IRAP works with the University of Jordan Law School

During the winter of 2010, IRAP student leaders from Yale, Stanford, NYU and Columbia law schools traveled to Lebanon, Jordan and Syria to meet with Iraqi refugees, US and UN officials, NGOs, and Members of Parliament. One of the most important parts of the trip was a joint training with students from the University of Jordan Law School who are working with IRAP to assist Iraqi refugees in Amman. At the training, American and Jordanian law students and professors collaborated with Iraqi refugees and NGO leaders, exchanging skills and ideas. Some of the law students we met in Jordan were Iraqi refugees themselves, who were learning the skills they will need to serve their communities as attorneys and leaders.

The training was part of an ongoing relationship between IRAP and the University of Jordan that began in early 2009. American law students work with their Jordanian counterparts to provide comprehensive legal services to IRAP’s clients. IRAP’s work has benefited enormously from the perspective and understanding our Jordanian friends and colleagues have shared with us.

The latest training occurred on March 5-6, 2011, as a delegation of students and their immigration professor for the IRAP chapter at the University of Pennsylvania travelled to Amman to work with IRAP’s chapter at the University of Jordan on advanced clinical legal skills, with a focus on working in the field.

IRAP’s chapter at the University of Jordan is about to graduate it’s first class of students, several of whom are now working on their own cases at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.