Clinic Projects

The Gender Justice Clinic provides legal services to victims of gender-based violence and discrimination, as well as to organizations working on related issues.  Under faculty supervision, student attorneys have provided legal advice and representation to individuals, litigated cases before international human rights bodies, drafted legislation and legal guides, participated in community education initiatives, and engaged in other forms of advocacy designed to advance gender justice. Below are some examples of recent Gender Justice Clinic projects.

Legal Assistance 

• Legal assistance and representation to local survivors of gender-based violence and discrimination

 Legislative Advocacy and Community Engagement

• Legislative and community-based advocacy in Tompkins County, New York seeking recognition of freedom from domestic violence as a human right
• Local action to implement the human right to be free from domestic violence in Tompkins County, NY
• Tracking and analysis of local resolutions across the country that recognize freedom from domestic violence as a human right

International and Foreign Litigation

• Petitions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of survivors of sexual assault in the U.S. military
• Amicus Brief on Access to Contraception in India

Advocacy before International Human Rights Bodies 

• Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women on the Gender-related Dimensions of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change
• Alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women on violations of women's rights in Myanmar
• Shadow reports for the UN Human Rights Council and UN Committee Against Torture on sexual violence in the U.S. military
• Shadow report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women on India's implementation of the CEDAW

Practice Manuals

• Handbook on juvenile law in Zambia

Fact-finding and Reporting

• Submission to the government of Nepal on Women's and Girls' Reproductive Rights in Humanitarian Settings
• Literature review of studies that analyze the impact of economic empower on domestic violence against women
• Study on gaps in accountability for sexual violence against girls in South African schools
• Study on causes and consequences of women's imprisonment in Jamaica

Community Education

• Stakeholder roundtable discussion on gaps in accountability for sexual violence in Kenyan schools
• South Asia workshop on violence against women and access to emergency contraception

*Several of these projects were undertaken by Cornell's International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), in collaboration with Cornell's Center for Women and Justice, prior to the establishment of the Gender Justice Clinic in fall 2014.  For descriptions of earlier Center/IHRC projects, please click here.