History and Mission Apply Now
History
The Center was founded in 1973 by the Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., then-president of Notre Dame and a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from its inception during the Eisenhower Administration until 1973. Father Ted was able to launch the Center with a grant from the Ford Foundation, as an institute for advanced research and teaching.
Initially, the Center’s efforts focused on civil rights in the United States, reflecting Father Ted’s work on the Civil Rights Commission. We continue that work today, and look forward to expanding it. Our Director, Doug Cassel, joined the Board of Trustees of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in 2001. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Lawyers’ Committee was established at the request of President Kennedy in 1963 to mobilize the private bar in support of victims of civil rights violations in the South. Today, Professor Cassel is a member of the Committee’s Board of Directors, and co-chairs the Board’s International Committee. The Committee is currently working on a “shadow report,” rebutting the Bush Administration report to the United Nations on U.S. compliance with our treaty obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Shadow Report is expected to be completed later this year.
In addition, a number of students in the Center’s LL.M program take the new law school course on civil rights law, inaugurated by Associate Professor Jennifer Mason McAward when she joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 2005.
While never losing sight of its initial civil rights focus, the Center was inspired by Father Ted’s global vision to expand its work to include international human rights. In addition to providing committed lawyers with opportunities to study and to gain practical experience in international human rights law, the Center engages in research and advocacy aimed at strengthening international mechanisms of accountability. These efforts include supporting interns who work at the two ad hoc international criminal tribunals, preparing friend-of-the-court briefs to promote the development of international criminal law jurisprudence, organizing conferences, and fostering research and scholarship on issues of accountability and transitional justice. The Center is the only institution at an American law school with observer status at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. We have sent representatives to sessions of the African Commission, as recently as November 2007. Additionally, the Center initiated a clerkship program for African lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as research and internship opportunities with the prominent Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Mission
The Center for Civil and Human Rights of the Notre Dame Law School is founded on the belief that the worth and dignity of every human being mirrors the image of God and that education is essential to build a human rights culture in which the values of human dignity, peace and democracy are cherished and protected. Lawyers, serving as champions of the rule of law, have a unique responsibility to ensure that the civil and political institutions of each society are imbued with these fundamental values. To this end, the Center is dedicated to becoming a leader in the education of law students, lawyers and the community at large concerning human rights issues throughout the world, through the development of outstanding teaching programs, publications and research projects.
The diverse activities of the Center in teaching, research and service contribute to the vision of both the Law School and the University by providing a stimulating and enriching learning environment. The Center has created a unique opportunity for dedicated young lawyers from around the world to spend a year together studying international human rights law so that they, in turn, may become teachers and advocates for the cause of human rights. While doing so, the Center continues to develop its teaching program for all law students at the Notre Dame Law School, with the aim of providing to every student an education in international law as a foundation for the protection of human rights. The Center also reaches out to the University community and the legal community at large through its conferences and publications.
The Center, as part of a Catholic university, is committed to the universal relevance of a gospel that teaches that human beings are made in the image of their creator. The freedom and dignity of all persons is manifest in the rich diversity of human cultures and religious beliefs of the human family, but this freedom and dignity can be protected adequately only where human rights are honored and the rule of law prevails. The Center for Civil and Human Rights strives to build a culture of rights through legal education as part of the University’s commitment to living the gospel in a diverse world.
