Human Rights: Conversations Across Generations

Professor Mark Godsey has spent his career confronting one of the most profound human rights failures within the legal system: the incarceration of innocent people. A former federal prosecutor and longtime professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, Mark is the co-founder and director of the Ohio Innocence Project, one of the nation’s leading innocence organizations. Through his work...

In this powerful multigenerational conversation, we are honored to welcome our dear friend and civil rights attorney Leah Watson , whose work at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) places her at the forefront of defending constitutional rights and advancing racial justice across the United States. Leah’s advocacy focuses on protecting freedom in education, challenging classroom censorship, a...

Today, we welcome Professor Bill Schabas, one of the world's foremost scholars of international criminal law and genocide, joining us from his farmhouse in France. Bill has devoted his career to defining, investigating, and prosecuting mass atrocity crimes. He served with the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, advised the International Criminal Court, and chaired the United Nations Co...

Jewher Ilham joins us for a powerful conversation about family, justice, and the cost of repression. She is a Uyghur human rights advocate and the daughter of Ilham Tohti, an economist and professor who dedicated his life to peaceful dialogue and advocacy for the Uyghur community and was later unjustly sentenced to life in prison by the Chinese government. As a father-daughter podcast, this conver...

In this first episode of 2026, Human Rights: Conversations Across Generations, we welcome Professor Roger Clark, one of the world’s leading figures in international criminal law and human rights. Over a distinguished career that included more than four decades teaching at Rutgers University Law School, Professor Clark educated generations of lawyers while contributing directly to the development o...

In this episode of Human Rights: Conversations Across Generations, we are honored to welcome Professor Cees Flinterman, one of the most respected figures in international human rights law and one of Professor Bert Lockwood’s oldest friends and collaborators. Their friendship began in 1970 while studying in the graduate law program at the University of Virginia, an experience that helped shape para...

We are honored to welcome Professor Rebecca J. Cook, a pioneering scholar whose work has transformed women’s human rights and reproductive justice around the world. Rebecca has also been a close friend of our family for more than thirty years, first connecting with my father, Professor Bert B. Lockwood, through her contributions to Human Rights Quarterly and the University of Pennsylvania Press hu...

Today’s episode is a very special tribute to the life and legacy of our dear friend, and a true leader in international law, the late Sir Nigel Rodley. It is our privilege to be joined by his wife, and our close friend, Lyn Rodley. Nigel’s remarkable journey began at New York University in the International Studies Department, where he studied alongside both of my parents. He went on to become a f...

This week, we sit down with Sister Helen Prejean, one of the most influential moral leaders of our time and a guiding force in the movement to end the death penalty. For more than three decades, she has accompanied people on death row with dignity, supported families affected by violence, and challenged the nation to confront the human cost of state killing with honesty and compassion. She joins u...

In this episode of Human Rights: Conversations Across Generations, we are honored to welcome The Honorable Unity Dow, a trailblazing jurist, author, and human rights advocate from Botswana. Unity is also a cherished friend of the Institute and a long-standing partner of the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights. The Institute’s inaugural founder and director, Professor Bert Lockwood, supports th...

This week, we welcome Eric Stover, an esteemed colleague and pioneer in human rights investigations. As a Research Professor and Co-Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Eric has spent decades at the forefront of applying science to pursue justice. He is a recipient of the 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science Award....

Welcome back for Part 2 of our special series with the father-daughter duo, Professor Harold Koh and Emily Koh! Having explored the foundations of Harold’s legal career and family legacy in Part 1, this episode focuses on the critical challenges facing human rights and democracy today. We start with a powerful reflection on Harold's father and his unwavering commitment to the Rule of Law, made at...

We are honored to welcome our first father-daughter duo to the show for a special two-part series: the esteemed Professor Harold Koh and his daughter, Emily Koh. This conversation represents a true multi-generational dialogue on human rights and the shared passion for justice that connects us. Professor Koh, the Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, has shaped the human right...

We welcome legendary litigator Professor Paul Hoffman to discuss his decades-long career pioneering international human rights law and battling abuses by global corporations. This intergenerational conversation bridges the past and future of the movement, revealing the core struggles and enduring hope required for justice.