Summer 2024 Human Rights Newsletter: Landmark reports on Gaza genocide, Nagorno-Karabakh ethnic cleansing & more from the University Network for Human Rights
Summer 2024
In this edition:
UNHR coordinates expert legal analysis finding Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
Advocacy toward accountability and justice for ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh continues
Next generation of human rights defenders gets intensive field training in spring human rights simulation
Wesleyan and Yale students engage in fact-finding and advocacy work with partner communities abroad
UNHR helps victims of industrial pollution score major victory at Inter-American Court
UNHR aids local community facing unjust eviction by deploying international housing rights standards
Inter-American Court hearing on climate change highlights UNHR amicus brief
UNHR coordinates expert legal analysis finding Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
On May 15, the University Network for Human Rights published Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israel’s Military Actions since October 7, 2023. The report, submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other bodies, was released on the anniversary of the Nakba, the period between 1947 and 1949 in which 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes during the establishment of the Israeli State.
Genocide in Gaza is the most thorough legal analysis to date of the “crime of crimes” expressed in the 1948 Genocide Convention and the related international jurisprudence, as applied to the facts from on the ground in Gaza since October 7. In the report, the University Network, alongside experts and students from clinics and centers at Cornell Law School, Boston University Law School, the University of Pretoria, and Yale Law School, find the evidence of ongoing genocide to be clear and overwhelming.
As reports of egregious abuses continue to emerge from Israel’s escalated bombardment in Rafah, analyzing the last eight months through the lens of international law becomes ever-more important – especially since violations of the Genocide Convention produce obligations for other states. Countries, including the United States, have a positive duty to not be complicit in, and to work together to prevent and sanction genocidal operations. If they don’t, these third States are themselves in violation of the Convention.
Read some of the coverage highlighting Genocide in Gaza:
Lo que ocurre en Gaza no es guerra, es genocidio, La Razón Bolivia
New study claims Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, Boston Globe
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Advocacy toward accountability and justice for ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh continues
In March, following the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), UNHR published a report detailing the findings of over three years of fact-finding in the region, We are No One: How Three Years of Impunity for Atrocities Led to the Ethnic Cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenians. The report is a comprehensive account of rights abuses during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War and its aftermath – finding that Azerbaijan has continued to commit widespread arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, incitement to hatred, attacks on cultural heritage, and forced displacement against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Students from Wesleyan, UCLA, Yale, Harvard, and Oxford participated in several fact-finding trips, supervised by UNHR staff.
The work to prevent further abuses in Nagorno-Karabakh is far from over. In the coming months, UNHR will return to Armenia to partner with affected communities seeking justice.
In March, UNHR supervisors and students from Wesleyan and Yale traveled to Geneva to meet with United Nation mandate holders, government leaders, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders at the 55th Session of the Human Rights Council. Students have also led the drafting of submissions mandate holders on torture.
In April, UNHR Policy Director Thomas Becker participated in an International Bar Association panel moderated by UNHR Fellow Anoush Baghdassarian about the September forced displacement of the 120,000 ethnic Armenian residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijan. The panelists discussed efforts to seek accountability for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, focusing on strategies, including a range of national and international advocacy initiatives.
Throughout May, Becker also presented at U.S. House and Senate events addressing war crimes and atrocities committed by Azerbaijan against ethnic Armenians.
Learn more about our research, calls to action, and ongoing work toward justice on our online project page.
Read our most recent op-ed, “Ethnic cleansing in our time in Nagorno-Karabakh,” in the Hartford Courant.
Next generation of human rights defenders gets intensive field training in spring human rights simulation
UNHR held its semi-annual Human Rights Fact-finding Simulation in April. This is a central component of our training of the next generation of advocates. Students from Yale University, Wesleyan University, and Trinity College interviewed over 50 actors trained to play various stakeholders over two days, then engaged in two days of synthesis and advocacy. Read more about the intensive pedagogical exercise here.
Wesleyan and Yale students engage in fact-finding and advocacy work with partner communities abroad
Students from Wesleyan and Yale Universities traveled with project supervisors to Jamaica, Bolivia, Mexico, and the U.S. South to investigate violations of environmental, indigenous, and other human rights. Read more about our active student projects here.
UNHR helps victims of industrial pollution score major victory at Inter-American Court
A landmark ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) in favor of the residents of La Oroya, finding Peru liable for violating their rights after they had been exposed to unsafe levels of pollution due to mining, has set a key precedent for the protection of the environment and frontline communities.
“In its judgment, published on March 22, 2024, the international court established the Peru’s responsibility for the violation of the rights to a healthy environment, health, personal integrity, life with dignity, access to information, political participation, judicial guarantees and judicial protection of the 80 people involved in the case; for the violation of the rights of the children of 57 victims; and for the violation of the right to life of two victims. The Court also concluded that the State was responsible for violating the obligation of progressive development by adopting regressive measures in environmental protection.” Earth Justice
UNHR submitted two amicus briefs in the case in 2022, which urged the court to establish standards on industrial pollution and protect vulnerable communities. The briefs were joined and signed by former commissioners of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, current and former UN experts, leading environmental law scholars, and civil society organizations.
Read more about the case and UNHR’s two expert and civil society briefs here.
UNHR aids local community facing unjust eviction by deploying international housing rights standards
In February 2024, the University Network for Human Rights published an open letter in support of the Cargill Tenants Union and the tenants at The Lofts at Cargill Falls in Putnam, Connecticut. These residents have been organizing to address extreme health and safety hazards. UNHR’s letter followed months of support by Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator Kenny Morris.
In collaboration with these communities, UNHR demanded that landlord and property management companies respect the human right to adequate and safe housing and address the tenant union’s concerns.
As of May 2024, all tenants have won their cases in housing court – meaning none were evicted and each kept their lease or were able to negotiate.
Inter-American Court hearing on climate change highlights UNHR amicus brief
In April 2024, during a public hearing before the IACtHR, testimony was presented based on an amicus brief submitted by Our Children’s Trust, the University Network for Human Rights, and Defensa Ambiental del Noroeste in December 2023. The brief outlined the measures states must take to address the climate emergency according to international human rights standards
This case represents the first time that the most important human rights tribunal in the Americas will rule on the specific steps states must adopt to protect human rights in the context of climate change – and will be crucial to establish binding guidelines, especially in relation to groups in situations of heightened risk, including children and future generations.
Read the joint amicus brief here.
