RESEARCH INSTITUTE

South Africa - Colombia Corporate Accountability Skills-Share

Project Title: South Africa - Colombia Corporate Accountability Skills-Share
PI: Kaushik Sunder Rajan
Award Type: 2-Year IIRP-Based
Department: Anthropology
Division/School: Social Sciences
Start Year: 2026
Description:

This project supports a legal skills-share between South African and Colombian lawyers to develop litigation mechanisms against corporations engaged in human rights violations. Coordinated by Kaushik Sunder Rajan in collaboration with the Corporate Accountability Lab, this is a pilot project of the Human Rights Research Collaboratory, a new research incubator at the Pozen Center for Human Rights. It brings lawyers from South Africa and Colombia together to develop cases in each jurisdiction that draw upon legal strategies developed in the other. Four undergraduate students participate as research interns each year and are trained in ethnographic, human rights and legal research methodologies. We have one in-person, three-day meeting planned annually. The 2025 meeting held in Bogota commenced research activities. We will convene in 2026 and 2027 at IIRP.