Pozen Family Center for Human Rights

Join the film screening tonight!

Tomorrow, 10/10 at 7pm in the Logan Center Screening Room, the Film Studies Center returns with PUNISHMENT PARK (1971), presented on 35mm.

Presented in partnership with Pozen Family Center for Human Rights as part of the Year of Games

For more information: bit.ly/46RbNbq

Meet our interns! Ruby Velez, UChicago Class of 2026, is engaging with human rights in practice in Belize. She is working with Mayan youth and developing communications strategies that protect Belize's land, resources, and rural communities. Learn more about the Pozen Center's Human Rights Internship Program for UChicago undergraduates: bit.ly/humanrightsinternship

Meet our interns! Sonia Bradley, Class of 2027, contributes to achieving justice for innocent individuals who have been wrongfully convicted and incarcerated. She is engaging with human rights in practice this summer through the Pozen Center's Human Rights Internship Program for UChicago undergraduates: bit.ly/humanrightsinternship

This year's graduating UChicago human rights majors have spent the year hard at work on original theses and capstone projects that make original contributions to human rights discourse. On May 23, stop by the Quad Club Library to hear their five-minute "lightning talks" about what their research uncovered. A celebratory reception will follow.

For current human rights majors, the symposium is a great way to start thinking about possible directions for your own thesis or capstone.

For students considering a human rights major, it's a perfect opportunity to learn about the many forms undergraduate human rights scholarship can take.

And for all UChicago community members, it's a chance to celebrate the accomplishments of soon-to-be-graduates' with a commitment to using the human rights lens to understand and change the world.

Register here: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/events/ba-thesis-and-capstone-project-symposium

This Thursday, join Pozen Visiting Professor and Human Rights Lawyer Julia Hall for "No Lessons Learned: The Throughline from Guantánamo Bay to CECOT in El Salvador." Hall will draw on her extensive work on the "war on terror," including her time as a legal observer at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, connecting what she saw there to the Trump administration's illegal transfer of Venezuelan men to CECOT, a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

Hall's talk will take place on May 14 at 12:15pm at the Law School

Register at link in bio.

On April 24, we hosted United Nations Special Rapporteur and Professor of Law and Development at MIT Balakrishnan Rajagopal for a talk on how the international human rights framework might help address the current crises of academic freedom in the United States. After his talk, Rajagopal explored this topic further in a lively Q&A with Pozen Visiting Professor Julia Hall and an energetic audience of UChicago faculty and students.

Rajagopal's talk came about as an outgrowth of an interview he contributed to "What Kind of Freedom is Academic Freedom?", a Pozen Report surveying the ongoing conversation about academic freedom unfolding in human rights spaces. He was an early voice in this conversation, arguing as early as 2003 – in response to post-9/11 paranoia's effects on university life – that the human rights framework could be a powerful complement to America's status quo approach to academic freedom.

The full report is available here: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/news/2025/2/pozen-center-releases-report-academic-freedom-highlighting-human-rights-approach

What does it feel like to fight for human rights? Can the human rights project still be effective in the face of serious contemporary challenges? How can fieldwork successfully promote accountability and remedies for survivors of human rights violations?

This Thursday, Pozen Visiting Professor Julia Hall will look back on her experiences at Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, analyzing cases where fieldwork and advocacy were successful against the odds. Food will be served to those who register.

Topics covered will include Guantánamo Bay, Hungary's rightward turn, civil society struggles in Türkiye, the Russia/Ukraine War, and the rights of refugees and migrants.

Hall will pay special attention to the personal experiences and perspectives of people involved in human rights struggles, including her own perspective as a lawyer, researcher, and advocate. After her talk, she will be in conversation with Tom Ginsburg, Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law in the Law School and co-chair of the Pozen Center Faculty Board.

Don’t miss this chance to hear about human rights work directly from an experienced practitioner!

Doors open at 4:45 p.m.

Learn more and register: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/events/close-ground-30-years-human-rights-work-field-halls-power

VENUE CHANGE: Thursday's event with United Nations Special Rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal has moved to the SSRB Tea Room.

At universities across America and worldwide, research, teaching, learning, and campus speech are under attack. As academic communities consider their options, how can human rights law help? How would a human rights approach to academic freedom differ from the US status quo?

Rajagopal, who first took up these questions in the early 2000s in response to post-9/11 paranoia and its effect on university life, will be in conversation with Pozen Visiting Professor Julia Hall.

Learn more and register here: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/events/academic-freedom-brink-reflections-human-rights-perspective

At universities across America and worldwide, research, teaching, learning, and campus speech are under attack. As academic communities consider their options, how can human rights law help? How would a human rights approach to academic freedom differ from the status quo?

In the early 2000s, responding to post-9/11 paranoia’s effects on university faculty and students (especially non-citizens who feared deportation) the legal thinker Balakrishnan Rajagopal publicly argued that international human rights law contains tools for thinking about – and defending – the core activities of higher education. In recent years, multiple advanced human rights practitioners have followed Rajagopal’s lead, paying increasing attention to the question of how to define and protect academic freedom. In conversation with Pozen Visiting Professor Julia Hall, an experienced human rights lawyer, Rajagopal will revisit his original argument, discuss the state of academic freedom and campus expression today, and suggest possible paths forward in the face of current threats.

April 24, 6:15 p.m. at the Quadrangle Club, 1155 E 57th Street. Register and learn more: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/events/academic-freedom-brink-reflections-human-rights-perspective

Tonight! Fresh off of his well-attended talk at UChicago's International House last night, the renowned South African activist, lawyer, and judge Albie Sachs will be appearing at Elastic Arts, a community space in Logan Square, discussing the relationship between art and justice. Sachs will talk about the famously beautiful Constitutional Court of South Africa building and the impressive art collection held there. Afterward, a group of veteran improvisational musicians will give a performance exploring the music of the South African musician Johnny "Mbizo" Dyani, an energetic participant in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Sachs's talk begins at 7.

Learn more: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/events/albie-sachs-art-and-justice

For Albie Sachs, fighting for the rights of all South Africans resulted in months of solitary prison confinement, forced exile in England, and even physical harm: after a car bomb attack, he lost his right arm and sight in one eye. But none of it deterred him, and he went on to play multiple pivotal roles in his country’s struggle for justice and equality. After apartheid ended, Sachs was appointed to South Africa's Constitutional Court.

On April 15 at 6pm, Sachs will speak at International House on the principle of judicial independence, discussing several cases where the Constitutional Court was asked to rule on the actions of South Africa's presidents, including Nelson Mandela himself.

Register: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/events/you-cant-do-mr-president-how-south-africas-highest-court-held-president-mandela-and-his

Learn more about Sachs's career -- plus two other appearances he'll be making in Chicago, one at the UChicago Law School, the other at a community arts space in Avondale/Logan Square: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/news/2025/4/renowned-south-african-freedom-fighter-albie-sachs-discuss-value-judicial-independence

On April 15, renowned South African freedom fighter Albie Sachs will give a talk on the timely topic of judicial independence, discussing cases where South Africa's post-apartheid Constitutional Court -- on which he sat as a judge -- was asked to rule on actions by the country's president. Use the links below to register and learn more about Sachs's dramatic career as a human rights activist, lawyer, and judge.

Register: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/events/you-cant-do-mr-president-how-south-africas-highest-court-held-president-mandela-and-his

Learn more about Albie Sachs: https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/news/2025/4/renowned-south-african-freedom-fighter-albie-sachs-discuss-value-judicial-independence