JoAnn Kamuf Ward

Director, Human Rights in the U.S. Project; Lecturer-in-Law

Phone: (212) 854-0009
Email: [email protected]

JoAnn Kamuf Ward is director of the Institute's Human Rights in the U.S. Project, and a supervisor in the Human Rights Clinic. Ms. Ward focuses on promoting the use of a human rights framework to address inequality and social injustice within US borders. Her work aims to strengthen awareness of human rights standards and mechanisms to strengthen racial, gender, and socio-economic justice, and promote government accountability. This includes research and writing, as well as international and domestic advocacy to improve access to basic rights at the federal, state and local level, working in coalition with a broad range of stakeholders. JoAnn engages in strategic litigation in domestic courts as well as advocacy at the UN and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to address systemic discrimination and inequality. She also leads the Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers’ Network, as well as the Institute's efforts to create resources on state and local human rights implementation.

Prior to joining the Human Rights Institute, JoAnn worked in the general litigation group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, as well as an attorney at MFY Legal Services, Inc. She was formerly a fellow with the Leitner Center for Law and Justice at Fordham Law School. Ms. Ward received her J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from Fordham University School of Law in 2006. As a student at Fordham, Ms. Ward participated in the Crowley Program in International Human Rights.

Ms. Ward's publications include How the Trump Administration's Efforts to Redefine Human Rights Threaten Economic, Social, and Racial Justice (2019), Human Rights Law Review (with Catherine Coleman Flowers); Challenging a Climate of Hate and Fostering Inclusion: The Role of State and Local Human Rights Commissions, Human Rights Law Review (2017); From Principles to Practice: The Role of US Mayors in Advancing Human Rights, in GLOBAL URBAN JUSTICE (2016); Using Human Rights Mechanisms of the United Nations to Advance Economic Justice in the Clearinghouse Review (2011) (with Risa Kaufman); and Human Rights Developments at the State and Local Level in the United States: A Bird’s-Eye View in The Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly (April 2016) (with Sarah Paoletti). Kamuf Ward co-authored the human rights documentation report, Flushed and Forgotten: Sanitation and Wastewater in Rural Communities in the United States (2019).

She is a frequent contributor the Human Rights at Home Law Professor's Blog and Huffington Post, publications include:

Human Rights Lessons from COVID-19: Equality Requires Economic and Social Rights Protections, Just Security 4.9.2020

We all Deserve Basic Sanitation and Dignity, Morning Consult 9.4.2019 (with Wade Henderson & Catherine Coleman Flowers)

The United States' Global Water Strategy Must Recognize these Rights at Home, Open Global Rights. 6.24.2019 (with Inga Winkler)

This is What Hypocrisy Looks Like, Huffington Post 3.23.17

Challenging Trump's Agenda, State and Local Style, Huffington Post 1.31.17

Time to Practice What We Preach: Using Human Rights in Domestic Violence Policy, Huffington Post 6.26.13

Human Rights Principles Should Start Here at Home, Politico 12.29.12