| WCL teams students, dean, $77,000 grant to champion free speech BY MATT GETTY 
Photo by Leslie E. Kossoff
From left: Ignacio Alvarez, special rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the IACHR; Domingo Lobera, University of Diego Portales; Agustina Del Campo, Elisa Reyes,
Jennifer de Laurentiis, and Dean Claudio Grossman, WCL; and Jorge Contesse,
University of Diego Portales Two Washington College of Law (WCL) students are set to get a firsthand lesson on international human rights law. Thanks to WCL’s Freedom of Expression program, launched Wednesday through a $77,000 National Endowment for Democracy grant, Ernesto Gonzalez and Elisa Reyes will argue a free-speech case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. “It’s an exceptional opportunity,” said Reyes, an LLM student scheduled to graduate in May 2007. “These are real cases that will have a real impact.” The program, managed out of WCL’s Impact Litigation Project for Strengthening Democracy in the Americas, partners the school with the University of Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile. Over the next year, each school will take on a freedom of expression case brought forward to the commission, which was established in 1959 to uphold human rights in countries throughout the Americas. For Reyes, who worked for a legal nonprofit in Mexico before coming to WCL, the program represents an opportunity to work on the front lines in the fight for basic human rights in Latin America. “In Mexico the system and the laws still limit the freedom of expression, and most of the time the domestic courts will not rightly attend these matters,” she explained. “The Inter-American system is the best [place] to bring these issues, because it resolves them and puts pressure on the member countries to do what’s right.” Reyes and Gonzales will work closely on the case with WCL dean Claudio Grossman, as well as his special assistant, Jennifer de Laurentiis, and staff assistant, Agustina Del Campo, who will act as program lawyers. They’ll also get some help from students and faculty participating in the program at the University of Diego Portales. The schools are working on setting up a secure Web site through which the separate legal teams can share research. At the one-year program’s close, said Del Campo, WCL plans to hold a conference to review what they’ve learned and help establish best practices for Inter-American free-speech cases. “We hope to bring more people into this and create a network on freedom of expression issues,” said Del Campo. As part of WCL’s Impact Litigation Project for Strengthening Democracy in the Americas, the new program and the grant behind it, said Grossman, ultimately aim to do more than just give WCL students a rare opportunity in international law. “Freedom of expression is an absolutely critical aspect of a democratic society. Democracy implies debate . . . However, no debate would ever be possible without freedom of expression,” Grossman explained. “This generous grant will assist WCL, in collaboration with Chile’s University of Diego Portales, to continue the important work of representing those who have been silenced by oppressive groups or governments.” |
