Impact Litigation Fellows Bring Two Cases Before the Inter-American Commission
Two human rights issues researched and prepared by American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL) Impact Litigation Fellows will go before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) at its 197th session in Panama: child trafficking through illegal adoption in Chile and the use of the death penalty in Cuba as a means of political repression.
In June 2026, fellows Carter Hurley JD ’28, Katherine Olsson JD ’28, Nino Chikhladze LLM ’26 and Summer Robert JD ’27 submitted both hearing requests. They worked under the supervision of Dean Emeritus Claudio Grossman, the program’s faculty director; Assistant Director Marta Treviño-Leyva; and Eduardo Bertoni, director of AUWCL’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
The commission selected both topics. At the hearings, the Impact Litigation team and partner organizations will present the issues to the commissioners, who may then issue recommendations and take further action.
Learning by doing
The Impact Litigation Fellows Program (ILFP) gives students a direct role in strategic human rights litigation before international bodies. Fellows document violations, press for government accountability, raise public awareness and develop litigation and advocacy strategies — work that can shape international legal standards and drive reform in the countries involved and across the region. Through this work, the program seeks justice for the victims it represents and broader structural change.
As the 2026–27 academic year begins, Grossman, Treviño-Leyva and continuing fellow Katherine Olsson are preparing the presentations.
Child trafficking through illegal adoption in Chile
From the 1950s until as recently as 2024, around 20,000 cases have been documented of Chilean-born children trafficked for adoption abroad, including to the United States. The children were taken from their mothers through a network that included hospital staff, religious figures, judges and state officials, who targeted women and families of limited economic means.
Before the commission, the team will seek recognition of historical and ongoing violations of the American Convention on Human Rights and the Belém do Pará Convention, among other instruments. It will also seek to open negotiations with Chile’s current government toward a resolution satisfactory to all parties, as the crime spanned multiple Chilean governments.
The death penalty in Cuba as political repression
Following widespread protests fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba amended its Penal Code in 2022 to extend the death penalty to offenses against the state. Although Cuba has claimed a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 2003, that falls short of the American Convention’s explicit prohibition on the death penalty for political offenses.
The expansion puts Cuban citizens at serious risk of human rights abuses — particularly political activists, human rights defenders, journalists and other government critics, as the government moves to limit criticism and expression. Together with the criminalization of protest, the 2022 reform reflects a policy of maintaining the death penalty as a deterrent to further restrict civil liberties.
The team is also assisting Grossman, who represents pro bono the last recorded victims of the death penalty in Cuba, executed in 2003, and brought their case to the IACHR. In Copello Castillo et al. v. Cuba, the commission found that Cuba had violated the victims’ rights to life, a fair trial and due process. Cuba has neither provided reparations nor complied with the commission’s recommendations.
At the hearing, the ILFP will urge the commission to call on Cuba to abolish the death penalty in its domestic law and to continue closely monitoring ongoing violations in the country.
Get involved
The Impact Litigation Fellows Program opens applications periodically. Visit the program’s website for future opportunities, or contact Assistant Director Marta Treviño-Leyva at [email protected].