2024 Annual Report
Executive Director’s Note
There is no denying the urgency and significance of this moment. We remain resolved to uphold the promise of human rights for all, rooted in the inherent worth and dignity of each person.
From our events bringing global experts to UCLA to discuss nuanced and complex human rights issues, to our human rights scholarship, post-graduate fellowships, student scholarships, legal research, and advocacy alongside impacted communities, this Annual Report evidences that The Promise Institute for Human Rights is resilient and rising to meet the moment.
We are grateful to our students; faculty, especially Faculty Directors Prof. Maximo Langer and Prof. Kal Raustiala; partners; and supporters allowing us to continue our critical work in the areas of accountability, racial justice, indigenous rights, migration, and environmental justice. Together, we can and will utilize the power of the human rights frame to effect change and seek justice for all while empowering the next generation of legal advocates to carry forward this work.
Thank you for joining us,
Professor Hannah R. Garry
Executive Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights
Impact & Advocacy
2024 Aurora Prize and Human Rights & Humanitarian Forum
In May, The Promise Institute collaborated with the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative to co-host the 2024 Aurora Prize and the first ever Human Rights and Humanitarian Forum. More than 600 attendees from around the world convened on UCLA’s campus to honor and support individuals on the frontlines addressing human rights crises around the globe. The eighth Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was awarded to Dr. Denis Mukwege, a world-renowned gynecological surgeon and human rights activist seeking justice and accountability for crimes of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The accompanying forum addressed pressing topics at the intersection of human rights and humanitarianism and featured world leaders, activists, entrepreneurs, and academics addressing global healthcare, forced displacement, climate change, the right to education, AI, philanthropy, and gender justice.
The Promise Institute Europe
The last year saw the launch of our sister institute: The Promise Institute Europe. Helmed in Amsterdam and The Hague by inaugural The Promise Institute Executive Director Kate Mackintosh, the Institute is also home to the UCLA Law in The Hague program, which provides students opportunities for hands-on experience with Europe-based human rights bodies and international courts.
Ending Gender Apartheid
The Promise Institute was deeply honored to continue our work with the End Gender Apartheid Campaign by co-sponsoring the 2024 American Society of International Law (ASIL) Champion of the International Rule of Law Award presented to Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai.
The event marked 12 years since Malala was shot by the Taliban at the age of 15 for speaking out against their extremist policies banning girls from schools. The next day, Prof. Hannah Garry participated in an expert round table with Afghan Women Human Rights Defenders hosted by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Malala Fund.
Advocacy at the International Criminal Court
In addition, The Promise Institute sponsored three Afghan Women Human Rights Defenders to travel to The Hague in December 2024 to join a delegation of Afghan and international human rights organizations attending the 23rd Assembly of States Parties Meeting of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Prof. Hannah Garry and two UCLA Law students, Holly Duffy and Debby Rab, participated in the delegation and organized a meeting of eight Afghan women with the ICC Office of the Prosecutor to discuss cooperation with the ongoing investigations into crimes against humanity and urge for issuance of arrest warrants against the Taliban.
Further, The Promise Institute co-sponsored an ICC ASP side event with four of the six States (Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, and Luxembourg) who referred the situation of Afghan women and girls to the ICC. The event was hosted with 10 civil society organizations featuring Afghan women and international law experts to discuss avenues for ensuring accountability for gender-based crimes in Afghanistan before international courts and human rights mechanisms.
Expert Witness Testimony on Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan
In January 2024, the Gender Apartheid Parliamentary Inquiry was convened in the UK House of Lords as prompted by growing concerns over the segregation and oppression experienced by women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran. The Inquiry, led by a panel of UK Parliamentarians chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws KC (pictured here, left), engaged Afghan and Iranian human rights defenders and experts, as well as international experts and relevant United Nations Special Procedures mandate-holders, who urged the acknowledgment of the situation as “gender apartheid.”
Executive Director Prof. Hannah Garry testified as an expert witness on utilizing the International Criminal Court for addressing gender apartheid against women and girls in Afghanistan. The Inquiry report was published on International Women’s Day by the International Bar Association International Human Rights Institute. Prof. Garry and The Promise Institute are now partnering with the IBAHRI and WilmerHale to bring claims of gender persecution and apartheid on behalf of Afghan women and girls in the pending Afghanistan investigation at the International Criminal Court.
Justice & Accountability for Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh Project
Our Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh project seeks to address impunity for international crimes perpetrated against Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh and parts of Armenia by the Azerbaijan government from 2020 to the present.
Marking the 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention, Executive Director Prof. Hannah R. Garry and other experts issued a Letter to President Biden on Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh asking for concrete steps towards accountability for international crimes by Azerbaijan against displaced Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh and for ensuring the right of return. Subsequently, Prof. Garry was invited to speak at an international conference in Yerevan on pathways to post-conflict justice, advising on reparations and mixed compensation claims for Armenians. She also met with a delegation of refugees along with former U.S. Ambassador Stephen Rapp.
We also hosted an event at UCLA with our sister institute, UCLA’s The Promise Armenian Institute, on the Lachin Corridor Blockade entitled Atrocities, Genocide & the Duty to Prevent and to Punish Under International Law: The Situation of Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh.
Further, we partnered with the University Network for Human Rights, Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, Wesleyan University, Oxford University, and Yale’s Lowenstein Project to send four students on a fact-finding mission to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh in the summer of 2023. The Tip of the Iceberg: Understanding Azerbaijan’s Blockade of the Lachin Corridor as Part of a Wider Genocidal Campaign against Ethnic Armenians, the resulting briefing paper, rightly warned of the impending ethnic cleansing and genocide ramping up against ethnic Armenians that resulted mere weeks after the paper was issued.
Testimony and Submission before the UN Human Rights Committee on Guantánamo Detainees in Geneva
In October 2023, Executive Director Prof. Hannah Garry spoke before the United Nations Human Rights Committee regarding ongoing violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with respect to her client, Abu Zubaydah, and other detainees by the U.S. and its allies in the aftermath of 9/11.
Read Prof. Garry’s submission with co-counsel on behalf of Abu Zubaydah and other detainees, calling for effective remedies for torture and arbitrary detention (Abu Zubaydah has been held without charge over the course of the last 23 years).
Crimes Against Humanity Treaty
We co-sponsored three events on the Draft Articles for a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty at ASIL’s Annual Meeting in the spring of 2024; at ABILA’s International Law Week in New York in the fall of 2024; and at the 23rd Assembly of States Parties meeting at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Executive Director Prof. Hannah Garry and other international law experts spoke at these events, which were part of advocacy with civil society groups to urge States to adopt a resolution for moving from the Draft Articles to treaty negotiations. On November 22, 2024, the Resolution was unanimously adopted by 99 States. We are now on course for a treaty by 2029.
A Crimes Against Humanity treaty based on the U.N. International Law Commission’s 2019 Draft Articles would require States to prevent and punish Crimes Against Humanity; provide for interstate cooperation; and confer jurisdiction on the International Court of Justice for State responsibility — among other things. This will be a crucial opportunity for the inclusion of gender apartheid in the treaty. Currently there are hundreds of thousands of civilian victims of Crimes Against Humanity worldwide.
Climate Injustice in Haiti and the Case for Reparations
We were pleased to publish a report Bay Kou Bliye, Pote Mak Sonje: Climate Injustice in Haiti and the Case for Reparations, produced by former Racial Justice Policy Counsel S. Priya Morley together with the Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law, in collaboration with Haitian social movement organizations.
Haiti is one of the countries most harmed by the global climate crisis. The country’s climate vulnerability is not just a product of its geography—it is also the result of centuries of racial injustice, originating in colonialism, slavery, and Haiti’s “independence ransom” to France. There is little available research presenting the impacts of the climate crisis on Haitian people, analyzing the connections between racial and climate justice, or presenting demands for climate justice, including—critically—for reparations.
This report outlines the impacts of the climate crisis in Haiti, their colonial construction, and the legal and moral arguments for reparations to advance both climate and racial justice. It also touches on grassroots efforts in Haiti for climate resilience and to advance land rights, environmental justice, and community self-determination.
Climate Change Testimony Before the IACtHR
Experts and students from The Promise Institute submitted an amicus brief to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights arguing that the climate emergency and human rights must be understood through a racial justice lens. The brief notably spotlights the rights of Afro-descendant and Indigenous peoples.
The Court requested testimony from our Human Rights in the Americas Project Director Joseph Berra and former International Human Rights Clinic Director S. Priya Morley in their 166th Regular Session, where our team was joined by other civil society organizations throughout the region to assist the Court in developing an Advisory Opinion on the climate emergency and human rights.
Advancing Indigenous Housing Rights in Los Angeles
Our Human Rights in Action Clinic students, led by Prof. Joseph Berra, Director of The Promise Institute’s Human Rights in the Americas Project, joined the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission in releasing a pivotal new report which presents and analyzes frameworks for the advancement of the rights of Indigenous people experiencing homelessness.
Press/Media Appearances
Explore our latest media appearances, including in The New York Times, ABC News, and Newsweek.
Back to Top
Support Our Work
Your support powers our human rights education, research, and advocacy.
Donate NowResearch & Scholarship
Symposium: Human Rights & Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) harms are not just theoretical: AI has already been used in facilitating mass surveillance as well as perpetuating bias in the criminal justice system, healthcare, education, job market, access to housing, and access to banking, exacerbating discrimination in ways that can be all but imperceptible to the average person. AI is also proving startlingly corrosive on democracies worldwide. At the same time, AI has potential for improving human rights and transforming life as we know it for the better.
Under Jess Peake, Director of UCLA Law’s International & Comparative Law Program, our 2024 symposium convened scholars, practitioners, activists, and lawmakers to explore the many ways in which AI is influencing the fulfillment of the entire spectrum of human rights.
Dive into our AI & Human Rights SymposiumAs an outcome of our in-person symposium, The Promise Institute collaborated with Just Security, an online forum for the rigorous analysis of security, democracy, foreign policy, and rights. Just Security published and expanded on insights expressed by our speakers, broadcasting some of the most pressing questions about the relationship between AI and human rights to a larger audience.
Read the Just Security Symposium
UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs (JILFA)
JILFA’s latest edition features research and presentations from international human rights law scholars and practitioners who participated in our 2023 symposium Bringing Human Rights Home and the Reimagining Rights in the Americas Conference, including Joseph Berra, S. Priya Morley, Jim Cavallaro, Sarah Paoletti and more.
ICC Forum
Developed by UCLA Law’s Prof. Richard Steinberg in 2010, the ICC Forum is an online legal journal and world-wide discussion forum with support from The Promise Institute, which focuses on complex legal issues faced by the International Criminal Court. Each semester a question is posed to invited experts. The most recent issue asks with regard to the Israel/Hamas conflict that erupted on October 7, 2023, to what extent can the International Criminal Court deter crimes in the region, facilitate a reduction of violence, provide accountability for criminality in the conflict, or advance post-conflict reconciliation between Israelis and the Palestinian people?
Critical Perspectives on Race & Human Rights: Primer
This primer is intended to be a resource for students, teachers, practitioners, and scholars who are interested in thinking critically about race and human rights. Produced by S. Priya Morley during her time as The Promise Institute Racial Justice Policy Counsel, this primer introduces international law mechanisms for addressing racial inequality and interrogates the future of human rights and racial justice.
Convening of Experts on Climate Reparations & Racial Justice
The devastating effects of climate change – those already felt and those forecast – are experienced disproportionately by those least responsible for the crisis. Produced by S. Priya Morley during her time as The Promise Institute Racial Justice Policy Counsel, this Summary of the March 2023 Convening of experts from the United Nations, Inter-American System, and Regional Social Movements focuses on learning from social movements and building “just relationships.”
Using OSINT to Track Environmental Harms
Under the technology work led by Jess Peake, Director of UCLA Law’s International & Comparative Law Program, our report in partnership with the University of California Digital Investigations Network shows how open source intelligence methods can be used to document environmental harms globally, including how these methodologies are being used in research, litigation, and investigation.
Scholar-at-Risk Program
The Promise Institute is proud to have supported an Afghan Scholar-at-Risk for two years, Dr. Ali Soroosh. During his tenure at The Promise Institute, Dr. Soroosh conducted research on Afghan political stability and constitutions under the supervision of former Institute Faculty Director, Prof. Stephen Gardbaum. This research focused on an important project: the prospects and potentially viable forms of federalism/power sharing in a future, democratic Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Support Our Work
Your support powers our human rights education, research, and advocacy.
Donate NowEducation
Visiting Faculty
2023-2024 Event Highlights
Each semester we host a number of events that allow us to offer responsive and nuanced deep-dive analyses of breaking global crises and developments through a human rights law lens.
The below are selected highlights of our robust events calendar; click on any image to learn more, or visit our Events page for a full catalog.
Clinics
Human Rights in the Americas Clinic students traveled with Prof. Joseph Berra, The Promise Institute Director of the Human Rights in the Americas Project, to Honduras early in 2024. The Honduran Garífuna communities of Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Pietra have been demanding demarcation and clear title to their territories — something which would put the Honduran government in compliance with orders from the Inter-American Court of Rights. Clinic students have been working with Garífuna leaders to advance this process and are shown here after meeting with the Director of the Honduran National Agrarian Institute.
Human Rights Litigation student Daniel Kiefus ’26 helped prepare arguments before the Ninth Circuit with UC Irvine students, joining our Deputy Director Cathy Sweetser in pursuing greater supply chain accountability and the elimination of child slavery in cacao.
The Human Rights Litigation Clinic also traveled to Washington D.C. to argue a case on wrongful imprisonment and violations of due process and freedom of expression, Mirmehdi et al v. USA, before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Learn More about the Case
Under the International Human Rights Clinic and former Director Prof. S. Priya Morley, students Shreyashi Sharma and Deeptha Rao, LLM ’24, worked with Patricia V. Sellers, Special Advisor for Slavery Crimes for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, on research and advocacy projects related to Sellers’ efforts towards broader recognition of the crime of the slave trade, including under the Rome Statute of the ICC.
The students also worked with Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program and other partners to organize a side event on Decolonizing International Justice, held in conjunction with the Assembly of States Parties at the United Nations in New York City in December 2023 (shown above).
Human Rights Litigation Clinic Earns Pro Bono Award
Our Human Rights Litigation Clinic team, with Deputy Director Catherine Sweetser and Fellow Tessa Baizer, was honored by community partner the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles with their Pro Bono Award for its work on protecting the rights of the unhoused in Garcia v. Los Angeles.
Open Source Digital Investigation
Course on Human Rights and War Crimes: Digital Open Source Investigations
In a course designed to prepare students for cutting-edge accountability work, Jess Peake, Director of the International and Comparative Law Program, unpacked the concepts and practices underlying digital open-source investigations. Through learning legal requirements for practical skills, the purpose and history of these investigations, ethical considerations, identifying trauma responses when investigating atrocity crimes, and the history of open source investigations in human rights organizations and international courts, students gain valuable skills for any legal career.
Indigenous Land Defenders of Brazil:
In Memoriam (2019-2022)
Our report Indigenous Land Defenders of Brazil: In Memoriam (2019-2022) leveraged online open source information and investigation techniques to document what is happening to Indigenous land defenders in Brazil and how it connects to broader regional threats against Indigenous environmental defenders.
Produced by students under the supervision of Jess Peake and in partnership with Cultural Survival, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, this report is a unique advocacy tool that maps the ongoing threats Indigenous land defenders face as they stand up to extractivists.
For Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran Digital Archive Coalition
Two years after the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini and the emergence of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, victims and survivors have yet to see justice for the atrocity crimes and human rights violations committed against them. In response to this accountability gap, a coalition came together to preserve, verify, and analyze vulnerable digital artifacts recording serious human rights violations committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran against protesters.
Students worked under the supervision of Jess Peake, Director of the International and Comparative Law Program, who collaborated with the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project, Mnemonic, UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and the Azadi Archive to build the Iranian Archive.
Back to Top
Support Our Work
Your support powers our human rights education, research, and advocacy.
Donate NowStudent Awards & Fellowships
Cornell Human Rights Scholars
“It is the support of scholarships such as this that make it possible for first-generation, immigrant students like myself to pursue an education and career in human rights law!”
The Chris Cornell Memorial Human Rights Scholarship has a special place in our hearts: it honors Chris Cornell’s commitment to justice, human rights and advocacy for those in need. It is offered to incoming 1Ls to enable them to attend UCLA Law.
In his prolific career as a singer, songwriter, and performer, Cornell wrote and recorded the title song for “The Promise,” the first feature film to tell the story of the Armenian Genocide.
Checking in on Post-Graduate Fellows
Students have used post-graduate fellowships as a stepping stone to go on to human rights careers. Among others, alum Andrew Reisenauer is now at Lutheran Social Services and alum Kristi Ueda is now working at the Center for Justice and Accountability.
After Steffi Colao graduated from UCLA Law in 2023, she took advantage of The Promise fellowship to fully fund her post-graduate opportunities to work with two organizations:
“As an externally-funded fellow at ANAR, I was able to greatly increase their capacity to take on essential removal defense and detained casework. Most of the clients I worked with we would not have otherwise had the ability to take on, so the funding really made a difference to an emerging organization. At ECCHR, I had the space to research a few new strategic angles for our cases, which I’m excited about and hope shapes the work going forward.”
Class of 2024 Awardees
“I am incredibly grateful to The Promise faculty for invaluable mentorship. They taught me so much about on-the-ground advocacy in my own backyard and from an international perspective.”
“I’m so thankful for The Promise Institute’s support and community, and I’m excited to continue to work together as I pursue a career in corporate accountability and human rights.”
Transition to Human Rights Award
The Promise Institute for Human Rights Award
Human Rights in the Americas Award
The Promise Institute for Human Rights Award
2023 and 2024 Promise Summer Fellows
Back to Top
Our Origin Story: The Promise Film
The Promise Institute owes its founding to Dr. Eric Esrailian, producer of the film, The Promise. As the first feature film to tell the story of the Armenian Genocide, The Promise is a powerful example of the way art can connect history to action.
Support Our Work
Your support powers our human rights education, research, and advocacy.
Donate Now