Facilitating Knowledge Exchange: Working Group Projects

 2014-2015 Working Groups

Annotated International Humanitarian Law Bibliography

Partner Organization: International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva

Student Leaders: Glenn Gibson (3L/MGA), Brent Lemon (2L)

The rules of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) have been adopted by states as an acceptable compromise between the imperative to win wars and the obligation to spare civilian lives, property destruction, and unnecessary suffering.  The rules and norms of IHL are complex and derive from a number of sources; it is generally agreed that these rules are not as widely disseminated as they should be. Strengthening awareness of IHL and making the literature more accessible is thus an essential step to ensuring the IHL delivers on its promise of providing protection to vulnerable civilians and limiting the impacts of war on humanity.

Now in its 3rd year, IHRP students partner with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to improve the accessibility of literature on ICL to students, legal academics, practitioners, those who participate in armed conflict (such as the military), and the general public.  Students work with the ICRC to update and annotate its existing and authoritative IHL bibliography.  The summaries prepared by the IHRP working group are available on the ICRC's catalogue of IHL literature.

The ICRC was founded as a result of the work of Henry Dunant, a Swiss, at the battle of Solferino in 1859, where thousands of wounded French, Austrian and Italian soldiers were left without adequate medical care. Dunant's work led to the adoption of the first Geneva Convention and the humanitarian principles he invoked continue to inform the work of the ICRC today. The ICRC remains the guardian of IHL today, and is highly respected for its diplomacy and action in the field. Given the ICRC’s reputation and heavy involvement in IHL, it is truly an ideal partner through which to have an impact on the field.

 Mapping Global Health Rights

Partner Organization: Lawyer's Collective, India

Student Leaders: James Rendell (2L/MGA); Amy Tang (3L)

Achieving the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is a fundamental goal of individuals and governments around the world. In pursuit of this aim, the right to health and other health-related rights have been enshrined in a number of international and regional human rights treaties, as well as national constitutions and laws. This has led to a significant body of cases that interpret the content and State obligations of health-related rights from both common and civil law jurisdictions. This working group aims to improve the accessibility of international jurisprudence on the right to health and other health-related rights.

The Global Health and Human Rights Database is a universally accessible online database of case law, national constitutions, and international and regional instruments relating to health and human rights. The database was developed by Lawyers Collective, a leading public interest legal organization in India, and the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown University. It became publicly available in March 2013 and was formally launched on October 24, 2013.

The database is an important resource for civil society, NGOs, lawyers, and governments engaging in health rights litigation or comparative legal analysis on issues related to global health and human rights. Through this working group, students will summarize relevant cases and expand the resources available on the database. Opportunities are also available for students to provide comprehensive blog posts on a right to health issue, which will be published on the database.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Country-Conditions Memos

Student Leaders: Genevieve Ryan (2L), Alana Pasut (3L)

Now in its 6th year, the SOGI Working Groups continues to expand the IHRP's database on country-conditions memorandum detailing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The database now contains 34 country reports, representing countries on every continent. The resources are invaluable to refugee lawyers around the world who advance claims based on LGBT persecution, and have been downloaded thousands of times.  

 Women's Human Rights Resources 

Partner Organization: Bora Laskin Law Library

Student Leaders: Maia Besseme (2L), Kristina Panayotopoulos (2L)

Continuing work commenced in 2012, this working group will expand the scope of the existing catalogue of resources on international women’s rights issues currently housed at the Bora Laskin Law Library website, Created in 1995, the Women’s Human rights Resources (WHRR) database has become a crucial tool for human rights defenders across the globe who use it to access cutting-edge academic research that was previously confined to law libraries which are often inaccessible to women in the Global South. Professor Rebecca Cook, a women’s rights pioneer and founder of the WHRR database, was behind the push to update the WHRR. “This is such an important way for students to advance the field of women’s rights,” says Cook.

The WHRR database provides annotations for key UN documents and leading scholarly articles on a range of topics from economic globalization to reproductive rights to armed conflict. The WHRR database receives more than 15,000 hits per month, with diverse users from over 100 countries. This year’s group will continue to update the existing content while adding new content from the UN.

Selected Past Working Groups

Click here to access IHRP Working Group and Clinic Reports

Training Materials, Database Creation

 

Legislative and Policy Change

 

Miscellaneous Research

 

 

Please Note: Resources found on this page were prepared by law students; they are not exhaustive, nor are they updated on a regular basis. The information provided here is not a substitute for legal advice or legal assistance, and the International Human Rights program at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law cannot provide such advice or assistance.