Rights Under Strain: A Practicum

This practicum offers an applied exploration of how anti-rights actors shape discourse, law, and public policy across Africa, and how rights-affirming advocates can respond. Students analyse the growing sophistication of anti-gender, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-democracy, and anti–sexual and reproductive health movements, examining their links to religious institutions, political elites and shifting geopolitical forces. These actors influence legislation, coordinate disinformation, intervene in judicial processes, and promote cultural narratives that frame restrictive agendas as the defense of “tradition” or “sovereignty." Students collaborate directly with a Kenyan NGO partner and with the Leitner International Human Rights Clinic at Fordham Law School to develop research and communications outputs for live advocacy needs. Work may include comparative analyses of regional human-rights systems, technical assessments of proposals such as the African Charter on Family, Values and Sovereignty, and the creation of narrative-response materials for immediate use. Through this process, students gain experience in strategic storytelling, counter-disinformation practices, cross-border research coordination, and rights-based analysis grounded in contemporary political realities. The practicum also serves as a pathway to a competitive year-long internship that may include supervised field engagement, partnership meetings, and contributions to ongoing monitoring and advocacy efforts.