Events Calendar

The Human Rights Law Society and Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Social Justice invite you to attend a discussion on international human rights careers. This event is ideal for students interested in international law, human rights, diplomacy, social justice, public service, or simply FREE LUNCH.

Our goal is to provide students with a greater understanding of how to most effectively utilize the resources available at Texas Law to pursue careers in international human rights law. We'll address topics including summer internships, funding summer internships, long term careers, and the most helpful resources available at UT.

Speakers include:

Tex Harris: Harris is a UT Law graduate (Class of 1965) and regarded by many as a “diplomat’s diplomat.” Harris served with distinction during a 35-year Foreign Service career. Beginning in 1965, his posts were varied and often dangerous, such as Venezuela just as a Fidel Castro-supported insurgency was breaking out, Argentina at the height of the “dirty war” and South Africa in the 1980s during the transition from apartheid. Harris also served in Australia and as an associate administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He earned the Distinguished Honor Award, the State Department’s highest, for his work in Argentina in the late 1970s exposing the fate of the 15,000 citizens clandestinely killed by the military junta. Harris also served in the Bureau of Economic Affairs, as an attorney for the White House, and between 1974 and 1977 as an environmental assistant who drafted the first international call for controlling the release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to protect atmospheric ozone. Consistently a courageous advocate of the professional interests of FSOs, in 1970 he joined Tom Boyatt in leading the transformation of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) into a strong advocate of employee interests. Serving twice as AFSA president, Harris became known to his colleagues as “Mr. AFSA.” Following his retirement in 1999, he continued his close involvement with that organization and in 2000 he established the “Tex Harris Award” for creative dissent by a Foreign Service specialist.

UT Law Professor Derek P. Jinks: Professor Jinks teaches and writes in the fields of public international law, international humanitarian law, human rights law, and criminal law. Prior to teaching, Professor Jinks worked in the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and served as Senior Legal Advisor and United Nations Representative for the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre in India.

UT Law 2Ls and 3Ls: Several students that have obtained funding for and completed international human rights oriented internships will share some tricks of the trade!