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Welcome to the Rapoport Center

The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice serves as a focal point for critical, interdisciplinary analysis and practice of human rights and social justice. Our goal is to promote the economic and political enfranchisement of marginalized individuals and groups both locally and globally. We invite you to explore this site to learn more about our work at the intersection of academics and advocacy.

Upcoming Events

  • What constitutional law arguments might be used to fight the criminalization of abortion in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision? In this talk, Cary Franklin, McDonald/Wright Chair of Law at UCLA School of Law, will assert that the Constitution’s guarantee of sex equality offers a potent tool for challenging criminal abortion bans by state governments. As states turn to the most coercive methods for regulating women’s reproductive capacities, Franklin contends that their carceral tools, including the criminalization of abortion, render women less-than-equal citizens in violation of the Constitutional guarantee of “equal protection.” While Dobbs eliminated the “liberty” to have an abortion, lawyers and advocates are working to find new paths forward. Franklin will trace one of these paths, showing how fifty years of jurisprudence on sex equality can be used to protect women from the carceral threats of abortion criminalization. Elizabeth Sepper, Crillon C. Payne, II Professor in Health Law at UT School of Law, will respond.
  • The tenth annual lecture will feature Dr. Rupa Marya, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where she practices and teaches internal medicine. Her work sits at the nexus of climate, health and racial justice. The lecture will be moderated by Dr. Stephen Chao, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

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Latest News

Check out our latest Annual Review, which highlights our Disarming Toxic Empire conference, the Farenthold lecture delivered by Kathryn Bond Stockton, and programming on literature and global justice.

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