This year the winner of the Gertz award is the John Marshall Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC). Thanks to Director Sarah Davila-Ruhaak for the information she provided about the Clinic.

The John Marshall Law School International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) was founded in 2014 by Professors Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak and Steven D. Schwinn as a continuation of The John Marshall Law School’s long-standing history and dedication to human rights.

The IHRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan law school legal clinic dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights in the United States and around the world. The IHRC offers students a background in human rights advocacy through the practical experience of working in international human rights cases and projects. To achieve its mission, the IHRC collaborates with a range of partners in both academia and the advocacy field to develop human rights accountability mechanisms; documents and disseminates information on pressing issues in human rights; and serves as a platform and forum for dialogue between individuals and entities sharing innovative ideas and methods in human rights.

The IHRC has been working on three major projects this summer. It has continued its dedication to protecting the rights of Syrian asylum seekers and providing them with direct representation in asylum cases. By engaging in their direct representation, the IHRC continues to attempt to narrow the gap of access to justice for this community and has ensured that Syrians who have escaped the conflict are protected under U.S. asylum law and are prevented from being returned. 

The IHRC has continued its work in the Puerto Rican Human Trafficking Project where it has investigated and documented human rights violations that Puerto Rican homeless persons with addiction have suffered when brought to the U.S. mainland. It hopes to submit a shadow report to the United Nations on the topic shortly.

Finally, the IHRC has started investigating the environmentally catastrophic practices of the dumping of coal-ash and has been finding stemming human rights violations from such practice. 