Regents' and James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy

Harvard Law School, J.D. (1983) 
University of New Mexico, B.A. (1980) 

Watch a video about S. James Anaya.

An expert in International Human Rights and Indigenous peoples law, Professor Anaya is the author of the acclaimed book, Indigenous Peoples in International Law (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996, 2d. ed. 2004), and currently serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Professor Anaya has lectured in many countries in all continents of the globe. He has advised numerous indigenous and other organizations from several countries on matters of human rights and indigenous peoples, and he has represented indigenous groups from many parts of North and Central America in landmark cases before courts and international organizations. Among his noteworthy activities, he participated in the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and was the lead counsel for the indigenous parties in the case of Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua, in which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the first time upheld indigenous land rights as a matter of international law.

Prior to becoming a full time law professor, he practiced law in Albuquerque, New Mexico, representing Native American peoples and other minority groups. For his work during that period, Barrister magazine, a national publication of the American Bar Association, named him as one of "20 young lawyers who make a difference."

Professor Anaya served on the law faculty at the University of Iowa from 1988 to 1999, and he has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Toronto, and the University of Tulsa.