You are here: Home Page > Initiatives > Legal Clinic on Human Rights and Environment

Human Rights and Environment Legal Clinic

The Human Rights and Environmental Legal Clinic is a public interest clinic which focuses cases involving human rights violations caused by environmental degradation or by non-sustainable management of natural resources. Its primary aim is to train law students and attorneys in public interest litigation and help them develop social awareness in their practice as defenders of justice. Through our cases, not only do we assist defenseless victims with access to justice and address pressing environmental issues, but we give law students hands on professional training and an understanding of law as an instrument for social change.

The Human Rights and Environment Legal Clinic was founded by CEDHA in early 2003 with a three-fold purpose:

to fight environmental degradation in the Province of Córdoba using local environmental laws,
to increase awareness of the interconnections between environmental harms and human rights violations, and
to encourage Cordobese law students to work for the public interest.

The Clinic is directed and coordinated by CEDHA legal staff with the assistance of independent attorneys, and operates in conjunction with the highly prestigious Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.

Since its inception the Clinic has trained more than thirty students many of whom have gone on to train other students and work in other areas at CEDHA, for other ngos and more recently, in the state and local government. Currently, the Clinic manages a case load of approximately ten cases representing a broad range of environmental issues, including water contamination, urban planning, industrial development, and hazardous waste. Students direct the entire process of case management, including case selection, strategy development, research and documentation, and presentation of the case before provincial courts. As provincial environmental laws are vastly under-enforced, each case brought before a Cordobese judge is, in effect, a legal landmark and an opportunity for judicial capacity-building.

The Clinic has already achieved several important legal victories, and continues to flourish as an effective legal organization, an important resource and learning tool for students, and a dynamic laboratory for social change.