Human Rights Law Program

Core focus areas include:

• Exposing Students to Rich Course Offerings in Human Rights Law: This includes International Human Rights Law and experiential opportunities through our Human Rights Clinic, along with additional course offerings. Please see our human rights faculty and Ted Talks from former students.
• Hosting Events, Distinguished Lectures, and Global Convenings on Pressing Human Rights Issues
• Generating Cutting-Edge Scholarship and Advocacy. Please see our HRP partners.
• Fostering Student Leadership and Professional Development, including supporting the student-led Human Rights Society.

News

The University of Miami School of Law has been frequently featured in local, national, and international news for its work in the area of human rights.

See all past coverage of Human Rights Program activities, including by Miami Law's Human Rights Clinic.

Events: Distinguished Lectures, Symposia, Conferences, Film Screenings

HRP hosts regular events on critical human rights issues. This includes the annual Henkin Lecture Series on Human Rights, which has brought a leading human rights scholar to campus to share insights and reflections.

HRP further hosts symposia and conferences, examining pressing human rights issues and connecting global, national, and local perspectives. Partnership with a Miami Law journal captures lessons and deepens scholarship. Please find materials and videos from past symposia that have focused on the following:

• Human Rights in the Americas Symposium - November 16-21, 2025.
• Sustainable Development Goals and Racial Justice Town Hall - March 2, 2024
• Food, Housing and Racial Justice Symposium – April 13-14, 2023
• Gender Justice and Human Rights Symposium: Holistic Approaches to Gender Violence – April 21-22, 2022
• International Law and COVID-19 Symposium: Impacts on Human Rights and Public Health– April 12 & 16, 2021
• Petty Offenses: Challenging Criminalization of Poverty, Marginalization, and Gender Non-Conformity - September 20-21, 2019
• Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Sexuality, Violence, Reproduction & Human Rights - February 23-25, 2011
• HRP additionally collaborates with the Human Rights Society and hosts various speaker events and film screenings in response to student and faculty interest.

See all past events in the area of human rights.

Initiatives

HRP faculty are leading voices in human rights scholarship and advocacy. HRP initiatives focus on holistic responses to gender violence, and the rights to food, health, and housing.

COURAGE Initiative

The Community Oriented and United Responses to Address Gender Violence and Equality Initiative is founded and directed by Professor Caroline Bettinger-López, who co-leads COURAGE projects with Professor Tamar Ezer and Professor Denisse Córdova Montes. It involves the following projects: the COURAGE in Policing Project, the COURAGE in COVID-19 Project, and the COURAGE in the Workplace Project.

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Food Rights Initiative

This initiative, founded and directed by Professor Denisse Córdova Montes, focuses on the realization of the rights to food and food sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples, small-scale food producers, and rural women, and on supporting U.S.-based efforts to enshrine the human right to food in state constitutions and local laws.

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Health Rights Initiative

This initiative, founded and directed by Professor Tamar Ezer, focuses on realization of the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the intersection of health rights and drug policy, including addressing discrimination and violence against women who use drugs, and Indigenous health rights, including the right to a healthy environment.

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Housing Rights Initiative

This initiative, founded and directed by Professor Tamar Ezer, focuses on challenging the criminalization of poverty and marginalization, realizing the right to housing, and advancing women’s economic empowerment.

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Art and Human Rights Initiative

The Art and Human Rights Initiative addresses the intersection of art and human rights, focusing on the rights to food, health, and housing. It further provides a platform for student pieces reflecting on human rights and social justice work.

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Human Rights Program Partners

Miami Law's Human Rights Program, including through the Human Rights Clinic, collaborates on scholarship and advocacy initiatives with various global, national, state, and local partners, as well as academic centers.

Career Opportunities

HRP fosters student opportunities and works to develop the next generation of human rights leaders.

Students can contribute to HRP projects and activities by participating in the Human Rights Clinic, joining the student-led Human Rights Society, and pursuing various research and volunteer opportunities. HRP further supports student career development, advising students, hosting career panels, and connecting students with alumni.

Additionally, in collaboration with the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center, HRP hopes to establish an annual dedicated one-year post-graduate fellowship in human rights for Miami Law alumni. Please read about our first post-graduate fellow, Gita Howard, who worked at Human Rights First.

Please make a donation to help shape the future of human rights education and programming at Miami Law!

Many thanks to our current supporters!

HRP Benefactors

Francis & Renee Citera
University of Miami Ethics Program

For Additional Information

For additional information, please reach out to HRP@law.miami.edu

Please check out our Facebook page, and sign up for the HRP listserv to receive our newsletter and periodic updates.