Kudos to Sarah Cleveland!

On June 24, Columbia Law Professor Sarah Cleveland was elected to the UN Human Rights Committee, according to official UN sources.  Professor Cleveland was nominated by the United States Government in March to succeed Harvard Law Professor Gerald Neuman.  She will take up her new position in 2015 for a four year term. 

Active in implementation of human rights both domestically and internationally, Professor Cleveland has played a particular leadership role in domestic human rights implementation.  Notably, in addition to her scholarship, Professor Cleveland appeared as an amicus in the recent U.S. Supreme Court case of Bond v. U.S., arguing that the Offenses Clause of the Constitution provided authority for enactment of the statute at issue in that case. She was also an amicus participant in Hollingsworth v. Perry, arguing that comparative jurisprudence could aid the Supreme Court’s decisionmaking on marriage equality. 

By the terms of its governing treaty, the Human Rights Committee comprises 18 independent experts of “high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights.” At a time when U.S. activists are increasingly adding international advocacy to their toolkit, Sarah Cleveland is a spectacular addition to the HRC.