Human Rights Center

2025 Human Rights Center Fellowship Conference The 2025 Human Rights Center fellows will discuss their experience working with organizations in California, New York, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Nigeria...

FRIDAY: Join our annual #HumanRights Fellowship Conference! Hear all about our student fellows and their research from Nigeria, Argentina, U.S. & more:
📅 Oct. 10
⌚️12:45–5 PM
📍@ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social (Booth Auditorium, Rm 175)
🍴 Free lunch + reception to follow:
events.berkeley.edu/hrc/event/30...

The Rome Statute in the Digital Age: Confronting Emerging Cyber Threats For the Rome Statute to remain relevant, practitioners must understand how governments can deploy spyware to commit international crimes.

Only by combining Rome Statute prosecutions with complementary measures –such as sanctions, export controls & civil litigation– can the intl. community build a robust framework for accountability for #spyware harms.

✍️ @hrcberkeley.bsky.social's Lindsay Freeman.

www.justsecurity.org/118463/rome-...

For the Rome Statute to remain relevant, practitioners must understand how governments can deploy spyware to commit international crimes, writes @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social for @justsecurity.org and @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social for the series "Legal Frameworks for Addressing Spyware Harms" out now:

2025 Human Rights Center Fellowship Conference The 2025 Human Rights Center fellows will discuss their experience working with organizations in California, New York, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Nigeria...

Join us for our annual #HumanRights Fellowship Conference! Hear from our 2025 fellows about their summers work on pressing human rights issues.
📅 Oct. 10
🕔12:45–5 PM
📍 @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social Booth Auditorium (Rm. 175)
🍴 Lunch served, reception to follow!
events.berkeley.edu/hrc/event/30...

A woman stands at a podium and speaks to people sitting down.

A woman speaks on a panel, with two other women sitting and watching her.

A woman speaks on a panel, with two other women sitting and watching her. Audience members sit and watch the woman speak.

A woman speaks on a panel, with two other women sitting and watching her. Audience members sit and watch the woman speak.

We're so grateful for the opportunity to have HRC alumnae Bhavya Joshi and Sabreen Tuku speak w/ Executive Director @betsypopken.bsky.social about how students at Berkeley can make real impact in the field of human rights with HRC and @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social for #Homecoming!

UC Berkeley Homecoming Weekend 2025, Making Impact: Fighting for Human Rights at UC Berkeley, Maude Fife Room, Third Floor, Wheeler Hall. Friday, October 3, 10:00 — 11:00 a.m. Three women are pictured smiling at the camera.

Will you be at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social's #Homecoming weekend? Join us for an engaging discussion of how Berkeley students can engage in impactful human rights investigations and fieldwork.
⌚️10 AM
📍Maude Fife Room, Wheeler Hall
homecoming.berkeley.edu/event/making...

California lawmakers wanted to get tough on data centers. Here's what survived Lawmakers were mostly thwarted this year in trying to crack down on data centers to protect water supplies and California electricity rates

AI data centers in CA use massive amounts of water. AB 93 would require usage reports, but not public access to that data. HRC's Linda Gordon warns many agencies already block data: “More disclosure is great — but how that info gets used is key.” More @calmatters.org:
calmatters.org/environment/...

HRC Senior Director @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social cial joined @sentinellabs.bsky.social's Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and @ryanaraine.bsky.social to discuss the Wagner Group’s war crimes in Mali at #LABScon25 for The Three Buddy Problem podcast. Full episode here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOAa...

Two women sit on stage in front of a crowd. One of the women is speaking into a microphone.

A crowd of people in an auditorium sit in seats and look at something taking place off-camera.

A woman laughs while speaking in conversation with several other people.

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🎬 Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for our screening of "My Sweet Land" at @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social, followed by a panel discussion with director Sareen Hairabedian, HRC’s @betsypopken.bsky.social, and others. Grateful to our co-sponsors and community for making this event possible!

Thrilled that HRC Faculty Director @alexakoenig.bsky.social is one of the inaugural members of Women Transforming Global Security, a new feminist global network addressing crises related to nuclear weapons proliferation, climate change, human rights, and more: transformingsecurity.org

My Sweet Land screening and panel

Registration closes TOMORROW for our screening of the award-winning documentary "My Sweet Land."
📅 Sept 18, 5:30 PM
📍 Booth Auditorium @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social
🍴 Snacks served
🎙️ Director Sareen Hairabedian, @betsypopken.bsky.social & more!
🚨 RSVP by tmrw 5PM
events.berkeley.edu/hrc/event/30...

My Sweet Land screening and panel

Don’t miss the My Sweet Land screening followed by a panel + Q&A with director Sareen Hairabedian, HRC’s @betsypopken.bsky.social, and others.
📅 Sept 18, 5:30 PM
📍 Booth Auditorium @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
🍴 Snacks served
🎟️ RSVP by Sept 16, 5 PM: events.berkeley.edu/hrc/event/30...

My Sweet Land screening and panel

Join us for a screening of the award-winning documentary "My Sweet Land" & panel w/ director, Sareen Hairabedian, HRC’s @betsypopken.bsky.social, and more!
📅 Sept 18, 5:30 PM
📍 @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social Booth Auditorium
🍴 Snacks served
🎟️ RSVP by Sept 16, 5 PM:
events.berkeley.edu/hrc/event/30...

The 85 Project | Independent Research Enterprise Independent research enterprise serving media, nonprofits, and businesses through open-source research, geospatial analysis, and supply chain investigation. © 2025 Lemniscarta

Learn all about The 85 Project here: www.the85project.com

We sat down with HRC Fellow & former Investigations Lab Director Stephanie Croft to discuss The 85 Project, her new venture supporting media & nonprofits with geospatial + #OSINT research, and her reflections on the Lab’s impact and AI in investigations.
🔗: medium.com/humanrightsc...

Who controls California farmland? The hard-to-find answer is disturbing OPINION: “By creating a transparent, public record of ownership and transactions, we could then design fairer markets, protect local control and plan for a sustainable future.”

Our summer fellow Meredith Song worked with Community Alliance with Family Farmers to analyze geospatial data of agricultural land transactions in California. She co-authored a @sfchronicle.com piece to explore what can be done to rein in corporate land ownership:
www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

⚖️ HRC Technology, Law & Policy Director @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social calls for strengthening the Rome Statute by adapting it to consider new technologies and future conflicts in order to close accountability gaps. @uchicagolaw.bsky.social:
🔗 cjil.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

📖 HRC Co-Faculty Director @alexakoenig.bsky.social introduces the pilot Open-Source Practitioner’s Guide to the Murad Code (@instituteici.bsky.social) which advises on responsible open source research in sexual violence investigations. @uchicagolaw.bsky.social:
🔗 cjil.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

HRC's @alexakoenig.bsky.social and @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social each have new articles out in @uchicagolaw.bsky.social's International Law Journal's summer 2025 edition! Check out the full journal here, with the articles linked below:
cjil.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

HRC's @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social joined @nadinefj.bsky.social, @natynettle.bsky.social, and @lisandranovo.bsky.social for @slpjustice.bsky.social and @cyberstatecraft.bsky.social's panel event “Accountability Now: Liability for Spyware Harms.”
Watch the full event here: ➡️ bit.ly/45OEIfI

Join HRC Director of Technology, Law & Policy @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social at Tech, Law, Security @auwcl.bsky.social's 4th Annual Cyber & Int'l Law with Program Director GaryCorn and expert panelists Harriet Moynihan, Leonard Bailey, and Ori Pomson.
📅 Sept 15–16
📍 AUWCL
🔗 loom.ly/eLOAqCY

📅 AUGUST 26, 2025
⏰ 10:00 AM ET

Join us for an event with @cyberstatecraft.bsky.social, “Accountability Now: Liability for Spyware Harms.”

Featuring @nadinefj.bsky.social, @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social, and @natynettle.bsky.social, moderated by SLP’s @lisandranovo.bsky.social.

buff.ly/1jkeT82

Our Investigations Lab students contributed to an historic new report with @amnesty.org documenting police violence, arbitrary arrests & internet shutdowns in #Mozambique. It has already supported legal action as a former police commander was questioned.
🔗: www.amnesty.org/en/wp-conten...

Join a workshop to inform the course of California’s Fifth Climate Assessment! The workshop will include breakout discussions on housing, health, labor, and education, which will be featured in the statewide topical reports.

🗓️ August 7
🕰️ 1–2:30 p.m.
📍 Zoom: opr-ca.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Tracking Change through OSINT: Building a Policy Timeline for the Military Community Until this year, my only connection to the U.S. military was learning to drive on the empty grid surrounding Fort Ord — an abandoned Army…

Our Investigations Lab student Ana Z. Franklin, along with a larger team, worked with @thewarhorsenews.bsky.social to track the Trump administration's policy impacts on veteran and military communities. She reflected on the experience in a beautifully-written blog:
medium.com/humanrightsc...

🚨LAST CHANCE 🚨 Apply by this Monday, July 28 to join us and @instituteici.bsky.social in September at The Hague for our foundational #OSINT training. Investigators, lawyers, journalists, and researchers, this one's for you!
🗓️ September 22–26
📍The Netherlands
iici.global/courses/open...

“My Body Is Burning”: Extreme Heat and Labor Rights in Bangladesh Summers in Dhaka are unforgiving. Smog and dust cloud the sky, veiling the city in a muted haze. Hot air radiates off a canopy of tightly packed metal rooftops. The humidity is suffocating. Water, gas...

📢 HRC student fellow alum Cara Schulte, now a PhD candidate @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social led a powerful new report with @climaterights.bsky.social on how extreme heat and labor abuses are endangering workers across Bangladesh.

Read the full report: cri.org/reports/my-b...

Opinion: Canada must come off the sidelines of international justice We are shying away from our historic support of the ICC, heralding a dark turn in our foreign policy

Canada must join the 50 other states supporting the International Criminal Court in the face of attacks and sanctions by the United States, write HRC Research Fellow @amandaghahremani.com and @alexneve.bsky.social for @theglobeandmail.com: www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Symposium on PMSCs: Who is Responsible? When Private Military Companies Aren’t Completely Private [Lindsay Freeman is the director of the Technology, Law & Policy program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law. She led the drafting of the United Nations’ Berkeley Pr…

Between private military + security companies and state clients, who bears legal responsibility for violence? @lindsaysfreeman.bsky.social + @amandaghahremani.com offer reflections based on HRC's investigation into the Wagner Group in Mali / @opiniojuris.bsky.social:
opiniojuris.org/2025/07/17/s...

Students in the Digital Verifications Corps combed through social media and verified multiple instances of mosques being targeted and destroyed by Israeli forces, as well as bakeries, fisheries, and other places offering sustenance. Read the full report:
www.amnesty.org/en/documents...