The Human Rights Entrepreneurs Clinic (HREC) is a first-of-its-kind clinical endeavor, combining core practical skills with entrepreneurial thinking to advance the field of human rights law. Utilizing the unique positionality of a law school clinic, we aim to both move the needle toward justice and accountability with our substantive work, as well as to launch a cohort of changemaking attorneys into the exciting first stages of their careers. In service of these goals, HREC students and faculty form a support team for our partners, learning what it means to provide the tools and advising needed to guide entrepreneurial human rights ventures. While that support is highly tailored to the needs of our individual partners, our services can be broadly characterized as systematization, ideation, and investigation.
Through the process of systematization, our students take the big ideas which human rights entrepreneurs bring to the table and strategically organize them into clear, focused, operationalized steps. This systematization could apply to an idea for a new organization, a pitch for a potential case to file, or a question for how to approach accountability for a large-scale conflict. In these instances and others, students work with partners and expert faculty to assess the viability of different strategies and provide recommendations for implementation of those strategies. Depending on the nature of the project, students may assist in the implementation of their proposed strategy or may hand the suggestions back to the partner for them to carry forward.
In direct complement to our systematization work, the HREC also works with human rights practitioners to ideate. Where some entrepreneurs come to us with a massive plan that requires breaking down into bite-sized pieces, others have the seed of an idea but have not yet developed that idea into a concrete plan. Utilizing key aspects of legal design thinking, HREC students collaborate with partners to take their ideas and brainstorm different pathways to bring them to fruition. We recognize that there is almost never one singular correct approach to solve a problem; rather, we encourage students to test theories, learn from their failures, and continue ideating toward a nuanced solution.
Finally, we also assist our partners in a variety of substantive investigations. These investigations primarily apply to our frontier litigation projects, giving students the opportunity to be hands-on with cutting edge cases in the human rights field. Some projects prioritize legal research and analysis, while others involve primarily factual research into human rights violations in the US and abroad. In advancing these investigations, students may engage directly with partners, witnesses, survivors, or other key stakeholders.