Charles Street Chats: Q&A with Janet Lord
Behind the Chat
Order: Pistachio Latte
Location: Coffee Olivia
Distance: 0.1 miles
Janet Lord brought invaluable experiences and knowledge in international human rights law to The University of Baltimore School of Law when she started as executive director for the Center for International and Comparative Law in November 2023.
Previously, she served as chief legal counsel to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, provided legal counsel during the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities treaty negotiations and continues to provide legal counsel on international human rights law. As the center prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary later this year, Lord will further advance the center’s mission to deepen student and faculty knowledge of, engagement with and excitement about international law.
Q: What drew you to human rights law?
A: I was doing post-graduate studies in international law at George Washington Law School, and I thought I would go into international environmental law or law of the sea. I ended up working for two Holocaust survivors, who were great leaders in international human rights. After working for Tom Buergenthal and Louis Sohn, I—and many of my classmates pursuing the LL.M. in international and comparative law—became very captivated with international human rights law. Our professor said it is a journey that is much more of a marathon—or ultra-marathon—than a sprint. I thought if they could, after surviving the Holocaust, devote themselves to human rights and maintain optimism for the cause, then I could probably go along with that, too.
So that’s really what got me into the field in the first place. Then I became part of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and that took me into working with landmine survivors from mine-affected countries around the world to advance their human rights.
Q: What brings you to UBalt Law now?
A: I’ve worked for my entire career in international law, and work that is largely centered around Washington, D.C., and I’ve loved that journey and I’ve loved my work. But I’m a native Baltimorean, and I have strong ties to the city. I’ve lived in Baltimore city for my entire adult life.
So, this opportunity to direct the Center for International Comparative Law at UBalt came up. I read the job description, and I thought this is a way to bring the work that I’ve been doing home to Baltimore and, at this juncture in my career, help students here understand that there are multiple pathways into international law. I really wanted to be a part of that.
Watch: Janet Lord discusses shedding light on human rights
Q: Part of your work has been to address gaps in international law, policy and practice on the rights of persons with disabilities. What are some of the biggest gaps you’ve encountered? And when dealing with issues of such magnitude, how do you determine your approach/decide where to begin?
A: When I started this work more than 20 years ago, there were only a handful of countries that had any kind of disability law and policy framework. And those countries that did address disability in their law and policy often did so on the basis of exclusion, discrimination based on disability, mass incarceration of people with disabilities, exclusion from education and voting, and so forth. It was really a blank slate, and the gaps, therefore, were really, really intense.
The invisibility of disability as a human rights issue was also something that was quite shocking. Some mainstream human rights organizations did not even address the rights of people with disabilities within their work. The gaps were sort of writ large everywhere in the U.N. human rights system, and in mainstream international development programs.
Our approach in working closely with advocates—people with disabilities, organizations representing and led by people with disabilities around the world—has been to take their lead. What their advocacy priority is then becomes essential. So, listening to local voices and helping them figure out how they can strategically advance a disability rights project in their own country, whatever that might look like, and using international standards to do so. That might be working on election access, it might be working on inclusive education, it might be working on deinstitutionalization of children with disabilities in orphanages, and many, many others. We try to meet organizations and people with disabilities and disability advocates where they are and help them use international human rights law and policy and practice to advance their own advocacy priorities, whatever they may be.
Q: Tell us about your proudest accomplishment in your career, so far.
A: I think that’s a pretty easy question for me. My proudest accomplishment was having the unbelievable privilege and opportunity to participate in the drafting of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We started that back in 2001 when Mexico initiated this treaty process.
I was working with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines at the time. We had no idea what we were doing, but we worked hard to educate ourselves about the strategies that others have used in other treaty processes, not only human rights treaties, but those addressing disarmament, international criminal law, or international environmental law.
One of the things that was really meaningful for me—beyond taking part in and drafting a treaty—was working with organizations of people with disabilities, particularly those from the global south, who had never been to the United Nations. We worked hard to bring in advocates from particularly the global south and orient them to this U.N. process that we were learning to navigate. Then we saw many of these folks become leaders in civil society movements, and some of them became heads of their government delegations. That was incredible to see people coming into this process, finding their voice, telling their story and influencing a treaty process.
This treaty has been ratified by over 180 countries around the world. It’s nearing universal ratification, so playing a small part in that process is certainly the opportunity of a lifetime for an international human rights lawyer and really the privilege of my career.
Q: Has the United States ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities?
A: The United States has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, even though we have some of the strongest legislation on disability rights in the world. President Obama did sign the treaty in 2009 and we had high hopes that it might indeed be ratified with the advice and consent of two thirds of the Senate. We didn’t get there.
This country has a cultural resistance to international law and to human rights law in particular. I believe this bears the unmistakable imprint of racism. We decided early on, in the 1940s, when we still had statutory racist laws in our country, that we were going to be hostile to the ratification of human rights treaties. Indeed, there was even a senator from Ohio, Senator [John] Bricker, who tried to amend our Constitution to make sure that, essentially, human rights treaties would have no effect. So, I think the reason why we haven’t ratified the treaty has more to do with this broad cultural resistance to international law in this country, and it’s incredibly unfortunate.
What Charms Us
We end all our Charles Street Chats with the same question: What do you love most about Baltimore? Here’s Janet’s answer.
I love the quirkiness, the weirdness and the grittiness of Baltimore. This is a big city that has a small town fun and weird feel, and that’s why I’ve made the city my home during all of my adult life.