human trafficking

Georgia Law hosts roundtable discussion for 2024 Mandela Fellows

This month, a group of participants from the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders visited the University of Georgia School of Law for a roundtable discussion as part of their 6-week program at the university. The Fellows met with Christine M. Scartz, Clinical Associate Professor & Jane W. Wilson Family Justice Clinic Director; Joan Prittie (J.D. ’93), Executive Director of Project Safe; and two LL.M. alumnae, including Lydia Lartey (LL.M., ’24), a Court Appointed Special Advocate and former Mandela Fellow.

The 10 Fellows in attendance have work experience in anti-human trafficking, advocacy for women and girls, human rights, and refugee and victim assistance, among other topics. A total of 10 countries were represented in this group: The Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and the Ivory Coast.

Scartz, Prittie, and Lartey began the roundtable by discussing their respective backgrounds and work, and then answered the Fellows’ questions. This is the second year that the law school has hosted a group of Fellows.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is the flagship program of the U.S. government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Since 2014, nearly 4,200 young leaders from every country in Sub-Saharan Africa have participated in the Fellowship. Mandela Washington Fellows, between the ages of 25 and 35, are accomplished innovators and leaders in their communities and countries. 

In 2019, UGA became a Fellowship Institute Partner and hosted its first cohort of Fellows on the UGA campus. The Mandela Washington Fellowship is delivered through a collaborative effort between the Office of Global Engagement, the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, and the African Studies Institute at Franklin College.

Georgia Law Professor Amann presents at Eleventh Circuit Judicial Conference

Professor Diane Marie Amann recently presented “Human Trafficking Law” to judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit as part of the circuit’s 2024 Judicial Conference.

Amann situated the crime of human trafficking within efforts to combat illicit flows of myriad goods, ranging from armaments to endangered animal species. She then considered the interplay of multilateral treaties and national statutes by comparing U.S. and British precedents on whether diplomatic immunity applies in cases alleging domestic servitude.

The talk furthered outreach efforts by the American Society of International Law, on whose Judicial Education Committee Amann serves.

Amann is Regents’ Professor of International Law, Emily & Ernest Chair in International Law, and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center here at the University of Georgia School of Law. She writes and teaches in areas including transnational and international criminal law, child and human rights, constitutional law, and global legal history.