1. International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) Legislative framework for civil society organizations in francophone Africa January 12-16, 2018

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1 Intensive Pro Bono Research Project Descriptions: 1. International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) Legislative framework for civil society organizations in francophone Africa January 12-16, 2018 Supervisor: Emerson Sykes, ICNL, Legal Advisor Africa The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) is seeking assistance with a research project on the legislative framework for civil society organizations in francophone Africa. The proposed research addresses a gap in ICNL current knowledge and work, and impedes our ability to provide support to underrepresented and under-resourced organizations in francophone Africa. ICNL is an international not-for-profit organization that facilitates and supports the development of an enabling environment for civil society and civic participation. ICNL provides cutting-edge technical assistance, research, and education to support the development of appropriate laws and regulatory systems for civil society organizations in countries around the world. ICNL has worked on civil society law reform projects in over one hundred countries worldwide and more than 20 in Africa. In recent years, ICNL has received and increasing number of requests for our assistance in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and other francophone countries. In order to respond to these requests, ICNL needs to build its internal capacity and understanding of the common themes and trends among the legislative frameworks in francophone African countries. For example, the colonial 1901 Associations law is still in force in many countries, while several countries reformed their laws in the 1960s, and a few countries are currently considering new legislation. Working with the research team, ICNL will identify 5-10 target francophone African countries and address the following research questions: 1) What are the key laws governing civil society in target francophone African countries? 2) What are common legal challenges faced by organizations in target countries? 3) Where are legal reform efforts already underway and are there opportunities for ICNL to support legal reform processes? The comparative research conducted by the volunteer lawyers will be used internally by ICNL to inform our future engagements in francophone Africa and may be shared with partner organizations, as appropriate. The eventual impact will be increased access to ICNL s technical expertise and advocacy support among vulnerable groups and populations in the region.

2 2. European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) Crimes against humanity in the jurisprudence of international tribunals January 12-16, 2018 Supervisor: Miriam Eckenfels-Garcia, PILC, Associate Director The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting civil and human rights worldwide. The ECCHR engages in innovative strategic litigation, using European, international, and national law to enforce human rights and to hold state and non-state actors accountable for egregious abuses. ECCHR s Business and Human Rights Division is seeking assistance to explore the applicability of the International Criminal Court s (ICC) policy on case selection as announced by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), under which particular consideration should be given to prosecuting Rome Statute crimes that are committed by means of, or that result in ( ) the destruction of the environment, the illegal exploitation of natural resources or the illegal dispossession of land, to crimes against humanity committed by corporate actors (i.e. individuals acting in their capacity as office holders for a company). Participants will analyze how the elements of crimes against humanity (Article 7 Rome Statute) have been interpreted outside the context of (internal or international) armed conflicts and will focus on the jurisprudence of the ICC and other international, regional, and ad hoc tribunals. Particularly, the project will analyze the following elements and questions: a) attack : - Can an attack be committed by non-violent means or by means not involving the use of arms? - Can land grabbing, oil pollution & gas flaring and their impacts on the population amount to an attack on the civilian population? b) other inhumane acts : - What constitutes other inhumane acts outside the context of an armed conflict? c) Superior responsibility (Art. 28 (b)): - Have there been cases of superior responsibility in the context of a business or similar activity? - Which factual and probatory elements are relevant to argue that the requirements of Art. 28(b) are fulfilled? d) Mens rea: - How has mens rea been argued and what evidence was offered to prove mens rea? In corporate structures, crimes are often not committed by one individual perpetrator, but by several individuals within the company. - Under these circumstances, the crime is not the result of a joint masterplan of all individuals involved, but is the result of an organizational structure and a lack of oversight. Are there cases involving such a constellation and how was mens rea argued in these cases? e) Gravity (Art 17): - How was the element of gravity argued in cases involving crimes against humanity occurring outside of an armed conflict? f) Complementarity: - Is the absence of domestic criminal proceedings sufficient to make a case admissible under the unwilling and unable standard? In cases where multiple countries can exercise criminal jurisdiction, must complementarity be shown for all countries of jurisdiction or just for the country, where the crime was committed or damage occurred? The Project will accept up to eitht (8) students. Background in international law and human rights preferred, but not required.

3 3. Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) Strategic human rights litigation in Asia January 8-12, 2018 and March 12-16, 2018 Supervisor: Erika Dailey, OSJI, Senior Officer for Research Founded in 2003, The Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) is a not-for-profit, international human rights law center housed within the Open Society Foundations. OSJI uses law to protect and empower people around the world, supporting the values and work of the Open Society Foundations. Through litigation, advocacy, research, and technical assistance, we strive to secure legal remedies. The proposed research involves mapping the understanding and practice of strategic human rights litigation in Asia to help frame OSJI s possible future engagement in that area going forward. The research will help frame our planning for and implementation of an international consultation on strategic human rights litigation, which OSJI will host in 2018 in Jakarta or Kathmandu. The target audience is overwhelmingly regional litigators, judges, affected community representatives and rights advocates. Participants would be called on to draft a memo in the course of their January and March interventions (there is a possibility that the topic might change for March, if enough research is completed in January) analyzing the following: i) Brief discursive section on the history and trajectory of the practice of strategic human rights litigation in the Asia region, if possible, and in specific sub-regions or individual national jurisdictions; ii) iii) iv) Annotated list of the principal human rights litigation organizations and pro bono firms in Asia, or specific sub-regions or individual countries; Brief identification of landmark judgements handed down by domestic Asian courts and UN treaty bodies with reference to states in Asia across the spectrum of human rights issues, and particularly related to land rights and torture in custody; Assessment of the state of the field in the region, sub-regions and/or individual Asian countries and recommendations to OSJI as to where it could make the most useful contributions to the field. The research will help frame OSJI s planning for and implementation of an international consultation on strategic human rights litigation, which OSJI will host in 2018 in Jakarta or Kathmandu. The target audience is overwhelmingly regional litigators, judges, affected community representatives and rights advocates.

4 4. UN Women How can the Universal Periodic Review process of the Human Rights Council better strengthen accountability for State commitments to the WPS agenda? January 12-16, 2018 Supervisor: Emily Kenney, UN Women, Policy Analyst UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Peace and Security is a key area of UN Women's work. At headquarters, the Peace and Security Section leads on UN system-wide coordination on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, provides technical and financial support to the peace and security work of UN Women field offices, and implements several global initiatives that range from training women on mediation techniques, to rapidly deploying experts to investigate international crimes. Proposed Research Q: How can the Universal Periodic Review process of the Human Rights Council better strengthen accountability for State commitments to the WPS agenda? The research will contribute to the United Nations efforts to ensure that women and girls live lives in dignity, free from violence, by providing an evidence base for UN Women s advocacy vis-à-vis State obligations to respect women s human rights in conflict prevention and conflict and post-conflict settings. The research should: Assess the extent to which WPS commitments (e.g. accountability for sexual violence, gender parity in decision-making positions relating to conflict prevention and resolution) have been discussed in recent UPR reporting, shadow reporting, questioning and recommendations; Assess the extent to which Member States act on recommendations on WPS issues from UPR processes, and the extent to which other stakeholders (e.g. civil society, UN entities) utilize recommendations as advocacy tools for their work on WPS; Make recommendations to stakeholders (UN Women and other UN entities, the Human Rights Council, Member States, other international, regional and national human rights mechanisms, and civil society), based on the evidence collected, on how to better utilize the UPR process and its outcomes to strengthen accountability vis-a-vis State commitments to WPS. Ultimately, UN Women will use the research to encourage more targeted reporting and questioning of States undergoing UPR, including as the basis for training materials for Member States interested in enhancing WPS accountability through UPR. UN Women s civil society partners in conflict-affected countries will also benefit from the research and its recommendations, to better use the UPR process and its outcomes to advocate for change on the ground. The intended audience for the research is the Human Rights Council and UN Member States, other international, regional and national human rights mechanisms, UN entities and civil society. The outcomes of the research should be shared with UN Women in a short paper and presentation. The researchers should be familiar with human rights principles, and human rights treaty bodies and reporting. Knowledge of women s human rights, and the WPS agenda is a plus. No language skills are required, outside of fluency in English. A team of four researchers is probably sufficient to complete this work in one week.

5 5. Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) Strengthen Governments obligations to take steps to progressively realize economic, social and cultural rights to the maximum of available resources January 12-16, 2018 The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) was founded in 1993 to address the long-standing neglect of economic and social rights in international human rights law and the widespread abuse of these rights associated with increased economic globalization. It was born from the conviction that human rights in particular economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights can and should be deployed as a powerful instrument for tackling poverty and inequality. CESR supports those deprived of their economic and social rights and organizations working with them to seek justice and redress through effective accountability mechanisms. It does so by strengthening the capacity of activists and practitioners to monitor, claim, and advocate for economic and social rights, drawing on ESC rights-focused evidence-gathering. PROJECT OVERVIEW In line with their obligations under international human rights law, governments must take steps to progressively realize ESC rights. Nevertheless, an important qualification on this obligation is that such steps should be taken to the maximum of available resources. There has been some jurisprudence elaborating on the scope of this norm by United Nations treaty bodies and independent experts; by national courts; and by academics and other jurists. Nevertheless, a more coherent and systematic approach to evaluating economic policy against human rights norms is necessary, in order to hold governments accountable when such policies deprive marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and groups of their rights. In partnership with Dejusticia (an international NGO based in Colombia), CESR is currently undertaking a project to strengthen the recommendations made to governments regarding their obligation to take steps according to maximum available resources. Primarily, the project focuses on recommendations by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, it also aims to add value to the work other national and international accountability mechanisms, including courts, as well. Specifically, it seeks to do this by: further clarifying the conceptual and practical dimensions of the obligation to take steps to the maximum of available resources; and providing practical guidance to be used by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and other accountability mechanisms on how to evaluate states economic policies, in particular fiscal policies, to determine their compliance with the obligation. As part of this project, CESR is drafting research memo, and compiling an annotated bibliography to accompany it, that distills existing jurisprudence on the obligation to take steps to the maximum of available resources. LLM student researchers would contribute to this memo by undertaking comparative legal research, looking at case law from different jurisdictions that considers how governments use resources in fulfilling economic and social rights. CESR will provide the LLM student researchers with an initial list of cases to review and more detailed parameters for selecting additional cases. Case law on the resource implications of human rights is not extensive, so the scope of the research will be manageable in the time allocated. For each case, students will be asked to write up a short case note that summarizes the court s conclusions related to resources and the evidence it used to make its conclusions. This project would be well suited to LLM students with an interest in human rights. Students with some familiarity with economics would also be well placed to contribute to it. Given the large body of jurisprudence on economic and social rights from Latin America, students comfortable working in Spanish would also be ideal.

6 6. VOLYA Institute on Contemporary Law and Society Hybrid Conflicts and Human Trafficking in Eastern Europe March 12-16, 2018 Supervisor: Ivanna Bylich, VOLYA Institute, President The nature of armed conflict is becoming more complex with the use of hybrid tools as means of intimidation and disinformation. The term hybrid has been used to explain modern adversaries usage of conventional/unconventional, regular/irregular, overt/covert tactics and the manipulation of different dimensions of war. Hybrid threats exploit a broad spectrum of modern warfare. They have become an unfortunate new reality of the 21 st century. Critically, hybrid warfare changes not only the legal definitions and frameworks of an armed conflict but also alters and broadens our understanding of modern human trafficking. Armed conflict amplifies the risks of human trafficking for vulnerable populations by increasing economic desperation, weakening the rule of law and institutions, decreasing the availability of social services, and forcing large numbers of people to flee for safety. Women and children, migrants, and internally displaced persons are among those most at risk of being subjected to trafficking, both inside and outside conflict zones. Some militias use human trafficking to generate income and obtain new combatants. Terrorists/rebels often abduct and force women and children into sexual slavery and recruit children into combat. The national and civil disorder caused by armed conflicts make traffickers recruitment tactics including false offers of jobs, shelter, or education, as well as outright propaganda more enticing to vulnerable populations. Human trafficking is frequently overlooked in crises and omitted from formulations of humanitarian and emergency response policies. The project will 1) examine the term hybrid and its application, if any, in international law; 2) attempt to determine how hybrid conflict may be changing and expanding our understanding, definitions and types of human trafficking; 3) look into three cases of past, current and frozen hybrid armed conflicts in Eastern Europe, namely, Transnistria (Moldova), Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Georgia), and Crimea and Donbas (Ukraine). The specific goal of this project is to develop new strategies of providing vulnerable populations with access to justice and legal information about their rights by examining new types of human trafficking patterns and how trafficking opportunities are created in contemporary contexts of hybrid conflict. The target audience for this project s product is the international community and individual countries governments who should recognize that hybrid conflict poses unique dangers for various types of human trafficking and therefore make all efforts to include anti-trafficking strategies in humanitarian responses. VOLYA Institute for Contemporary Law and Society (VOLYA Institute) is dedicated to generating and promoting intellectual leadership in the field of civil society, human rights and the rule of law. The Project will accept up to eitht (8) students. Background in international law and human rights preferred, but not required.

7 7. Rebuilding Hope Rebuilding Hope for those adversely affected by HPV vaccines March 12-16, 2018 Supervisors: Mónica León Del Rio, Prof. Mary Holland, and Kim Mack Rosenberg Association Rebuilding Hope The Colombian Association Rebuilding Hope for those adversely affected by HPV vaccines (Rebuilding Hope) is a non-profit organization founded in 2015 to represent the girls and women in Colombia and elsewhere who have been adversely affected by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines. Rebuilding Hope assists victims who have serious medical injuries and disabilities resulting from vaccination. The organization furthers access to medical services, economic benefits and justice. Research Project Volunteer lawyers will assist Rebuilding Hope to prepare a case on behalf of HPV vaccine victims for the Inter- American Commission for Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Girls and women in Colombia and elsewhere have suffered serious human rights violations from two types of HPV vaccines, Cervarix and Gardasil. The research will build on four recent judicial decisions from Colombia decided in favor of HPV vaccine victims. A recent decision of the Colombian Constitutional Court regarding the country s HPV vaccine mandate stated: In conclusion, any action intended to instrumentalize the person, preventing him from making the decisions he deems appropriate for his own body, is clearly disproportionate and contrary to the principles that inform the Constitution, which is why the HPV vaccine cannot be considered mandatory for Colombian women who are the target population. Jurisprudence has developed the independent principle of informed consent, which, in turn, makes real the Constitutional principles of human dignity, the free development of personality, individual freedom (mandate liberate), pluralism and constitutes a decisive factor for the protection of the rights to health and to the integrity of the human person. Project relevance The Rebuilding Hope project will help thousands of girls, teenagers and Colombian women whose health has been severely damaged by HPV vaccination. Many institutions in Colombia and elsewhere have participated in efforts to hide HPV vaccine adverse effects, including governmental authorities, vaccine manufacturers, medical organizations with conflicts of interest and the media. This project will contribute to judicial discourse around the world on the balance between basic human rights principles, including individual autonomy v. public benefit and the obligation of the medical profession to First Do No Harm, (primum non nocere). To date, the target population for HPV vaccines has received inadequate information to be able to weigh the risks and benefits of this medical intervention. It is critical that further research occur and become available on the injuries that have occurred from the HPV vaccine. This process of further scientific inquiry and distribution of information must occur without stigmatization or persecution of HPV victims, their families and supporting physicians and scientists. Audience This report will help develop a case to go to the Inter-American Commission and Court. In addition, the report may serve to raise awareness in the international community of problems with the HPV vaccine and existing laws and human rights norms regarding preventive medical interventions. Websites

8 These websites give background about HPV vaccine victims in Colombia and about Rebuilding Hope What kind of students does the project needs? The Project will accept up to 8 lawyers. We will prefer students with Spanish language ability, but we will welcome all students with an interest in international human rights law. Project Supervision The lead attorney from Rebuilding Hope is Mónica León Del Rio; she has been the lawyer in the 4 cases in Colombia about the HPV vaccine. She will supervise the research group from March 12-16, In addition, Mary Holland, Director of Graduate Lawyering, and Kim Mack Rosenberg, an attorney in private practice in New York City, will participate in the project. Holland and Rosenberg are the co-authors of a book about the HPV vaccine due out in early 2018.

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