About the Leitner Center
FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW AND JUSTICE
WHAT WE DO
Our mission & vision
We are committed to advancing a world where countries adhere to their human rights promises and every individual and community can enjoy the rights provided in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights protected through law and justice systems. We are guided by international human rights and humanitarian law and work to expand an understanding of those laws through knowledge and capacity sharing, partnership, practice, and scholarship.
Mexico – Documenting attacks against environmental defenders.
United States – New York City Police abuse of Vulnerable Communities
Bolivia – Pre-trial detention and prisoners’ rights
Ghana – Women’s inheritance rights
South Africa – Employment and housing discrimination against LGBTQ+ refugees.
Romania – Minority Rights and the Right to Education
Lebanon – Employment discrimination against the transgender community
Tanzania – Gender and the Right to Housing
Nepal – Documenting the impact of land rights denial in a post-conflict setting.
Cambodia – Mental health and human rights
Hong Kong – Legal reform and human rights
New Zealand – Protecting against intimate partner violence
United States – Critiquing Association of Attorneys General “end demand” approach to sex work.
United States – Supporting Black Lives Matter activists’ calls for interventions targeting police brutality in New York City.
Global, United Nations – Submissions to UN Human Rights Mechanisms
Lebanon – Identifying best practices for campaigns to decriminalize abortion, sexual orientation and gender identity, and sex workers’ rights.
Africa (regional) – Survivor/victim-centered strategic litigation guide for activists focusing on enforced disappearances.
Kenya – Calling for abolition and reforms of juvenile justice system in Kenya with a focus on incarcerated girls.
Malawi – Submissions to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for incarcerated individuals.
South Africa – Calls to decriminalize sex work.
Afghanistan – Report critiquing US withdrawal and calling for legal reform to facilitate evacuations.
India – Calling for international recognition of work in the informal sector.
Myanmar – Calls for stronger national policies to respect CEDAW obligations.
Japan – Demanding inclusive education as applied to disability, gender and sexuality, poverty, and other factors.
United States – The Global Justice Center.
Sierra Leone – Timap for Justice
Ghana – GIMPA Faculty of Law.
Global – UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Malawi – Center for Human Rights Education Advice and Assistance.
Kuwait – Women’s Research and Study Centre.
Iran – Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Refugee Advocacy and Support Program.
Nepal – Community Self-Reliance Centre.
Myanmar – The Women’s League of Burma.
Singapore – RightRoute.
Japan – Amnesty International Japan.
New Zealand – Amokura Family Violence Prevention
Consortium.
Our philosophy of change
By connecting our human rights advocate and activist partners across the globe with the students and future human rights lawyers we teach and train, we have a positive impact on human rights protection creating critical legal research in international law, capacity for human rights knowledge and action, exposing human rights abuses, and identifying tools for solutions and progress.
Leitner Center Brochure
Download our brochure to see additional information about our programs.
WHO WE ARE
Our history
The Leitner Center believes firmly that successful law graduates are educated in international legal theory as well as practice. In 1997, the Crowley Program in International Human Rights began preparing students for a human rights law career by providing practical field experience. Since that time, the Leitner Center has expanded its hands-on clinical and scholarship programs, each creating unique training opportunities in targeted, substantive areas including UN Advocacy, Gender Equality, Systems of Injustice, Access to Justice, and Sustainable Development.
Each Center project, no mater its focus or location, prepares students to do important legal work by partnering with advocates, activists, networks, and international legal mechanisms, preparing students for work in law firms, international organizations, governments, non-governmental organizations, and academia. Our lectures, classes, and clinics round out the complete education of the Fordham-trained lawyer.
TESTIMONIALS
“
The Leitner Center was not only among the first law school human rights programs in the nation. It was also, and remains, among the very few that fully integrates cutting-edge legal scholarship and theory with practical advocacy on behalf of the victims of human rights violations internationally, as well as in the United States. In these and other ways, the Center aims to train and inspired the next generation of human rights advocates both despite, and because of, the rise of authoritarianism around the world.other opportunities we offer.
PROFESSOR MARTIN FLAHERTY
Leitner Center Co-Founder and Co-Director
“
As a student you will have opportunities to meet and work with people engaged in all aspects of human rights lawyering. When you graduate as a Leitner Center-trained Fordham lawyer, you have already built up experiences you can showcase with employers, through the Crowley program, Clinics, internships, and other opportunities we offer.
ELISABETH WICKERI
Leitner Center Executive Director
“
The Leitner Center is one of the places I felt supported most in law school and I continue to have a relationship with all of my professors from the Center, even after graduating.
AKOSUA OPONG-WIREDU, FLS 2023
Clinic and Crowley Alum
“
“The Leitner Center — including its faculty and the Crowley Program — was the reason I chose to attend Fordham Law School. As a Crowley Scholar, I took advantage of every class, fellowship, and experiential learning opportunity. My time as a student has been foundational to not only my career in human rights and public interest law, but also my experience as a legal clinical instructor.”
JENNIFER LI, FLS 2015
Crowley Program Alum
