HUMSI's consultant team of lawyers, academics, and advocates provides research, writing, policy analysis, and education services to promote global justice and the protection of human rights. 

Climate of Coercion 

Research Project

HUMSI created and led a research project on the intersection of climate change with other root causes of cross-border displacement in Central America and Mexico. The research is based on in-person interviews HUMSI conducted with asylum seekers in Tijuana, Mexico shelters. This research contributed to a joint advocacy report HUMSI coauthored with with Stanford Law School, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and an article that is under review by a legal scholarship journal. HUMSI also presented this research at the 2023 Law and Society Association annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

Download our Report, Climate of Coercion: Environmental and Other Drivers of Cross-Border Displacement in Central America and Mexico: English | Español

More information: Press Release | Webinar | JURIST and Dejusticia columns by Julia Neusner

International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)

Climate Displacement Consulting

HUMSI provides ongoing consultation services to support IRAP's research and advocacy efforts around climate displacement. This includes drafting support documents for legal practitioners, drafting policy analysis documents, supporting a data collection project to assess the scope of cross-border climate displacement, and strategizing to advocate for more humane policies to protect people displaced in the context of climate change. 

Among other projects, HUMSI led research and writing efforts for IRAP's Practice Guide on U.S. Refugee Protection Claims Related to Climate Change and Environmental Disasters, which provides an overview of ways in which U.S. asylum and refugee resettlement can provide protection for individuals who, in whole or in part, are displaced due to environmental and climate-related factors. 

Stanford Law School 

Rule of Law Program 

HUMSI provides research and writing support for Stanford Law School's rule of law program. This includes coordinating a legal education project on the laws and legal institutions of Rwanda with University of Rwanda law school faculty and Stanford Law School students. 

Policy Research and Writing

Principal consultant Julia Neusner has published more than 30 writing pieces on international justice and human rights issues, including many based on original research she conducted as a Research and Policy Attorney with Human Rights First. They are available here.