The Human Rights Center seeks to bridge the worlds of academia, policy, and activism by conducting empirical research on emerging issues in international justice and humanitarian law.

WAR CRIMES

Since 1995, the Human Rights Center has developed several research projects aimed at documenting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide throughout the world. Current projects include documenting exposure to violence and forced conscription in northern Uganda and investigating the experience of former detainees held at the U.S. military installation at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Previous initiatives have included projects in Iraq and Kosovo.

HEALTH & HUMAN RIGHTS

Because of their training, health practitioners are well placed to promote human rights, and health care providers also have a duty to respect international standards of human rights and humanitarian law. We have explored these linkages through our work with refugee populations in the United States; in an assessment of mental health programs in Albania; and in our studies of the role justice is playing in the aftermath of genocide and war in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. More recent projects explored access to healthcare for workers in post-Katrina New Orleans and the connection between human rights and the spread of infectious diseases in Burma and its border regions.

JUSTICE & RECONSTRUCTION

Faculty and scholars affiliated with the Human Righs Center have completed several research projects examining the relationship between the pursuit of international justice and local approaches to social reconstruction in the aftermath of war and genocide. “Communities in Crisis” addressed these issues in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and the Vulnerable Population Initiative for Vulnerable Populations is pursuing similar questions in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DNA Reunification Project also seeks to reunite families torn apart by the armed conflict in El Salvador and hold the government accountable.