Utilizing FSU's interdisciplinary resources, the Center has sponsored a broad range of human rights projects, involving both research and hands-on advocacy. Because a fundamental part of the Center's mission is to support non-governmental human rights organizations around the world, many of its projects involve close collaboration with NGOs.

Pro Bono Asylum and Immigration Law Assistance: the Center offers pro bono legal representation on an ongoing basis to persons seeking asylum or human rights-related immigration assistance. Under the supervision of Center Executive Director Terry Coonan, FSU law students represent asylum seekers from around the world in U.S. immigration courts. The Center's cases have included advocacy upon behalf of a student activist from Sierra Leone, a 16-year old girl from Nigeria, torture survivors from Syria and Libya, a young woman subjected to sexual violence by Shining Path guerrillas in Peru, and persons fleeing death squad violence in Colombia and Honduras.

The Center also offers pro bono legal assistance to immigrant women subjected to severe domestic abuse in the United States. Pursuing immigration remedies available under the Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA"), the Center has represented women from Russia, Latvia, Algeria, the Philippines, Colombia, Bolivia, Kenya, El Salvador, Iran, Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico.

Wendi Adelson has joined the Center as an attorney with expertise in the intersection of child advocacy and immigration. She will continue working to obtain special immigrant juvenile visas for abused, abandoned and neglected children in Florida. The following manual provides guidance to lawyers, judges and advocates on how to represent children potentially eligible for special immigrant juvenile status. SIJ Manual

A third component of the Center's pro bono work involves the provision of legal services to victims of human trafficking. The Center provides legal counseling to victims of sex trafficking and forced labor, representing survivors as they apply for the immigration remedies created by the Trafficking Victim Protection Act. The Center also assists immigrants victimized by violent crime who are eligible for the new U visas as a result of their cooperation with law enforcement officials and prosecutors.

Liberty in the Balance Project: Under a grant from the Florida Bar Foundation and with the support of the Florida Office of the Attorney General, the Center conducted a two-year statewide project to reconcile the protection of civil rights and civil liberties with post 9-11 national security needs. Under Program Director Mark Schlakman the Center convened a series of round table dialogues bringing together leaders of Florida's Islamic and immigrant communities with representatives of state, local, and national law enforcement agencies. The Center has also worked closely with the Florida Commission on Human Relations and theU.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Florida examining human rights and civil rights issues confronting Florida.

Internet-based Course on Contemporary Human Rights Issues & Law: Under grants from the Miriam Handler Foundation and the Claude Pepper Foundation, FSU President Emeritus Sandy D'Alemberte heads up a project pioneering the use of the internet to teach human rights. The product of collaboration between researchers from the FSU Law School and the FSU Information Science School, the internet-based course focuses on post 9-11 developments in human rights and humanitarian law, and is interdisciplinary in its approach. The course will be available on the web beginning in Spring 2007.

Interpreting Atrocities: Humanities in Human Rights Education Research Project: Center Distinguished Scholar Barney Twiss has been the organizer and facilitator of a year-long academic project exploring ethical questions raised by human rights atrocities. In collaboration with the Center for Applied Ethics at John Carroll University, CAHR has convened a group of prominent Religious Studies scholars from around the United States to examine current human rights issues, particularly the proliferation of torture. Publication of the articles resulting from this academic collaboration is forthcoming.

Cuba Website Project: Students from the FSU Law School and the FSU Information Science School worked under the supervision of Program Director Mark Schlakman to create a website reproducing and translating the conviction documents of recent pro-democracy dissidents in Cuba. Received from confidential sources inside Cuba, the documents expose the questionable legal reasoning used by the Castro regime in its crackdown on the Varela pro-democracy movement. The conviction documents were the first ever of the Castro regime to be disseminated and published outside Cuba.

Victims of Human Trafficking Work: The Center has provided national leadership in ongoing efforts to battle the modern forms of slavery that are now termed human trafficking. Beginning its work under a two-year grant from the Florida Department of Children and Families, the Center undertook what became the first research project nationwide to draw directly upon the voices of trafficking victims themselves. Based on confidential victim interviews conducted by FSU Social Work students, the project chronicled the experiences of immigrant victims of sex trafficking, forced labor, and domestic servitude in Florida. The report from this project, Florida Responds to Human Trafficking, was published in 2004 and included recommendations for a community-based response to these modern forms of slavery.

Since the publication of its 2004 Report, the Center has applied its research in a broad range of governmental anti-trafficking efforts. The Center's research findings were used by the U.S. Department of Justice in the design of the DOJ Training Curriculum on Human Trafficking. Produced by the Institute of Intergovernmental Research, the curriculum has been used nationwide to train state and federal law enforcement officers as well as non-governmental service providers on the investigation of trafficking cases and the special needs of trafficking victims. Center Director Terry Coonan has led law enforcement trainings throughout the country, facilitating sessions for the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance ("BJA"), The Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement ("FDLE"), The International Association for Chiefs of Police ("IACP"), the Mid-States Organized Crime Conference, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, and for Regional Community Policing Institutes ("RCPIs"). Professor Coonan was an invited speaker at the 2006 Department of Justice National Conference on Human Trafficking in New Orleans, and was one of the drafters of the new 2006 Florida law on human trafficking. He has also been a leader of human trafficking trainings in Russia, Thailand, and Kazakhstan.

The Center has also been extensively involved in non-governmental efforts to battle trafficking and to care for trafficking victims. The Center established a Florida Statewide Working Group on Human Trafficking to bring Florida prosecutors and law enforcement officers together with community service providers. Program Director Robin Hassler Thompson has trained Refugee Task Forces throughout Florida on human trafficking, and she and Professor Coonan continue to train non-governmental organizations throughout the country.

In 2006 the Center received new state grants to continue its anti-trafficking work in Florida. Working on a grant from the Florida Department of Education, the Center through Program Director Robin Thompson and Center Assistant Director Vania Llovera are creating a teaching curriculum for use by Florida's English as a Second Language ("ESL") teachers.

Working under a grant from the Florida Office of the Attorney General, the Center has also been funded to create a new Florida Statewide Strategic Plan to battle human trafficking.

Rule of Law International Missions: in a joint venture with the London-based Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association (IBA), Center personnel have prepared background reports and served on international fact-finding missions to countries where rule of law is at risk. A team of FSU law students, with funding provided by the IBA and the Government of Sweden, also undertook the research to update the IBA's Human Rights Manual ("Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual for Judges, Prosecutors, and Lawyers").

Human Rights Film Projects: With the Center's assistance, FSU Film School and Communications School students have worked on film projects examining a broad range of human rights issues. These projects include the following films:

• Fighting for Life in the Death Belt, a documentary produced by FSU Film School graduates Adam Elend and Jeff Marks, examines the death penalty in the United States. In particular, it recounts the advocacy efforts of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights on behalf of Death Row inmates.
• Fields of Mudan, produced by FSU Film School graduate Stevo Chan, is a drama that explores the sex trafficking of children in the United States. The winner of numerous film festival awards, Fields of Mudan has also been used in human trafficking trainings around the country. In January 2006 actress Darryl Hannah sponsored a special Hollywood screening of the film.
• Breaking the Silence, produced by FSU Film School Professor Vall Richard Auzenne and Center Director Terry Coonan, is a documentary drawing on interviews conducted by FSU Film School graduates with survivors of torture from around the world. The film focuses on the activities of the Torture Abolition Survivor Support Coalition ("TASSC"), a Washington D.C. based torture survivor group founded by Sister Diana Ortiz. The film also examines current U.S. complicity in torture.
• Eyes That Don't See, Hearts That Don't Feel, produced by FSU Communications School Professors Andy Opel and Paula Gardner, examines the issues faced by asylum seekers and survivors of torture who immigrate to the United States. The film is based on interviews with refugees and asylum seekers who have been assisted by the Gulf Coast Torture Treatment Center in Clearwater, Florida.