Success for Human Rights Clinic pilot project

Human Rights Clinic is a pilot project aimed at students who are nearing completion of the Law Programme at Uppsala University. After a call for applications and the admissions process, about ten students were given the opportunity to work on the project.

The goal was to develop and deepen students' legal skills in collaboration with researchers at the Faculty of Law and lawyers who work with human rights issues on a daily basis. Human Rights Clinic included workshops led by researchers and teachers at the Faculty of Law that introduced students to advanced practical legal writing, such as complaints to regulatory authorities, legal reviews, shadow reports for international organisations, strategic advocacy and ethical issues. The students simultaneously engaged in practical clinical work. Among other things, they formulated official opinions and wrote arguments for ongoing court cases, in close collaboration with Civil Rights Defenders.

The work with legal clinics will continue at the Faculty of Law. The project manager, representatives from Civil Rights Defenders, and law students all conclude that participation in the project was extremely valuable. Anna Jonsson Cornell, professor of comparative constitutional law at the Faculty of Law and project manager of the Human Rights Clinic, now hopes that the partnership between the Law Programme and leading human rights organisations, which is unique in Sweden, will be integrated as a course in the Law Programme.