
Beatrice Lindstrom
Clinical Instructor
Lecturer on Law
Supervising Attorney of Advocates for Human Rights
Beatrice Lindstrom is a Clinical Instructor at the International Human Rights Clinic and the Supervising Attorney of Advocates for Human Rights. Her work focuses on accountability of transnational actors, obligations of international organizations, and access to remedies.
Prior to joining Harvard Law School, Lindstrom was the Legal Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, an organization that works in partnership with Haitian lawyers to bring grassroots struggles for human rights to the international stage. For nearly a decade, her work has focused on path-breaking advocacy to secure accountability from the UN for causing a devastating cholera epidemic in Haiti. She was lead counsel in Georges v. United Nations, a class action lawsuit on behalf of those injured by cholera. For her work on the cholera case, she received the Recent Graduate Award from the NYU Law Alumni Association and the Zanmi Ayiti Award from the Haiti Solidarity Network of the Northeast.
Lindstrom has extensive experience advocating in the UN human rights system, lobbying governments, and speaking in the media. She has appeared regularly in the New York Times, BBC, and Al Jazeera English.
Lindstrom was previously an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and a Haiti country expert for Freedom House. She holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern public interest scholar, and a B.A. from Emory University.
Related Work
Articles & Chapters
Right to Water: Remedying Violations by Nonstate Actors, in Emerging Threats to Human Rights: Resources, Violence & Deprivation of Citizenship 50-73 (Heather Smith-Cannoy ed. 2019).
Access to Justice for Victims of Cholera in Haiti: Accountability for U.N. Torts in U.S. Courts,BU Int’l Law J. (2014) (with Shannon Jonsson & Gillian Stoddard Leatherberry).
Cheaper, Better, Longer-Lasting: A Rights-Based Approach to Disaster Response in Haiti,25 Emory Int’l L. Rev. 1145 (2012) (with Brian Concannon, Jr.).
Note, Scaling Back TRIPS-Plus: Intellectual Property Provisions in Trade Agreements and Implications for Asia and the Pacific, 42 N.Y.U. J. Int’l Law & Pol. 917 (2010).
Reports
Haiti at a Crossroads: An Analysis of the Drivers Behind Haiti’s Political Crisis (2019)
Cholera As A Violation Of The Right To Water In Haiti, Submission To The Special Rapporteur On Water And Sanitation (2014) (with John Marshall School of Law International Human Rights Clinic)
The Right To Water, Sanitation & Health, Submission To Human Rights Council For Universal Periodic Review Of Haiti (2011) (with Ctr. for Human Rights & Global Justice et al).
Rights Within Reach: Securing Equality And Human Rights In Nepal’s New Constitution (Center For Human Rights & Global Justice, 2010).
Commentary & Opinion Pieces
Will Lessons from Cholera in Haiti Be Applied to COVID-19? IPI Global Observatory, May 6, 2020 (with Adam R. Houston).
United States Supreme Court Considers Whether IO Immunity Is Frozen in Time, Opinio Juris, Nov. 9, 2018.
General Assembly’s Recognition of the Human Right to Sanitation Should Prompt Action in Haiti, Huffington Post, Jan. 29, 2017, (with Sienna Merope-Synge).
The UN’s Apology Won’t Heal Disease, But It’s A First Step to Justice, Opinio Juris, Feb. 1, 2017.
On Human Rights Day, Haitians Have A Message for the UN, Huffington Post, Dec. 11, 2015.
UN Accountability for Haiti’s Cholera Outbreak, Am. J. Int’l L. Unbound, Apr. 3, 2014 (with Ira Kurzban & Shannon Jonsson).