Students in the Human Rights Study Project at the University of Virginia School of Law spent a week of their winter break in the Ecuadorian Amazon learning about the Indigenous rights movement.
The yearlong project, which began as a student-run organization before becoming a course for academic credit, offers participants a chance to research human rights in the field in a different country each year. The six students studied Ecuador and learned how Indigenous people engage in international activism, focusing on land rights, cultural preservation and environmental protection.
“The trip was a wonderful opportunity to learn how international legal systems interact with local ones,” second-year law student Caroline Fernandez said. “The more we learn about others, and their legal and cultural systems, the more we learn about ourselves and our own systems. This helps us become more informed lawyers.”

UVA Law students meet with professors at Universidad San Francisco de Quito and activist Vivian Idrovo, third from left. (Contributed photo)
Professor Camilo Sánchez, who directs the project and co-directs UVA Law’s Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program, said the visit provided students with insights about Indigenous rights advocacy and the protection and conservation of strategic natural resources, like those in the Amazon rainforest.
As part of the project, students learn about human rights research ethics and methodologies in the fall and delve into their selected topic of interest. Following the fieldwork abroad, they will draft research papers this spring, concluding with a presentation to the Law School community.
According to Sánchez, Indigenous peoples’ global activism has led to notable achievements, such as the adoption of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, and “influenced national policies and legal frameworks in various countries to promote the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in decision-making.”