Among the members of the class of 2007 charged to “go forth and do good” this May are 19 human rights lawyers from the Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights LL.M. program in international human rights law.

Hailing from 14 countries around the world, including 4 continents, these students have attended both classes and football games with their fellow “Domers.” And with their fellow graduates of the class of 2007, they leave the Notre Dame campus as part of the “Notre Dame Family.” But these 19 lawyers also leave as members of a Notre Dame human rights movement and community that finds its home in the Center for Civil & Human Rights (CCHR). Since 1989, the CCHR has graduated more than 200 lawyers from 70 countries who now consider themselves “Notre Dame Advocates for Human Rights.”

Founded in 1973 by the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., the CCHR was the first human rights center attached to an American law school. Poised to celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2008, the CCHR has positioned itself over the past three decades as a leading institute for advanced research, teaching and advocacy in international human rights law. Human rights lawyers from around the world are attracted to the CCHR as the result of its unique combination of academic excellence and commitment to human rights practice.

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A team of Notre Dame law professors and students have successfully argued a landmark case regarding human rights violations in Peru before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The team included Douglass Cassel and Sean O’Brien, director and assistant director of the Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR), and Carlos Pelayo Moller, a Mexican human rights lawyer and former CCHR student who received a master of laws degree from Notre Dame last year. They represented hundreds of Peruvian victims of a May 6, 1992, raid by Peruvian military forces on the Miguel Castro Castro prison in Lima.

“We are gratified that the Inter-American Court has seen through the smokescreen concocted by the Fujimori regime to conceal its crimes,” Cassel said. “At long last, 15 years after this premeditated mass murder, hundreds of victims will receive a measure of justice, including financial reparation and moral satisfaction.”

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A panel of independent international experts, chaired by Prof. Douglass Cassel, Director of the Center for Civil & Human Rights of the Notre Dame Law School, has found evidence of collusion by agents of the British government in the murders of 74 members of the Catholic community in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. The evidence was presented to the British and Irish governments in the form of a 115-page report in November 2006 in both Belfast and Dublin.

The panel examined 25 cases of suspected loyalist paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland during 1972-77. The 25 cases involve a total of 76 murders as well as attempted murders. In 24 of the 25 cases, involving 74 of the 76 murders, evidence suggests collusion by members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) or the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR).

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by Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell

When Israel reacted with military force to the Hamas and Hezbollah raids of June and July, world leaders recognized Israel’s right to respond, but some charged it was using disproportionate force. International law supports both points. States may take defensive measures, but every use of force must be proportionate to the harm inflicted. These rules are found in the law regulating resort to force (jus ad bellum) and the law regulating the conduct of force (jus in bello). The most important rule in either category may well be the principle of proportionality. Respect for proportionality in the use of force can help foster stable, long-term peace.

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This is a developing site about international human rights and especially about human rights law. It will be a few months before the site is fully “live”, but there will be periodic articles in the mean time. A community of practitioners and students who have worked with or attended the University of Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights are informally maintaining this publication.

This site will be rapidly expanded in the next few weeks.

Cheers,

Tristan Masat