News

Now that the semester is underway, we want to extend our warmest welcome to all of the new staff and Visiting Fellows at the Human Rights Program. They are, in a word, fantastic.

Debbie Frempong, the new Program Assistant for the International Human Rights Clinic, comes to us from Harvard Divinity School, where she graduated with an MTS in Religion, Politics and Ethics. She holds a B.A. in Public Policy and Politics from Pomona College.

Debbie is taking on many of the responsibilities previously held by Katherine Young, who until recently worked as Program Associate. This summer, she was promoted to Program Manager, in charge of administrative management of the International Human Rights Clinic and the financial administration of the Human Rights Program.

Dana Walters, the new Program Assistant for the Academic Program, comes to us from the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, where she was a coordinator, and the Atlantic Media Company, where she was a fellow. Dana holds a B.A. in English and American Literatures from Middlebury College and an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago, where she was previously pursuing a doctorate.

This semester, we’re also so pleased to welcome three Visiting Fellows.

Dr. Yitayew Alemayehu is a lawyer with extensive experience in the public, civil society and academic sectors, including as the founding director of one of the pioneer and successful human rights organizations in Ethiopia. He currently teaches at the Center for Human Rights of Addis Ababa University. Yitayew has long been interested in the local diffusion of global human rights norms. During his fellowship, he will investigate the genesis of international human rights rules on justice for children and their impact in Ethiopia.

Dr. Tally Kritzman-Amir is a Senior Lecturer of immigration and international law at the College of Law and Business, Israel. Her work focuses on international refugee law, and more specifically on mass influx – what the definition should be, theoretical explanations to why the core rights of refugees should be protected even in mass influx situations, and a critical analysis of state practices in mass influx situations. Tally also works on the intersection of refugee law and family law – how refugee law creates background rules for families and how family law should take those background rules into account. This follows her past work on gender and asylum, non-admission policies, and the Israeli asylum system.

Priyanka Chirimar, OPIA/HRP Wasserstein Fellow-in-Residence, is a human rights attorney from India with 14 years of experience in domestic and international courts on a wide range of legal matters. Since 2014, she is a Legal Officer with the International Co-Investigating Judges Office at the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She previously assisted the Trial Chambers at the UN ICTY in cases against Bosnian Serb and Croatian leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Priyanka started her career with pro bono public interest litigation in Delhi and Kashmir, and specialized in rights of persons with disabilities and representing victim/survivors of child sexual abuse.

Welcome, all!