Sarah Diaz

Profile

Sarah J. Diaz, JD LLM is the Associate Director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children and Lecturer in the School of Law at Loyola University Chicago. Prof. Diaz has worked at the intersection of child migration and human rights for over fifteen years, providing direct services and consultation services to NGOs working on human rights, migration and international criminal law issues. These services included sharing her expertise in human rights, parent-child border separation and the rights of migrant children in U.S. immigration proceedings. Prof. Diaz has participated in several initiatives designed to create access to justice for children and migrants on a local, state and international level including co-authoring the Illinois Voices Act, serving on the Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force, and coordinating a DACA legal services collaborative that directed policy feedback for the Obama Administration. Prof. Diaz often represents US-based child-serving NGOs before UN special mechanisms. She was recently asked to offer her expert opinion on the use of private security firms for migrant child detention to the U.N. Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries. In addition to her advocacy efforts, Prof. Diaz has authored several publications at the intersection of international law and migration.

Research

Publications

• Hague Abduction Considerations for the Hague Adoption Lawyer, in The International Adoption Sourcebook, (AILA 2 Ed. 20201)
• The Role of Public Health in the Rule of Law: The Cautionary Tale of Title 42 Expulsions. Harvard Public Health Review. 2021; 30. (with Loyola law student, Malachy Schrobilgen). https://harvardpublichealthreview.org/title42expulsions/
• Hague Abduction Law for the Contemporary Immigrant Parent and Child, 2 AILA L.J. 107 (2020). 
• COVID-19’s Nefarious Toll on Migrant Children: Executive Overreach and a Framework to Prevent Abuse, published in the online symposium Children's Rights in the Time of COVID-19, Center for the Human Rights of Children, Loyola University School of Law, November 17, 2020 (with Loyola law student, Malachy Schrobilgen). 
• An Elusive Mandate: Enforcing the Prohibition on the Use of Child Soldiers, 39 CHILD. LEGAL RTS. J. 263 (2019). 
• Failing the Refugee Child: Gaps in the Refugee Convention Relating to Children, 20 GEO. J. GENDER & L. 605 (2019). 
• Parent-Child Border Separations Violate International Law: Why it matters and what can be done to protect children and families, GEO. HUM. RTS. INST., Perspectives in Human Rights No. 6 (Aug. 2018). 
• Unequal Protection: Disparate Treatment of Immigrant Crime Victims in Cook, the Collar Counties and Beyond, DePaul Asylum & Immigration Law Clinic, October 2014 (with DePaul clinic students Geraldine Arruela, Cordia Perez, Ana Valenzuela and Katerin Zurita). 
• Re-Interpreting Postville: A Legal Perspective, 2 DEPAUL J. SOC. JUST. 31 (2008) (with Sioban Albiol and Linus Chan). 
  
  

Expertise