TRIBUTES TO PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS Indiana Int’l & Comp. Law Review Volume 34 Number 2 2024 TRIBUTES TO PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS, TRIBUTES TO PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS, Indiana Int’l & Comp. L. Rev., Vol. 34, Issue 2, p. 155 (2024)............................................................155 2. ABSTRACT, TRIBUTES TO PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS, Indiana Int’l & Comp. L. Rev., Vol. 34, Issue 2, pp. 156 – 157 (2024)................................................................156 3. Editors, Indiana International and Comparative Law Review, TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS UPON HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE FACULTY OF THE INDIANA UNIVERSITY ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCHOOL OF LAW, Indiana Int’l & Comp. L. Rev., Vol. 34, Issue 2, pp. 158 – 171 (2024)..........................................................................158 4. Minot, George, THE IMPACT OF THE PROGRAM IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW (PIHRL): A CONTINUATION OF THE LEGACY OF PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS, THE C.M. GRAY PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW EMERITUS OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY MCKINNEY SCHOOL OF LAW, Indiana Int’l & Comp. L. Rev., Vol. 34, Issue 2, pp. 172 - 193 (2024)..................................................................................172 5. Keyzer, Patrick & Gledhill, Kris, THE ORIGINALITY OF PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS: HOW A UNITED NATIONS SHADOW REPORT INSPIRED BY A LAW PROFESSOR HELPED PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF MIGRANTS DETAINED BY AUSTRALIA ON CHRISTMAS ISLAND, Indiana Int’l & Comp. L. Rev., Vol. 34, Issue 2, pp. 194 - 206 (2024)..........................................................................................................................194 6. Editors, Indiana International and Comparative Law Review, CELEBRATION AND RECOGNITION OF THE PROGRAM IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW’S 26TH ANNIVERSARY, THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GUANTANAMO PROJECT, AND PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS’ RETIREMENT FROM THE INDIANA UNIVERSITY ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCHOOL OF LAW, Indiana Int’l & Comp. L. Rev., Vol. 34, Issue 2, pp 207 - 226 (2024)..................................................................................................207 _______ INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 156 Indiana Int’l & Comp. Law Review Volume 34 Number 2 2024 TRIBUTES TO PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS ABSTRACT After twenty-six and one-half years, from 1997 to 2023, Professor George E. Edwards retired from his role as a fulltime faculty member of the Indiana University McKinney School of Law (“IU McKinney”) and was concurrently appointed as the C.M. Gray Professor of International Law Emeritus. The following four articles in this issue of the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review pay tribute to Professor Edwards and his distinguished record at IU McKinney, and to the Program in International Human Rights Law he founded at the law school, and address the positive impact he and the Program had on IU McKinney students, faculty, staff, and graduates, and on countless people in Indiana, throughout the United States, and around the globe. The first article is a Tribute and thanks to Professor Edwards by the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review, and highlights Professor Edwards’ teaching, research and publications, and service and civic engagement over the years. The second article is by Professor George Minot, based in Rome, Italy, who addresses the Program in International Human Rights Law, that Professor Edwards created when he joined the faculty in 1997, and directed for over twenty-six years, over and above his regular law professor responsibilities of teaching courses, publishing books and law review articles, and doing domestic and overseas service and civic engagement. The third article, by Dean Patrick Keyzer and Professor Kris Gledhill, of law faculties in Australia and New Zealand, respectively, chronicles Professor Edwards’ innovate teaching outside the classroom, and how under his supervision, IU McKinney students and students and advocates from Thailand and Australia, researched, drafted, and submitted a “United Nations Shadow Report” to the United Nations Torture Committee in Geneva, and how the Committee’s findings on that report triggered Australia to close the remote immigration detention facility at Christmas Island – an example of how law school teaching might lead to positive real-life results. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 157 The fourth article describes a celebration held on May 19, 2023 at IU McKinney for the 26th Anniversary of the Program in International Human Rights Law (1997 – 2023), the 20th Anniversary of the Program’s work with the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. Military Commissions (2003 – 2023), and Professor Edwards’ 2023 retirement and appointment as Professor of Law Emeritus. This article excerpts some speakers’ remarks, reproduces a United States House of Representatives Floor Speech by Congressman André Carson recognizing Professor Edwards and Program in International Human Rights Law accomplishments, and reproduces the Indianapolis Mayor’s Proclamation that May 19, 2023 was “Program In International Human Rights Law Day in the City of Indianapolis.” Given the limited space in this issue, it is impossible to describe, or even merely list, all Professor Edwards’ classroom and experiential teaching accomplishments, his research projects and publications, his prolific service to the local, national and global communities, and his many awards and honors. We offer highlights, with hopes that Professor Edwards’ efforts and accomplishments for over a quarter of a century will continue to inspire all to do good in the world. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 158 TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS UPON HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE FACULTY OFTHE INDIANA UNIVERSITY ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCHOOLOF LAW INDIANA INTERNATIONAL ANDCOMPARATIVE LAW REVIEW 1 I. PROFESSOR EDWARDS’ APPOINTMENT AS EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND RETIREMENT Professor George E. Edwards joined the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (“IU McKinney”) faculty in 1997.2 At the end of the 2022-2023 academic term, he retired from his full-time tenured IU McKinney faculty position and was appointed as a Professor of International Law Emeritus. During his twenty-six and one-half years at IU McKinney, Professor Edwards made a profoundly positive impact on students, faculty, staff, IU McKinney alumni, and within Indiana University (“IU”). His positive impact also extended to the local Indiana community, around the United States, and around the globe. The Indiana International and Comparative Law Review offers this tribute to express its appreciation for Professor Edwards’ service to the law school and as Faculty Advisor to this law review during his entire career at IU McKinney, from 1997 to 2023. Though his entire body of work cannot be confined to a law review article, this article commemorates much of Edwards’ service and achievements, beginning with his early legal background, transition to academia, highlights of his distinguished record of teaching, research and publications, his commitment to service and civic engagement, his impact on law students inside and outside the classroom, and selected awards and honors received by Edwards. II. EDWARDS’ LAW SCHOOL EDUCATION, EARLY PRACTICE, AND TRANSITION TO ACADEMIA Professor Edwards graduated from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor of the Harvard Law Review and associate editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. At Harvard, Edwards was also a Professor’s Teaching Assistant for Legal Writing, a Board of Directors Member of the Harvard Law School Forum, a Research Assistant to a Dean, a member of the ————————————————————————————— 1. This tribute was authored by members of the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review. The content draws from their experiences in the classroom with Professor Edwards and involvement in the Program in International Human Rights Law, several publications chronicling Professor Edwards’ work, Professor Edwards’ international law colleagues, Professor Edwards’ CV, and in some instances, Professor Edwards himself. 2. George E. Edwards, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. https://mckinneylaw. iu.edu/faculty-staff/profile.html?id=10 [https://perma.cc/45UE-GDM8] (last visited May 29, 2024). https://perma.cc/45UE-GDM8 https://mckinneylaw 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 159 Harvard Law School Black Law Students Association, a two-time Harvard Human Rights Program C. Clyde Ferguson, Jr. scholarship recipient, and two- time Harvard overseas international human rights law intern. During the summer after his first year at Harvard, Edwards worked in Bangkok, Thailand as law clerk for the international law firm Russin, Kaplan & Vecchi, International Legal Counselors. That summer, a fellow Harvard Law student took Edwards to refugee camps in Thailand, introducing him to international human rights law in practice in the field, igniting Edwards’ passion for the subject matter. 3 Upon his return to Harvard for his second year, Edwards joined the Harvard Human Rights Program, volunteered for a law school-based group named Human Rights Internet, and became a Research Assistant for an international law and rights-focused book published by Harvard Dean Fred Snyder and (then) Harvard law graduate student Surakiart Sathirathai. 4 He was twice awarded a Harvard Human Rights Program Overseas Internship Scholarship, the Professor C. Clyde Ferguson, Jr. Scholarship, as one of the first Harvard Law School overseas interns. 5 Through the scholarship, Edwards served one summer as an intern in Sudan and Ethiopia at Interfam, a human rights non-governmental organization that focused on famine relief. During another summer, he served as an intern in Geneva, Switzerland, at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Legal Protection Division. Also, in law school, Edwards worked for the Ford Foundation’s International Affairs Program in New York, a prominent Washington, D.C. law firm, Arnold and Porter, and a prominent Wall Street law firm in New York, Cravath, Swaine and Moore. After graduation, he served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He then returned to Wall Street as a corporate litigator for the Cravath, Swaine & Moore law firm. After working on Wall Street, Edwards began his career in academia. He started abroad at the University of Hong Kong Law Faculty, where he was Associate Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, and taught at City University of Hong Kong Law Faculty and for the Hong Kong Law ————————————————————————————— 3. Edwards’ first international trip was as a teen when he won a U.S. national essay contest for his essay on the relationship between African Americans and the struggle of Africans for self- determination. The prize was a trip to Nigeria to represent African American youth at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC). He was born and raised in North Carolina – in the U.S. South – where he was exposed to civil rights issues but was introduced to additional human rights issues on that trip to Africa, planting seeds for his career in international human rights law, both in the United States and abroad. 4. Dr. Sathirathai later served as the Foreign Minister and then Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand and was a candidate for the U.N. Secretary General position. 5. Harvard students who influenced Edwards in the human rights arena included Stephanie Moore, James (Jim) Ross, Navi Pillay, Andrew Byrnes, Stephen Golub, Evan Wolfson, Raul Sanchez, Adrien Peter Gonzalez Maltes, Surakiart Sathirathai, Larry Bates, Yohannes Kassahun, and Makau Mutua. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 160 Society. 6 In Hong Kong, he prepared UN Shadow Reports 7 submitted to five UN Treaty Bodies in New York and Geneva, delivered his first oral presentations to UN Treaty Bodies on the floor of those UN proceedings, and hosted a series of UN Special Rapporteurs on mission to Hong Kong before the July 1997 shift of the exercise of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China. When he joined the IU McKinney faculty in January 1997, Edwards brought much of his Harvard Law School, federal judicial clerkship, Wall Street, and Hong Kong teaching experience to the position. III. PROFESSOR EDWARDS AS A FULL TIME FACULTY MEMBER AT IU MCKINNEY A. Official Roles and Titles at IU McKinney Professor Edwards joined the IU McKinney faculty in 1997 as an Associate Professor of Law. He was granted tenure and promoted to a Professor of Law position in 2003 and was appointed to hold the C.M. Gray Professor of Law endowed titled professorship in 2006. Throughout his time at IU McKinney, Edwards held various other titles, including Founder and Faculty Director of the Program in International Human Rights Law (“PIHRL”, pronounced “Pearl”), Special Assistant to the Dean for Inter-Governmental & Non-Governmental Organizations, Affiliated Faculty Member at the Center for Global Change at Indiana University Bloomington, Founder and Faculty Director of the Master of Laws (LL.M.) International Human Rights Law Track, Inaugural Chair of the Graduate Law Programs, and Founding Co-Chair of the Graduate Law Committee. ————————————————————————————— 6. He taught law students and practicing solicitors on the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, legal practice, legal writing and drafting, and international human rights law. He advised the Student Law Review and the Jessup International Law Moot Court Team, and tutored. He co-convened international human rights law colloquia, assisted UN advocacy human rights trainings, served as Rapporteur at international proceedings, and testified before the Hong Kong Legislative Council on immigration and human rights issues. He was local faculty director and lecturer in Santa Clara University Law School’s Summer Programme at the University of Hong Kong Law Faculty, and organized and supervised Hong Kong law internships for Santa Clara law students. He also co- edited Hong Kong Public Law Reports (6 volumes) (Butterworths Asia; Univ of Hong Kong Press) and the five books in the Problems & Prospects Series, focusing on the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, leading up to the change of exercise of sovereignty in 1997. 7. A UN Shadow Report, explained: UN member countries periodically are called upon to submit reports to different UN bodies to report on whether the country is complying with a specific UN international human rights law treaty, or whether the country is complying with international law more generally. After a country submits such a report to the UN, NGOs, academics, and others often submit “Shadow Reports” that provide the UN body information the country may not have provided in its country report. A Shadow Report “shadows” a country’s report. Shadow Reports offer the UN different perspectives. In this article, “Shadow Reports” may include PIHRL UN submissions lodged in response to UN Human Rights Council consultation requests, as well as submissions lodged pursuant to specific international human rights law treaties. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 161 From 1997 to 2023, Professor Edwards had job responsibilities in three areas: (a) teaching (classroom and experiential); (b) research and publications; and (c) service and civic engagement to the law school, university, and local, national, and international communities. In addition to those traditional job responsibilities, Professor Edwards also created and operated the PIHRL. The forthcoming sections address each of these responsibilities. It is important to note that these duties were not performed in separate silos, and Professor Edwards’ contributions often overlapped the discussed areas. B. Teaching In Edwards’ over twenty-six years at IU McKinney, he taught hundreds of students earning Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), Doctor of Jurisprudence (S.J.D.), and Master of Jurisprudence (M.J.) degrees. Classroom courses he taught included Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, International Legal Transactions, and International Criminal Law. 8 He also taught the PIHRL internship course, which had approximately 250 internship placements in over 75 countries on 6 continents between the years of 1997 and 2023. 9 Several students received academic credit for independent studies with Edwards and other undertakings in which students engaged in experiential learning. Professor Edwards’ teaching emphasized experiential learning. Much of his coursework included actual or simulated international law projects with students to provide hands-on experience and learning opportunities. Often, students worked with esteemed international lawyers, UN officials, U.S. and overseas government officials, victims of human rights abuses, ambassadors, consuls general and other diplomats, and judges. Professor Edwards routinely featured these individuals in his classes as guest lecturers. For example, Professor Edwards invited presentations and colloquies between IU McKinney students and the dozens of U.S. State Department international visitors Professor Edwards hosted at IU McKinney via the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) hosted through the International Center of Indiana. 10 Indiana University awarded him for his classroom and experiential teaching by granting him, on multiple occasions, the Indiana University Trustee Teaching ————————————————————————————— 8. Between 1997 and 2023, Edwards taught 79 semesters – 27 spring semesters, 26 summer terms, and 26 autumn semesters. 9. The PIHRL Overseas Internship Project is described in detail infra in the George Minot article. 10. International Visitor Programs, THE INT’L CTR., https://internationalcenter.org/ international-visitor-programs/ [https://perma.cc/579R-CEEV] (last visited May 29, 2024) (defining IVLP is “a professional exchange program initiated by the U.S. Department of State.” International visitors meet with leaders in the Indianapolis community to discuss many topics of global importance. Over the years, Edwards and the PIHRL hosted visitors from over 25 countries through the program.). https://perma.cc/579R-CEEV https://internationalcenter.org INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 162 Award, which focused exclusively on his teaching, and other awards for which teaching was a component of selection criteria. Also, in recognition of his teaching and his legal expertise, Edwards received prestigious awards to teach at premier overseas institutions. For example, the U.S. State Department affiliated Fulbright Foundation awarded Edwards a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant to be a Visiting Professor at Universidad Privada San Pedro in Chimbote & Trujillo, Peru, where he was the inaugural professor in the university’s Graduate Law Program. Similarly, the U.S. State Department U.S. Information Agency (USIA) awarded him a travel grant to lecture at the Constitutional Court of Lithuania in Vilnius for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. He was nominated for a Muskie Mentor/Advisor Exchange (MAX) award through the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program to lecture in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. Furthermore, IU McKinney supported Edwards, as part of his IU McKinney job responsibilities, to be a visiting professor or fellow at: Cambridge University Faculty of Law’s Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (Cambridge, United Kingdom) (where he is Life Member, Wolfson College, Cambridge University); Auckland University of Technology (AUT) (Auckland, New Zealand); Queen Mary University of London Faculty of Law (London, United Kingdom); Australian Catholic University, Thomas More Law School (Melbourne & Sydney, Australia); Stetson University College of Law (Gulfport, Florida; The Hague, The Netherlands); DePaul University College of Law (Chicago, Illinois); and Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Law (Bangkok, Thailand). At these international institutions, Edwards taught courses, delivered lectures, tutored and advised students, conducted master classes, coached Jessup International Law Moot Court Teams, and collaborated with students, faculty and staff on a wide range of international law experiential projects, all of which involved IU McKinney students, faculty, and staff. The Office of the President of Indiana University recognized Professor Edwards’ Thailand faculty work in a special video. 11 C. Research and Publications Research and publications were a major part of Professor Edwards’ job, as they are for any tenured law professor. Edwards was a steadfast legal researcher before he arrived at IU McKinney and throughout his professorship. Edwards’ legal research signifies him as an esteemed author of many books, book chapters, law review articles, news articles, op-eds, briefs, legal memoranda, UN Shadow Reports, and website materials. ————————————————————————————— 11. IU in Thailand, IND. UNIV., https://news.iu.edu/stories/features/thailand/faculty- abroad.html [https://perma.cc/CJG5-ZV8A ] (last visited May 29, 2024) (The video on this website reflects the bond between IU McKinney and Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Law through Professor Edwards.). https://perma.cc/CJG5-ZV8A https://news.iu.edu/stories/features/thailand/faculty 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 163 Edwards’ research and publications appeared in journals of Yale, Harvard, Michigan State, Pace, New England, Thurgood Marshall, Indiana, and American University law schools. His research was published in international journals such as the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights. He also authored UN reports, expert witness affidavits, briefing papers, and legal memoranda used in litigation in domestic and international courts and tribunals around the globe. During his time at IU McKinney, Edwards delivered countless lectures, speeches, media interviews, briefings of principles, panel presentations, and other talks on international law in many dozens of countries. More information on Edwards’ other publications, including those regarding Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the LL.M. Roadmap: An International Student’s Guide to U.S. Law Programs are found in George Minot’s legacy article below. D. Student Organizations, Working with Students, Caring About Students 1. Advising Student Organizations As mentioned, between 1997 and 2023, the PIHRL had approximately 250 law student internship placements in over 75 countries in all inhabited continents. It was common for these internship students to return to IU McKinney after a summer working on international human rights law abroad wanting to create a new student organization to continue their work. Professor Edwards assisted students who sought to create student organizations such as the Amnesty International Student Chapter, the International Human Rights Law Society, the United Nations Shadow Reporting Group, and the Master of Laws Association (M.L.A.). He also served as Faculty Advisor for these new and other existing student organizations, including the International Law Society, and coach to the Jessup International Law Moot Court Team. He was Faculty Advisor to the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review for his entire career at IU McKinney from 1997 to 2023. 2. Student Involvement in Projects From 1997 until retirement, Edwards always sought to include IU McKinney students in all aspects of his work – teaching, research and publications, and service and civic engagement. 12 His students assisted in research for his courses and helped develop teaching materials. His students researched and drafted memoranda used for Edwards’ publications and presentations, and some students became co-authors of his publications or his co-presenters at lectures or talks. His students were involved in every service ————————————————————————————— 12. Professor Edwards always insisted that no IU McKinney PIHRL student work for free: either they received academic credit for their work or they were paid as a research assistant. If the PIHRL Research Assistant budget was exhausted, Professor Edwards paid for their assistance out of his own pocket. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 164 project he undertook in his over twenty-six years at IU McKinney, including the LL.M. Roadmap book, the LL.M. Roadmap Career Guide manuscript, and the Know Before You Go to Guantanamo guide, which benefited the students working with Edwards. In conjunction with IU McKinney, Edwards frequently offered students research assistant opportunities with his teaching, research, and service and civic engagement work, and he assigned these research assistants significant responsibilities. He asked them to research, draft and submit important filings. The research assistants interacted with victims of human rights violations, overseas law professors, United Nations officials, high-ranking leaders in the governments of the United States and other countries, U.S. military officers, royalty, and a myriad of other important stakeholders in the international human rights field. Professor Edwards also facilitated research assistants and other students to give oral presentations on the floor of United Nations hearings in New York and Geneva in response to UN Human Rights Council requests for consultation, on behalf of victims in countries appearing before UN Treaty Bodies, or for other purposes in which the students advocated for human rights of victims. Undoubtedly, the research assistants developed important skills that would serve them well after graduating from the law school and entering the legal profession. 3. Mentorship Edwards always strived to be a mentor and a career coach to current and former IU McKinney students, along with students from other law schools that engaged with Professor Edwards and the PIHRL. He regularly assisted students in building and revising their resumes and cover letters, helped prepare students for job or graduate school interviews, and advised on other career opportunities. Professor Edwards wrote hundreds of recommendation letters for jobs and graduate programs. He served as reference for countless students who sought admissions to a bar or for students needing references for other matters, such as government security clearances. Edwards was always sensitive to the financial needs of students at IU McKinney, particularly when they were engaged in international internships and may have encountered unexpected expenses. 13 During his first visits to student interns in Geneva and New Delhi in 1997, and during every overseas trip until his last overseas visits to an intern in Melbourne, Australia in 2022, Edwards ensured that interns were not financially burdened with meals, taxis, or other daily expenses. Edwards always paid for the dinners or lunches he hosted for the interns’ host supervisors, officemates, and fellow interns. Edwards also secured a physical location for students pursuing their passion of international human rights law. He established the International Human ————————————————————————————— 13. Edwards raised funds for students with financial difficulty, and it was not unknown for him to leave a bag of groceries at the doorstep of a student in need. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 165 Rights Law Academic Center (known as the “Human Rights Center”), a dedicated office space where students could work on PIHRL projects, study for classes and work on papers, and hold student organization meetings. Edwards stocked the Human Rights Center with valuable international law books and other research materials, work product from PIHRL projects, and office supplies for student use. Students found the Human Rights Center to be a comfortable place to study, to work on projects, to enjoy a conversation or snack with colleagues, or on some occasions, even to take a nap. 4. Mental Health Counseling and Support Years ago, when Edwards was early in his teaching career at IU McKinney, an IU McKinney student suffering from mental health and addiction illnesses committed suicide. The death deeply affected Professor Edwards, and he was moved to become a mentor for the Indiana Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (JLAP), a legal organization in Indiana that provides “confidential, compassionate support to all judges, lawyers, and law students by promoting well-being, improving lives, fostering connection, and thereby elevating the competence of [the legal] profession.”14 Since then, and even in retirement, Professor Edwards has served as mentor for Indiana legal professionals with addiction and other mental health illnesses that threaten to interfere with their ability to practice, teach, study, or judge. In addition to supporting students directly, he provided valuable guidance by sharing on-campus and JLAP resources. Edwards was determined that at any hint of mental health, emotional or other sort of problem, he would take steps to try to help, and to try to prevent another tragedy. E. Service and Civic Engagement As part of his IU McKinney law professor position, Edwards engaged in wide-ranging service and civic engagement within IU McKinney, on the IU- Indianapolis campus, at the IU university level, as well as service and civic engagement to the local, national, and international communities. IU McKinney, IU-Indianapolis, and IU Service: Edwards served on numerous IU McKinney faculty committees, including the Executive Committee, which oversees faculty governance and to which the full faculty elected him multiple times. In addition to the Executive Committee, he was a member of various other committees that were pivotal to the success of the law ————————————————————————————— 14. About; Judges & Lawyers Assistance Program, IND. JUD. BRANCH https://www.in.gov/ courts/jlaphelps/about/ [https://perma.cc/YF8U-ZHQS] (last visited May 29, 2024) (The Indiana Supreme Court authorized creation of JLAP with the passage of Rule 31 of the Indiana Rules on Admission to the Bar and Discipline of Attorneys.). https://perma.cc/YF8U-ZHQS https://www.in.gov INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 166 school. 15 The IU McKinney faculty for several years elected Edwards to represent IU McKinney as a member of the House of Delegates of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Edwards was appointed multiple times to the Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellowship Grant Review Committee, which reviews and disburses grant money for innovative academic research. He also served on many IU – Indianapolis and Indiana University committees, including the Social Justice Committee (Selected by IUPUI Sustainability Group), the Titled Professorships Committee, and the Purdue / Indiana University Communication Task Force (Appointed by Law School Dean, per the Task Force organized by IU President Pamela Whitten). He was elected to the campus Faculty Council on multiple occasions and appointed to the Philosophy Department External Review Committee. In retirement, he is a member of the Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis Senior Academy and Indiana University Retirees Association. United States and Indiana Government service: Edwards worked with various divisions of the United States government concerning international issues, including the Departments of State (international legal education and human rights issues) and Defense (Guantanamo Bay issues). He gave briefings at the U.S. Labor Department and the Office of the U.S. Vice-President, and to U.S. Congressional Staff. During his time at IU McKinney, Edwards presented and briefed on international legal education, international law and human rights at U.S. Embassies and Consulates, Fulbright offices, and EducationUSA advising centers in over three dozen countries. In May 2016, Edwards was the first professor to lecture at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba since 1959, when Fidel Castro’s regime began. The Pentagon tapped Edwards to examine fair trial issues of over 600 Guantanamo Bay men and boy prisoners. He was tendered as an Expert Witness in the first completed U.S. military commission since WWII (U.S.A. v. Hicks) and was the first U.S. expert permitted to travel to Guantanamo Bay. Edwards was a Presidential Elector from Indiana in the Electoral College process for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He was appointed by the Indianapolis Mayor to the Indianapolis Fire Merit Board. He taught courses on international law to Indiana judges as part of the Indiana Supreme Court’s Judicial College for Judges (Indiana Judicial Center). National Law Organization Elections: Edwards is an elected member of the prestigious American Law Institute (ALI) and the American Bar Foundation (ABF). National Organization Appointments. The American Bar Association (ABA) appointed Edwards Vice Chair of the International Courts Committee of ————————————————————————————— 15. The many IU McKinney faculty committees on which Professor Edwards sat include the following: Academic Affairs Committee, Scholarships & Awards Committee, Library Committee, Faculty Hiring Committee, Executive Committee, J.D. Admissions Committee, LL.M. Admissions Committee, J.D. Re-Admissions Committee, and Colloquium Committee. He held many official Roles and Titles, including Executive Chair for Graduate Programs, Special Assistant to the Dean for Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations, Faculty Director, Program in International Human Right Law. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 167 the Section of International Law, Vice Chair for Diversity of the International Courts Committee, and Vice Chair for Rule of Law of the International Courts Committee. The National Bar Association (NBA) President appointed him Chair of the Presidential Appointments Project. The American Society of International Law (ASIL) President appointed Edwards to Blacks of the American Society of International Law (BASIL). He was appointed to the Council on International Affairs of the City Bar of New York and appointed to represent the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) at the 1997 Ceremonies for the shift of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. He was an elected member of the Board of Directors, International Law Students Association (ILSA). He was elected to multiple leadership posts of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), such as Inaugural Chair Elect (and Chair) and Inaugural Executive Committee Member of the International Human Rights Section, which he co-founded; Newsletter Contributor; and Executive Committee member of other AALS Sections, including the Post-Graduate Legal Education Section. 16 Other National Organization Memberships. Edwards is a member of the National Bar Association (NBA), New York City Bar Association (NYCBAR), DACOR Organization of Foreign Affairs Professionals, Black Professionals in International Law (BPIA), United Nations Association of the U.S.A., Washington, D.C. Chapter, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), American Constitutional Society, and the White House Historical Association. International Service and Advocacy. Edwards was appointed to the Roster of Victims’ Counsel Before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Netherlands. He was also appointed as the following: expert for Transatlantic Dialogue of the Royal Society of International Affairs at Chatham House in London, U.K.; International Judge, National Rounds, Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition; and Trainer of international judges about the International Criminal Court and the Arab World (in Amman, Jordan). Other Service. Edwards was appointed to the Smithsonian Institution Advisory Council for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (appointed by the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution). Edwards founded the Guantanamo Military Commission Observation Project that sent IU McKinney law students, faculty, staff and graduates to Guantanamo for hearings, and he himself made dozens of trips to Guantanamo and other U.S. military bases for hearings. He served on the Hong Kong (Legislative Council) Ad Hoc Committee on Equal Opportunities, and as a member of the following: Governing Committee, GLIFAA (Affinity Group of the U.S. Department of ————————————————————————————— 16. Professor George Edwards Elected to 3 National Leadership Positions for Master of Laws Programs, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Feb. 13, 2013), https://mckinney law.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=161 [https://perma.cc/XR27-AKEG]; Professor Edwards Elected to Executive Committee of AALS Section for Foreign Lawyers, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Apr. 15, 2011) https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid=519 [https://perma.cc/NG3W-58QE] (The AALS is the chief professional organization for U.S. law professors.) https://perma.cc/NG3W-58QE https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid=519 https://perma.cc/XR27-AKEG https://mckinney INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 168 State, USAID and other federal agencies with foreign affairs components); Victory Institute’s Victory Campaign Board (VCB); with Human Rights Campaign; Association of Nigerians in Indianapolis (Honorary); Volunteer, National Parks Service (NPS) National Mall Visitors Program (Trust for the National Mall); Equal Voices for Democracy Advisory Council of the National Democratic Institute (NDI). He was elected to Who’s Who in Black Indianapolis. F. International Advocacy As part of his IU McKinney law professor responsibilities, Edwards was an advocate of international human rights law across various subject matters and geographic boundaries, which this section briefly covers. 17 For example, at the United Nations, Edwards was a delegate to numerous conferences. 18 In 2020, following the killing of George Floyd by law enforcement officers, Edwards drafted the National Bar Association’s June 2020 Submission for the UN Human Rights Council’s Urgent Debate on “racially inspired human rights violations, systematic racism, police brutality and the violence against peaceful protests.”19 Edwards consulted for the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and other human rights groups. Human Rights Watch Asia appointed him to be a trial observer in the criminal case of DPP of Malaysia v Irene Fernandez, in Malaysia. Edwards frequently worked on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. military commissions, was tendered as a Guantanamo expert witness, made dozens of trips to Guantanamo, and was asked by the U.S. government to examine Guantanamo fair trial issues. 20 He appeared in two episodes of Pacific Island Food Revolution, a cooking television show filmed in Fiji, to provide expertise on the internationally recognized right to food, with a stress on the healthful, local cuisine of Pacific Island nations. For many years, Edwards was accredited to the UN and to UN facilities in ————————————————————————————— 17. The listed contributions are merely a summary of some of Edwards’ notable work and do not encompass all advocacy efforts of Edwards. 18. The conferences include the following: UN Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the International Criminal Court (ICC) (Rome, Italy), International Criminal Court (ICC) Assembly of States Parties (New York), U.N. International Criminal Court Prep Committee & Prep Commission (New York); Vienna + 5 Global Forum (Ottawa, Canada), World Conference Against Racism, Race Discrimination, Xenophobia & Related Intolerance (WCAR) (Durban, South Africa), WCAR Prep Comm (Santiago, Chile), Durban Review Conference (Geneva, Switzerland), International Criminal Court (ICC) Review Conference (Kampala, Uganda). He was also a delegate to many UN treaty body proceedings in New York and Geneva. 19. Human Rights Council holds an urgent debate on current racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protests https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2020/06/human-rights-council-holds-urgent-debate- current-racially-inspired-human-rights (June 17, 2020). 20. More on Edwards and PIHRL’s work on Guantanamo can be found in the George Minot article that is part of this tribute. https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2020/06/human-rights-council-holds-urgent-debate 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 169 Lebanon (Beirut), Switzerland (Geneva), U.S.A. (New York), Thailand (Bangkok), Chile (Santiago), and Austria (Vienna). He co-founded the Transnational Collaborative Institute with New Zealand Law Professor Kris Gledhill and Australian Law Dean Patrick Keyzer – whose account of their collaborations is included in this journal. G. Awards and Honors During his time at IU McKinney, Edwards was bestowed with dozens of awards, recognitions and honors from IU McKinney, IU-Indianapolis, Indiana University, legal organizations, the U.S. government, inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations, and from students and graduates. A select number of awards and honors are included below: U.S. and Overseas Legal Organizations: In 2005, he was elected to the prestigious American Law Institute (ALI). 21 The ALI appointed Edwards to the Consultative Group of the ALI Restatement (Fourth) on the Foreign Relations Law of the United States in 2012, which is the most authoritative reference work on international and foreign relations law in the United States, for which the group updated the 25-Year-Old Restatement (Third) on the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. 22 The ALI also appointed Edwards to the Consultative Group on Principles of Election Law: Resolution of Election Disputes. 23 The American Bar Association (ABA) appointed Edwards to the ABA Advisory Panel, and he was elected as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF). 24 The Center for National Policy appointed him as its International Human Rights Fellow. 25 A human rights think tank in Switzerland, Universal Rights Group, named him an Advisory Committee member. 26 The National Bar Association (NBA) awarded him the Sankofa Award for International Service ————————————————————————————— 21. Prof. Edwards Elected to American Law Institute, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Jan. 23, 2006) https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid=130 [https://perma. cc/ET7D-STQX] 22. Professor Edwards Named to ALI Restatement Group, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L(Nov. 26, 2012) https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=111 [https://perma. cc/EL45-562G]. 23. This working group focused on principles and procedures applicable to issues in election administration around the world, including the counting of ballots and rules for non-precinct voting, or voting that occurred in other places from the traditional “polling” place. 24. Professor Edwards Named American Bar Foundation Fellow, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Aug. 19, 2011) https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid= 545 [https://perma.cc/BY6G-UF45]. 25. Professor Edwards Elected to AALS Positions and Named National Policy Fellow, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L (Feb. 2, 2012), https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive. html?xid=574 [https://perma.cc/NBR4-ALH8]. 26. Professor George Edwards Named to Advisory Committee of Universal Rights Group Think Tank in Switzerland, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L(Feb. 18, 2014) https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=1481 [https://perma.cc/7VN2-NLT8]. https://perma.cc/7VN2-NLT8 https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=1481 https://perma.cc/NBR4-ALH8 https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive https://perma.cc/BY6G-UF45 https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid https://perma https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=111 https://perma https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid=130 INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 170 Contributions, 27 the Global Advocate Award, 28 and the Ronald H. Brown Award for International Distinction. He was nominated for the Gary Bellow Public Service Award, Harvard Law School; C. Clyde Ferguson, Jr. Award, of the AALS Section on Minority Groups (multiple); Center for Leadership Development (CLD) Award - Achievement in Education; and the Indiana Governor’s Celebration of Community Service Awards for Achievement in Education. Indiana University and IU-Indianapolis: IU awarded Edwards the John Ryan Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Programs and Studies, the highest award IU offers to any faculty member, which recognizes a faculty member’s outstanding contributions to IU international programs. 29 He received the George W. Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service; Trustees Teaching Award multiple times; and Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors membership. The IU Vice President for International Affairs, Hannah L. Buxbaum, appointed Edwards to the IU ASEAN Gateway Office Faculty Advisory Board, which is tasked with improving IU’s relationship with individuals and entities, including governments, in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region. 30 She also appointed him to the Patrick O’Meara International Lecture Series Ad-Hoc Committee. IU-Indianapolis awarded Edwards the Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement and the Prestigious External Award Recognition (PEAR) multiple times. 31 IU McKinney: IU McKinney awarded Edwards the John S. Grimes Fellowship multiple times. LL.M. and M.J. students frequently elected Edwards to lead the Hooding Ceremony at Commencement, and IU McKinney separately appointed him to serve as Commencement Marshall to escort graduates for both the IU McKinney and IU-Indianapolis graduation ceremonies on several occasions. The full IU McKinney faculty elected Edwards to represent the faculty at the AALS House of Delegates, on the IU-Indianapolis Faculty ————————————————————————————— 27. George Edwards Receives Sankofa Award from National Bar Association, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Aug. 8, 2020), https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/releases/ 2020/08/george-edwards-receives-sankofa-award-from-national-bar-association.html [https:// perma.cc/SH7H-U69R]. 28. Professor Edwards Receives 2021 NBA Global Advocate Award, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (May 14, 2021) https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html? nid=4645 [https://perma.cc/3SYB-UZPS]. 29. Professor Edwards Receives IU’s Prestigious John W. Ryan Award, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Apr. 7, 2021) https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=4530 [https://perma.cc/E5XK-4CJ2]. 30. Professor Edwards Appointed to IU ASEAN Board, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Feb. 19, 2021) https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=4561 [https:// perma.cc/8YW9-6TQQ]. 31. Professor George E. Edwards Receives PEAR Award from IUPUI, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H..MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Apr. 1, 2009), https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid=342 [https://perma.cc/43CE-MS5K] (Edwards was awarded a PEAR three different times, each time for a different achievement: (1) for receiving the Ronald Harmon Brown Award of International Distinction from the National Bar Association; (2) for Appointment as Center for National Policy (CNP) Fellow; and (3) for his election as Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF).). https://perma.cc/43CE-MS5K https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid=342 https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=4561 https://perma.cc/E5XK-4CJ2 https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?nid=4530 https://perma.cc/3SYB-UZPS https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/releases 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 171 Council, and on the IU McKinney Executive Committee. He received the John Morton-Finney/Brenda Elise Bowles Black Law Students Association Award multiple times. The IU McKinney Faculty and Dean nominated him for the Thomas Ehrlich Award for Excellence in Service Learning, and he was nominated for the Law Student Organization Advisor of the Year Award. He was awarded a Law School Alumni Grant for Teaching. IV. CONCLUSION Professor Edwards’ career at IU McKinney deserves to be chronicled, and the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review is honored to do so. His commitment to academic excellence, research and publication accomplishments, his commitment to the well-being of students, and his local and global service have made a lasting impact. For over twenty-six years, Professor Edwards inspired students to advocate for human rights and victims of human rights abuses around the world and provided them with invaluable opportunities to engage with international law. The Indiana International and Comparative Law Review is grateful for his contributions to IU McKinney and his long-term advisement of the law review. The Indiana International and Comparative Law Review wishes Professor Edwards well in retirement and commends him for his years of outstanding service at IU McKinney. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 172 THE IMPACT OF THE PROGRAM IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW (PIHRL): A CONTINUATION OF THE LEGACY OF PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS, THE C.M. GRAY PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW EMERITUS OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY MCKINNEY SCHOOLOF LAW GEORGE MINOT 32 I. INTRODUCTION When George Edwards became a law professor at Indiana University McKinney School of Law (“IU McKinney”) in January 1997, not only did he assume traditional teaching, research and publications, and service and civic engagement responsibilities, but he also created the IU McKinney Program in International Human Rights Law (PIHRL, pronounced “Pearl”). 33 Over the next twenty-six and one-half years the PIHRL became one of the most successful and respected international human rights law programs in the United States—and indeed globally—and significantly helped many thousands of people around the world. 34 In light of his retirement and concurrent appointment as Professor of International Law Emeritus in 2023, it is fitting and indeed necessary to chronicle one of his core career accomplishments associated with IU McKinney; the PIHRL. Part II of this article outlines the limited scope of international law as a subject area at IU McKinney before Professor Edwards arrived, and the birth of the PIHRL and relevant context in which he created it. Part III highlights ten of the dozens of PIHRL Projects Professor Edwards created and operated from 1997 – 2023. Part IV concludes by recalling the remarkably widespread positive impact Professor Edwards has had in Indiana, throughout the United States and globally, and the express hope that some of Professor Edwards’ ————————————————————————————— 32. Professor, novelist, policy writer and editor for United Nations agencies, the U.S. Department of Energy, non-governmental organizations, and academia. Based in Rome, Italy. 33. In 1997, Professor Edwards negotiated for the creation of the PIHRL, over and beyond his regular law professor responsibilities, with no additional salary for creating or operating the PIHRL. 34. This article draws on reviews of original documents related to IU McKinney, its PIHRL, and faculty, staff, students, and graduates, and outside lawyers, judges, diplomats, military personal, and other governmental and non-governmental persons engaged in or affected by the PIHRL, and media reports. Some consulted documents relate to five reviews of the PIHRL, including four IU, IU McKinney, and external reviews conducted in 2022, and one IU McKinney review conducted in 2023. This article also draws on the author’s personal experiences with Professor Edwards and the PIHRL for over a decade – as editor of LL.M. Roadmap and Guantanamo publications, and as consultant in a law course in which Professor Edwards lectured in Rome, Italy, and an inter-disciplinary project involving human rights, the Indonesian and Australian governments, Australian and New Zealand law faculties, and the UN. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 173 legacy and PIHRL projects continue to permeate at IU McKinney in Edwards’ absence. II. THE PIHRL & ITS CONTEXT A. International Law at IU McKinney Before Professor Edwards Arrived When Professor Edwards joined the IU McKinney faculty in 1997, the school offered only an introductory law degree— “Juris Doctor” or “J.D.” IU McKinney had no general international law program, offered only a couple of international law classroom courses, and had a limited international presence, including with IU McKinney students studying abroad in programs in France and China and occasionally non-degree overseas students taking courses on campus. Professor Edwards was part of the initial IU McKinney faculty admissions and governance committee when the school began offering an LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree, which is a graduate law degree principally for students who received their first law degree overseas. He then conceived of, founded and became Founding Faculty Director of the LL.M. Track in International Human Rights Law, which became the largest of IU McKinney’s five LL.M. tracks. For almost three decades, through the PIHRL and with students in the LL.M. and other degree programs, Professor Edwards welcomed, taught, mentored and shepherded many U.S. and overseas students through the fascinating maze of international law and its various real-world applications, pathways, methods, systems, implications, limits and reach. B. Birth of the PIHRL As an IU McKinney Visiting Associate Professor of Law in 1997, Professor Edwards was offered a tenure track position as Associate Professor of Law. He told Dean Norm Lefstein he would accept the offer if IU McKinney agreed to the following: (1) create an international human rights law program; (2) provide scholarship funding for law students to work as overseas international human rights law interns, with funds used for intern air fare, housing, food, and other internship expenses; (3) provide funding for other human rights program purposes, such as supplies, research assistance, conferences, equipment; (4) provide the human rights program with administrative support; and (5) appoint Professor Edwards founding faculty director of the human rights program. 35 Dean Lefstein agreed to all conditions, and in April 1997, Professor Edwards signed an IU employment contract that formalized creation of the PIHRL with ————————————————————————————— 35. Professor Edwards agreed to perform all his traditional law professor responsibilities in addition to operating the PIHRL. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 174 Professor Edwards as PIHRL Faculty Director (Founding). 36 C. PIHRL Mission Statement The PIHRL was a year-round academic program that involved teaching, research and publications, and service and civic engagement. The core goals of the PIHRL Mission Statement Professor Edwards drafted in 1997 were to (1) further the teaching and study of international human rights law at IU McKinney; (2) promote scholarship in international human rights law; (3) assist human rights governmental, inter-governmental, and non-governmental organizations on international human rights law projects; and (4) facilitate student placements as law interns at domestic and overseas human rights organizations. D. International Human Rights Law Programs at other U.S. Law Schools In 1997, only a handful of U.S. law schools had international human rights law programs. Few had Professor Edwards’s vision. For example, few supported students to work overseas as human rights law interns, and even fewer funded overseas internships. No other program had a faculty director like Professor Edwards, who was active at all internship process levels – selecting interns, facilitating placements, conducting pre-departure briefings and trainings, supervising interns (reviewing daily time logs, intern exercises, and paying faculty supervisor site visits overseas). Professor Edwards’ program was unique within U.S. law schools, and today, over twenty-five years later, it remains unique. One program existing in 1997 was at Harvard Law School, Edwards’ alma matter, in which he engaged as a student. Though Professor Edwards modeled the PIHRL on the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, the IU McKinney program had many features the Harvard program lacked, primary among them the high level of hands-on, bespoke support and oversight Professor Edwards provided to IU McKinney students, which Harvard faculty did not provide Edwards when he was an international human rights law student intern through Harvard’s program. III. PIHRL PROJECTS FROM 1997 TO 2023 From 1997 to 2023, the PIHRL had over two dozen primary projects, all of which were principally internal to the school (students, staff, faculty), but ————————————————————————————— 36. Professor Edwards’s IU employment contract, signed by IU in 1997, provided: for the PIHRL’s creation with Professor Edwards as Founding Faculty Director; that IU McKinney would fund law students to work as overseas international human rights law interns; that IU McKinney would fund PIHRL supplies, research assistance, conferences, and equipment; and that IU McKinney would provide PIHRL administrative support. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 175 enjoyed broad participation by IU McKinney alumni, collaborators from other U.S. and overseas law faculties, prisoners and criminal defendants seeking PIHRL assistance, victims of human rights abuses, UN and government officials, and the general public. This article highlights ten of the dozens of PIHRL projects as a representative sampling. These ten selected PIHRL projects are: (1) Attending / Participating in UN Proceedings; UN Special Consultative Status; (2) UN Shadow Reports with IU McKinney student speeches on the floor of UN proceedings; (3) Overseas Internships; (4) Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Projects (with travel and publications); (5) U.S. State Department EducationUSA Presentations; (6) PIHRL international and domestic tribunal consultancies; (7) Research and Publications (8) LL.M. Roadmap: An International Student’s Guide to U.S. Law School Programs; (9) U.S. State Department International Visitors Leadership Project (IVLP); and (10) Commemorative Projects – U.S. Presidential Inauguration U.S. Capitol & Guantanamo Flags; Military Challenge Coin Project for Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Observers to the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Military Commissions and for the PIHRL 26th Anniversary; Arlington National Cemetery Wreath-Laying. 37 A. Attending / Participating in United Nations Proceedings (since 1997) and Granting of UN Special Consultative Status (since 2011) From 1997 until 2023, Professor Edwards and PIHRL students attended and participated in UN activities in Geneva, New York, and other cities in different countries. 38 From 1997 until 2011, to participate, PIHRL was required to acquire accreditation on an ad hoc basis specific to the particular UN proceeding. After a multi-year UN vetting process, the PIHRL was awarded United Nations Special Consultative Status by the UN Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC) in 2011, pursuant to Article 71 of the UN Charter, 39 which offered the PIHRL, as a non-governmental organization (NGO), regularized, permanent non-ad hoc access to UN proceedings, further opening UN doors. PIHRL was the first human rights program of any U.S. law school awarded ————————————————————————————— 37. Other Projects include for example, the Indiana International Human Rights Law Bulletin, launched in 1997, highlighting PIHRL’s first two overseas interns in 1997, who worked for an NGO in India and for the UN in Geneva, and Dr. Fred Boll, who was the first Visiting Lecturer to Professor Edwards’ class in 1997, and was the last Visiting Lecturer to Professor Edwards’ last IU McKinney class in November 2022, before Professor Edwards retired. 38. In the 1997 spring, Professor Edwards’ first semester at IU McKinney, he negotiated a 1997 summer UN internship for an IU McKinney student at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Professor Edwards, on his site intern visit to Geneva that summer, participated in UN proceedings. 39. About 6,000 organizations from 200 countries now have this status, averaging about 30 groups per country. Perfecto Boyet Caparas, who was PIHRL’s Associate Director, served an important role in the UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Status application process. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 176 UN Special Consultative Status, 40 which is the highest the UN offers. The UN calls upon groups like the PIHRL for consultations based on the particular NGO’s expertise. The PIHRL and its students had unique opportunities for invaluable engagement and hands-on participation in adjudication of significant human rights issues in real time at the highest international law institutional levels. From 1997 to 2023, Professor Edwards, IU McKinney students, and graduates were delegates to and participated in dozens of UN conferences. These include: UN Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (Rome, Italy); UN World Conference Against Racism, Race Discrimination, Xenophobia & Related Intolerance (WCAR) (and the NGO World Conference) (Durban, South Africa); UN International Criminal Court Preparatory Committee and Preparatory Commission Meetings (New York); UN International Criminal Court Assembly of States Parties Meeting (New York); UN Durban Review Conference – Review of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Geneva, Switzerland); International Criminal Court (ICC) Review Conference (Kampala, Uganda); UN World Conference Against Racism Preparatory Committee Meetings for the Americas (and the NGO Conference of Citizens) (Santiago, Chile); UN/52 Annual DPI/NGO Conference: Meeting the Challenges of a Globalized World (New York). Professor Edwards and the PIHRL also visited, had briefings at, interned with, or participated in proceedings at the following UN locations: New York (UN Headquarters); Washington, D.C. (UNHCR–UN High Commissioner for Refugees); The Hague, The Netherlands (ICTY–UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia); Arusha, Tanzania (ICTR–UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda); Bangkok, Thailand; Santiago, Chile; Vienna, Austria; Rome, Italy (FAO–Food and Agricultural Organization); and Paris, France (UNESCO–UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Professor Edwards and PIHRL representatives have attended or spoken at many UN bodies over many years, including: the UN Human Rights Committee; the UN Torture Committee (CAT); the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR); the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); the UN Race Committee (CERD); the UN Human Rights Commission and Sub-Commission (obsolete); the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; the UN Forum on Forests; and the UN Human Rights Council. As mentioned below, PIHRL students researched, authored, submitted ————————————————————————————— 40. The PIHRL was perhaps the first law school program in the world to be granted this status. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 177 numerous UN Shadow Reports, 41 and traveled to Geneva or New York to make oral presentations to UN bodies about these UN Shadow Reports. B. UN Shadow Reports Researched, Drafted and Submitted to the UN by IU McKinney Students and Collaborating Overseas Law School Students, with Student Oral Statements at the UN (Commenced 1997) In 1998, a PIHRL student, Mr. Josh Robertson, researched and drafted a UN Shadow Report that argued that the government of Nepal violated the rights of Dalit “untouchable” people in Nepal, in violation of the UN Race Discrimination Treaty. 42 That Shadow Report was submitted to a UN Treaty Body in Geneva, Switzerland, and Mr. Robertson traveled to Geneva to present the Shadow Report to that Treaty Body (UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination). That was the first of over two dozen UN Shadow Reports the PIHRL researched, drafted, and submitted to the UN in Geneva and New York. From 1998 to the autumn of 2022, PIHRL students routinely traveled to New York and Geneva to make oral speeches on the floor of UN proceedings to “present” these Shadow Reports. 1. Selected PIHRL Shadow Reports Listed below are some of the UN Shadow Reports the PIHRL submitted over the years, some of which included IU McKinney students’ oral presentations to the relevant UN body: i. Australia’s Breach of the Torture Convention (UN Torture Committee)43 ii. United States and “current racially inspired human rights violations, systematic racism, police brutality and the violence against peaceful ————————————————————————————— 41. A UN Shadow Report, explain: UN member countries periodically are called upon to submit reports to different UN bodies to report on whether the country is complying with a specific UN international human rights law treaty, or whether the country is complying with international law more generally. After a country submits such a report to the UN, NGOs, academics, and others often submit “Shadow Reports” that provide the UN body information the country may not have provided in its country report. A Shadow Report “shadows” a country’s report; Shadow Reports offer the UN different perspectives. In this article, “Shadow Reports” may include PIHRL UN submissions lodged in response to UN Human Rights Council consultation requests, as well as submissions lodged pursuant to specific international human rights law treaties. 42. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Dec. 21, 1965, 660 U.N.T.S 195, reprinted in 5 ILM 352 (1966). 43. The full title of this Shadow Report, dated 3 October 2022, and discussed in more detail infra in the article authored by Patrick Keyzer and Kris Gledhill, is: “Australia has Violated the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Victims Include Indigenous People in Prisons (including Indigenous Women), Children in Prisons with Adults and in Other Cruel and Inhuman Conditions, Children Suffering Corporal Punishment, and Migrants in Offshore Immigration Detention Centres / Prisons.” INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 178 protests” including in the United States of America (following George Floyd’s murder; submitted via National Bar Association) (UN Human Rights Council) iii. Cape Verde Breaches its Duty to Prevent and Combat Corporal Punishment and Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse of Tarrafal, Santiago, School Children, and Thus Violates Articles 2, 7 & 24 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR) (UN Human Rights Committee) iv. The USA: Juvenile Life without Parole -- Violations of Civil and Political Rights (UN Human Rights Committee) v. Joint Civil Society report on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the Philippines, with input from the IU Law Pro Bono Shadow Reporting Program (UN Torture Committee) vi. Australia’s Breach of its Obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to Protect Women’s Rights (UN Human Rights Committee) vii. Chad’s Breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Failure to Protect the Rights of Women and Girls in Chad (UN Human Rights Committee) viii. Panama Shadow Report on Violations of Civil and Political Rights of Indigenous People (UN Human Rights Committee) ix. USA Shadow Report on Race Discrimination in the Context of Hurricane Katrina (UN Race Committee) x. Zambia Shadow Report on Violations of Press Freedom Rights (UN Human Rights Committee) xi. Chile Shadow Report on Violations of Civil and Political Rights of Sexual Minorities (UN Human Rights Committee) xii. USA Shadow Report on Violations of Civil and Political Rights of Sexual Minorities (UN Human Rights Committee) xiii. Nepal Shadow Report on Race Discrimination against Dalit People (UN Race Committee) xiv. Roma Shadow Report on Violations of Civil and Political Rights (UN Human Rights Committee)44 C. PIHRL Overseas Internship Project (Commenced 1997) The PIRHL overseas internship project, which Professor Edwards founded in 1997, had a profound effect on IU McKinney students and the communities they served. At Edwards’ urging, Dean Lefstein established funding for IU McKinney students to work overseas as international human rights law interns. ————————————————————————————— 44. The listed author of this report is the European Roma Rights Center. Much of its content was written by Mr. Tim Hurlbut, a PIHRL student completing an international internship with the organization. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 179 That summer the PIHRL placed two overseas interns – one at an NGO in India, and one at the UN in Geneva. 45 IU McKinney provided the students scholarships for air fare, housing, and food, and provided the PIHRL administrative support for the internships. Professor Edwards visited both interns on site – in India and in Switzerland. Students maintained time logs and debriefed upon their return to IU McKinney. In 1998, after the IU McKinney Academic Affairs Committee accepted Professor Edwards’ course proposal, the PIHRL Internships became a regular law school course, offering interns four academic credits for field internship work, homework, papers, and exercises. 46 For twenty-six years, from 1997 to 2023, the PIHRL Overseas Internship Project had about 250 internship placements in 75 countries on 6 continents. To fulfill his law professor responsibilities in teaching a course, pursuant to ABA requirements for academic credit received for work done outside the United States, Professor Edwards traveled to make academic supervisory visits to students at their overseas host organizations. 47 D. Guantanamo Bay Projects From 2003 to 2023, PIHRL undertook substantial projects related to the U.S. military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The work included: (a) Guantanamo Right to a Fair Trial – Nuremberg / Tokyo Project (b) Guantanamo Bay Military Commission Observation Project and its Advisory Council; (c) Guantanamo Bay Periodic Review Board Monitoring Project; (d) Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual; (e) Know Before You Go to Guantanamo Bay Guide; (f) The Guantanamo Bay Reader; and (g) Gitmo Observer. 1. Guantanamo Nuremberg / Tokyo Fair Trial Project Four months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – on January 11, 2002 – the United States sent the first twenty prisoners to the newly established prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The prison still exists today. During that first year, 2002, no Guantanamo prisoner had access to any lawyer. In 2003, a Pentagon official asked Professor Edwards and the PIHRL to research international law and rights for the over 500 men (as old as 80) and boys (as young as 13) then at Guantanamo, and to identify rights that might be afforded to anyone who might be tried for war crimes at Guantanamo. ————————————————————————————— 45. Ms. Toma Guha worked for a human rights NGO in New Delhi, India (the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre). Mr. Aklilu Tedla worked at UN European headquarters in Geneva. 46. From 1997 to 2023, only the two 1997 interns did not receive academic course credit for their work. 47. The PIHRL Internship Project work spanned the entire calendar year and involved all aspects of Professor Edwards’ official law professor responsibilities in: (a) teaching, (b) research and publications; and (c) service and civic engagement. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 180 IU McKinney students and Professor Edwards researched fair trial rights of defendants at the post-WWII Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, surmising that rights afforded to Nuremberg and Tokyo defendants should, at the least, be afforded at Guantanamo. 48 This Project marked the beginning of the over 20-year relationship among Professor Edwards, the PIHRL, and Guantanamo. 2. Guantanamo Bay Military Commission Observation Project (MCOP) and its Advisory Council. In 2014, the Pentagon granted “NGO Observer Status” to PIHRL, which then established the Guantanamo Bay Military Commission Observation Project (“MCOP”). MCOP permitted PIHRL to send representatives to Guantanamo Bay to monitor U.S. military commission proceedings. PIHRL created the “Military Commission Observation Project Advisory Council,” comprising law students, graduates and others from the community, that advised on the Guantanamo Project’s policies and practices. The Advisory Council 49 recommended that only “IU McKinney Affiliates” be sent to Guantanamo – that is, IU McKinney faculty, staff, students, and graduates. IU McKinney Affiliates applied or registered for possible Guantanamo travel, and the Advisory Council reviewed submissions and recommended IU McKinney Affiliates for Guantanamo travel. The Guantanamo Project then nominated selected IU McKinney Affiliates to the Pentagon (U.S. Defense Department), which would independently make its final determination as to which nominated IU McKinney Affiliates it would clear for Guantanamo travel. Dozens of IU McKinney Affiliates – mostly J.D., LL.M., or S.J.D. students and graduates – traveled to Guantanamo Bay for military commission hearings. 50 They also traveled to Ft. Meade, Maryland to view Guantanamo hearings via CCTV, and to continental U.S. bases for live Guantanamo hearings, including Ft. Belvoir (Virginia), Joint Base Andrews (formerly Andrews Air Force Base) (Maryland), and Washington Navy Yard (Washington, D.C.). IU McKinney faculty members who participated included Prof. Tom Wilson, Prof. Catherine Lemmer, Prof. George Edwards, Dean Andrew Klein, Prof. Debby McGregor and Prof. Larissa Sullivant. ————————————————————————————— 48. The student legal research team scoured thousands of Nuremberg and Tokyo Trial transcript pages, extracting and analyzing references to fair trial rules, procedures, motions, and rulings, and produced 14 Volumes of source materials and legal analysis for Guantanamo’s Chief Defense Counsel’s office (under Colonel Will Gunn, USAF, now retired) – though then no Guantanamo prisoner had been assigned a lawyer or charged with a crime. 49. The Guantanamo Advisory Council included: Chuck Dunlap (Chair), Maitha Altamimi, Paul Babcock, Sukrat Baber, Tex Boonjue, Nicole Burts, Steven David, Aline Fagundes, Elizabeth Ellie Halodik, Ben Hicks, Jacob Irven, Leontiy Korolev, Matt Kubal, Johanna Leblanc, Bob Masbaum, Kevin Munoz, Jeff Papa, Avril Rua Pitt, Luke Purdy, Patricia Riley, Mark Shope, Analiese Smith, Larissa Sullivant, Qifan Wang, Sheila Willard and Guang Yang. 50. IU Affiliates traveling to Guantanamo encountered significant administrative processes, including a detailed application, interviews, and security clearances. During the pandemic, they were required to produce multiple negative COVID-19 tests pre-travel. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 181 Regarding U.S. Military Commissions, the IU McKinney mission included promoting the six primary responsibilities of NGO Observers: To attend, 51 monitor, 52 be seen, 53 analyze, 54 critique, 55 and report. 56 These six points are memorialized on the Guantanamo NGO Observer military commission challenge coin designed and minted by Professor Edwards, with the most recent iteration of the coin commemorating the period between the 2001 promulgation of the Bush Administration orders calling for the creation of the Guantanamo military commissions through the then current year, 2023. 3. Guantanamo Periodic Review Board (PRB) Observation Project In 2016, the Pentagon granted the PIHRL authorization to send NGO Observers to the Pentagon to monitor Periodic Review Boards (PRBs), which are parole board-like hearings, held at Guantanamo and viewable via secure video-link at the Pentagon. Similar to the roles and responsibilities for Guantanamo travelers, PRB attendees had the same six-point mission statement as the MCOP project: To attend, monitor, be seen, analyze, critique, and report. 57 4. Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual Aside from two expert witness affidavits in the Guantanamo case of David Hicks, Professor Edwards and PIHRL’s first major Guantanamo publication was The Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual for U.S. Military Commissions: An Independent & Objective Guide for Assessing Human Rights Protections and Interests of the Prosecution, the Defense, Victims and Victims’ Families, Witnesses, the Press, the Court, JTF-GTMO Detention Personnel, NGO Observers & Other Military Commission Stakeholders. Professor Edwards recounts that on a Guantanamo trip in 2014, his first ————————————————————————————— 51. IU McKinney affiliates (students, faculty, staff, and graduates) flew to Guantanamo Bay to attend U.S. military commission hearings. 52. IU McKinney affiliates were meant to be independent, objective and open-minded while witnessing or monitoring what happens on the ground. 53. The right to a public hearing requires that defendants, prosecution, judge, and victims and other stakeholders be able to see that at least a slice of the public is present. As representatives of the public, IU McKinney monitors attended hearings in part so others might see that U.S. military commissions were not wholly secret. 54. IU McKinney affiliates assessed what they observed on the ground at Guantanamo, inside and outside the Guantanamo courtroom. 55. IU McKinney affiliates identified and articulated for the record positive or negative aspects of the military commissions. 56. IU McKinney affiliates were the eyes and ears of the outside world in Guantanamo. They reported their observations to help ensure that what happened at Guantanamo Bay did not stay at Guantanamo Bay. 57. See notes 51-56 supra (Discussing of 6-point mission statement for the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Military Commission Observation Project). INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 182 since 2007, he realized that NGO Observers had no logical framework or template for analyzing whether a fair trial was being had – which might make it difficult to assess whether a fair trial were being had! He decided to create the Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual to outline fair trial rights that should be afforded to all Military Commission stakeholders—not only defendants, but also other individuals and groups with rights and interests, such as the prosecution, victims and victims’ families, media, and court and detention facility personnel, including guards. In August 2014, while back at Guantanamo, Professor Edwards launched the Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual live online using an internet connection in the NGO Resource Center & Library at Guantanamo, and distributed the Manual electronically and in hard copy. 5. “Know Before You Go to Guantanamo Bay Guide” The “Know Before You Go to Guantanamo Bay Guide” (“The Guantanamo Guide”) provides helpful information for NGO observers, monitors and others traveling to Guantanamo Bay for any purpose. Professor Edwards was The Guantanamo Guide’s chief author, but received contributions from IU McKinney PIHRL students, NGOs, U.S. military personnel, and civilians at Guantanamo. 58 The Guantanamo Guide discusses how observers might best fulfill their duties to attend, monitor, be seen, analyze, critique and report on the U.S. military commissions, and to be the eyes and ears at Guantanamo for anyone interested in Guantanamo but unable to travel there. The Guantanamo Guide discusses the Guantanamo “NGO Resource Center and Library,” once housed in an abandoned hangar at Guantanamo, then moved to various tents, for which Professor Edwards was instrumental in supplying with international law books and articles, Geneva Convention copies, Guantanamo documents, office supplies, and other materials useful for NGOs seeking to fulfil their Guantanamo duties. The Guantanamo Guide considers, respects and seeks to comply with OpSec (Operational Security) and general national security concerns. 6. The Guantanamo Bay Reader The Guantanamo Bay Reader: Voices Living and Shaping the Gitmo Experience Under Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden (“The Reader”) is meant to be an authoritative resource on Guantanamo, presented through the voices of over a dozen categories of Guantanamo stakeholders, with primary source ————————————————————————————— 58. The two dozen Know Before You Go to Guantanamo sections include everything from why the Defense Department facilitates NGO observers to travel to Guantanamo; getting to Guantanamo, the NGO Resource Center & Library (where NGOs research and write), NGOs escorts / minders, accommodations and eating at Guantanamo; and Guantanamo souvenirs (including handmade by residents). 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 183 documents that supplement, complement or conflict with the stakeholder voices. The Reader, which is 1,950 pages, has two parts: Part I contains Guantanamo stakeholders’ voices; and Part II contains documents. 7. Gitmo Observer The Gitmo Observer is a PIHRL Guantanamo project and is also the name of a website that documents the PIHRL’s Guantanamo military commission involvement. It encompasses all IU McKinney Guantanamo activities and records, including Guantanamo travel and publications. 59 IU McKinney affiliates who traveled to Guantanamo chronicled their experiences on the website. E. U.S. State Department EducationUSA Presentations Project (Commenced 1997) The PIHRL regularly engaged with EducationUSA, a U.S. Department of State network of over 430 international student advising centers in more than 175 countries and territories, that promotes U.S. higher education to students around the world by offering accurate, comprehensive and current information about opportunities to study at accredited postsecondary institutions in the United States. Professor Edwards, and / or his PIHRL students, delivered presentations at EducationUSA Advising Centers at U.S. Embassies, U.S. Consulates, Bi- National Commissions, Fulbright offices and other institutions in forty-nine countries or territories on six continents, with more than one presentation in many of these Centers. 60 F. PIHRL Consultancies in International and Domestic Tribunals (Commenced 1997) Since its 1997 birth, the PIHRL undertook consultancies on projects around the world, including those listed below, all of which provided IU McKinney students experiential opportunities with individuals and entities involved with or affected by international human rights law and practice in the United States ————————————————————————————— 59. Website of the Military Commission Observation Project of the Indiana University McKinney School of Law’s Program in International Human Rights Law (2014-2023), THE GITMO OBSERVER, www.GitmoObserver.com [https://perma.cc/42HH-YHUP]. This website was not operated by IU McKinney technical staff. 60. PIHRL students co-presented with Professor Edwards at U.S. Embassies or EducationUSA Advising Centers in Ghana, Ukraine, Mongolia, Australia, Botswana, Cameroon, Eswatini, Mozambique, Poland, Republic of Georgia, South Africa, Uganda, and elsewhere. PIHRL students presented on their own, without Professor Edwards, at different sites, including in Ghana and Mongolia. In some instances, the PIHRL delivered the materials without a full presentation, for example, due to timing. https://perma.cc/42HH-YHUP https://www.GitmoObserver.com INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 184 and overseas. 61 Among the notable consultancies that PIHRL worked on: a. Ms. Irene Fernandez (Malaysian Court): Human Rights Watch Asia appointed Professor Edwards to travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as trial observer in the criminal case of Irene Fernandez, a human rights worker of Indian descent tried in Malaysia for allegedly publishing “false news” because of a report she authored and disseminated about conditions in Malaysian detention facilities that held overseas migrant workers. A PIHRL intern traveled to Kuala Lumpur to work with Irene on cases of overseas persons as domestic helpers, and plantation, factory, and sex industry workers. 62 b. Mr. David Hicks: Mr. David Hicks, an Australian, arrived at Guantanamo the day the prison opened, January 11, 2002. From 2004 until 2007, PIHRL students researched issues related to a fair trial for Mr. Hicks. Professor Edwards’ first of dozens of trips to Guantanamo was for Mr. Hicks’ case, on which Professor Edwards was tendered as an Expert Witness and authored two lengthy expert witness affidavits totaling nearly 200 pages. Professor Edwards was one of the first two law experts permitted to travel to Guantanamo for a Military Commission, and the first from the United States (the other was an Australian). 63 Professor Edwards was with the defense in the Guantanamo courtroom for Mr. Hicks’ March 2007 guilty plea, when Mr. Hicks became the first person since World War II to be convicted in a U.S. military commission, and in the Guantanamo courtroom for Mr. Hicks’ sentencing. He also attended a Court of Appeals hearing in London about Mr. Hicks’ UK citizenship. Mr. Hicks’ Guantanamo conviction was overturned in 2015. Students from Stetson University College of Law assisted Edwards and the PIHRL on Mr. Hicks’ case. c. Mr. Omar Khadr: Mr. Omar Khadr, a Canadian, was fifteen years old when he was detained in Afghanistan. He was taken to Guantanamo. PIHRL researched relevant issues for a fair trial, focused on whether Khadr should be tried since he was a child at the time of his alleged crimes. ————————————————————————————— 61. Professor Edwards and the PIHRL were consulted on many other cases. Given this article’s limited space, it is impossible to list all the PIHRL’s human rights law consultancies. 62. Professor Edwards’ article on fair trial in Malaysia, highlighting Irene’s case, formed the basis of the opening academic exercise of every IU McKinney international human rights law course he taught in twenty-six years, and every overseas internship pre-departure briefing and training session he conducted from 1997 to 2023, as the range of rights implicated in her case spanned the range of civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and third generation rights at the heart of international human rights law. 63. Perhaps Professor Edwards was the “first” legal expert to reach Guantanamo, since he stepped off the plane onto the Guantanamo airfield by chance seconds before the “second” expert. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 185 d. Mr. Mohammad Rahim (including student UN Speech): Mr. Mohammad Rahim, who in 2008 was the last of the 780 prisoners to arrive at Guantanamo, to date is uncharged. Professor Edwards and the PIHRL worked on Inter-American Commission of Human Rights petitions on behalf of Mr. Rahim. Research included analysis of Mr. Rahim’s rights under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. The PIHRL also advocated for Mr. Rahim’s rights in 2021 to the UN Human Rights Council and submitted three Shadow Reports contending that the COVID-19 conditions at Guantanamo Bay ran afoul of international human rights law. Specifically, the Shadow Reports alleged violations of the right to health, privacy and family life, fair trial, and remedies, and the right to be free from torture, and arbitrary and prolonged detention. IU McKinney student Ms. Elizabeth Halodik made an oral presentation to the UN Human Rights Council on March 9, 2021, alleging deprivation of Guantanamo prisoner rights during Covid-19. The PIHRL worked with students from AUT (Auckland) and Chulalongkorn Law (Thailand) on this. e. Mr. Encep Nurjaman (a/k/a Hambali): Mr. Encep Nurjaman is a Guantanamo prisoner accused of involvement in the October 12, 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia that killed over 200 people and wounded hundreds more, and in the August 5, 2003 bombing of the JW Marriot hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. The PIHRL and Professor Edwards advised on the matter. f. Mr. Slobodan Milošević (United Nations Court – The Hague): Mr. Slobodan Milošević was the former President of the former Yugoslavia, whose trial at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, The Netherlands, began in 2002. He was charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and / or Kosovo between 1991 and 1999. The PIHRL and Professor Edwards researched issues concerning his case until Mr. Milosevic was found dead in his cell in The Hague, on March 11, 2006, before a verdict was reached. g. Seychelles Truth, Reconciliation, and National Unity Commission (“The Commission”): Seychelles established The Commission to facilitate reparations for victims of human rights violations in Seychelles following a 1977 coup that overthrew Seychelles’ first democratically elected President after the country’s independence in 1976. The PIHRL worked for The Commission, and one PIHRL student traveled to Seychelles to intern with The Commission. PIHRL worked with students from AUT (Auckland) and from Chulalongkorn Law (Thailand) on this project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_against_humanity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 186 h. Mr. Dmitry Ukrainsky (Thailand Court): Mr. Dmitry Ukrainsky was believed to be the first person in the history of Thai courts to face “competing extradition requests” – both the Russian Federation and the United States sought his extradition from Thailand. Mr. Robert Johnson, former Chair of the Indiana University Alumni Association (Board of Managers), joined IU McKinney and Chulalongkorn team members at a Bangkok court for an extradition proceeding focusing on whether extradition to the United States would be granted, after extradition to Russia had already been granted. Students researched issues such as whether Mr. Ukrainsky could receive a fair trial in the United States (New York) on charges that he engaged in cybercrimes with alleged U.S. victims. PIHRL worked with AUT (Auckland) and Chulalongkorn Law (Thailand) students on this project. i. Mr. Fesih Erkaplan (Thailand Court): Mr. Erkaplan, a Kurdish national of Turkey accused of murder charges, faced extradition from Thailand to Turkey. Under Professor Edwards’ supervision, PIHRL collaborated with Erkaplan’s legal team to research fair trial rights and extradition law. When Professor Edwards arrived at the Bangkok prison to visit Mr. Erkaplan, Professor Edwards was told that Interpol had picked Mr. Erkaplan up and returned him to Turkey the night before Professor Edwards arrived at the prison. PIHRL worked with students from AUT (Auckland) and from Chulalongkorn Law (Thailand) on this project. j. Mr. Dragan Vasiljković (“Captain Dragan”) (Australian Courts): Mr. Dragan Vasiljković, a Serbian-born Australian citizen accused of committing war crimes against Croatians in Croatia, faced extradition from Australia to Croatia. The proceedings took place in Australian courts and examined whether Mr. Vasiljković could receive a fair trial in Croatia, and whether Australian or international law would permit the extradition. PIHRL worked with students from Monash University Law Faculty (Australia) on this project. k. Lieutenant Breaker Morant (Australia, United Kingdom): Lieutenant Harry “The Breaker” Morant, who was an Australian volunteer in the Boer War, was executed in 1902 in South Africa by a British firing squad after being convicted of the war crime of killing prisoners during that war. Over 100 years later, efforts were made to prove that he had been denied a fair trial, had been unlawfully convicted, and should be granted a posthumous pardon. Professor Edwards and PIHRL worked on this Boer- era case that focused on war crimes, courts martial, fair trial rights, and posthumous pardon requests over 100 years after a criminal defendant was convicted and died, with legal proceedings in Australia, the United Kingdom and South Africa, and an appeal to HRH Queen Elizabeth II of England. A PIHRL intern traveled to Melbourne, Australia, to work on this 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 187 and other cases. PIHRL worked with students from Monash University Law Faculty (Australia) on this project. l. Other U.S. and Overseas Consultancies: Frequently individuals and entities sought PIHRL consultations on a wide range of issues, including related to persons detained outside their home countries, asylum, detention center conditions (jails, prisons, for migrants), discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, expression, and more. Requests came from as close as Indiana to villages on the other side of the world. Sometimes the PIHRL would reply by simple e-mail – perhaps providing information on where requesters might get help. Or the PIHRL might have spent more resources researching, drafting letters or e-mails or reports to authorities, or phoning on behalf of the alleged victims. Given the limited space of this article, it is impossible to list all the PIHRL’s human rights and international law consultancies in an organized, comprehensive fashion. m. Recent United Nations Speeches: Afghanistan and Ukraine: In August 2021, the UN Human Rights Council consulted the PIHRL on the “31st Special Session on the Serious Human Rights Concerns and Situation in Afghanistan.”64 In response, IU McKinney graduate PIHRL Affiliate Ms. Zahra Ayoubi (herself Afghani) gave a speech on the floor of the UN Human Rights Council on alleged human rights violations as the Taliban resumed control of Afghanistan in August 2021. The hearing was held at the UN Palais de Nations, Geneva. PIHRL students assisted in drafting and reviewing the speech. In spring 2022, the UN Human Rights Council consulted the PIHRL on the “34th Special Session on the Deteriorating Human Rights Situation in Ukraine Stemming from the Russian Aggression.” 65 In response, IU McKinney graduate and PIHRL affiliate Ms. Olena Protsenko (herself Ukrainian) gave a speech on the floor of the UN Human Rights Council alleging that the Russian Federation violated general international law, international human rights law, international criminal law, and international humanitarian law (law of war). PIHRL students assisted in drafting and reviewing the speech, which was delivered in May 2022. 66 ————————————————————————————— 64. Additional information about this UN Human Rights Council Special Session can be found here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/special-sessions/session31/31st-special- session. 65. Additional information about this UN Human Rights Council Special Session can be found here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/special-sessions/session34/34-special- session. 66. Ms. Protsenko’s oral presentation to the UN Human Rights Council on 12 May 2022 was PIHRL’s last oral presentation delivery to a United Nations entity under Professor Edwards’ leadership. https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/special-sessions/session34/34-special https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/special-sessions/session31/31st-special INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 188 G. Research and Publications (Commenced 1997) Research and publication are essential duties of a law professor, and Professor Edwards, aided by students, was a prolific author. He published books – including the acclaimed LL.M. Roadmap, discussed below – as well as book chapters, law review articles, manuals, and other material that focused on public international law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law (the law of war), international criminal law, and international legal education, and of course related to Guantanamo Bay. Countless PIHRL students over the years contributed to PIHRL publications as researchers, co-authors and editors, including editors of the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review, of which Professor Edwards served as a Faculty Advisor. All these publications over the years, irrespective of whose name was listed as author, fall under the PIHRL. H. LL.M. Roadmap -- Master of Laws 67 -- A Guide for International Students, and a Call for Protecting Human Rights of International Students (Commenced 2011) In 2011, Professor Edwards published LL.M. Roadmap: An International Student’s Guide to U.S. Law School Programs, 68 a critically important PIHRL Project – from the researching, writing and publishing of the book, until Professor Edwards’ 2023 retirement. 69 Upon publication, LL.M. Roadmap quickly became the leading, go-to book on the topic, in the United States and globally, and remains so today, with significant United States and overseas reach. 70 The National Jurist identified Professor Edwards as “the world’s ————————————————————————————— 67. “LL.M.” stands for Master of Laws, which is a 1-year degree program IU McKinney offers primarily for students who earned their first law degree outside the United States. 68. GEORGE E. EDWARDS, LL.M. ROADMAP: AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ GUIDE TO U.S. LAW SCHOOL PROGRAMS (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business; Aspen Publishers 2011) (562 pages). 69. Professor Edwards’ LL.M. Roadmap Now Available in Print, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Oct. 7, 2011), https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid=559 [https://perma.cc/9C7A-7635]. 70. Many law schools adopted LL.M. Roadmap as they sought to create, expand or improve their LL.M. programs, and many sought Professor Edwards’s expertise to benefit their LL.M. programs. LL.M. Roadmap was adopted by U.S. government officials and affiliates, through the U.S. State Department’s EducationUSA Advising Centers at U.S. Embassies and Consulates, Fulbright Offices, and Bi-National Commissions. The State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Cultural Affairs distributed physical copies of LL.M. Roadmap via diplomatic pouch to EducationUSA Advising Centers in U.S. Embassies and Consulates in over 100 countries on 6 continents, and the LL.M. Roadmap book can thus be found in U.S. government libraries at U.S. Embassies and Consulates on every continent. Professor Edwards lectured on or presented LL.M. Roadmap and U.S. legal education for international students at over three dozen U.S. Embassies, Consulates, EducationUSA Advising Centers and elsewhere in 50 countries. His U.S. Embassy Havana, Cuba, presentation was the first academic presentation at that Embassy in over 50 years, since Castro came into power in https://perma.cc/9C7A-7635 https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/archive.html?xid=559 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 189 leading expert when it comes to U.S. graduate law degrees for foreign-trained lawyers.” 71 Professor Edwards’ work with his LL.M. students and his desire to protect the rights of international students in part led to his writing LL.M. Roadmap. He recognized that LL.M. students – at his and at other U.S. law schools – had rights as international students. But for his concern for the internationally recognized human rights of international students, LL.M. Roadmap would never have been written. When Professor Edwards created the LL.M. Track in International Human Rights Law, IU McKinney provided funding for the PIHRL’s work with that Track, which became the largest of IU McKinney’s LL.M. Tracks. 72 Upon a change of law school administration, Professor Edwards was elevated to Executive Chair of Graduate Programs, with responsibilities spanning all the LL.M. Tracks. He became IU McKinney’s LL.M. program’s external face, with responsibilities including global recruiting. He developed a Master Executive Chair Plan that spoke against schools treating their LL.M. programs as cash cows 73 and painted a picture of the highest quality LL.M. program – in which all stakeholders had reasonable expectations that were met. Professor Edwards sought to ensure that IU McKinney’s LL.M. program was not a cash cow. Edwards made the difficult decision to resign from this position in 2011 but remained diligent as a Professor of Law and PIHRL Faculty Director. After Professor Edwards resigned as Executive Chair, his Master Plan became, essentially, the first draft of LL.M. Roadmap, which was written because of the perceived (and now proven) need to protect international LL.M. students. 74 LL.M. Roadmap is a significant and important PIHRL project: Professor Edwards and the PIHRL proved to be fierce advocates for the rights of international students, and Professor Edwards even called for the United Nations to adopt an “International Bill of Human Rights for International ————————————————————————————— 1959 and U.S. Embassy Havana was closed. Visitors from over 160 countries visited the LL.M. Roadmap web portal. Many overseas law faculty libraries own and use LL.M. Roadmap. LL.M. Roadmap led to Edwards becoming a lecturer and consultant for BARBRI LL.M. Preview. 71. Professor Edwards is ‘world’s leading expert’ on LL.M. Programs per the National Jurist, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (Nov. 20, 2014) https://mckinneylaw.iu. edu/news/archive.html?nid=1762 [https://perma.cc/2NNU-3Z2F]. 72. Edwards actively recruited Track students. He and PIHRL staff supported Track students, assisting them on academic, career, employment, financial, and social and health and well-being fronts. Many LL.M. graduates from that era became ambassadors for that LL.M. Track and for IU McKinney. 73. A “cash cow” would divert overseas LL.M. students’ tuition revenue to domestic J.D. programs, leaving LL.M. students lacking essential services such as: legal writing tutorials for LL.M. students whose native language was not English, U.S. law and legal research training for overseas LL.M. students, and career guidance for LL.M.’s whose backgrounds and needs differ from those of U.S. J.D. students. 74. Edwards’ Executive Chair Master Plan was a guide to help ensure a meeting of the minds between current and prospective LL.M. students, on the one hand, and on the other hand the law school, so reasonable expectations of all stakeholders might be met. https://perma.cc/2NNU-3Z2F https://mckinneylaw.iu INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 190 Students,” similar to such instruments in different countries. 75 And the LL.M. Roadmap continues that work around the world. I. U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) Project (Commenced 1997) Through the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (“IVLP”), the PIHRL hosted at IU McKinney many dozens of U.S. State Department overseas visitors from over two dozen countries and territories. 76 Through short-term visits to the United States, current and emerging foreign leaders in law, human rights, and other fields engaged in citizen-to-citizen discussion and diplomacy with IU McKinney students, faculty, staff, and graduates to support U.S. foreign policy goals. Visitors lectured, joined round tables, and engaged in informal conversations with members of the IU McKinney community. J. Commemorative Projects - U.S. Presidential Inauguration Flags Flown at the U.S. Capitol & Guantanamo; Challenge Coins for NGO Observers to the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Military Commissions, and for the PIHRL 26th Anniversary; Arlington National Cemetery Wreath-Laying 1. U.S. Flags flown over Guantanamo Bay & the U.S. Capitol To commemorate monumental moments in history, Professor Edwards and PIHRL secured dozens of U.S. flags that were flown over the U.S. Capitol on the inauguration days of Presidents Obama (January 20, 2009; January 20, 2013), Trump (January 20, 2017) and Biden (January 20, 2021). Professor Edwards carried these flags to Guantanamo. On September 11, 2016, the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, members of the Indiana National Guard’s 38th Infantry Division (Cyclone) flew two of the flags over Guantanamo’s Camp Justice. On September 11, 2021 (the 20th anniversary of 9/11) and September 11, 2022 (the 21st anniversary), Professor Edwards was at Guantanamo and personally flew (raised and lowered in a separate ceremony for each flag) the remaining dozens of flags above Camp ————————————————————————————— 75. See, e.g., Australian Human Rights Commission, Principles for Promoting and Protecting the Human Rights of International Students, ahrc_international_student_principles_ 21th_jan2022.pdf__0.pdf (humanrights.gov.au) (updated the 5 November 2009 version of the Principles); American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for International Students and Institutions, (https:// internationalstudentguidetotheusa.net/articles/bill_of_rights.htm). 76. The PIHRL typically collaborated with the International Center of Indiana. Countries of visitors included: Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Chile, Colombia, Congo, El Salvador, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Iraq, Jordan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Southern Sudan, Venezuela, West Bank, Yemen. Visitors included judges, lawyers, law professors, government officials, NGO workers, and victims of human rights violations. https://internationalstudentguidetotheusa.net/articles/bill_of_rights.htm 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 191 Justice. Professor Edwards had some of these flags elegantly framed and donated one framed flag to the Indiana National Guard, that hangs in the Guard’s Indianapolis headquarters. He donated another framed flag to the Indiana Bar Foundation, where it now hangs. He donated another flag to IU McKinney with the intent that the flag hang in the IU McKinney law school building. 2. Guantanamo Bay NGO military challenge coins After the Pentagon granted the PIHRL status to send monitors to Guantanamo Bay, and IU McKinney faculty, staff, students and graduates started traveling to Guantanamo, Professor Edwards designed, minted, and paid for multiple iterations of Guantanamo NGO Observer military challenge coins, which are medallions associated with the military to recognize a distinct group (NGO Observers), its achievements, its events, or activities. The most recent NGO Observer challenge coin lists the key responsibilities of Guantanamo NGO observers / monitors to attend, monitor, be seen, analyze, critique and report on Guantanamo U.S. Military Commissions, and to be the eyes and ears to the outside world about what happens at Guantanamo. The coins contain the phrase: “At Guantanamo Bay Justice Must Not Only Be Done, But Must Be Seen To Be Done.” They bear the dates 2001–2023, to represent the date the Bush Administration promulgated an order to create military commissions at Guantanamo (2001) through the most current year (2023). The coins contain images of the U.S. flag, Lady Justice, Cuba (with a star on Guantanamo Bay), and the scales of justice (with a miniature IU Logo in the flame). Each coin has a unique number, beginning with # 1. Each PIHRL 26th Anniversary Celebration attendee received a Guantanamo coin and a stand to display it. 3. PIHRL 26th Anniversary Military Challenge Coins (2023) On May 19, 2023, the IU McKinney community gathered to celebrate PIHRL’s 26th Anniversary, the 20th Anniversary of its Guantanamo projects, and Edwards’ retirement. For the event, Professor Edwards designed, had minted and paid for military challenge coins to commemorate the PIHRL’s 26th Anniversary. These PIHRL challenge coins contain a slogan in Latin – Lex, Iustitia Et Iura Humana Pro Omnibus – which translates to “Law, Justice And Human Rights For All.” The coins sport a dove with an olive branch (for peace), and flags of the UN, the United States, and Indiana. They have a map of the globe, with the United States centered, and an IU logo in the middle of the United States. Six differently colored arrows point from six continents to Indiana, and from Indiana to the six different continents. The double-headed arrows represent the flow of students, faculty, ideas and work product from IU McKinney outward around the globe, and, coming the other way, the students, faculty, ideas and work product from around the globe flowing into IU INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 192 McKinney. The PIHRL Anniversary coins are numbered – each coin with its own number, beginning with the number one. Each PIHRL 26th Anniversary Celebration attendee received a PIHRL 26th Anniversary coin and a stand to display it. 4. Arlington National Cemetery – PIHRL Laying of Wreath A PIHRL delegation, comprising three IU McKinney graduates (two LL.M., one J.D.) and Professor Edwards, laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on December 10, 2017, Universal Human Rights Day, on behalf of IU, IU McKinney, and the PIHRL. Tomb honor guards escorted the PIHRL delegation in a solemn ceremony of remembrance and reverent dedication. Post-ceremony, the wreath was left at the grave of a fallen soldier whose story is close to the PIHRL’s Guantanamo work. 77 Some alumni of the PIHRL hope to commemorate other fallen soldiers whose work intersected with PIHRL and continue the wreath-laying practice. IV. CONCLUSION Professor Edwards and the PIHRL projects have achieved excellence and demonstrable significance in the teaching, learning and actual application of international human rights law; in publications and research; and in service and civic engagement – locally, nationally and globally. Edwards’ leadership of PIHRL spurred action and stimulated intellectual and cultural contributions to the well-being of countless local, national and global communities. He forged and executed many innovative collaborations and external partnerships. He and the PIHRL effectively honored the commitment of students to learning, wherein students are partners in learning – not just recipients or retentive vessels. His work emphasized and bolstered student-centered services, consulting, learning experiences and projects that benefitted students, faculty, staff, alumni and many others in the local, state, national and global communities, including victims of human rights abuses around the world. In remarks at the PIHRL 26th Anniversary Celebration, as Professor Edwards was retiring, he recounted that he had recently heard Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the UN, say something like: If you do not dream big enough to scare yourself, you are not dreaming big enough. Many of Professor Edwards’ students over the years had big dreams – scary dreams – about their futures. Thanks to Professor Edwards and PIHRL, many of these students – now, of course, former students – overcame their fears and ————————————————————————————— 77. The 2017 ceremony is available to view at the following link: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=jRqA1GyPpbU&t=25s. https://www.youtube 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 193 fulfilled dreams of high accomplishments – in government, with inter- governmental organizations like the UN, in academia, in the private sector, in the non-profit world, and in their personal lives. They learned to think outside the box. They pressed outside their comfort zones. They aimed for goals they couldn’t have imagined possible. They did not give up. They persevered. And they achieved. Congratulations and thanks are due to Dean Norm Lefstein, who had the vision to hire Professor Edwards in 1997 and permit him to found and direct the Program in International Human Rights Law. And to those IU McKinney deans and other members of the administration and faculty who fully supported the extensive student PIHRL activities that offered amazing educational opportunities to IU McKinney students and provided service benefits to individuals and groups in Indianapolis, in Indiana, throughout the United States, and indeed in every corner of the globe – also congratulations are due. And so, in league and on behalf of the innumerable people whose lives have been improved by these efforts, along with the vast quiet shadow world of good people doing good works everywhere: in solidarity and gratitude we salute and thank you: and we thank and recognize the outstanding, selfless, tireless altruistic efforts of Professor Edwards. All who worked with him know well how Indiana University McKinney School of Law has been elevated as a serious and effective actor in the global arena of international human rights law in ways not imagined or possible without Professor George E. Edwards and his good works. _______ INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 194 THE ORIGINALITY OF PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS: HOW A UNITED NATIONS SHADOW REPORT INSPIRED BY A LAW PROFESSOR HELPED PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF MIGRANTS DETAINED BY AUSTRALIA ON CHRISTMAS ISLAND PATRICK KEYZER 78 & KRIS GLEDHILL 79 I. INTRODUCTION Three law professors from three countries fortuitously met, and embarked with their students on joint undertakings of engaging, enriching, and effective pedagogical projects, outside the classroom, that had concrete, positive impact. The students’ legal advocacy triggered the Australian government to cease violating the United Nations Convention Against Torture 80 by closing the offshore immigration detention center on Christmas Island after years of violations against detainees, 81 including three specifically-named victims at the center of the professors’ student-researched and -written advocacy before the United Nations Torture Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. The authors have chosen this example in part because without the involvement of George Edwards, this student advocacy project – which took the form of students researching, writing and submitting a “UN Shadow Report” 82 to the UN Torture Committee – would never have been developed. The Shadow Report described herein, is a premier example of an ————————————————————————————— 78. Patrick Keyzer is Professor of Law and Public Policy and former Dean of the Thomas More Law School at Australian Catholic University. He is based in Melbourne, Australia. Dean Keyzer thanks Indra Liepins and Nathan McNally for their assistance with research that underpins this paper. 79. Kris Gledhill is Professor of Law at Auckland University of Technology, in Auckland, New Zealand. 80. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Dec. 10, 1984, S. Treaty Doc. No. 100-20 (1988); 1465 U.N.T.S. 85, 113; 23 I.L.M. 1027 (1984). 81. Australia closed the Christmas Island immigration detention center in 2023, following the student-driven UN advocacy described in this article, and evacuated from Christmas Island detainees needing medical attention. Though the Christmas Island center was closed, it was not destroyed, and the Australian government could in theory reopen the facility, in breach of the UN Torture Convention, including if upon reopening there are no evacuations of detainees needing medical attention. 82. For purposes of this article, a “Shadow Report” is a document created by a non- governmental organizations or individuals, and submitted to a United Nations committee that oversees implementation of a particular UN international human rights law treaty, to counter or “shadow” “Government Reports” that countries submit to that UN committee to report on the extent to which the countries are in compliance with the treaty. This article is about the Indiana Shadow Report to the UN Torture Committee to counter an Australian Government Report submitted to that committee. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 195 experiential learning approach that not only benefits students, but also benefits victims of human rights violations. As this article explains, this project, conceived of and supervised by Professor Edwards, prompted Australia to end its inhumane offshore detention practices, vindicating the human rights of many, and without this student advocacy, it is plausible that violations would persist against victims of the Australian government abuse. As the Shadow Report provides proof of a tangible impact, it is important to discuss the background that led to the meaningful collaborations, the student Shadow Report itself, and the impact the Shadow Report had in Australia. This article discusses how Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (“IU McKinney”) Professor of International Law Emeritus George Edwards’ teaching approach and methods reflected his mindset of continuously advancing both international human rights law and the learning experiences of his students. It is clear, based on his activities highlighted herein and elsewhere in this volume, that his kinesthetic experiential approach and methods were original, highly innovative and effective. In this article we reflect on Professor Edwards’ rich legacy, and what legal educators can learn from his work, which is significant to legal education and to the development of international law. 83 II. ACADEMIA, RANDOM MEETINGS, AND WHERE RANDOMNESS CAN LEAD – PERSONAL, DIDACTIC AND LEGAL APPRAISAL The authors have worked on various matters together for some years, but it all started with the fortuitous coincidence of our speaking on the same panel at a conference and then having post-panel discussions. That, of course, is a benefit of in-person conferences: it isn’t so much the chance to promulgate ideas, it is the discussions that then follow to foster connection and collaboration opportunities. This sort of outcome has some predictability in that the chance of speakers at live conferences forming a working relationship with one or more of the other speakers is not surprising. Our engagement with Professor George Edwards has a more random quality to it. It arises from Professor Edwards’ multi-faceted interests. In short, he was transiting through Auckland, New Zealand, en route from Fiji and heading back to the USA but via Thailand; he had been to Fiji to participate in a television ————————————————————————————— 83. This article shows how Professor Edwards inspired the UN advocacy that led to the UN adopting student recommendations that prompted Australia to close its offshore detention center at Christmas Island (which when it closed was called “North West Point Immigration Detention Centre” but had been called “Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre.”). This story demonstrates how law schools around the world might free their faculty from the strict bounds of classroom teaching, and encourage, permit and indeed facilitate professors in taking legal education to higher levels of law student advocacy before real tribunals, handling real cases, in which offending governments can be held accountable in real tribunals, with real remedies seeking to redress real damage to real victims. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 196 show, Pacific Island Food Revolution 84 (that is a sentence that we feel confident has never been written before in the English language, but aptly describes Professor Edwards’ wide-ranging and deep connections and interests). Jogging around Auckland, Professor Edwards saw a sign on a building indicating that it housed the AUT Law School, and he came in. The receptionist, confronted by a man in bright blue shorts and an Indiana Law t-shirt and asking to speak to anyone, realized that only a human rights lawyer would be appropriate and asked Professor Kris Gledhill – who was possibly the only academic in the building on a Friday afternoon – to take the meeting. This was 4 October 2019. A variety of ideas were shared, some of which came to fruition: The first was an internship for an Indiana student to work with one of Auckland’s leading human rights practitioners, Deborah Manning. Another, which Professor Gledhill had been developing, was the idea for a transnational human rights clinic involving students from different law schools collaborating online and across time zones. This idea had already been shared with Dean Patrick Keyzer and was being worked on for trans-Tasman purposes. The Transnational Collaborative Law Institute (TCLI) was consequently established, and Professor Edwards, Professor Gledhill and Dean Keyzer embarked on joint projects among the three institutions involved, and at times bilaterally – in which cases Professor Edwards and Indiana would work with either the New Zealand (AUT) or Australia (ACU) counterpart, and sometimes with students from other schools, such as Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Law in Bangkok, Thailand. One envisaged process was students writing Shadow Reports to UN Treaty Bodies or the UN Human Rights Council. Given that Professor Edwards and Indiana students had filed two dozen UN Shadow Reports over the previous two decades with students traveling to the UN in New York and Geneva for oral presentations on respective reports, it was clear that the random meetings described could lead to collaborations. They did: by the end of 2019, a team of students from Indiana, New Zealand and Thailand was working on a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for Mr. Mohammad Rahim to place the manifold problems of a forever prisoner at Guantanamo Bay in a human rights tribunal. The New Zealand students gained credit towards their degrees using an independent legal research course. Shortly after that, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and ongoing contacts slowed but continued. Professor Edwards and PIHRL’s internship program placed an Indiana student with Dean Keyzer in Melbourne to conduct research for some of his international human rights clients, and Professor Edwards visited Melbourne to ————————————————————————————— 84. PACIFIC ISLAND FOOD REVOLUTION, https://www.pacificislandfoodrevolution.com [https://perma.cc/2FBK-LQGH] (last visited May 29, 2024) (Professor Edwards advised and appeared in two episodes of Pacific Island Food Revolution, where he introduced the right to food under international law to audiences of a reality TV cooking show that seeks restoration of traditional Pacific cuisine that has been displaced by ultra-processed food that triggers heightened non-communicable disease in the Pacific.). https://perma.cc/2FBK-LQGH https://www.pacificislandfoodrevolution.com 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 197 ensure pedagogical soundness with the placement, and student satisfaction – which is indeed what he found. Professor Edwards offered guidance on process and substance to Dean Keyzer for the Australian Catholic University Thomas More Law School to prepare a submission for consideration by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was submitted. 85 He also assisted with extensive student for-credit work on the soon-to-be-lodged UN Shadow Report under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, alleging that Australia fails to protect access by the Barkindji People of Western New South Wales to their traditional waterway. 86 Dean Keyzer invited Professor Edwards to join him in teaching Human Rights Advocacy at the Rome, Italy, Campus of the Australian Catholic University. Professor Edwards’ knowledge of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (based in Rome) led to an FAO field trip for the students. During their collaboration, Dean Keyzer described a project he was spearheading, called “Restorasi,” sponsored by the Australian and Indonesian governments, that examines remedies for claims when climate change disproportionately and negatively affects women, people with disability, and Indigenous people in Indonesia. Professors Edwards and Gledhill both got involved in that project. Edwards recorded six and a half hours of lectures on civil society and UN complaint mechanisms, including UN Shadow Reports. In August 2022, Professor Edwards began teaching a classroom International Law course at IU McKinney, to which he added an experiential component. He decided to convene a team to research and draft a UN Shadow Report to be submitted to the UN Torture Committee by 3 October 2022. Student team members would travel to Geneva, Switzerland to make oral presentations to the UN Torture Committee on the substance of the report, which would focus on how Australia allegedly violated the UN Torture Convention by perpetrating torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment against prisoners (Indigenous, women, children); children suffering corporal punishment; and migrants in the offshore detention center on Christmas Island. 87 This article focuses on human rights violations at Christmas Island, but discusses other violations. ————————————————————————————— 85. This submission was prepared by Dr. Sevda Clark, Dr. Perla Guarneros-Sanchez, Dr. Bill Swannie, and Dean Patrick Keyzer, and an oral submission was delivered to the UN Committee by Drs. Clark and Guarneros-Sanchez. 86. What the Barkindji call “Barkaa,” but what is termed, in English, the Darling River. 87. Professor Edwards, the PIHRL, and students from Professor Edwards’ International Law class were joined by students and staff from Australian Catholic University Thomas More Law School (Melbourne & Sydney, Australia), and Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Law (Bangkok, Thailand). Authors of the UN Shadow Report would be students from IU McKinney and Chulalongkorn, and students alone would travel to Geneva to present the UN Shadow Report. As with all our joint projects, students were primary researchers and drafters, and faculty, staff, outside lawyers, and NGO workers might advise and assist. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 198 III. COLLABORATIVE UN SHADOW REPORTS THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE: AUSTRALIA AND THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE On 3 October 2022, two Shadow Reports were submitted to the UN Torture Committee alleging that Australia had violated the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter UN Torture Convention). 88 This section tells the story of one of those two Shadow Reports, submitted under the supervision of Professor Edwards, with student authors from IU McKinney and Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Law (Bangkok, Thailand), working with a team of human rights lawyers, civil society advocates, and academics from Australia and New Zealand (the “Indiana Shadow Report”). 89 The Indiana Shadow Report contends that Australia was perpetrating torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment against prisoners, children and migrants. The Indiana Shadow Report was successful in that the UN Torture Committee appeared to accept Indiana’s allegations that Australia violated the Torture Convention, and the Committee thus found that Australia should cease violative behavior, and Australia followed by, for example, closing the Christmas Island detention center – significant positive outcomes. The second Shadow Report, 90 which would not have been submitted but for the Indiana Shadow Report, is mentioned now because it is linked, causally and ————————————————————————————— 88. UN Torture Convention, supra note 80. 89. The Indiana Shadow Report, which can be found on the UN website here, tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCAT% 2FCSS%2FAUS%2F50408&Lang=en, is titled: Australia has Violated the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Victims Include Indigenous People in Prisons (including Indigenous Women), Children in Prisons with Adults and in Other Cruel and Inhuman Conditions, Children Suffering Corporal Punishment, and Migrants in Offshore Immigration Detention Centres / Prisons. This Shadow Report was submitted to the UN Torture Committee on 3 October 2022 for the Committee’s consideration of Australia’s 6th Periodic Report, for UN Torture Committee hearings on 15 & 16 November 2022 at UN European Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland. IU McKinney and Chulalongkorn students would make oral presentations on the report directly to the UN Torture Committee in person at the hearings. 90. The second Shadow Report, which was submitted to the UN Torture Committee by Dean Keyzer, on behalf of Malcolm Morton, with the assistance of Mr. Patrick McGee, Guardian, contends that Australia perpetrates cruel treatment, in violation of the Torture Convention, when it detains, for indeterminate periods, Indigenous people with cognitive impairment and uses “medical restraints” or “chemical restraints” – inappropriate or heavy medication. This Shadow Report is titled: Supplementary Submission of Professor Patrick Keyzer Lodged with the United Nations Committee Against Torture on 3 October 2022 in advance of the United Nations Torture Committee’s Hearing on Australia’s 6th Periodic Report under the Convention Against Torture, scheduled for 15-16 November 2022 (“Malcolm Morton Shadow Report”). It is on the UN website here: tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2 FCAT%2FCSS%2FAUS%2F50415&Lang=en Though both Shadow Reports are important, this article focuses on the Indiana Shadow Report in part because of the quantity of its recommendations the UN Torture Committee adopted and translated into urging Australia to cease corresponding violations, and Australia following the Committee’s urging, for example, by closing the Christmas Island detention soon after the UN Concluding Observations. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 199 in substance, to the Indiana Shadow Report, and it was also successful, as the UN Torture Committee adopted its recommendations. A. Indiana Shadow Report: Alleged Violations and Recommendations The Indiana Shadow Report argued that Australia violated the UN Torture Convention and requested the UN Torture Committee to adopt a series of Recommendations to “urge” Australia to comply fully with the UN Torture Convention and to afford fully all rights thereunder to Australian and non- Australian citizens in Australia and elsewhere where Australia exercised jurisdiction and control (as at Christmas Island). This article highlights violations at Christmas Island, in part because individual migrant victims housed there are easily and discretely identified, violations against them were chronicled and incorporated into affidavits that three Christmas Island migrant detainees wrote and that were attached as appendices to the Indiana Shadow Report (with their stories summarized below), and the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment against these three was plain to the eye, as described below in summaries of their affidavit testimony. Before presenting the stories of three migrant detainees in their own voices, it is important to identify Australia’s obligations under international law not to violate the UN Torture Convention. Australia is bound by the UN Torture Convention, which prohibits “torture”, defined as including “any act by which . . . suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as . . . intimidating or coercing him . . . at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”91 The Convention also prohibits “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article 1”. 92 Australia is accountable for violations that occur anywhere under the jurisdiction of Australia, even if not part of Mainland Australia, such as the remote Christmas Island, and is accountable even if the violations are perpetrated by contractors, such as those who operate the Christmas Island facility. Australia is obligated to protect the health of people it deprives of liberty. 1. The Cases of Three Victims of Australia’s Cruel Treatment: Mr. Shayne Forrester, Mr. R.N., and Mr. K.T. There are many others who suffered on Christmas Island, but the Indiana Shadow Report focused on three specific former Christmas Island detainees who experienced cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment at Christmas Island, in violation of the UN Torture Convention: Mr. Shayne Forrester; Mr. R.N., and Mr. K.T. Unfortunately, it would be easy to read about ————————————————————————————— 91. UN Torture Convention, supra note 80, at Article 1(1) 92. Id. at Article 16(1). INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 200 various international human rights law issues without connecting the issues to specific people. Therefore, we believe it is important to share their stories to humanize victims of human rights abuses and reiterate that international human rights law, including the Indiana Shadow Report, impacts real people across the world, in this case, our clients, whose stories are told here, and in the body of the Indiana Shadow Report, and in the affidavits attached as Appendices to the Indiana Shadow Report. Their stories of abuse at Christmas Island appear below. They are compelling and amply demonstrate the significance of the project. a. The Case of Mr. Shayne Forrester Mr. Shayne Forrester was a New Zealand-born Australian resident who lived most of his adult life in Australia. Mr. Forrester had a serious illness – what was later confirmed to be prostate cancer that had metastasized – and yet he was exiled to Christmas Island where there was no specialist treatment available. Christmas Island did not have a uro-oncologist and Mr. Forrester was never examined by a qualified specialist. He was forced to wear clothing wet with urine for some or most of his time in detention, and he attested that he was in physical pain and suffering, causing mental anguish and diminishing his human dignity. Mr. Forrester also had severe depression caused in part by his treatment at Christmas Island. When Mr. Forrester was examined by an oncologist after his release from Christmas Island, he was told that his cancer had spread to his liver, lymph nodes, bones and kidneys, and he had less than two years to live. Mr. Forrester died in 2023, at age 57, after being released from Christmas Island, where authorities denied him proper medical treatment for his prostate cancer, which was metastasizing while he was detained, and which killed him, not long after he was released from Christmas Island. b. The Case of Mr. KT Mr. KT was born in New Zealand and arrived in Australia as a child of ten or eleven. When he was five years old, KT had an accident. His clothes were set on fire, and he suffered burns to 80% of his body. He endured many skin grafts throughout childhood. All told, KT spent about fourteen months on Christmas Island and ten months at Yongah Hill in Western Australia. The weather on Christmas Island is hot, tropical and uncomfortable. Eighty percent of KT’s skin is grafted. Since his burn incident happened when he was a child, his grafts had to grow with him. He required regular surgical cutting and physiotherapy treatment to remain physically mobile and relatively free of pain. These necessary medical services were not provided to KT when he was in immigration detention at Yongah Hill or on Christmas Island. The weather on Christmas Island caused his skin to become irritated, itchy, inflamed and sore. It was hard for KT to keep his skin clean, as the shower 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 201 blocks on Christmas Island had no ventilation and were always covered in mould with a horrible smell. He was constantly scratching or needing to scratch. The most help he was given was over-the-counter anti-fungal creams. None of these treatments eased his symptoms. He begged to see a specialist dermatologist. The tropical conditions made KT’s skin constantly flare up. One day in the hot sun, to ease the pain, he took off his shirt despite the “shirts on” policy. A guard told him to put his shirt back on because the burns “offended and sickened” the guard. This was humiliating and degrading. A nurse diagnosed KT with depression symptoms, and prescribed depression medication. c. Case of Mr. RN Mr. RN was born in 1980 in Fiji. He came to Australia and acquired an Australian visa. In 2017, his visa was cancelled, and he was placed in the Green One Compound at the North-West Immigration Detention Centre at Christmas Island, on the second story. One day he was going downstairs to breakfast when he slipped on a step and landed hard on his back. Cleaners had recently mopped the step and it was slippery. RN was seriously injured. RN alleged that from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm no officers came to him, and no medical assistance was provided. In the following ten days he was only administered paracetamol, even though he was experiencing immense pain. He was admitted to hospital from 27 December 2017 to 4 January and then sent to the mainland for tests. He was handcuffed throughout the flight from Christmas Island and back, despite his condition. Tests revealed that RN had three bulging discs. RN has since been diagnosed with depression and has had more than six surgeries on his back. 2. Indiana Shadow Report Advocacy; Concluding Observations of the UN Torture Committee; the Australian Government’s Reaction The Indiana Shadow Report, which was submitted to the UN Torture Committee on 3 October 2022, proposed twenty-four recommendations, on multiple issues, asking the UN Torture Committee to urge, recommend, or require Australia to stop violating the UN Torture Convention and to provide remedies to victims. The UN Torture Committee held a hearing in Geneva on 15 and 16 November 2022, 93 and on 5 December 2022 adopted “Concluding Observations”, 94 in which the Committee expressed “concern,” “serious ————————————————————————————— 93. The hearings were the UN Torture Committee’s 1959th and 1962nd meetings; See UN Doc. CAT/C/SR.1959 and UN Doc. CAT/C/SR.1962. 94. Concluding Observations on the sixth periodic report of Australia, Rep. of the UN Torture Committee’s 1970th and 1971st meetings, held on 22 and 23 November 2022 (CAT/C/AUS/CO/6) (hereinafter “UN Torture Committee Concluding Observations”). INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 202 concern,” or “regret” regarding Australia’s lack of compliance with the UN Torture Convention regarding all the major issues raised in the Indiana Shadow Report, 95 and found that Australia should cure deficiencies in virtually every area raised by the Indiana Shadow Report, which is a testimony of advocacy by the Indiana Shadow Report’s student authors. The section below lists: specific Indiana Shadow Report recommendations; UN Torture Committee statements in its Concluding Observations of “concern” or “serious concern” about issues raised in the Indiana Shadow Report recommendations; and UN Torture Committee’s instructions to Australia to cure violations identified by the Indiana Shadow Report and adopted by the UN Torture Committee in its Concluding Observations. 96 a. Closing Christmas Island Detention Center – Indiana Shadow Report Recommendation Adopted by the UN Torture Committee and Australia’s Positive Response One Indiana Shadow Report recommendation adopted by the UN Torture Committee was to close the Christmas Island detention facilities. Following the Indiana Shadow Report recommendation, the Committee advised Australia that the Christmas Island facility was not acceptable. And Australia thus closed the Christmas Island detention facility. Specifically, the Indiana Shadow Report recommended that Australia “close all its offshore immigration detention centres / prisons and related operations for refugees, asylum seekers, persons subjected to deportation or removal orders, or others, including the Detention Centre / Prison at Christmas Island.” The Committee noted that it was “seriously concerned about the continued operation of the Christmas Island detention centre.”97 The Committee found that Australia should “[e]nd its policy of offshore ————————————————————————————— 95. Similarly, the Malcom Morton Shadow Report raised issues, and the UN Torture Committee responded similarly to how it responded to the Indiana Shadow Report. 96. See UN Torture Committee Concluding Observations, supra note 94. An important Indiana Shadow Report recommendation that the UN Torture Committee adopted, but not highlighted in this article, regards redress for torture and ill-treatment victims. The Committee expressed “regret” that it did not receive “adequate information” from Australia about redress. Id. at ¶ 45. Adopting the Indiana recommendation, the Committee found that Australia “should ensure, in law and in practice, that all victims of torture and ill-treatment obtain redress, including an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation and the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. It should also ensure that victims may. . .seek and obtain prompt, fair and adequate compensation.” Id. at ¶ 46. 97. UN Torture Committee Concluding Observations, supra note 94 at ¶ 29. The Committee uses terms on a scale of stringency (e.g., “concern,” “serious concern,” etc.) to indicate the level of disapprobation to, in effect, grade the severity of specific UN Torture Convention breaches. In Australia’s Concluding Observations, the Committee principally uses two words to express its sentiments: The Committee states it is “concerned” or is “seriously concerned.” Student advocates attending the hearing might well have convinced the Committee to escalate any “concern” to “seriously concerned,” or another higher level of stated disapproval in the Australia Concluding Observations. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 203 processing of asylum claims, transfer all migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees to mainland Australia and process any remaining asylum claims while guaranteeing all procedural safeguards,”98 and Australia should “[c]onsider closing down the Christmas Island detention centre.”99 Soon after the UN Torture Committee informed Australia of its UN Torture Convention findings on Christmas Island, Australia closed the Christmas Island detention facilities, bringing the population at that offshore detention facility down to zero. 100 b. Other Indiana Shadow Report Recommendations Adopted by the UN Torture Committee Adopts Indigenous Peoples in the Criminal Justice System. The Indiana Shadow Report recommended that Australia end hyper-incarceration of Indigenous peoples. The Committee was “concerned”101 about how indigenous people are disproportionately incarcerated and found that Australia “should increase its efforts to address the overrepresentation of indigenous peoples in prisons.”102 Children Separate from Adults in Prison. The Indiana Shadow Report recommended that Australia stop housing children in prisons with adults. The Committee was “seriously concerned about”103 children and adult prisoners detained together and found that Australia should “[e]nsure . . . that children are detained in separate facilities.”104 Children in Solitary Confinement / Lockdown in Prison. The Indiana Shadow Report recommended that Australia end lockdowns for children in prison, that force children to remain in their cells for extended periods. The Committee was “seriously concerned about”105 children in solitary confinement and found that Australia should “[i]mmediately end the practice of solitary ————————————————————————————— 98. Id. at ¶ 30(a). 99. Id. at ¶ 30(f). 100. The precise closure date of the Christmas Island detention facilities is unclear, as is the date Australia began to conduct medical evacuations from Christmas Island after the UN Torture Committee Concluding Observations. Australia reported that thirty-six detainees were present at Christmas Island in August 2023, and that in October 2023, there were none; See Immigration Detention and Community Statistics Summary August 2023 (released 13 October 2023) https://web.archive.org/web/20240402000422/https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and- stats/files/immigration-detention-statistics-31-august-2023.pdf; See also Immigration Detention and Community Statistics Summary December 2023 (released 8 February 2024) https://web.archive.org/web/20240331195056/https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and- stats/files/immigration-detention-statistics-31dec-2023.pdf (zero detainees in October 2023) 101. UN Torture Committee Concluding Observations, supra note 94 at ¶ 33 102. Id. at ¶ 33. 103. Id. at ¶ 37(f). 104. Id. at ¶ 38(f). 105. Id. at ¶ 37(d). https://web.archive.org/web/20240331195056/https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and https://web.archive.org/web/20240402000422/https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 204 confinement for children across all jurisdictions.”106 Strip Searching Prisoners. The Indiana Shadow Report recommended that Australia abolish degrading and traumatising strip-searching prisoners, particularly Indigenous women. The Committee was “concerned”107 about strip searching prisoners and found that Australia should “[e]nsure that strip-searches of persons deprived of their liberty are not performed routinely and are conducted in private and in a manner that respects the inmate’s dignity.”108 Corporal Punishment. The Indiana Shadow Report recommended that Australia prohibit corporal punishment, in all its forms, nationwide, against children. The Committee was “concerned” about corporal punishment 109 and “[urge[d] Australia] to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in law in all settings, including in homes, public and private schools, detention centres and day-care and alternative care settings in all states and territories.”110 IV. CONCLUSION – IMPACT OF THE ADVOCACY ON THE TORTURE COMMITTEE’S CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS The Indiana Shadow Report to the UN Torture Committee contended that to comply with the UN Torture Convention, Australia must stop violating the rights of, inter alia, prisoners (Indigenous, women, children), children suffering corporal punishment, and migrants in offshore detention centers. The Committee expressed “concern” or “serious concern” about all these issues, and asked Australia to stop violating the UN Torture Convention regarding these issues. Australia closed the Christmas Island detention facilities to comply with the UN Torture Committee’s findings. For reasons outside their control, the student authors of the Indiana Shadow Report were ultimately unable to make oral presentations to the UN Torture Committee in Geneva. It is possible oral presentations of the Indiana Shadow Report may have resulted in even further disapprobation of Australia’s violations. As previously stated, the Indiana Shadow Report demonstrates the tangible impact Edwards and PIHRL made to advocate for human rights across the globe. V. EPILOGUE – CONTRIBUTIONS OF PROFESSOR EDWARDS: SHADOW REPORTS, UN ADVOCACY AND THE PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Having considered the outcomes of the advocacy summarized above, let us now reflect on some contributions of Professor Edwards. ————————————————————————————— 106. Id. at ¶ 38(d). 107. Id. at ¶ 31. 108. Id. at ¶ 32(f). 109. Id. at ¶ 47. 110. Id. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 205 When I [Dean Keyzer] met Professor Edwards in 2022, I knew his reputation as a distinguished international lawyer, and the history and achievements of the Indiana University Program in International Human Rights Law (“PIHRL”). I had the good fortune to meet some of the students in this Program when the Indiana Shadow Report described in this article was developed, and they were effusive in their praise of Professor Edwards, who inspired them by providing them with extraordinary opportunities and insights that not only benefitted the students as they supplemented their international law classroom learning and gained practical, real life lawyering experience advocating before the UN, 111 but also benefitted human rights abuse victims – like my clients who had been subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when imprisoned at Christmas Island – who were relying on the students’ advocacy before the UN Torture Committee. Teaching international law is important, but providing students with opportunities to engage directly in international legal work is invaluable and truly wonderful. This is what Professor Edwards did, and he will be irreplaceable. As Dean Klein has noted: It’s one thing to study, learn, and discuss important issues relating to matters like human rights — giving students that opportunity alone would be significant. But it’s another thing to actually provide students an opportunity to participate in serving those values in a tangible way . . . . The Program [that Professor Edwards pioneered] provides vital experiential learning opportunities for students, expands access to global teaching and learning, and strengthens partnerships that lead to global research and service. All this being said, Professor Edwards’ deft and effective facilitation of the submissions above, and management of our contact with the UN Torture Committee Secretariat in the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and with the Secretariat of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), produced significant outcomes. Apropos of the issues raised in this article, the UN Torture Committee responded to the Indiana Shadow Report by, among other positive results, recommending that the detention center at Christmas Island be closed, and Australia evacuated detainees and closed the Christmas Island facilities soon after the decisions of the Committee. The timing is no coincidence. Professor Edwards’ approach and methods as a Professor of International Law at IU McKinney reflected the mindset of continuously advancing both international human rights law and the learning experiences of his students. It is clear to us from the activities set out that his approach and methods were original and highly innovative. Legal educators can learn from his work and rich legacy. ————————————————————————————— 111. It is hard to imagine students getting as fired up about antitrust law or bankruptcy law, for example. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 206 The incredible volume of work catalogued in this volume, which is only a portion of what Professor Edwards accomplished in twenty-six and a half years at Indiana University McKinney School of Law, demonstrates and reinforces its significance to legal education and to the development of international law. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 207 CELEBRATION AND RECOGNITION OF THE PROGRAM IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW’S 26TH ANNIVERSARY, THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GUANTANAMO PROJECT, AND PROFESSOR GEORGE E. EDWARDS’ RETIREMENT FROM THE INDIANA UNIVERSITY ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCHOOL OF LAW INDIANA INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW REVIEW On May 19, 2023, the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (“IU McKinney”) community gathered to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the Program in International Human Rights Law (“PIHRL”), 112 the 20th anniversary of the PIHRL’s Guantanamo projects, and Professor Edwards’ retirement (“The Celebration”) from IU McKinney. The Celebration was presided over by the Honorable Frank Sullivan, Jr., former Associate Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court and a member of the IU McKinney faculty. Keynote 113 and other speakers included students, graduates, law school faculty and administrators, judges, lawyers, diplomats, ambassadors, military personnel, UN officials, and appointed and elected government officials. 114 In commemoration, Congressman André Carson delivered a speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives and the Mayor of Indianapolis, Joe Hogsett, issued a proclamation for May 19, 2023 to be “Program in International ————————————————————————————— 112. Event to Commemorate Milestones and Celebrate Professor Edwards’ Retirement, IND. UNIV. ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCH. OF L. (May 4, 2023), https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/ releases/2023/05/event-to-commemorate-milestones-and-celebrate-professor-edwards- retirement.html, [https://perma.cc/L624-6ZFG] In its early days, the PIHRL had yearly ceremonies to honor students embarking on overseas internships, to thank former interns, overseas host supervisors, and others who assisted the PIHRL, and to highlight PIHRL projects. Larger PIHRL celebrations were held at five-year intervals, including for the 20th anniversary in 2017. Due in part to COVID-19, there was no 25th PIHRL anniversary celebration in 2022, but former interns planned a celebration for the 26th anniversary (1997 – 2023), and the 20th anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay Project (2003 – 2023), and, as it turned out, for Professor Edwards’ 2023 retirement. 113. Keynote speakers were: Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, M.D. Ambassador & Permanent Representative of the African Union to the United States (fmr), CEO & Founder, African Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI); Ambassador Lee A. Feinstein; and Hon. Scott Bates. 114. The program distributed at The Celebration can be viewed at the following link: https://online.fliphtml5.com/yrqda/wyki/#p=1 [https://perma.cc/44L3-3DT6]. Former PIHRL interns and former Guantanamo Bay Project participants were among the IU McKinney alumni who formed an Anniversary Celebration Planning Committee, comprising Nicole Burts, Jacob Irven, Johanna Leblanc and Sheila Willard. Many thanks are due to those of the Anniversary Celebration Planning Committee. https://perma.cc/44L3-3DT6 https://online.fliphtml5.com/yrqda/wyki/#p=1 https://perma.cc/L624-6ZFG https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 208 Human Rights Law Day in the City of Indianapolis.” Several remarks delivered at The Celebration are reproduced below, along with the Congressional and Mayoral commemorations. I. REMARKS 115 Ambassador Lee A. Feinstein 116 Today we celebrate the 26th anniversary of the Program in International Human Rights Law, and honor the program’s founder, Professor George Edwards, who understood the importance of establishing a vigorous human rights law program from his very first month on the faculty. From the beginning of the program, Professor Edwards recognized the inseparability of human rights at home and global human rights. He understood the importance of principle to US global engagement to building a more just world. He recognized that the ability of the United States to be effective globally depended on the United States leading by example. And that is why the activities of the Program in International Human Rights Law are truly global, stretching across 75 countries, from Sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia, to the Balkans, and the Military Commissions at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where Professor Edwards and his colleagues have worked for two decades. The need for the program was clear at the time it was established in the late 1990s but its relevance and importance, unfortunately, has only grown with the unprovoked and savage invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, of last year. Professor Edwards, thank you for your foresight and determination and for the example you have set. The people in this room are well aware of the great tradition of globalism that now emanates from the Midwest and from our state . . . Never were the university’s responsibilities for the development of character of greater significance than at the present hour. You won’t be surprised to hear that is something that Herman Wells, the influential President and Chancellor of Indiana University said at his first inauguration in December 1938. 85 years later, the statement could not be truer. We live in a period of tremendous technological change, a democratic recession entering its seventeenth year, 117 rising intolerance and political extremism, the highest level of displaced people since Herman Wells gave those remarks, and the return of great power rivalry. ————————————————————————————— 115. The Indiana International and Comparative Law Review is grateful to each of these speakers for agreeing to have their remarks published in this article. 116. U.S. Ambassador to Poland (fmr); Founding Dean & Professor of International Studies, Hamilton Lugar School, IU (fmr); President, McLarty Associates; U.S. State Department & Department of Defense (fmr.) 117. A democratic recession occurs when the number of countries with diminishing political rights and civil liberties grows faster than the number of countries with improving political rights and civil liberties; See Yana Gorokhovskala, Adrian Shahbaz, & Amy Slipowitz, Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy, Freedom in the World 2023 (March 2023), https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2023/marking-50-years [https://perma.cc/EHC9- SCQ3 ] (noting that the U.S. was in the 17th year of democratic recession in 2023). https://perma.cc/EHC9 https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2023/marking-50-years 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 209 Wells’ insight was to recognize the importance of principle and pragmatism as essential to the conduct of effective foreign police, and of course, to recognize the role of Indiana University and the important role it can play in producing future leaders. It is because of this understanding of the importance of global education to effective foreign policy that I am so proud to join you today to live in a state with a great and continuing tradition of globalism, manifested by the Program in International Human Rights Law, and so much else at Indiana University. Congratulations to Professor Edwards and the Program in International Human Rights Law on its 26th anniversary. Justice Steven David 118 Professor Edwards, you are and have been an inspiration to all of us, certainly including myself. Most importantly, you have been — by your actions, your teaching, mentoring, your writings, all that you have done, your entire body of work — you have served as a vanguard, a guardian, a trustee for the rule of law, for transparency, accountability, and fairness. We will miss you. You are a warrior for justice. You are a protector of the rule of law. Thank you for your devotion to duty, your selfless service, and all that you have done for the IU McKinney School of Law, men and women who practice law in Indiana; indeed, every Hoosier and every citizen of this nation. Thank you, my friend, for a job extremely well done. Dean Andrew Klein 119 I am delighted to take this opportunity to recognize the program and its founding director -- my longtime friend, Professor George Edwards. When I arrived on campus at IU McKinney back in 1999, the Program on International Human Rights Law was in its second year of operation. Even as a newcomer, I could see that the program was something very special, something that made the school stand apart from others. It’s one thing to study, learn, and discuss important issues relating to matters like human rights — giving students that opportunity alone would be significant. But it’s another thing to actually provide students an opportunity to participate in serving those values in a tangible way. Over the years, hundreds of McKinney students have received internships around the world through this program. Students have advocated before the United Nations, done work before criminal tribunals in The Hague, and have monitored military commission hearings at Guantanamo Bay, at the Pentagon and at Fort Meade. Thanks to the program, we’ve hosted dozens of distinguished visitors from around the country, indeed around the world, ranging from academics to diplomats. The program also advances our campus-wide strategic priorities. It provides vital experiential learning opportunities for students, expands access to global ————————————————————————————— 118. Associate Justice, Indiana Supreme Court (fmr). 119. Dean, Wake Forest School of Law; Dean, IU McKinney School of Law (fmr); Interim Chancellor, Indiana University - Indianapolis (fmr). INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 210 teaching and learning, and strengthens partnerships that lead to global research and service. It’s fair to say that the Program on International Human Rights Law bolsters our campus’s international presence and reputation and creates pathways to justice for people around the world. Of course, I would be more than remiss if I didn’t specifically thank the person who has built all of this and that is Professor George Edwards. George has been my friend and colleague for 24 years, and it has been impressive to see him transform his vision into something that, in my mind, has no peer in legal education. George, as you retire, I wish you all the best as you write this next chapter of your life. Thank you to everyone who was part of tonight’s celebration. Congratulations again to the Program on International Human Rights Law on its 26th anniversary. And again, congratulations and best wishes to Professor George Edwards on his retirement. Hon. Scott Bates 120 I want to share a brief story about the power for good that international human rights law can be and how George Edwards and IU McKinney fit into that story. It was a great moment for America and for the world. I’m talking about the war in Kosovo, about 25 years ago, right around the time this program was founded. Professor Edwards was in West Africa, making connections for IU McKinney students to work there, putting in the hard yards. He detoured to Albania in the middle of the war. He went to refugee camps, where people said, “What will America do? Will you be there for us?” He talked with people with great empathy and care. He was there when the war ended, and he paid $400 to have a driver to drive him into Kosovo, where he was greeted by Canadian peacekeepers, who said, “What the hell are you doing here?” He was bearing witness. On a 12-hour drive through perilous mountains, he saw Kosovars coming home after an attempted genocide. In Pristina, he saw Serbs fleeing for their lives, because of the reprisals. George bore witness to this. He brought that story here, to tell you. I know because I was right there with him. That’s the kind of man George is. He can give you the best theoretical recitations, the latest international law scholarship, and he can tell you why it matters to regular people across the globe. That’s been his life and will continue to be his life’s work. The gift is that he shared this passion with Indiana University and the PIHRL a tremendous story to tell. As I am speaking, there are I don’t know how many people across the globe that are tuned in [to the virtual streaming of The Celebration]. I know there are people who put their lives on the line, who used to be students here and used to be part of PIHRL. They’re doing that to make the world a better place, which is becoming a better place, thanks to people like you, George, and this kind of ————————————————————————————— 120. Secretary of State, Virginia (fmr.); Deputy Secretary of State, Connecticut (fmr); Senior Advisor, US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee (fmr); Visiting Professor of Law, IU McKinney (fmr). 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 211 work. It was an honor to teach here and be a small, small part of this amazing program that George has put his heart and soul – it’s a gem for Indiana University and for the state of Indiana. It puts Indiana on the map of international human rights law. That remains the greatest and best hope for mankind. We can be proud of Professor Edwards bearing witness in Kosovo and elsewhere and taking those lessons forward. This work must continue. I know George will continue in ways great and small for the rest of his life. And it is my honor to be here with all of you who have adopted this vision as well. Johanna Leblanc121 I’m honored to be here with our distinguished guests, and most importantly, to celebrate the Program in International Human Rights Law and the legacy of Professor Edwards. Professor Edwards, you have lived a life of service to others and have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to equality, the rule of law, human dignity, and your students. And it’s through you that I learned the importance of being excellent. I learned that mediocrity is not an option. We all have had Professor Edwards [as a professor], we know how he’s very specific about how to communicate effectively, in e-mails, legal writing, and speaking. For example, if you want to meet with him at a certain time, he wants to know if it’s Eastern [Standard] Time or what other time zone it is, and he always wants you to have a very detailed clear subject line in your e-mails, and he wants you to always number pages of any document in “page x of y” format. And Professor Edwards shared lessons by example—by listening to us, being empathetic, and caring – and that helped us to learn to listen, be empathetic, and care. And I’m telling you those lessons — I’ve carried those lessons with me over the course of my career. You are indeed a man of excellence. So, thank you for showing us what excellence looks like. And I pray that you continue to be a beacon for each future generation seeking a more just and prosperous world. I wish to personally thank you for your mentorship and support over the years. Your program has certainly shaped my career and the careers of countless graduates from the finest law school on the planet, in my opinion. As a result of my experience in PIHRL, I’ve been able to advise local governments, ambassadors, ministers of foreign affairs, the former president of the National Bar Association, and most recently to serve as a legislative director to a member of Congress on matters pertaining to foreign policy and national security. And I hope that through our own lives, and by heeding his example, we can honor the man who showed us all, and the world, the path to social justice and equity. Professor Edwards is retiring from the law school, but we must continue the ————————————————————————————— 121. IU McKinney J.D. graduate; Partner, Adomi Advisory Group PLLC; Former PIHRL Intern; Guantanamo, Ft. Belvoir, Pentagon Monitor; and Research Assistant. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 212 work in international rights law. The Anniversary Committee and I launched a PIHRL alumni group, to engage in activities, including a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery once per year, doing UN shadow reports, and engaging in other international human rights law advocacy – again, continuing work started here by Professor Edwards a quarter of a century ago – to continue whether or not he is a professor at IU McKinney. The PIHRL alumni hope to create an endowed scholarship students passionate about human rights, such as the scholarships Professor Edwards advocated for at the beginning of his professorship at IU McKinney. We pray that Professor Edwards and his legacy serve as beacons for future generations seeking a more just world. His work has been incredibly impactful. It can continue to be incredibly impactful. Professor George Edwards, again, I want to say thank you so much, and congratulations to a job well done. Thank you. Lt. Col. Michael Dan Mori 122 I was privileged to meet Professor Edwards in 2003 when I was assigned to represent the first charged Guantanamo detainee. I did not have an opportunity to study any international law in law school, and I was smart enough to know I knew nothing about it. We needed help, so I connected with George and his students in the Program in International Human Rights Law. Within weeks, he had given us volumes of material, tabbed, and with a nice index – it was beautiful. It was the material we needed to know. I asked George to be our international law expert witness for our Guantanamo military commission. We proposed that he testify live at Guantanamo, which would have been a first at Guantanamo. We asked George to write an expert witness affidavit, and what do you think we got back? 75 pages. It was beautiful, and it covered everything flaw in the military commission so it would be in the record. Later, we asked him to write another affidavit. That one was 100 pages. His expert opinion on international law is now part of the permanent Guantanamo record. He provided documentation for then and for the future. That is part of doing international law, it has to be documented. Whether it will be solved today or takes years to get looked at, you must have the documentation showing why you are right. Anyway, that began a relationship and friendship with George and the Program in International Human Rights Law. In 2010 or 2011, I was in Kinshasa [in the Democratic Republic of Congo] working with prosecutors and judges there. And who else was there but one of George’s PIHRL students. When I was later living and working in Australia, I was fortunate to host an Indiana student to work with us in Melbourne. That student and other IU students worked with me on extradition cases, posthumous pardon cases, and cases of people detained outside their own countries. ————————————————————————————— 122. Retired military judge and JAG officer, former U.S. military defense counsel for Mr. David Hicks, in what would be the first completed U.S. military commission since World War II. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 213 As a mentor, Professor Edwards inspired me to teach – initially lectures in his classes, and then on my own at U.S. and international law schools. I wrote a book because he nagged me to do it. He stayed on top of me and read it before publication. I could tell from all the PIHRL students that I met that they appreciate you, George. And I appreciate you as a colleague and friend. Professor Scott Pegg 123 Professor Edwards never met a human right that he didn’t think was worth defending. And he never met a human being that he didn’t think had human rights that weren’t worth defending. He’s done it in West Africa. He’s done it in East Asia. He’s done it in South America. He’s done it in the Middle East. And yes, importantly, he’s done it right here in the United States of America where we also have human rights issues that must be addressed. And my message to all those crazy tech billionaires that want to colonize Mars, if you guys ever spend all your billions and establish a colony on Mars, he’s going to be coming with you. And he’s going to be worried about the human rights situation that is there. I wish you all the best going forward George. Honestly, you are one of the people that has inspired me on this campus, and it is truly an honor to call you my friend. Dr. Fred Boll 124 It is my great pleasure and privilege to provide heartfelt congratulations on the 26th anniversary of the Program in International Human Rights Law and on the occasion of the retirement of Professor George Edwards, who was the vision and driving force behind the program. I have known Professor Edwards since the mid-1990s when we both worked in Hong Kong, he as a law professor, and as associate director of a comparative and public law center at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law, and I as the Head of the Sub-Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Hong Kong, the ICRC. As Hong Kong moved toward China resuming sovereignty, issues surrounding human rights were daily fare in the media and in the minds of the people of Hong Kong who wondered what their lives would be like under one country with two systems. Many sought to be naturalized or secure residency rights elsewhere, wondering if China would keep its promises. The ICRC supported a seminar organized by the University of Hong Kong at the time on what the right to a fair trial meant in practice, one of many initiatives meant to anchor in place values and procedures that broad parts of civil society felt ————————————————————————————— 123. Chair and Professor, Department of Political Science, Indiana University - Indianapolis. 124. Diplomat & Director, U.S. State Department; International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (fmr). Coincidentally, Dr. Boll, was the first Visiting Lecturer to Professor Edwards’ IU McKinney classes during Edwards’ first IU McKinney semester in 1997, and Dr. Boll was the last Visiting Lecturer to Professor Edwards’ last IU McKinney class in November 2022 (along with U.S. Consul General David Hodge) – Professor Edwards’ very last class session before Professor Edwards retired. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 214 strongly about and hoped would be respected. 125 I think few of us felt that Hong Kong would come to its present state. That is exactly why PIHRL and PIHRL’s home in Indiana is so important. The program Professor Edwards founded is not just about teaching, learning, and research, but about service. It’s a model for human rights legal programs everywhere in bringing students not just to issues, but to real people. If being a lawyer is serving our communities, then a humble acknowledgement that questions of human rights inform every aspect of how human beings live together and define their mutual interests starts and ends with real people. I have been at the U.S. Department of State for almost 20 years. And although I am speaking purely in my personal capacity, I want to recall the great service Professor Edwards has done for American higher education and law schools through the engagement and presentations he did over many years for EducationUSA, our country’s network to promote study in the United States. I had the privilege of leading EducationUSA for three years, and we were always grateful for Professor Edwards’ support, outreach and insights. Congratulations to the law school and to Professor Edwards. Mr. Michael Cooper 126 I was living in New York City on 9/11, on my way to a doctor’s appointment that beautiful September morning, when the World Trade Center buildings were struck. I sat with my doctor for a short time, listening to events unfold over the radio. With dozens of other New Yorkers, I recall walking up and down the city streets hoping to donate blood, but after hours of trekking with my herd of fellow volunteers, we finally gave up. Nowhere in the city had the capacity to accept our blood, which we were so desperate to give. As the sun set, this profound feeling of helplessness set in. Professor Edwards is someone who has never given in to helplessness— never. He’s always found a way to make a difference. In the aftermath of 9/11, when George discovered what was happening at Guantanamo Bay—20 years ago—he stepped forward to stand up for justice. One of George’s cases was that of a 15-year-old Canadian boy held at Guantanamo, a boy named Omar Khadr. I have a 15-year-old Canadian boy named Sammy. It is incomprehensible for me to think of Sammy being held at Guantanamo for as long as Mr. Khadr was held. For George, it was never enough to tell his students, “Open your books to page 143.” He has always known that the struggle for human rights is not an air ————————————————————————————— 125. Andrew Byrnes (ed.), The Right to Fair Trial in International & Comparative Perspective: Proceedings of a Seminar Convened on 9 November 1996 by the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong in Collaboration with the Regional Delegation for East Asia, International Committee of the Red Cross, Centre for Comparative and Public Law, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1997. 126. Executive Director & Vice President, American Society of International Law (ASIL) (the premier U.S. professional international law organization, founded in 1906 & chartered by Congress in 1950). 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 215 war, it’s a ground war. It’s hand-to-hand combat. You must get out into the field, meet victims, and confront perpetrators. You must convince those in a position to make a difference to do the right thing. Professor Edwards has shared this conviction with his students. He has taken many students to Guantanamo and helped NGOs and others to go there. When we were headed to GITMO, we knew that we could always turn to George to find the latest filings and to understand what was happening with specific cases. George helped to build a thriving Guantanamo NGO community. Do you know what a “word cloud” is? You take a large group of words about a topic, and you throw them into this thing on the internet, and then it creates a word cloud, with the most important words kind of popping out at you. When I throw everything that is George Edwards into the word cloud system, I get “courage,” I get “commitment,” I get “creativity.” But the biggest word that stands out for me is “community”—I think of the community that George helped to build, how he helped to advance international law, and how he brought people together and engaged people, especially students. I’ll close with this: Thomas Frank was an esteemed international law scholar, and once President of the American Society of International Law. When asked, “In the face of peril, what is the role of the attorney?” Frank said, “Standing tall for the rule of law.” Professor Edwards has always stood tall for the rule of law. Thank you, George, for everything you have done. Ms. Qifan Wang127 At IU McKinney, I participated in the Program in International Human Rights Law and as an intern and as part of the Guantanamo Bay Military Commission Observation Project. I was also a research assistant for Professor Edwards and the PIHRL during my studies. Now, I’m working at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as a refugee status determination officer. I cannot put into words how much the PIHRL affected my study, career, and commitment to international law and global justice. As a student, international human rights law was something very far away. But through the PIHRL projects, I saw that international human rights is not only in a book, it is about every individual and there are things that I can actually do to help. I would have never made it this far if Professor Edwards didn’t open the door for me one day in the library. Thank you very much Professor Edwards, and I wish you all the best. ————————————————————————————— 127. IU McKinney J.D. graduate; Former PIHRL Intern, Guantanamo Monitor, and Research Assistant; Refugee Status Determination Officer, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Based in Islamabad, Pakistan. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 216 Mr. Andaman Sasrithong 128 Thank you for helping my colleagues and me train for the Jessup International Law Moot Court competition, and for giving us the unique opportunity to work on the Seychelles Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission Project, and the Australia shadow report for the United Nations Torture Committee. We are grateful. On this occasion that marks your retirement, I wish all the best and happiness in the world to you. I know that your retirement will not stop you from providing assistance for those in need of humanitarian or human rights help. You will continue to inspire people like you have done to us all here. Thank you very much again. Hon. Jeff Crowley 129 I would like to congratulate IU McKinney on the 26th anniversary of PIHRL and on the 20th anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay projects. I also want to give a special acknowledgement to Professor George Edwards on his retirement. I have been engaged with the PIRHL for the last few years since Professor Edwards invited me to speak to his class. During the first few years of the President Obama administration, I had the privilege of serving as Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and Senior Advisor on disability policy. Professor Edwards would ask me to speak to his class and do a simulation with the students. We would talk about domestic infectious disease issues in the U.S., such as a sexually transmitted infection or COVID-19. We’d ask students to consider how international human rights law bears on the issues. I think it’s been really helpful because it is not just about learning about law in the textbook, but about a real-world application and bringing in the policy and political considerations that are not taught in a textbook. What has been most impressive to my involvement here is the nurturing nature of Professor Edwards. Before every class, he would tell me about the students and tell me what he wants the students to get out of the lecture or simulation. I teach a class at Georgetown Law where we bring in a lot of distinguished experts, and I know it can be hard for students to engage. The manner in which Professor Edwards nurtures and encourages his students to engage with me and others is a sign of a really excellent teacher. Once again, congratulations and I wish you many more years of success. ————————————————————————————— 128. Law Graduate, Chulalongkorn University Law Faculty (Bangkok, Thailand); Diplomat, Thailand Foreign Ministry. 129. President Obama’s first “AIDS CZAR”; Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and Senior Adviser on Disability Policy (fmr); Professor, Distinguished Scholar, and Director, Infectious Diseases Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown Law Center, Georgetown University. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 217 Hon. Robert Oliver 130 I’m the executive director and founder of Pacific Islands Food Revolution, which is a television series designed to restore the Pacific traditional Indigenous food systems that have been disrupted by colonization and globalization. What does a reality TV cooking competition show have to do with a U.S. law school? The connection is Professor George Edwards. I met George a few years ago and we connected over a common interest in justice. He offered me a perspective on human rights and the UN right to food that is not part of the food narrative I had known in the Pacific. So, I invited George to be a guest on the show – season 2 and season 3. The show is about Pacific people cooking their beautiful, traditional dishes in a reality cooking show format. After he tasted food cooked by competitors, he offered insights on the legal framework of a right to food. It really added a dimension to food tv. I can’t think of a food show where the legal and humanitarian perspective was delivered through the screen through entertainment to millions of people. George really cares about these issues and connects to people. To have George as a faculty member, bringing the humanitarian legal lens, but also the heart that goes with it, is really important. I look forward to continuing to work with George; we have already done a couple of lectures together at universities in Vanuatu and Fiji. I realized through those lectures that the right to food, and the associated humanitarian and legal implications, have been poorly expressed to society. I think the fact that George is on the road doing this work in the Pacific in collaboration with us is groundbreaking, and I am thrilled to call him a friend and hope to continue working together. Hon. Ntsika Fakudze 131 While in the Program in International Human Rights Law, I was exposed to many human rights issues, and I learned much from Professor Edwards and colleagues from the class. After I received my LL.M. from IU McKinney, I returned to the Kingdom of Eswatini, found a job in one of the highest offices in my country, working in the Office of the King as head of legal affairs. The lessons I have learned from PIRHL have been important in assisting my country and the office that I work for. Working with Professor Edwards helped me to reach these goals. In my PIHRL internship in Austin, Texas, and later at the UN Secretariat in New York, I learned by gaining real experience. Because of my work for the King, I attend the UN General Assembly in New York every year. Because of my PIHRL ————————————————————————————— 130. New Zealand Order of Merit – MNZM; Executive Director & Founder, Pacific Island Food Revolution; United Nations Development Program Pacific Advocate for Food, Sustainable Development and Wellbeing; and Ambassador for Le Cordon Bleu, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Oliver is author of EAT PACIFIC: THE PACIFIC ISLAND FOOD REVOLUTION COOKBOOK (2024), which contains an essay authored by Professor Edwards on the right to food in the Pacific. 131. Lawyer to the King & Head of Legal Affairs, Office of the King, Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland); IU McKinney LL.M. graduate; Former PIHRL Intern. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 218 internship experience at the UN, I know what is expected, what needs to be done, and how to advise the head of state. All the PIHRL experiences placed me in a better position to make a meaningful contribution for my country where I am serving today. I would like to send my congratulations to Professor Edwards for the work he has done and the contribution to international human rights. He has created many ambassadors all over the world. So many of us have learned from PIHRL and come back to our respective countries or convert to different areas or countries to serve. We believe Professor Edwards is going to continue serving because of his passion and the work that he does. Hon. David Hodge132 I was honored to speak to Professor Edwards’ class a few months ago. I want to encourage all the students to think about how Indiana is in the middle of the world. And it’s a big world around us. I think that no matter what area of law you are studying, there’s going to be an international component to it. Mr. Kenny Capps 133 During the COVID-19 pandemic, I helped convert Professor Edwards’ work online, and witnessed him interact with students, professors, and practitioners from around the world. And, I also co-presented with him on international legal education matters at U.S. State Department EducationUSA affiliates in Europe. Professor Edwards works with authenticity, grace, and an unmatched dedication. I am so happy to have met him and to have had the opportunity to find the motivation to keep going in my career as an internationalist, an educator, a teacher of English, and as a study abroad advisor. I am honored to be a part of this celebration of the program and his retirement. I wish Professor Edwards all the best, and I hope that the legacy of PIRHL and all the work that has been done, continues to grow to build a better world for all of us. Lieutenant Colonel Padgett 134 When I arrived at Guantanamo as Commissions Liaison Officer, they suggested I read the Guantanamo Fair Trial Manual that Professor Edwards and IU McKinney law students wrote, so I could better understand what was going on. I did. It was a very good manual. In 2016, I was at Guantanamo Bay on September 11 th . That day is important at Guantanamo, since some believe that people at Guantanamo were involved in planning the 9/11/01 attack. George asked if we could fly some U.S. flags for him over Guantanamo’s Camp Justice. There’s a picture of me, George, and another Major after we flew his flags. George gifted one of the flags, framed, to ————————————————————————————— 132. United States Consul General, U.S. Consulate, São Paulo, Brazil; IU alumnus. 133. Transnational Educator. 134. Indiana National Guard, 38th Infantry Brigade (Cyclone); U.S. Military Commissions Liaison Officer, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 219 the Indiana Army National Guard. It hangs at our division armory on South Holt Road in Indianapolis. The flag holds memories for everyone who passes through those hallways. I am honored tonight to present wonderful pieces of history that Professor Edwards has organized: one U.S. flag that was flown at Guantanamo on the 15th Anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks; and one U.S. flag flown over Guantanamo on the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11/01 attack. George physically flew those flags himself over Camp Justice on visits to Guantanamo. These flags were also previously flown over the U.S. Capitol on the Inauguration Days for recent U.S. presidents. One flag is dedicated to the Indiana Bar Association and the other is dedicated to IU McKinney Law School. It is an honor to be able to present these two flags. Again, it has been an amazing opportunity to get to know George and to learn from and benefit from his great contributions. Mr. Robert N. Johnson 好人135 Today we celebrate two things. First, the retirement of an amazing faculty member, Professor George Edwards. Second, we celebrate the Program in International Human Rights Law, spearheaded by Professor Edwards. As former Chair of the Indiana University Alumni Association, representing over 750,000 alumni, worldwide, all campuses – here’s a heartfelt thank you for what you’ve done, not only for our students, but for all people you have helped and will continue to help. Your work means a lot to IU alumni, faculty, staff, students and the students’ parents – our family. Professor Edwards, you’re forever an Indiana University family member, even in retirement. It’s Hotel California, buddy – “You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!” I also want to congratulate you on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution appointing you to an Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Institution—the Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. This honor, which involves much needed civic service, also reflects well on Indiana University, and reminds us that you will be part of IU forever. Finally, thank you for including me in your work at Chulalongkorn University Law Faculty in Bangkok, Thailand, regarding the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, and for introducing me to your other Thailand projects. It has been an honor to be included in that work. I wish you well and all the best. Thank you again for all you have done, and for what you will surely continue to do. ————————————————————————————— 135. ACommon1 Connectivity LLC; Chairperson, Indiana University Alumni Association Board of Managers (fmr). INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 220 Ms. Shelia Willard 136 Today, we gather to honor a truly remarkable individual, Professor George Edwards. As a former intern of the Program in International Human Rights Law, I have been fortunate enough to witness firsthand the incredible impact that Professor Edwards had on countless lives. Professor Edwards, your dedication, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to the field of human rights law has left an indelible mark on all of us. Your tireless efforts to promote justice globally has inspired not only your students, but also the wider community. Throughout my time as an intern, you provided me with invaluable guidance and support, and your expertise and mentorship have shaped my understanding of the world, pushing me to strive for excellence in my own endeavors. Your passion for human rights has ignited a fire within so many of us, urging us to be advocates for change and champions for justice. Today, as you embark on a new chapter in your life, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your dedication to the field, your unwavering commitment to your students, and your constant pursuit of justice. On behalf of PIHRL students and the countless lives you’ve touched, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your legacy will continue to inspire future generations of human rights advocates and your teaching will forever be etched into our hearts. May your retirement be filled with joy, peace, and fulfillment. As you step back, know that the impact you’ve made on the world will endure. Ms. Nicole Burts137 None of the outstanding work of the PIHRL would be possible without the brilliance, dedication, and devotion of the person we celebrate tonight, Professor George Edwards. Professor Edwards, I am so proud to be one of your former students. Here at IU McKinney, you have left an undeniable mark on so many of us who have walked through these doors of IU McKinney because of your dedication and commitment. The way you have selflessly poured into so many of us is something that will be felt throughout generations. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us, and we wish you the absolute best and cannot wait to see what the next chapter has for you. Ms. Yanisa Nilkhet 138 Many of us Chulalongkorn students grateful for the privilege of collaborating with Professor George Edwards, both through the Jessup International Moot Court Competition and participating in PIHRL human rights projects. Congratulations Professor Edwards, and thank you for your outstanding contributions. We wish you a fulfilling retirement filled with joy, ————————————————————————————— 136. Attorney-Advisor, Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior; Former PIHRL Intern, Guantanamo Monitor, and Research Assistant. 137. Alumna, IU McKinney; Guantanamo Monitor. 138. Student, Chulalongkorn University Law Faculty (Bangkok, Thailand). Other Chulalongkorn students offering remarks included: Bee Rinreda Sakiyalak, Tanyaluk Prasomtong, Supichaya Soonthornthum. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 221 relaxation, and an exciting new journey. Mr. Nathan Feeney 139 I can speak firsthand to the positive global impact that the Program in International Human Rights Law has had over the years. I witnessed the positive impact the PIHRL has had through its links to a premier Thai law school, Chulalongkorn, and my Thailand law firm. PIHRL students, including an intern who came out to Bangkok from Indiana, researched real-life, complex international law matters, including extradition cases, international criminal law cases, and international human rights cases. I was part of the external Indiana University self-study review team that examined 25 years of PIHRL world-wide reach. We on the team spoke to legal professionals in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and elsewhere – from six continents -- and these were all people who were PIHRL stakeholders – IU McKinney graduates, intern host supervisors, lawyers who worked on cases with the PIHRL, etc. They all had great and affirming things – accolades -- to say about Professor Edwards and the PIHRL and how he and the program affected their lives. I’d like to say thank you to Professor George Edwards, who spearheaded the PIHRL and offered personal help on many of our larger cases in Thailand for the past several years. Thank you, Professor Edwards, and we wish all the best for you and the PIHRL for years to come. Judge Aline Fagundes 140 Existing for 26 years tells a lot about the importance of the Program in International Human Rights Law. It has played an outstanding role in developing human rights all over the world. And we cannot speak about the program without mentioning Professor George Edwards. Professor Edwards, you have been the soul of this program. Thank you so much for all the years of dedication, and it was an honor to be your student. Professor Chuck Dunlap 141 I want to share a few thoughts on the importance of the work all the work that is incorporated into all the Program in International Human Rights Law projects. Specifically, I want to mention the Military Commission Observation Project for Guantanamo Bay, and how important it is regarding respect for the rule of law, and how important it is to have observers in place at Guantanamo to try to help ensure confidence and public trust in the legal system. There are many important reasons why the Military Commission Observation Project has ————————————————————————————— 139. Thailand Bail Law Firm (Bangkok, Thailand). 140. Federal Judge, Brazil; Coordinator, Brazil Court of Appeals Centro Judiciário de Solução de Conflitos e Cidadania (CEJUSC); IU McKinney LL.M. graduate; Guantanamo, Ft. Meade & Pentagon Monitor. 141. President and CEO of Indiana Bar Foundation, and a graduate of IU McKinney; Chair, Military Commission Observation Project Advisory Council of the IU McKinney PIHRL. INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 222 thrived over these past decades, and why they continue to play a vital role into the future for as long as the military commissions continue. I’m proud of the work that this program has done and very proud of Professor Edwards, all that he has done to support these projects, and all of the work that all the many volunteers have done over the years. I really want to show our appreciation for Professor Edwards and all that he has done to support the work of the program and really be the driving force behind all of this work. So congratulations. We really appreciate all the work that you’ve done, Professor Edwards. I look forward to many future endeavors with the program as well. Justice Frank Sullivan 142 I have had the great good fortune of knowing Professor George Edwards for many years before I received the privilege of being asked to teach at this law school. And there are a lot of stories about his capacity for hard work and unlimited appetite for consuming information, and, as Lt. Col. Mori told us a few moments ago, and his capacity for sharing it. And indeed, it was a theme that wove its way through many of the video presentations tonight at this 26th Anniversary Celebration. A few minutes ago, Lt. Col. Mori got more than a few acknowledgments of recognition when he talked about the size of the packages of paper that Professor Edwards presented to him on more than one occasion. I remember some years ago, we had a particularly distinguished visitor here at IU McKinney. His name was John L. Murray, and he was then Chief Justice of Ireland, and was a former judge of the European Court of Justice, and former Attorney General of Ireland. I had a different job at the time, 143 and I was invited to come over to the law school to hear Chief Justice Murray speak at lunch. And then he was to speak, as many of you have, at Professor Edwards’ class, which I think was to start maybe a half an hour after Chief Justice Murray’s speech was finished. And as we left lunch, Professor Edwards came into the room with two notebooks – about the size of those two notebooks there – of things that he wanted Chief Justice Murray to look at before he spoke 30 minutes later. So many of us have had experiences like that with Professor Edwards. Here’s another story about voluminous document binders concerning Professor Edwards, also related to the judiciary. For a number of years, Professor Edwards was good enough to share his expertise by teaching international human rights law courses in a special summer graduate program for Indiana trial court judges. George would provide those judges, like he did Chief Justice Murray, with more paper than all of the other professors teaching in the judges’ graduate program combined. But you know, that was just great, because where else could Indiana trial court judges have the opportunity to build ————————————————————————————— 142. Associate Justice, Indiana Supreme Court (fmr); Professor of Practice, Indiana University McKinney School of Law; Master of Ceremonies, The Celebration of May 19, 2023. 143. At the time, Frank Sullivan was Associate Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 223 a library of materials on international human rights law? One of the things I’ve always admired about George Edwards is self- discipline. Some years ago, he took it upon himself to start running road races to get some exercise. This progressed to the point where he entered the Indianapolis 500 mini-marathon – 13.1 miles, or 20.8 kilometers. And after he completed his first mini-marathon, he wrote me an email describing his techniques. I stopped at every single water stop even the last one within the last mile of the race along New York Street. I walked, sipped water, and poured water over my head and shoulders at every stop. Just before each time I stopped, I made a note of the people running around me who either did not stop for water, or who slowed down but did not walk. Without exception, every single person I noted who passed me at the water stop, I passed within a few strides after I resumed running. I learned a valuable lesson. And George, we too have learned valuable lessons from you about not just the substance of international human rights law, but lessons like the value of hard work and self-discipline. I have many memories of conversations with George Edwards about the Program in International Human Rights Law in general and the splendid opportunities it gave our students to participate in human rights work around the world. I remember in particular, and again, this was long before I came to work here, learning that a student here at this law school from my home city of South Bend, Indiana, was doing a human rights internship of some kind in London one summer. My wife and I happened to be in London at the same time and we tracked this student down and took him out to dinner. When I asked for the specifics of his assignment, I was not really expecting to hear anything too dramatic. He told me that he was working in a London law office, representing in deportation proceedings undocumented immigrants who had come to the UK to receive medical treatment for their HIV infections. Talk about doing real work. We owe George Edwards a great deal for all the opportunities that he has made available to our students, opening their eyes to the realities of our world, and the multiple ways in which we can improve it. Ladies and gentlemen, won’t you rise with me and salute our friend and leader, Professor George Edwards? II. CONGRESSIONAL FLOOR SPEECH: REPRESENTATIVE ANDRÉ CARSON OF INDIANA On May 18, 2023, Congressman André Carson, of the 7th District of Indiana, made a speech on the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, commemorating the Program in International Human Rights Law’s 26th Anniversary, and commending Professor Edwards and all other PIHRL INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 224 Affiliates “for their tireless work and significant contribution to legal scholarship in international human rights law”. The full text of Congressman Carson’s Floor Statement follows. 144 COMMEMORATING THE 26TH ANNIVERSARY OF PIHRL AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCHOOL OF LAW HON. ANDRÉ CARSON OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, May 18, 2023 MR. CARSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 26th anniversary of the Program in International Human Rights Law (PIHRL) at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, founded by Professor George Edwards in 1997. PIHRL is the first U.S. law school program of its kind to which the United Nations granted “Special Consultative Status” which underscores the PIHRL’s remarkable commitment to and contributions to the United Nations’ efforts of global promotion and protection of human rights. PIHRL has embarked on an extraordinary range of global activities, including facilitating over 250 law student intern placements and consultancies in over 75 countries on 6 continents, working with human rights organizations, U.S. and foreign governmental bodies, academic institutions, and inter-governmental organizations such as the UN. I commend the PIHRL, Professor George E. Edwards and all current and former students and affiliates for their tireless work and significant contributions to legal scholarship in international human rights law. III. PROCLAMATION OF INDIANAPOLIS MAYOR: MAY 19, 2023 AS “PROGRAM IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW DAY IN THE CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS” On May 19, 2023, Mayor Joe Hogsett of Indianapolis issued a Proclamation that May 19, 2023 was “Program In International Human Rights Law Day in the City of Indianapolis,” honoring the PIHRL, its founder Professor Edwards, and the students and other PIHRL affiliates over its over twenty-six year history. ————————————————————————————— 144. United States Congressional Record – Extension of Remarks, E468 (May 18, 2023) https://www.congress.gov/118/crec/2023/05/18/169/84/CREC-2023-05-18-pt1-PgE468-2.pdf [https://perma.cc/2JA7-XYPH]. https://perma.cc/2JA7-XYPH https://www.congress.gov/118/crec/2023/05/18/169/84/CREC-2023-05-18-pt1-PgE468-2.pdf 2024] TRIBUTES TO GEORGE E. EDWARDS 225 The text of the Mayoral Proclamation follows: CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS Office of the Mayor PROCLAMATION TO ALL WHOM THESE PRESENTS MAY COME, GREETINGS: Whereas, founded in 1997 by Professor George E. Edwards, the Program in International Human Rights Law (PIHRL) of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law embarked on a noble mission to advance the study and practice of international human rights law. In 2011, the PIHRL became the first United States law school program to be granted “Special Consultative Status” by the United Nations, exemplifying its outstanding dedication and contributions to the global promotion of human rights championed by the United Nations; and Whereas, the PIHRL has undertaken a range of global initiatives spanning over 75 countries across six continents. The PIHRL has facilitated over 250 law student internships and consultancies while collaborating with non-governmental human rights organizations, governmental bodies, academic institutions, and inter-governmental organizations. It has provided its students and other affiliates opportunities to draft United Nations reports and make oral presentations thereon to the United Nations, assist legal teams litigating before international criminal tribunals, monitor and report on criminal trials, prepare fair trial manuals, provide legal assistance on a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and work on U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of State projects, among other opportunities; and Whereas, under the direction of Professor George E. Edwards, the PIHRL’s affiliates have gained immeasurable experience and knowledge in international human rights law. Their involvement has profoundly shaped their personal and professional growth and fostered a more just and equitable world, while safeguarding the rights of countless people in Indianapolis, across Indiana, throughout the United States and around the globe; and Whereas, today the City of Indianapolis celebrates the PIHRL’s 26th anniversary and its affiliates’ invaluable contributions to international human rights law and justice worldwide. Furthermore, the City of Indianapolis congratulates Professor George Edwards, whose retirement from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law after INDIANA INT’L & COMP. LAW REVIEW [Vol. 34:155 226 over 26 years of dedicated service coincides with the 26th anniversary of the program in international human rights law he founded; NOW THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH A HOGSETT, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM MAY 19, 2023 AS: PROGRAM IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW DAY in the City of Indianapolis, and I asked all citizens to join me in this observation. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I HAVE HEREUNTO SET MY HAND AND CAUSE TO BE AFFIXED THE SEAL OF THE CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS ON THIS 19TH DAY OF MAY IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-THREE. [signed] Joseph H. Hogsett Mayor – City of Indianapolis IV. CONCLUSION At The Celebration, Professor Edwards said that the Program in International Human Rights Law does not exist in the IU McKinney law school building – the PIHRL is not an object that sat in a classroom nor in the dedicated international human rights law space in the library. PIHRL does not exist in its name or in its projects. Rather, Professor Edwards said the PIHRL exists inside of each person who participated in the PIHRL – particularly students and graduates – and each person who has been touched by the PIHRL. Many will remember the lessons learned through Professor Edwards and the PIHRL, and the positive impact made through the PIHRL’s great work. Many of us have lived and will continue to live the lessons learned through Professor Edwards and the PIHRL and will strive to continue to make positive impacts wherever we turn – as he taught and inspired us to do. Structure Bookmarks for what you will surely continue to do. Justice Frank Sullivan a library of materials on international human rights law?