FAU Human Rights Clinic

In the Human Rights Clinic, teams of students work in real-life cases in International Human Rights Law together with lawyers, NGOs or other partners from legal practice.

Projects last 3-6 months and are not tied to semester beginnings or endings.

Participants meet weekly or bi-weekly and receive regular feedback from project supervisors (doctoral researchers at FAU) and Prof. Wiater who is the academic director of the Clinic.

Teams work in English and are composed of students of law as well as students from the M.A. Human Rights.

The Clinic provides a unique opportunity to gain practical experience and closely collaborate in an international team and with international project partners.

Previously, there were two separate formats of Clinical Legal Education in Human Rights at FAU: The former Human Rights Clinic was founded in 2021 by Prof. Farahat, Prof. Wiater and Prof. Kinzelbach. The Human Rights & Business Clinic was founded in 2022 by doctoral researchers from the International Doctoral Program Business & Human Rights. To see concluded projects of both Clinics, see here.

The new FAU Human Rights Clinic will merge both previous projects together.

The previous Clinic formats conducted research projects which delivered Reports and Expert Opinions on practical Human Rights issues in collaboration with NGOs.

The new Clinic will place an additional focus on litigation projects. Students will work on cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the African Court of Human Rights, UN Treaty Bodies and other institutions.

Cases could for example concern:

• Human Rights in the context of climate change
• Business and Human Rights
• Human Rights of migrants and refugees
• Human Rights in the digital age

Teams of students will be selected for specific projects – stay updated for calls for applications!

All students from law (including exchange students) and students of the M.A. Human Rights can apply for the Human Rights Clinic. Interested students from other disciplines are welcome to apply as well.

There are no formal prerequisites. However, prior knowledge of Human Rights Law and/or International Law will prove helpful.

In the winter term, Prof. Wiater will teach a block seminar on “Human Rights in Practice”. Attendence of the seminar will be mandatory for Clinic participants, but will be open to anyone interested. Students considering to participate in the Clinic in the future are encouraged to join the block seminar.

You can already express your interest in the Clinic via an informal e-mail to the Clinic Coordinator, Jonathan Kießling (jonathan.kiessling(at)fau.de). This way, you will be the first to receive updates on the launch of the Clinic and you will be notified about calls for applications.

For law students, participation in the Human Rights Clinic can be credited with 2 SWS as an optional course in “Schwerpunktbereich 11: Grund- und Menschenrechte” and/or as “Schlüsselqualifikation” (§ 2 I JAPO).

Depending on the workload and particularities of the project, additional forms of credit are conceivable, in particular in form of a “Freischussverlängerung” (§ 31 II 1 Nr. 3 lit. b JAPO) or as part of the “Zertifikatsprogramm Fachsprache Jura” in English.

For students of the M.A. Human Rights, participation on the Clinic can be credited as internship hours.

All of these options are highly dependent on the particularities of the project and will be discussed individually at the beginning and end of project participation.