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Our Mission
Established in 1987, the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law serves as a centre for international human rights work, through which experienced lawyers, Faculty, and law students engage in meaningful social change.
The international human rights clinic course, the first clinic of its kind in Canada and the cornerstone of the IHRP, is a specialized law practice of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. The clinic serves as a partner in international and domestic social movements while training the next generation of movement lawyers in Canada. It provides legal services to individuals, communities, non-governmental organizations, and lawyers to protect and promote international human rights before Canadian courts, regional and UN treaty bodies, and foreign courts and international tribunals, while providing supervised clinical legal education to University of Toronto law students.
The IHRP clinic aims to emulate the decolonial transformation of the field of international human rights. Drawing upon its unique position within Canada, the IHRP’s work aims to encourage the country’s adherence to its own international human rights commitments by ensuring accountability of its harms across the globe and those of third parties to which it is meant to regulate. The IHRP will pursue change in the following areas: corporate accountability, climate justice, and Indigenous rights. Read more about our current clinic projects here.
You can read the IHRP's 2014 Strategic Plan here.
* Please note: The IHRP only selects projects through referrals from NGOs. We do not provide legal services to individuals without a referral from an NGO.