Congratulations to International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic students, faculty and staff on their report and advocacy on the human rights consequences of the US drone policy in Pakistan. The students did this work on behalf of several Pakistani lawyers and advocates, and in close partnership with the Global Justice Clinic at NYU.

Over the course of the 2011-2012 winter and spring quarters, Adelina Acuña (’12), Mohammad Ali (’13), Anjali Deskmukh (’13), Jennifer Gibson (’12), Jennifer Ingram (’12), Dimitri Phillips (’13), Wendy Salkin (’13), and Omar Shakir (’13) conducted extensive field research in Pakistan on the impacts on local communities of the US armed drones practices. These efforts led in September 2012 to the publication of a groundbreaking report critiquing the legal, strategic, and humanitarian consequences of drones.  The students did this research in close partnership with the Global Justice Clinic at NYU and several Pakistani lawyers and advocates.

The Clinic published the report at a time when, despite the dramatic expansion of the US drones strikes, many US civil society organizations and the mainstream US media paid scarce attention to the program.  Since that time, the issue has become an almost daily feature in the media.  Much of that coverage has cited directly to the report produced by the Stanford Clinic.  Media interest has come from major news outlets such as the New York Times, LA Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany), Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), and the New Zealand Herald (among many others), as well as much smaller media outlets with more local audiences.  Stanford students have been intimately involved in that media and policy advocacy, both through direct interviews and by developing briefings provided to interested journalists and Congressional, other governmental and intergovernmental audiences. In addition, Omar Shakir spoke at length about the topic on Al Jazeera and on the Huffington Post.  The clinic also collaborated with the Brave New Foundation to create a mini-documentary on the report.  Advocacy and research on the issue is ongoing.

Jim Cavallaro directs the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic. Stephan Sonnenberg is a Clinical Lecturer with the clinic, and Clara Long is a Teaching Fellow.  Nicole Riley is the Clinic’s Legal Assistant.