JoAnn Kamuf Ward

JoAnn Kamuf Ward (@JoAnnKWard) is the Director of the Human Rights in the U.S. Project at the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, where she is also a supervisor in the Human Rights Clinic. Ms. Ward focuses on promoting the use of human rights standards and strategies to foster racial, gender, and socio-economic justice in the United States, and promote government accountability. This includes research and writing, as well as advocacy to improve access to basic rights, such as housing and sanitation. JoAnn engages in strategic litigation, as well as advocacy at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and UN to address systemic discrimination and inequality. JoAnn also leads the Institute’s efforts to develop resources on human rights implementation at the state and local level. Prior to joining the Human Rights Institute, Ward worked in the general litigation group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, and with the Fordham Law School Leitner Center for International Law & Justice.

Ms. Ward co-authored Flushed and Forgotten: Sanitation and Wastewater in Rural Communities in the United States (2019). Her additional publications include From Principles to Practice: The Role of US Mayors in Advancing Human Rights, in GLOBAL URBAN JUSTICE (2016);  Challenging a Climate of Hate and Fostering Inclusion: the Role of U.S. State and Local Human Rights Commissions (2017); How the Trump Administration’s Efforts to Redefine Human Rights Threaten Economic, Social, and Racial Justice (2019) (with Catherine Flowers); A Practical Guide to Using International Human Rights and Criminal Law Procedures (2019), and Using Human Rights Mechanisms of the United Nations to Advance Economic Justice  (2011) (with Risa Kaufman).