Human Rights Research and Education Centre

Human Rights Clinic

Since September 2014, the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) runs a Human Rights Clinic and invites graduate and undergraduate students to develop their knowledge and acquire new skills in relation to projects in Canada and abroad.

The Human Rights Clinic is a project-based initiative that, under the academic guidance of faculty members from the University of Ottawa, aims:

To strengthen the protection of human rights, by promoting advocacy, research, training and technical assistance emphasizing their effective implementation.
To foster capacity-building and to provide recommendations to ensure that policy and law have a human rights-based approach.
To promote research regarding the implementation of human rights standards in Canada and abroad.

Current Projects

International Human Rights and Canada Database (IHRCanadaDb): An online platform of Canada’s international human rights obligations and commitments. The project covers international legal instruments within the domains of human rights, humanitarian law and criminal law;
Business and Human Rights in Latin America;
ICC Legal Tools Project;
Handbook on International Standards to Address Crimes of Sexual Violence;
United Nations Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers;
Scholars at Risk in the Americas (NEW);
Social Condition as a Prohibited Ground of Discrimination in Canada (NEW).

Volunteer opportunities are open to undergraduate and graduate students who will work in an interdisciplinary approach on projects directed by the HRREC.

Past Projects

Aging in the workplace;
United Nations Special Rapporteur- Housing Rights;
Research assistance to the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide on the relationship between land disputes, indigenous peoples and mass atrocities.

Skills Development Workshops

The Centre organizes skills development workshops for the students participating in the Human Rights Clinic. Topics can include mapping exercises, writing techniques and fact-finding methodologies, among others.

For further information, please contact us at: hrclinic@uottawa.ca.

The Human Rights Clinic receives financial support from the Law Foundation of Ontario through the Faculty of Law (Common Law Section).

To apply to the Clinic, please complete the Student Application Form and submit to hrclinic@uottawa.ca.

To propose a project for the Clinic, please fill out the Project Form and send to hrclinic@uottawa.ca.

Testimonial - Stephany Caro Mejia

Stephany has been a member of the human rights clinic for over a year and will begin her MA in International Relations at New York University in September: “Participating in the human rights clinic highly enriched my undergraduate experience by offering me the opportunity to gain valuable research experience, collaborate in a supportive group setting, and strengthen my knowledge on my topics of interest such as indigenous peoples, extractive industries, and Latin America. As an undergraduate student, I was able to participate in the research and drafting of the Amicus to the Supreme Court of Mexico - an opportunity that I would not have had otherwise. The human rights clinic quickly became my favorite extracurricular activity and a standout component in my Masters applications. “

Testimonial - Mary Kapron

Being a member of the Extraterritoriality in Latin American Project at the Human Rights Clinic has been an amazing experience. Working as part of a team with other students, faculty members and non-governmental organizations, I have had the opportunity to conduct research and write reports and amicus curiae submissions on a number of current and pressing human rights issues. Not only has this permitted me to gain practical skills in international human rights practise, the projects that I have worked on have had an actual impact on the promotion and protection of human rights as they have been presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of Mexico. The Human Rights Clinic has inspired me to pursue a career in international human rights law and I will be beginning my LLM at the University of Essex in the fall of 2016.

Photo Gallery - Human Rights Clinic

Group work (NOV 2014).
Students develop mapping exercises (NOV 2014).
John Packer presents about mapping (NOV 2014).
The participants (NOV 2014).
Alex Neve (Amnesty International) presents on fact-finding methods (FEB 2015).
HRREC's HR Clinic & partner orgs at IACHR Hearing on "Measures to prevent HR violations by Canadian extractive industries operating in Latin America"
Human Rights Clinic's Skill Session on April 7, 2018 with Alex Neve (Amnesty International Canada