With more than two decades of field experience, Peter Rosenblum is a dedicated activist engaged in monitoring abuses and supporting local and international human rights groups around the world. Rosenblum, who earned his undergraduate and LL.M. degrees from Columbia, returned to his alma mater in 2003 to head the LawSchool’s pioneering Human Rights Clinic.
Rosenblum brings a wide range of experience to his work in the clinic and in his role as co-director of the Human Rights Institute. Reflecting the interdisciplinary approach that is a ColumbiaLawSchool tradition, Rosenblum focused much of his early research on the intersection of human rights with trade and investment regimes. He has served as a human rights officer with the Geneva-based precursor to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a program director of the International Human Rights Law Group and a researcher for Human Rights Watch and the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights. Prior to joining Columbia, Rosenblum was the clinical director of the Human Rights Program at HarvardUniversity.
His research has taken him around the world, but his main focus remains Africa, where he has spent much of his career exposing corruption and promoting financial transparency in natural resource contracts. As part of the research and advocacy of the Human Rights Clinic, Rosenblum has led many student groups to Africa to ensure that such contracts increase the long-term ability of the people to benefit from their natural resources. The Democratic Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe are among the nations where they have focused their work. In one successful project, the European Commission invited Rosenblum and students, in partnership with ColumbiaUniversity’s Earth Institute, to Liberia. As a result of their analysis and recommendations, a mining contract with one of the world’s largest steel producers was amended and passed into law by the Liberian parliament. Rosenblum writes frequently on human rights in Africa, international criminal tribunals and human rights pedagogy. He holds an A.B. (Columbia), LL.M. (ColumbiaLawSchool), J.D. (Northwestern), and D.E.A. with distinction (University of Paris).
