James Cavallaro


James Cavallaro is a professor of law and the founder and director of the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at the Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School, United States. Professor Cavallaro also directs the . In 2018, Cavallaro and colleagues founded the University Network for Human Rights, an organization that will work to engage undergraduates and graduate students and their universities in human rights work in the United States and around the world. Cavallaro served as a commissioner and President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Cavallaro received his BA from Harvard University and his JD from University of California at Berkeley School of Law, where he served on the California Law Review and graduated with Order of the Coif honors. He also holds a doctorate in human rights and development from Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain.

Career in Practice

Early in his career, Cavallaro spent several years working with Central American refugees on the U.S.-Mexican border and with human rights groups in Chile challenging abuses by the Pinochet government. In 1994, he opened a joint office for Human Rights Watch and the Center for Justice and International Law in Rio de Janeiro and served as Director of the office, overseeing research, reporting and litigation against Brazil before the Inter-American system’s human rights bodies. In 1999, he founded the Global Justice Center, which is now a leading Brazilian human rights nongovernmental organization. Cavallaro authored or co-authored a number of reports on rights in Latin America, including: "Frontier Injustice: Human Rights Abuses Along the U.S. Border with Mexico Persist Amid Climate of Impunity", ; Police Brutality in Urban Brazil ; Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions: An Approximation of the Situation in Brazil ; Behind Bars in Brazil.

Academia and Teaching

Cavallaro joined Harvard Law School in 2002. In 2004, he was appointed clinical director of the Human Rights Program, and then went on to serve as the Executive Director of the program from 2007-2011. In 2011, Cavallaro joined the faculty of Stanford Law School and was appointed Director of the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at the Mills Legal clinic.

Publications and Research Interests

Cavallaro is the author of several books, reports, and articles on human rights issues. Among his recent scholarly works are: Doctrine, Practice, and Advocacy in the Inter-American Human Rights System.Reevaluating Regional Human Rights Litigation in the Twenty-First Century: the Case of the Inter-American Court ; "Looking Backward to Address the Future?: Transitional Justice, Rising Crime and Nation-Building" ; and "Never Again?:The Legacy of the Argentine and Chilean Dictatorships for the Global Human Rights Regime". Cavallaro has written or overseen a number of policy studies and advocacy texts on human rights, including: "Breach of Faith: Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Bangladesh", ; "Keeping the Peace in Haiti?: An Assessment of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti Using Compliance with its Prescribed Mandate as a Barometer for Success",. Cavallaro has also published widely in Spanish and Portuguese. Cavallaro’s work focuses primarily on human rights issues in Latin America, Inter-American human rights systems, international human rights law and practice, and the human rights movement. Cavallaro has published opinion pieces on the CIA role in torture, drone strikes, on the global refugee crisis, and Inter-American Commission, among other issues of social justice and human rights.