Human Rights Clinic: Call for Application for Multiple Student Projects

Student Projects for the Winter Semester 2026/27

The FAU CHREN Human Rights Clinic is offering three interdisciplinary student projects for the upcoming winter semester. Students are invited to apply until 15 September 2026.

Supervised by researchers from the Cluster of Excellence “Transforming Human Rights”, the projects provide an opportunity to engage with current human rights challenges in a research-oriented environment.

The projects offered this winter semester are:

Project 1: Artificial Archive of Resistance – Resistance, Performance, Law

Theatre is a dynamic arena where – depending on the play – pressing human rights questions are not only addressed but brought vividly to life. During the 2026/27 winter semester, the Clinic will provide content support for the creation of a play at the Staatstheater Nürnberg. As part of the student team, you will have the opportunity to enrich the creative process of developing a play through academic research and to participate in a workshop with the play’s director (Michael von zur Mühlen) to creatively process the input. In terms of content, our part of the project deals with the legal classification of resistance.

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Project 2: When Lawsuits Silence Critics: An Amicus Submission on Environmental Defenders in Turkey

SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are lawsuits or legal actions brought not primarily to win in court, but to intimidate, burden, or silence critics. This FAU CHREN Human Rights Clinic project will focus on the preparation of a legal submission in a case, or more than one case, that bears the characteristics of a SLAPP and concerns environmental human rights defenders in Turkey, together with the Center for Spatial Justice.

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Project 3: The Hidden Journey of Palm Oil: What German Companies Have to Do with Human Rights in Honduras

In cooperation with the Romero Intiative, this FAU CHREN Human Rights Clinic project deals with the work of an NGO in Latin America and the German Supply Chain Act. The NGO seeks a legal opinion from CHREN Human Rights Clinic regarding the outcome of a specific case and the next steps to support the plaintiffs’ claims. Information regarding the complaints will be provided by the NGO under strict confidentiality rules.

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