Global Anti-Racism Clinic

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Global Anti-Racism Clinic

Engaging students in projects that aim to challenge and redress racism, global discrimination and inequality at national, regional and international levels.

Through the seminar and clinic projects, students are immersed in the theory and practice of international law, they will also work with existing and developing anti-racism international and regional mechanisms. Students will employ the full range of lawyering skills, including interviewing, legal research, writing, and analysis, strategic advocacy, and legal assistance.

In particular, Clinic students support the work of UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expert member and co-director of the Global Antiracism Clinic, Gay McDougall, currently a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Fordham Law School’s Leitner Center and Center on Race, Law and Justice.

Projects include the following:

Monitoring and advancing the work of the antiracism architecture of the United Nations and regional bodies. This will include supporting Professor’s McDougall’s work on CERD, including reviewing the compliance of countries with their treaty obligations, and drafting General Recommendation related to the right to racial equality regarding on various issues
Giving specialized advice to international institutions, governments, and human rights organizations on best practices to identify and eliminate systemic practices that create or perpetuate discrimination
Gathering and assessing laws, policies, and regulations that address racial discrimination, the effects of inequality and remedies.

Students of the new Global Anti-Racism Clinic with Professor Paolo Galizzi, Professor Gay McDougall, Zenande Booi, and Elisabeth Wickeri

The clinic is a joint initiative of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice and the Center on Race, Law and Justice.

Led by Professors Paolo Galizzi, Gay McDougall, Zenande Booi and Elisabeth Wickeri, students in the Clinic will be working with international and regional experts, and civil society organizations on cases and projects that involve contemporary efforts to combat systemic racism and racist architectures in a range of contexts.

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“

This clinic experience has been such an emotional rollercoaster in the beginning as I started to wrap my head around the complex dynamics of the UN bodies and CERD, and how my team and I are contributing to this profound international body.

LORRAINE FERNANDES

Clinic student FLS 2024

Clinic Seminar and Fieldwork

The seminar portion of the clinic will introduce students to the law and theory of international cooperation as well as such practical skills as project research and design, proposal drafting, and interview techniques to support the fieldwork students will engage in. For the fieldwork component, students will be assigned to work in teams to research and work on a concrete project.

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