The International Human Rights Clinic is the first of several international programs the Stanford Legal Clinic expects to create in the next few years.
Most recently, the program has focused on the complex, volunteer dispute resolution system in Buduburam, a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana. Students spent the winter quarter at Stanford Law with project leader Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights Barbara Olshansky, studying the historical, cultural, and legal context, working on dispute resolution skills, and beginning their communications with camp leaders. In the spring, the eight students and leaders traveled to Ghana to work in the camp to apply what they'd learned.
In past years, students have worked with a Ghanaian organization interviewing scores of detainees in police detention centers, calling attention to individual cases and helping to create a framework for more general challenges to the conditions of confinement. Other students have worked with lawyers and community groups furthering human rights in areas such as the right to healthcare. Their work has involved counseling people about their legal rights under a new national health insurance program and collaborating on a report outlining priorities and strategies.