UC Law alumni celebration commemorates 40th Anniversary of Human Rights Institute

For four decades, law students have had the opportunity to expand their knowledge of international human rights through the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights at Cincinnati Law.  This month, the Institute will celebrate its 40th Anniversary with the symposium “The Global Citizen Lawyer,” Oct. 25 -27, at the College of Law. CLE: 9.75.  

Registration:  A complimentary registration includes all sessions, continental breakfast, coffee breaks, and a boxed lunch.

United Nations delegate and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said human rights begin "in small places, close to home." It's in this spirit that University of Cincinnati College of Law alumni and friends are invited to a symposium honoring the Urban Morgan Institute and its graduates’ contributions to human rights and social justice abroad, at home, and even in their local communities.  

“The Global Citizen Lawyer, I believe, is the typical person that develops because of their relationship with the Institute,” said Professor Bert Lockwood, founder and director of the Urban Morgan Institute. “It is my firm belief that we have graduated remarkable individuals who are making important contributions to social justice in the communities where they’ve ended up.

“And I’m not talking about the individuals who have gone into actual legal positions in international human rights. I’m talking about our graduates that have developed careers in their particular communities where they are making important contributions on social justice kinds of issues that have been influenced by their experience in Cincinnati—whether its chairing the school board or volunteering to help with the immigration crisis going on now, or working through a Catholic services org.”  

The symposium will include panel discussions and breakout sessions led by former Urban Morgan Institute fellows and Human Rights Quarterly (HRQ) staff and the opportunity for audience engagement.

Panels will be devoted to Human Rights Issues in Africa, Immigration and Human Rights, Corporations and Human Rights, Current Human Rights Issues and U.S. Foreign Policy, and Women’s Human Rights. Breakout groups will examine problems facing rural America, education, children, labor, and the environment. Learn more about the panels and panelists here: Urban Morgan at 40

The keynote speaker for the event will be Ambassador David Newman of Botswana. Prior to his appointment, Newman served as Judge of the High Court of Botswana and periodically sat as Judge of the Botswana Court of Appeals. Before devoting himself to public service, he worked for 20 years in Botswana as an attorney, conveyancer, and notary public, as well as Managing Partner in the law firm Collins Newman & Co., specializing in corporate, commercial property and mining transactions, civil litigation, and conveyancing.

“One of the things we did was to offer them experiences they wouldn’t get elsewhere.” Those experiences included positions like working with the first director of the United Nations Division on Human Rights, as the first clerk to the European Court of Human Rights, and as the first clerk for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica.

“Those summer placements, typically after the first year, were an opportunity to give the students some practical experience in international human rights and international human rights law. They’ve served in one sense as a clinical experience in human rights,” Lockwood commented.

Critical to the success of the Institute has been the Human Rights Quarterly, a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that provides law review-like experience for its student editors. “At the time of the founding of the Institute, [human rights] was not a well-developed field of academic study. It is fair to say that the HRQ has played a pivotal role in the development of scholarship in the human rights field, as well as the professional opportunities for many academics and students,” said Lockwood.  “It is such a rich collection of vantage points of understanding human rights. HRQ gets cited, gets used in classes around the world, and has played a role in the explosion of academic interest in matters relating to human rights.”

Attendees of the Global Citizen Lawyer symposium will hear more about the impact of the HRQ and the Institute through the sharing of stories and experiences by former fellows. They’ll also learn, first hand, how well-respected the Institute is as a vehicle for uniting disparate voices in the human rights arena.

“We’ve had, over the years, a role to play in bringing the academic to the activist field,” Lockwood said. “From day one, the Institute has been interested in not only the academic study of human rights, but in training lawyers to be able to utilize human rights law in their practices.”

Founded in 1833, the University of Cincinnati College of Law has the distinction of being the first law school west of the Alleghenies. From humble beginnings 175 years ago in a room above Timothy Walker’s law offices to its home today in Clifton (OH), Cincinnati Law has been on the leading edge of legal education. Thousands of lawyers have graduated from the law school, and about one-third practice in the Greater Cincinnati community, working in all areas of the law. For more information about the College of Law, visit www.law.uc.edu.