Concluded Projects and Publications

2025: Contribution to a Thematic Study by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances

The CHREN Human Rights Clinic is proud to have contributed to a thematic study focusing on enforced disappearances occurring in the context of the defense of land, natural resources, and the environment realized by United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID)!

A team of students participating in the CHREN Human Rights Clinic Project (under the supervision of Henrike Janetzek-Rauh, Shuvra Dey and the Clinic director Prof. Dr. Dr. Patricia Wiater)  worked on a submission regarding “Shared Responsibility Between States and Corporations in Cases of Enforced Disappearance Within the Context of Defending Land, Natural Resources, and the Environment (LNRE)”.

The WGEID’s thematic report will be presented at the Human Rights Council in its September 2025 session and at the General Assembly in October 2025. The call for submissions and inputs received can be found here!

2024: Project for Supporting the Filing of a Complaint to the OECD National Contact Point with the UK Barrister Krishnendu Mukherjee (Doughty Street Chambers)

Coordinators: Otgontuya Davaanyam, Eklavya Vasudev

2023/24: Just Transition Litigation Tracker with the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

The report, Unjust transition on trial, and the related Just Transition Litigation Tracking Tool are the result of a research partnership between the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and the FAU Human Rights and Business Clinic.

The BHRRC briefing examines the rising trend of lawsuits against renewable energy and transition mineral mining firms for systemic human rights abuses.

The project involved seven master’s students from the FAU’s M.A. in Human Rights and M.A. in Development Economics and International Studies programs. They played a crucial role in the project, supporting the research and writing of the report.

Over the winter semester of 2023/24, the student team, supervised by Clinic coordinators Bruna Singh and Stephanie Regalia, had the opportunity to take a first look at an earlier version of the Just Transition Litigation database developed by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. The students researched additional cases and produced a first interim report to explore the type of data, information, and lessons that could be drawn from an initial set of 54 cases. This interim report can be downloaded under Just Transition Litigation Tool March 2024 Interim Report.

2023: The German Supply Chain Act (LKSG) and the Human Rights Impacts of the Steel Industry

The project was conducted in partnership with the Environment Defender Law Center (EDLC) from April 2023 to August 2023. The final report presents the main findings of a comprehensive study on the main human rights impacts of the steel industry and the avenues the German Supply Chain Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz (LkSG) or the Act) offers to address these impacts.

Coordinators: Bruna Singh, Stephanie Regalia

Contributers: Mariana Malaquias Guimarães, Đorđe Popović, Köksal Avincan, Alice Kisumba, Sopiko Shaburishvili (FAU M.A. Human Rights students)

Publications: German Supply Chain Due Dilligence Act LKSG Quick Guide, German Supply Chain Due Dilligence Act LKSG and the Human Rights Impact on the Steel Industry.

2022/23: Climate Change & Forced Migration: Protection for Climate Refugees

The topic of the FAU Human Rights Clinic 2022/23 was Climate Change & Flight: Protection for “Climate Refugees”. In cooperation with the German Institute for Human Rights (Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte) as a practice partner, the students wrote an Expert Opinion on the question of how people fleeing the negative effects of climate change can find protection. What forms of protection already exist in national and international asylum and refugee law? Are these forms of protection sufficient? What innovative approaches could close existing gaps?

The Expert Opinion has been published with FAU University Press (in German).

2021/22: Legal Requirements for the Reception of Afghan Local Forces in Compliance with Fundamental and Human Rights

After the surprisingly abrupt withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, the country fell back under Taliban rule with the capture of Kabul on 15 August 2021. Many of the local forces working for the Bundeswehr and other German organisations were not evacuated or were evacuated far too late and were stuck in Afghanistan, where they were threatened and persecuted by the Taliban as “collaborators”.

The project of the first cycle of the FAU Human Rights Clinic started in the winter semester 2021/22. In cooperation with PRO ASYL as a practice partner, the team of five students from law and political science conducted research into the legal and factual issues surrounding the reception of local forces. Besides legal research, the students also conducted interviews with lawyers, employees of human rights organisations and affected local forces.

The projected has resulted in an Expert Opinion, which has been published with FAU University Press (in German).