Handbook

The Human Rights Clinic gives students the opportunity to experience legal practice and undertake the work of a human rights lawyer under intensive faculty supervision. Students work on cutting-edge human rights cases and projects that focus on advancing the rights of vulnerable persons in Australia and internationally, with a particular focus on migrant workers and refugees. Bridging theory and practice, students contribute to effecting change in a global, cross-cultural context, working on client cases and projects that often develop or test law or policy. The Clinic is open to students in the final stages of their law degree who, in the non-intensive course, work in the clinic office on campus one day per week.  The weekly clinic seminar addresses both the skills and critiques of human rights advocacy, requiring students to critically reflect on their clinical work and on the role of law and lawyers in advancing human rights. 

Main Topics:

• International human rights law and institutions
• Domestic human rights mechanisms
• The role of the human rights lawyer 
• Interviewing skills
• Human rights reporting
• Law reform
• Advocacy, campaigns and coalition-building
• Working with the media