International Pro Bono Opportunities
The Greater Cleveland International Lawyers Group is committed to service at all levels of international law. Below is a brief list of several organizations which can provide opportunities for professional and personal involvement in international law.
Founded in 1982, the Legal Support Network (LSN) is comprised of lawyers, law students, law professors, judges and paralegals from throughout the United States who are dedicated to protecting the human rights of all people and ending human rights violations, particularly those directed at lawyers and law students. AI Lawyers' Groups are found in over 20 sections around the world.
The main purpose of the NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court is to advocate for the creation of an effective, just and independent International Criminal Court. The Coalition brings together a broad-based network of over 1,000 NGOs, international law experts and other civil society groups. The multi-track approach of the Coalition involves: promoting education and awareness of the ICC and the Rome Statute at the national, regional and global level; supporting the successful completion of the mandate of the Preparatory Commission and facilitating NGO involvement in the process; promoting the universal acceptance and ratification of the Rome Statute, including the adoption of comprehensive national implementing legislation following ratification; and expanding and strengthening the Coalition's global network. To achieve these goals, some of our activities include:
v Covening sectoral caucuses (Women's Children's, Faith, Peace, and Victims'), national and regional networks, and issue working groups.
v Maintaining a World Wide Web site and email lists to facilitate the exchange of NGO and expert documentation and information concerning the ICC negotiations and the ad hoc Tribunals and to foster discussion and debate about substantive issues. ational Criminal Court.
v Facilitating meetings between the Coalition and representatives of governments, UN officials and others involved in the ICC negotiations.
v Promoting education and awareness of the ICC negotiations at relevant public and professional conferences - including UN conferences, committees, commissions and preparatory meetings.
Producing newsletters, bulletins, media advisories, reviews and papers on all aspects of efforts to establish the ICC.
Since 1978, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has worked to protect and promote fundamental human rights. Its work is impartial, holding all governments accountable to the standards affirmed in the International Bill of Human Rights. Its programs focus on building the legal institutions and structures that will guarantee human rights in the long term. Strengthening independent human rights advocacy at the local level is a key feature of its work.
The Committee also seeks to influence the US. government to promote the rule of law in both its foreign and domestic policy, and presses for greater integration of human rights into the work of the UN and the World Bank. The Committee works to protect refugees through the representation of asylum seekers and by challenging legal restrictions on the rights of refugees in the United States and around the world.
The ICJ continues to be a key player in standard setting. Through provision of technical expertise and lobbying at the UN Commission of Human Rights, the ICJ can play an important role in the elaboration and adoption of new human rights instruments...
Commission Members: Membership of the Commission is composed of 45 eminent Jurists who are representative of the different legal systems of the world...
International Secretariat The Secretariat in Geneva comprises the Secretary-General, supported by a team of Legal Officers and administrative personnel, representing all continents . . .
Associates of the ICJ
You are invited to help us by subscribing as an Associate....( Contributors 220 CHF, Sponsors 500 CHF, Patrons 1'000 CHF ). Associates will receive copies of all ICJ/CIJL Publications, including special reports during the current year. (Click on Associates link, then, on the next page, click on the catalog button which is found on the left hand side of the page).
Objectives:
1- The legal protection and promotion of all human rights including economic, social and cultural rights
2- The observance of the Rule of Law in the context of globalisation
3- The promotion and protection of the independence of judges and lawyers
4- Participation in human rights mechanisms, norms and their implementation at the universal, regional and national level
5- Fighting impunity
6- Abolition of the death penalty
The World Federalist Association (WFA) is a non-profit educational and advocacy organization advancing effective global solutions to global problems through a federal system of democratic global governance. In addition to a committed activist base across the United States, WFA coordinates several legislative efforts on Capitol Hill to democratize the institutions of globalization, pursue support for prosecuting war criminals through the International Criminal Court, and reform UN peacekeeping to allow intervention before a conflict escalates into genocide.
An international non-profit organization working for accountability for violations of international humanitarian law.
Human Rights Watch is the largest human rights organization based in the United States. Human Rights Watch researchers conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world. Human Rights Watch then publishes those findings in dozens of books and reports every year, generating extensive coverage in local and international media. This publicity helps to embarrass abusive governments in the eyes of their citizens and the world. Human Rights Watch then meets with government officials to urge changes in policy and practice -- at the United Nations, the European Union, in Washington and in capitals around the world. In extreme circumstances, Human Rights Watch presses for the withdrawal of military and economic support from governments that egregiously violate the rights of their people. In moments of crisis, Human Rights Watch provides up-to-the-minute information about conflicts while they are underway. Refugee accounts, which were collected, synthesized and cross-corroborated by our researchers, helped shape the response of the international community to recent wars in Kosovo and Chechnya.
Human Rights Watch believes that international standards of human rights apply to all people equally, and that sharp vigilance and timely protest can prevent the tragedies of the twentieth century from recurring. At Human Rights Watch, we remain convinced that progress can be made when people of good will organize themselves to make it happen.
Some examples stated by Human Rights Watch:
v We successfully led an international coalition to press for the adoption of a treaty banning the use of child soldiers. Currently, as many as 300,000 children are serving in armies and rebel forces around the world. The treaty raises the minimum age for participation in armed conflict to eighteen.
v We and our partner organizations in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for our work campaigning against this indiscriminate weapon. The mine-ban treaty was approved more quickly than any big multilateral treaty in history.
v We were among the first to call for an international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and have worked extensively with the tribunal's investigators and prosecutors. Six of the seven counts on which the tribunal finally indicted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1999 were cases that Human Rights Watch had documented in Kosovo.
v We have provided extensive evidence of human rights abuses to the war crimes tribunal for Rwanda, where the genocide in 1994 killed more than half a million people. Our expert testimony and legal analysis have helped convict several genocidaires.
v We played an active role in the legal action against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London and helped to buttress the important principle that even former heads of state can be held accountable for the most heinous human rights crimes. The "Pinochet precedent" has established that dictators who block their prosecution at home can be tried anywhere in the world. Human Rights Watch is also leading a global campaign to ratify the treaty for a permanent international criminal court, to prosecute those accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
We began reporting on human rights abuses in Kosovo in 1990. As Yugoslav stepped up their campaign of terror there, our up-to-the-minute reports helped to shape opinion and mobilize a response.
ELSA is the world's largest independent law students' association. It comprises a membership in excess of 25 000 students and recent graduates who are interested in law and have demonstrated commitment to international issues.
ELSA operates primarily through its local groups, which are located at more than 200 universities throughout 39 countries in Europe.