Cluster Munitions in
Lebanon and Israel
Working in partnership with Human Rights Watch (HRW), three
Human Rights Program (HRP) students traveled with Harvard Law School
Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty to Israel and Lebanon in October 2006, documenting the use of cluster munitions on both sides of the recent two-month
conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Students Erica Gaston (J.D., ’07), Stacy Humes-Schulz (J.D. ’07), and Thomas Becker (J.D. ’08) traveled to the region as part of HRP’s International
Human Rights Clinic, meeting with government leaders, cluster munitions victims and their family members, hospital administrators, bomb squads, and NGO
representatives to record cluster munition usage by both Israeli and Hezbollah forces in Summer 2006. Gaston participated in a weeklong fact-finding
mission in Israel, while Becker and Humes-Schultz traveled to the southern half of Lebanon.
The research from the Israel trip was used in an HRW press release documenting
the first time ever that Hezbollah has used cluster munitions, while the research from the Lebanon trip will be incorporated into a report which will be
released in early 2007. Research from both trips was also presented at a meeting of the Special Parties to the
Convention on Conventional Weapons, which was held in Geneva in
November 2006. Click here to view
a spotlight article on the Harvard Law School website about this clinical project.
Legal Treatment of Extramarital Children in Egypt:
A Human Rights Analysis
In the wake of a high-profile court case dealing with DNA paternity testing and the recognition of extramarital children, several members of the
Egyptian Parliament proposed bills to change the country’s Personal Status Law on the recognition of paternity. None of the proposed bills,
however, address the discriminatory treatment that children born out of wedlock face in Egypt. As the Egypitan Parliament prepares to meet
again in late 2006, there affords an unprecedented opportunity to raise the issue of Egypitan legal treatment of extramarital children.
Working with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), students are conducting research
on jurisprudence on differential treatment of
extramarital children. The end report will be submitted to the Egyptian Parliament.