Joint International Law LL.M./J.D. '22 graduate Yanitza Sánchez Batista joined the Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights as a Latin America legal program officer shortly after her December graduation, building on her work as a fellow with the School of Law's Human Rights Clinic.
The institute is an international human rights capacity-building organization that works alongside activists in Latin America to enhance their ability to promote and protect the human rights of marginalized and vulnerable people who suffer from discrimination based on their national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
As a human rights attorney, Batista works to design and implement innovative programs to build the capacity of human rights activists in Latin America.
Batista began her legal path by working as a lawyer in Cuba. She received a law degree from the Oscar Lucero Moya University in Cuba, where she mainly focused on civil law, criminal law, and disputes. She also practiced law in Ecuador, working as a legal adviser for the local government of Pichincha in Quito. Her work focused on enhancing law to protect people's rights in a human mobility context, designing local immigration public policies, and developing advocacy strategies toward the local and national level institutions.
She also actively participated in constructing the Organic Law on the Human Mobility process in Ecuador.
The Cuban-born Batista received a second law degree from Miami Law and a postgraduate degree in international law, gaining clinical experience in human rights litigation and advocacy at the local, national, regional, and international levels.
Batista credits the career job opportunity to her time at Miami Law and, specifically, her involvement in the clinic. "This is happening because of you and the clinic's support," she said in an email to the clinic. "Thanks for the honor of continuing to be part of the HRC family and for allowing me to fulfill my dream to continue working in the human rights field in the USA."
Batista started as an LL.M. student at Miami Law and later transferred to the J.D. program. As an LL.M. student, she enrolled in Miami Law's international human rights law course and joined the clinic in the summer of 2021. During the summer semester, she primarily worked to produce a human rights report on the rights of Indigenous and rural women in Guatemala. She received the CALI award during the summer for her consistently excellent work in the clinic. She was invited to continue as an advanced clinic student during the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022.
During the fall and spring, her clinical work focused on documenting Cuba's human rights violations in response to the July 2021 protests, culminating in a thematic hearing request to the Inter-American Commission and a human rights report.
As a clinic student, Batista worked closely with clinic partner Race & Equality on human rights issues in Cuba and researched human rights standards in the inter-American human rights system.
"Thanks for the honor of continuing to be part of the HRC family and for allowing me to fulfill my dream to continue working in the human rights field in the USA," Batista said.
Read about Miami Law’s Human Rights Law area of study.
Read more about Miami Law’s Human Rights Clinic.
