HLS Prof. Elected to Rights Committee

Law School Professor Gerald L. Neuman ’73 was elected last week to the Human Rights Committee, the United Nation’s body of independent experts that monitors civil and political rights.

Neuman said he does not have a particular issue he wants to focus on, but added that he hopes to help the Committee be more effective, to explain its decisions more clearly, and to encourage stricter compliance with international human rights standards.

“I am excited to have the opportunity to make a very concrete contribution to an institution that I have studied, have taught about, and have sometimes criticized the work of, and I hope to help to improve its work in the future,” Neuman said.

Neuman’s work has focused on international human rights law and comparative constitutional law.

He has written dozens of articles on national and international human rights issues, and published a book in 1996 entitled “Strangers to the Constitution: Immigrants, Borders, and Fundamental Law.”

Neuman has also written amicus briefs for Guantanamo detainee cases in 2004 and 2008. He has served on the faculty advisory committee of the Law School’s Human Rights Program.

“[Neuman is] an outstanding legal scholar with a focus on constitutional and human rights law and who has demonstrated his commitment to international human rights,” said James L. Cavallaro ’84, the Executive Director of the Human Rights Program.

“I am very happy and proud that he is the United States’ representative to the Human Rights Committee.”

The Committee consists of 18 members, each from a different country, elected for a term of four years. The Committee is responsible for overseeing States’ implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Though an extensive legal background is not required for the position, the Committee is responsible for interpreting and monitoring compliance with international human rights treaties, for which an understanding of the law and legal analysis is necessary, according to Cavallaro. The representatives to the Committee from the U.S. and the U.K. historically have been lawyers and law professors who have a deep understanding of and engagement with human rights law.

“Gerry Neuman has not only deep expertise in international human rights law, but also superb judgment, an impeccable sense of fairness, and remarkable powers of analysis,” said Law School Dean Martha L. Minow in a press release last week.

“This is a terrific appointment for the Human Rights Committee—and a very proud moment for Harvard Law School,” her statement continued.

Cavallaro said he expects Neuman will exceed the Committee’s high expectations for technical work, which includes evaluating cases and reviewing reports. Neuman will also bring nuance to understanding human rights abuses, Cavallaro added.

“He will make sure that the Committee is first rate in its legal analysis and factual understanding,” Cavallaro said.

Members of the Human Rights Committee are nominated by their respective countries, but they act as independent experts in their work on the Committee.

Last May, Neuman learned of his nomination, which the State Department oversaw. The formal election process took place on Sept. 2.

Neuman is on a research leave this semester, but he is slated to teach a constitutional law course and a human rights reading seminar this spring. Neuman said his new responsibilities with the Committee will not interfere with his teaching or work at the Law School.

In the 1980s, Neuman worked on issues regarding individual rights in the United States. Neuman became increasingly interested in international human rights law in the early 1990s, around the time that the U.S. ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1992.

—Staff writer Zoe A. Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.