ND Law Global Human Rights Clinic co-organizes Summer University on Human Rights, Education, and Sustainability in Geneva, Switzerland
Notre Dame Law School’s Global Human Rights Clinic, in collaboration with the UN-accredited international NGO OIDEL and the University of Geneva, is launching the inaugural 2024 Summer University on Human Rights, Education, and Sustainability. The first annual Summer University will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from June 18-21.
Clinic legal fellow Josemaría Rodríguez Conca will attend the program and deliver a lecture on behalf of faculty director Professor Diane Desierto and the Notre Dame Law School Global Human Rights Clinic. He will be discussing the purposive content of the international human right to education under Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In addition, two students involved in the Clinic will attend the inaugural Summer University: J.S.D. candidate Nicolás E. Buitrago Rey and undergraduate student David Rae. While in Geneva, the Clinic team will also attend confidential meetings relating to ongoing Clinic cases, including with the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Permanent Mission of the Holy See, among other key international institutions.
“As a student at Notre Dame studying philosophy and theology, the Global Human Rights Clinic has allowed me to pursue my passion for law and help defend the rights of every human person as created in the image and likeness of God,” said Rae. “To attend the Geneva summer program as an undergraduate student is an unbelievable opportunity to engage with and learn from some of the foremost leaders in the field of defending human rights, especially the right to education.”
The programming schedule features discussions on policy influence on academic success in charter schools, educational pluralism and democracy, global citizenship education in practice, and the nature of sustainability in education, among other topics. The program also includes a tour of Geneva, a city known to be a stronghold for the defense of human rights. Based in Geneva, OIDEL is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, specialized in the right to education and freedom of education, with official consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, and the European Council.
“It’s a privilege for Notre Dame Law School’s Global Human Rights Clinic to collaborate with OIDEL and the University of Geneva on this inaugural Summer University that focuses on our shared research expertise and professional experiences on human rights, education, and sustainability,” said Desierto. “I am especially enthusiastic to send a stellar core team of my own former students and now Notre Dame alumni human rights lawyers, including legal fellow Josemaría Rodríguez and doctoral intern Nicolás Buitrago Rey, while also enabling this opportunity for valuable experiential education for our excellent undergraduate intern David Rae.”
Last month, Desierto and the Notre Dame Law School Global Human Rights Clinic and Associate Dean and Professor Nicole Stelle Garnett’s Education Law Project jointly organized a high-level private consultation with United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Pakistani sociologist Farida Shaheed, during her first official visit to the United States and her first visit to the University of Notre Dame. Shaheed will also be in attendance at the first annual Summer University and will lead a session titled, "Educational Pluralism and Cultural Challenges: A Sociological Analysis.”
Learn more about the Notre Dame Law School Global Human Rights Clinic at https://ndlsglobalhumanrights.nd.edu/.