging U.S. interrogation and detention practices in Afghanistan and Iraq; Sabbithi v. Kuwait, a case on behalf of three Indian women trafficked into the U.S. and enslaved by their diplomat employers; and Gonzales v. United States, a case before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on behalf of a victim of domestic violence.

Prior to joining the ACLU, Watt was a Human Rights Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he focused on post-9/11 litigation, including Rasul v. Bush, a case involving the detention of Guantánamo Bay detainees; Arar v. Ashcroft, the first legal challenge to extraordinary rendition; and Turkmen v. Ashcroft, a case involving the detention of Arab, South Asian and Muslim men rounded up after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Before coming to the United States, Watt worked for three years as a public defender and legal policy consultant for the Solomon Islands government, managed refugee camps in Tanzania, worked for a community-based development HIV/AIDS program in Uganda and assisted emergency programs for the internally displaced in Liberia.

Originally from Scotland, Watt holds a law degree from the University of Aberdeen, a Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh, and an LL.M. in International Human Rights from Notre Dame Law School.

> Past CCHR Events

Meet The Class of 2009

Ms. Francess Comfort Kadie Issa – Sierra Leone
Ms. Francess Comfort Kadie Issa graduated with honors from the Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone with a law degree (LL.B.) in 2005. As an undergraduate student at the University, she represented the Faculty of Law in various moot court competitions at home and abroad including the Special Court for Sierra Leone moot court competition on “The Death Row Phenomenon” in 2004 and several All African Moot Court Competitions organized by the University of Pretoria, South Africa on various human rights issues. Ms. Issa was called to the Sierra Leone Bar in October 2006 after passing her B.L. at the Sierra Leone Law School. In fulfilling the requirement of the bar in Sierra Leone, she worked at the Marcus Jones & Co. Law firm as a pupil barrister and solicitor. Ms. Issa then worked at the Special Court for Sierra Leone as an associate for six months after which she was contracted as a legal assistant for the Kallon Defense Team for four months. Before coming to Notre Dame, Ms. Issa was working with L.A.W.Y.E.R.S (Legal Assistance through Women Yearning for Equal Rights and Social Justice), an organization she has been working with since she was at the university, and which she eventually became a member of when she was called to the bar. L.A.W.Y.E.R.S is involved with the sensitization of women and children on their rights, advocacy for non-discrimination of women and provision of legal services to poor women and children. > Meet more students…

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