Rapid changes in the global order, finding optimism under great duress, rebuilding the international rule of law, and blazing a positive path forward were the issues at hand as thought leaders gathered at UCLA’s Luskin Conference Center earlier this month for the 2025 Human Rights and Humanitarian Forum.
Earlier in the day, Michael Waterstone, dean of UCLA Law, welcomed participants and emphasized the valuable role that each person played in carrying the cause of human rights.
“It is so fitting that this event is happening at UCLA,” he said. “As the dean of UCLA Law, I experience time and again just how important it is that we are situated here, in this global city of Los Angeles, where we have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in so many ways, from the local to the international.”
“Our mission is to empower the next generation of human rights lawyers and leaders, and to engage research and scholarship to drive real-world impact,” said Catherine Sweetser, interim executive director of The Promise Institute. “It was inspiring to hear from young people like Ana Giménez Pozzoli, founder of Ducha de Sol, and Ayisha Siddiqa ’27, founder of the Future Generations Tribunal (and a UCLA Law student), about the environmental issues that are crucial to their generation.”
The forum included the probing discussions “Global Pulse Check,” “The Future of Human Rights,” “Modern-Day Heroes: Lessons in Resilience from Aurora Humanitarians,” “Rising Generation: Young Activists Redefining Justice and Humanitarian Action,” and “Health and Human Rights: Grassroots Approaches for Lasting Impact.”
Noubar Afeyan, cofounder and chair of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, emphasized the importance of resilient action in the face of growing inhumanity around the world.
“Today, the inhumanitarians are winning,” he said. “We will all be facing choices as to when to speak up because it’s happening on our watch … . It puts even more pressure on the individuals to act both on the philanthropy side but also in the field actually saving the lives of others.”
While discussing the challenges and uncertainties facing the field, panelist Comfort Ero, president and CEO of the International Crisis Group, recounted the example of a group of Sudanese resistance fighters who decided to convert their resources into an emergency room in the midst of cruelty and humanitarian blockages.
“That in the onslaught of the violence and the horror and pain — that you would be able to transform yourself and work across sectors — that gives me hope: the ability of humanity to be innovative in a moment where we’re up against the wall,” Ero said.
“Throughout the day, we heard repeatedly from our speakers the value of empowering local actors around the world, looking for decentralized and community-led solutions,” Sweetser said. “Understanding that local shifts can have resonant impact worldwide is part of the promise of human rights and humanitarian work which makes it so worth pursuing.”
Three members of the UCLA School of Law faculty are featured in an essay that appears in the opinion section of The New York Times, which recounts the first 100 days of the second Trump administration. Ann Carlson, Ingrid Eagly, and Jon Michaels are among the 35 legal experts from around the country whom the Times quotes on matters ranging from the firings at independent agencies to President Trump’s clashes with the judiciary.
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J.D Environmental Law
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J.D. Business Law & Policy
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J.D. David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law & Policy
Hear from our amazing speaker lineup at the2025 Human Rights & Humanitarian Forum
At the Crossroads:
Driving Integrated Action
for a Resilient Future
This year's Human Rights and Humanitarian Forum will feature a number of remarkable speakers from across UCLA. If you haven't registered for your spot, use the promo code and button below to save your seat!
At a time of intensifying global challenges, the 2025 Human Rights and Humanitarian Forum seeks to spark new, integrated approaches to tackling these issues. Hosted by The Promise Institute for Human Rights in partnership with the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, the Forum will bring together eminent thinkers, frontline humanitarians, academics, legal advocates, and emerging leaders committed to advancing human dignity, justice, and sustainable peace.
By convening diverse voices under one roof, the Forum aims to seed lasting partnerships, inspire innovative solutions, and move us from "business as usual" towards a future where respect for human rights and effective humanitarian action go hand in hand.
Hear from extraordinary individuals including UCLA professors and scholars, Aurora Prize Laureates Marguerite Barankitse, Mirza Dinnayi, and Julienne Lusenge, as well as Pulitzer Prize Winner Dele Olojede, human rights and anti-corruption activist John Prendergast — and more!
Speakers Include:
Chelsea Clinton, PhD- Vice Chair, Clinton Foundation & Clinton Health Access Initiative
- Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University
Alina Dorian, PhD- Associate Dean, Public Health Practice, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
- Adjunct Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences, UCLA
- Former Senior Health Associate, International Services, American Red Cross
Dr. Eric Esrailian, MD, MPH- Board Member, Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
- Founding Donor, The Promise Institute for Human Rights
- Emmy-nominated film producer, The Promise
Leymah Gbowee, MA- 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate
- Founder and President, Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa (GPFA)
- Executive Director of the Women, Peace and Security Program, Columbia University
Safiya Noble, PhD- MacArthur Fellow
- David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair of Social Sciences and Professor, UCLA
- Director, DataX Initiative, UCLA
Ayisha Siddiqua- J.D. Candidate, UCLA School of Law
- Climate Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General
- Founder & Executive Director, Future Generations Tribunal
Anna Spain Bradley- Professor of Law and Faculty Director for The UCLA Promise Institute for Human Rights and The Promise Institute Europe, UCLA Law
- Former Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCLA
Driving Integrated Action
for a Resilient Future
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
UCLA Luskin Conference Center
🐻 UCLA Students, Faculty and Staff!
Use code PROMISE at checkout to attend for free 🐻
The Promise Institute for Human Rights acknowledges our presence on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples.
At a time when the rules based international legal order seems to be imploding, it feels like it has never been more urgent to support international human rights law. But in order to defend human rights law, we must first understand why it was created in the first place. What is it that one is defending and why?
Join us to hear Prof. Frédéric Mégret in discussion with Prof. Máximo Langer. Prof. Mégret will shed light, not only on why the international human rights system emerged, but also on why we may want to continue investing in it despite all of its frailties. What might international human rights law achieve, in particular, that well developed cultures of constitutional guarantees of rights cannot achieve just as well? Prof. Mégret aims to problematize why we would want to guarantee human rights internationally, given some of the obvious limitations of doing so.
- Prof. Frédéric Mégret
- James S. Carpentier Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law and Professor of Law at McGill Faculty of Law, senior fellow at the University of Melbourne, and Visiting Professor at Sciences Po Paris
- Prof. Máximo Langer
- David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Chair, Professor of Law and Director of the UCLA Transnational Program on Criminal Justice at UCLA School of Law
Monday, April 14
12:15 PM Pacific Time
UCLA Law, Room 1430
Register to Attend
The Promise Institute Europe continues to explore the intersections of economic, social and cultural rights with the crime of ecocide.
In the latest study to measure the impact of law school faculties based on their research and writing, 14 UCLA School of Law professors have been recognized as leaders of legal scholarship.
Join us at an event based on Judge Brower’s book, Judging Iran: A Memoir of The Hague, the White House, and Life on the Front Line of International Justice, where he and Prof. Spain Bradley will discuss the wisdom, insights, and lessons from Judge Brower’s decades of experience.
A judge of the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal for four decades, Charles N. Brower is an internationally recognized leader in arbitration and has handled cases on six continents. With quick wit and a keen eye for adventure, he takes readers on a tour of his extraordinary career.
As a young lawyer fresh from Harvard, Brower quickly made partner at a Wall Street firm. After just four months, however, he left the expected path to join the U.S. State Department, embarking on a career that put him in the thick of Cold War Europe and led to a lifelong focus on international law.
Brower’s drive carried him to the heart of pressing issues, including globalization, governmental ethics, environmentalism, and human rights. At each stop, Brower encountered criminals and victims, advocates and miscreants, especially at the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal, where heated disagreements between judges once erupted into physical violence. His work at The Hague was interrupted only by his time as an advisor to President Ronald Reagan at the height of the Iran–Contra scandal, and Brower eventually became the most-appointed American judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice.
Judging Iran is a frank insider account of the highest echelons of international law. As an active judge to this day, Brower offers a nuanced history of modern arbitration between nations, from our earliest concept of international law to today’s efforts for justice. And, as a global citizen, he argues that the law is essential in our work for peace.
*books will available for purchase at the event with a book signing to follow in the Lincoln Alcove
Sponsors: International & Comparative Law Program, Promise Institute for Human Rights