Human Rights

“Development funds intended to improve Honduras were instead funneled to an already wealthy family with no experience building hydroelectric dams and were ultimately used to finance violence and tear apart the social fabric,” said Professor Roxanna Altholz, an international human rights lawyer and one of the report’s lead investigators.

A groundbreaking investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has exposed the financial web behind the 2016 assassination of Honduran activist Berta Cáceres. The report, co-authored by Professor Roxanna Altholz, reveals how her murder was a calculated “business decision” intended to safeguard the interests of a major hydroelectric project against her environmental advocacy. 

Alexa Koenig, Berkeley Law co-faculty director, Human Rights Center, shares findings into the deportations of Venezuelan’s to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.

“It’s unfortunate that this story hasn’t had a chance to be seen by the American people,” said Alexa Koenig, director of UC Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center, adding that it is important for citizens to understand actions taken by the U.S. government “in their name.”

“Despite the rebranding, there is striking continuity in personnel, commanders, tactics and even insignia between Wagner and Africa Corps,” said Lindsay Freeman, senior director of international accountability at the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Human Rights Center, which has monitored the conflict in Mali.

Because Africa Corps is directly embedded in Russia’s Ministry of Defense, it can be treated as an organ of the Russian state under international law, Freeman said. “That means any war crimes committed by Africa Corps in Mali are, in principle, attributable to the Russian government under the rules on state responsibility.”

“Wagner has deftly leveraged information and communications technologies to cultivate and promote its global brand as ruthless mercenaries. Their Telegram network in particular, which depicts their conduct across the Sahel, serves as a proud public display of their brutality,” said Lindsay Freeman, director of the Technology, Law & Policy program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law.

“What we’re trying to do in GRIL is expand the opportunity to data science students who are also on a career path to work with clients and give them the opportunity to work alongside lawyers in a social justice space and (learn) how they can apply data for good,” said GRIL director Laurel Fletcher.

Roxanna Altholz, director of the UC Berkeley School Law’s Human Rights Clinic, Medha Raman the Dale and James J. Pinto Fellow at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Ricky Garza the Border Policy Counsel for Southern Border Communities Coalition argue that the Supreme Court case Barnes v. Felix is a long-overdue opportunity to address a systemic problem: the United States’ woefully inadequate standards for law enforcement use of deadly force.

Alexa Koenig, a co-faculty director at Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center discusses how nearly 10 years after receiving a MacArthur “genius” award for institutions, The Human Rights Center has transformed itself and its work, offering lessons for both grant makers and nonprofits.

Claudia Polsky, director of Berkley’s Environmental Law Clinic, said it’s rare for the Human Rights Council to send allegation letters to a transnational corporation, rather than solely to national government. “We hope the UN’s action will induce shareholders to bring DuPont in line with international human rights law.”