Annual Report 2025
On Human Rights Day, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA is pleased to present the 2025 Annual Report reflecting our work in both Los Angeles and Europe. We remain committed to uniting people around our shared mission to advance human rights and empower the next generations of lawyers, leaders, and advocates.
Recent attacks on the rule of law underscore the urgency of our work to promote universal rights globally and inclusively. We have responded by redoubling our efforts to meet this moment through education, legal advocacy, and scholarship. This year, we expanded UCLA Law’s human rights education by offering several new courses including an innovative seminar training students as writers and introducing scholarship on Black Traditions in International Law and Third World Approaches to International Law, and we expanded participation in our flagship UCLA Law in The Hague program.
Since the most vulnerable communities worldwide bear the brunt of environmental harm and climate change, we are continuing our work to develop tools for the prevention of environmental destruction in conflict as well as in peace, furthering scholarship on ecocide and on the protection of the environment. We have continued working in partnership with communities in Honduras and in Los Angeles on diverse issues such as Indigenous land rights, immigration detention, and unhoused people’s rights.
We provide meaningful opportunities for UCLA Law students to participate in research, contribute to advocacy efforts, and use their skills to support pro bono projects that advance human rights globally. Our recent alumni have taken up human rights work in Bosnia, Ecuador, Colombia, Germany and Greece, as well as at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, with support from our post-graduate fellowship program.
There’s much more, but we’ll let our 2025 Annual Report tell you about this year’s achievements!
As we look ahead to 2026, we are grateful to work within the richly diverse intellectual community at UCLA. We acknowledge the many contributions of our Affiliated Faculty, at UCLA Law and throughout the university, whose deep expertise and commitment to human rights enrich all that we do. We appreciate the strength that such community provides and are grateful for all students, faculty, alumni, and partners who stand alongside us working to advance human rights through education.
We invite you to join us at one of our upcoming events, such as The Annual Conference at UCLA School of Law on Human Rights and the Crisis of World Order on January 23, and the 2nd Annual Judging International Justice Lecture, featuring International Court of Justice Judge Dire Tladi in conversation with Faculty Director Anna Spain Bradley, to be held on March 2 in The Hague.