ACTS in Portugal
Advocacy & Community-based Training Semester
Students interested in learning more about how they can participate are invited to register for our upcoming webinar on January 13, from 1:00–2:00 pm Eastern Time.
The University Network for Human Rights is excited to launch the Advocacy & Community-based Training Semester (ACTS) Program in partnership with NOVA Law School in Lisbon, Portugal. It is the first of its kind and the only full-time clinical human rights opportunity available to undergraduates. The ACTS Program trains and engages undergraduate students from across the country in human rights practice.
UNHR’s intensive training is designed to challenge students well beyond the classroom. During the ACTS program, students learn through a methodology developed during Jim Cavallaro’s tenure at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools, combining rigorous academic grounding with hands-on practice.
The program has four core elements:
Human rights and advocacy coursework, grounding students in key legal frameworks and theoretical perspectives.
Simulation-based training, where students take part in a realistic role-play exercise alongside trained actors, built around a hypothetical but credible human rights crisis. The simulation is designed to mirror a real fact-finding mission, and students receive detailed, individualized feedback.
Supervised, real-world documentation of human rights abuses, carried out in collaboration with affected communities and tailored to their needs under the guidance of UNHR’s experienced supervisors. In past programs, students have worked in contexts including Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico, Armenia, and India.
Advocacy seminars, which help students process and analyze their fieldwork with close supervision and mentorship, often resulting in concrete outputs such as submissions to UN mechanisms. Over the course of the program our supervisors and staff provide personalized feedback to students, developing their capacity to advance human rights and social justice, locally and globally.
The ACTS Program in Portugal ensures the highest level of student well-being, safety, and constructive engagement in thinking and working in human rights.
During breaks in the academic year, students in the Program may travel to the site of rights abuse to work directly with affected communities in small groups (2 or 3 students) with a supervisor.
After the semester in Portugal and their field work, students will continue working on their supervised human rights projects in the subsequent semester, from their home university or college. During this period, supervision will be both remote and direct (via supervisor travel to participating students’ campuses).
About NOVA School of Law
Founded in 1973, NOVA University Lisbon is one of Portugal’s leading universities.
Participants in the ACTS program will be hosted by NOVA School of Law, which has a strong focus on public law, international law, and human rights. NOVA University Lisbon and its School of Law are consistently recognized in major international rankings, including the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2025) and the QS World University Rankings.
Housing
Students stay in the heart of Lisbon at Livensa Living’s Marquês de Pombal residence, a state-of-the-art university accommodation center that hosts over 300 students from around the world. The building features on-site laundry facilities, a cinema, library, pool, games room, and gym. It is within walking and biking distance of NOVA School of Law and offers easy access to multiple public transit options.
UNHR also provides a full-time program coordinator who is available to students at all times, including in case of emergency.
Living in Lisbon
Lisbon offers the perfect blend of vibrant, cosmopolitan city life and laid-back, coastal charm. Students can explore historic neighborhoods, enjoy the bustling nightlife, try coffee with pastel de nata, and relax by the water.
Faculty
Program courses are taught by leading global experts on human rights, including:
Aua Baldé, Chair, United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances and Professor, Catholic University of Lisbon
Pooja Bhatia, Journalist, Human Rights Lawyer and Clinical Supervisor, University Network for Human Rights
Francisco Calí, United Nations Special Rapporteur on rights of indigenous peoples
James Cavallaro, Former President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Co-Founder; Executive Director, University Network for Human Rights; and Visiting Professor, Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs; Columbia Law School
Leilani Farha, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing
Maina Kiai, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association
Nadejda Marques, Visiting Professor of Public Policy, Wesleyan University and Former Researcher, Human Rights Watch Angola
Samuel Moyn, Professor of law and history, Yale University
Siobhán Mullally, UN SR on human trafficking; Director, Irish Centre for Human Rights; professor, University of Galway
Ruhan Nagra, Associate Director and Founding Director, Environmental Justice Clinic at University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law and Co-Founder, University Network for Human Rights
Sergio Puig, Professor of Law, European University Institute and University of Arizona
María Luisa Romero, former Minister of Government of Panama and Vice-Chair and Rapporteur of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture
Ed Telles, Professor, University of California, Irvine
Emily Wilder, Journalist and Researcher and Editor, University Network for Human Rights
Faculty of NOVA School of Law
Courses
Public Health, Migration, and Human Rights
Nadejda Marques, Visiting Professor of Public Policy, Wesleyan University; Former Researcher, Human Rights Watch Angola
How do human rights principles apply to the public health challenges faced by migrant populations? What is the situation of migrants arriving at the southern border of the United States? Crossing the Mediterranean Sea or the Darien Gap? What does human rights as a frame have to say about immigrants who are fleeing extreme poverty or are forcibly displaced by the climate crisis? This course seeks to address these and other related questions by examining the intersection of public health, migration policy, and human rights standards. We do so by examining a series of case studies that consider the underlying issues from a variety of disciplines including economics, sociology, law, policy analysis, public health, and political science. Through this course, students will develop a critical understanding of the contemporary landscape and potential policy responses to promote public health and human rights in the international migration space.
Intensive Portuguese Language Study
Nadejda Marques, Visiting Professor of Public Policy, Wesleyan University; Former Researcher, Human Rights Watch Angola
Upon arrival in Lisbon, students will participate in an intensive Portuguese-language course. It is designed to help students integrate into daily life in Lisbon, deepen their academic experience, and participate more fully in the NOVA community. Students who wish to continue developing their language skills are also welcome to pursue additional Portuguese-language study during the semester.
ACTS Writing Program
Pooja Bhatia, journalist and human rights lawyer, and Emily Wilder, journalist and investigative researcher
This course will provide practical and conceptual training in writing that advances human rights. Students will examine and discuss the role writing can play in advancing human rights, as well as its ethical consequences, and consider the form in an age of social media, disinformation, and artificial intelligence.
Human Rights Advocacy Seminar
Jim Cavallaro, Executive Director of the University Network for Human Rights, Professor at Yale, former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The core animating principles and practices of human rights are under threat. Will the global human rights movement be able to respond effectively? How could or should the movement advance the cause of global social justice most effectively? This seminar seeks to answer these questions by assessing global rights defense and social justice practice and by engaging in structured, self-critical human rights advocacy. Among the issues considered in this seminar will be the following: What are the origins of the human rights movement? Has the movement been dominated by ideas from the West and elite organizations from the Global North? What does it mean to be a human rights activist? What is the role of documentation, legal advocacy, and social media in human rights advocacy? What are the main challenges and dilemmas facing those engaged in rights promotion and defense?
Expert Seminar Series
ACTS students will participate in weekly seminars led by international human rights experts and practitioners. Examples of the seminars offered for Spring 2026:
The United Nations Special Procedures – Aua Baldé, Professor at the Catholic University of Portugal; Chair of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.
Preventing Torture - María Luisa Romero, Former Minister of the Government of Panama; Vice-Chair and Rapporteur of the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture
Transitional Justice, Truth, Justice, and, Reparation, Bernard Duhaime, Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence; Professor of Law, University of Quebec in Montreal; Visiting Professor, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas
Housing as a Human Right; Advocacy for Housing Justice, Leilani Farha, Former Special Rapporteur on Housing
The Laws of War: A Critical Understanding, Samuel Moyn, Professor, Yale University
Investment Law, Trade Law, and Human Rights, Sergio Puig, Professor of Law, European University Institute; University of Arizona
Race, Racism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Edward Telles, Professor of Sociology, UC Irvine
Designing and Implementing Human Rights and Environmental Justice Projects and Advocacy Campaigns, Associate Director and Founding Director, Environmental Justice Clinic at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law; Co-Founder, University Network for Human Rights
Freedom of Assembly and Association, Maina Kiai, Former Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Visiting the United Nations
Students have the opportunity to take an optional one-week trip to Geneva to study the United Nations human rights system, with seminar sessions and meetings with UN experts and NGO leaders.
Start the application
Students interested in learning more about how they can participate are invited to register for our upcoming webinar on January 13, from 1:00–2:00 pm Eastern Time.
To apply for the ACTS Program, please complete the materials linked below and email them with your CV and transcript to sofia[at]humanrightsnetwork.org. After submitting, University Network staff will be in touch with you to schedule an interview.
Please attach all materials in PDF format, and indicate which semester you intend to apply for in the body of the email.
Required materials:
ACTS Application (linked at the button below)
Your Resume/CV
Your Unofficial Transcripts