Call for Applications: Summer School in Human Rights Litigation

Date:

January 20, 2012

The Open Society Justice Initiative and Central European University invite applicants for the 2012 Summer School in Human Rights Litigation, to be held in Budapest from July 16 to 20.

The Summer School provides a unique opportunity for established human rights professionals to build on their experience and to develop their skills. The curriculum will combine presentations, case studies, exercises, and discussion groups with preparatory work and further reading to ensure full maximum benefit for those attending the course. Participants will be invited to provide information on cases they are working on and those concrete examples will help shape discussion.

The curriculum will cover a range of human rights tribunals, such as the African, Inter-American, and European regional bodies, as well as the most frequently used United Nations treaty bodies. The course includes modules that examine the steps involved in strategic litigation, such as case selection, client care, and forum choice, as well as the specific legal stages of admissibility, exhausting domestic remedies and preparing substantive arguments.

Case studies will examine how to build a strong evidential record in support of the case, how to develop campaigning and advocacy to raise awareness of the issues involved, and how to plan to implement a successful judgment. Workshops will focus on key skills such as advocacy in support of ligation, human rights research, legal drafting, communications, and dealing with the ethical problems that arise in human rights cases.

The course will also allow participants to choose specialist seminars to examine key issues in their field, including torture and the right to life, discrimination, freedom of information and expression, violations in the context of migration, and rights upon arrest and at trial.

The Summer School faculty consists of academics from CEU and practitioners from the Open Society Justice Initiative, combining both an academic analysis and a practical assessment of different human rights situations faced by lawyers and activists around the world.

Eligibility

Participants need not be practicing lawyers; however, they must have at least three years’ experience in human rights litigation or activism. Participants will be required to submit examples of cases and issues that they are or have been involved in. Instruction will be in English. Bursaries towards tuition fees and expenses including travel are available where the need can be demonstrated.