CLINICAL & SKILLS PROGRAMS > International Human Rights Law Clinic > Projects & Cases

Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights

The Clinic's Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights program works to ensure that the United States complies with international human rights standards in its efforts to combat terrorism. The program's work involves:

• studying the challenges that extremist violence poses to the United States and the impact of existing and proposed counter-terrorism policies;
• developing pragmatic policy solutions that both promote security and respect human rights;
• educating policymakers, the media, and the public about the United States' relevant obligations under international human rights law; and
• advocating policies that protect the country while preserving its core values.

The clinic's work on counter-terrorism rests on a conviction that the United States' founding principle of adherence to a rule of law requires that its counter-terrorism activities comply with international norms. Many of the challenges posed by terrorism against democracies are not new, and international standards codify policy choices and value tradeoffs that embody wisdom from our own and other countries' struggles with similar problems in the past.

Guantánamo and Its Aftermath: A Study of Detainees Released from U.S. Custody
Clinic students are working with UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center on a two-year study of detainees released from the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. To date, no systematic study has been made of Guantánamo detainees once they have left U.S. custody and returned to their countries of origin or other locations. This study will develop a factual record of the long-term impact of U.S. detention practices on detainees during their confinement at the Guantánamo Bay facility and after their release from U.S. custody; assess the perception of detainees on how their incarceration has affected their families and communities; and recommend appropriate legal mechanisms, detention practices, and polices to protect the human rights of detainees taken into U.S. custody during its pursuit of the "war on terror."

In This Section

Accountability and Transitional Justice
Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights
A Rights-Based Approach to Combating Poverty: Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
Promoting Human Rights Within the United States