Human Rights Program

Lester Fellowship Program

A man in a pink shirt wearing wire frame glasses reads in a chair.
Anthony Lester QC (Lord Lester of Herne Hill). Photo by Gideon Lester

Anthony Lester Fellowships

Inaugurated in 2024, the Anthony Lester Fellowships support lawyers or law students who would like to undertake practical fieldwork in human rights and the rule of law outside of their country of residence. These fellowships enable lawyers and law students early in their careers to work on a project that helps effect practical change and are designed for those who may not otherwise have this opportunity.

More About the Fellowship

The fellowships are supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, and the Lester family. Please email inquiries to [email protected].

Applications for the Lester Fellowship have now closed. Applications will open again in Fall 2026.
  • Details
    • Two fellowships will be awarded each academic year.  
    • Fellows will receive a stipend of $25,000 for a project lasting at least three months. 
    • The fellowships are open to early-career lawyers or law students. 
    • There are no geographical restrictions on the fellowships.
    • It is expected that the project will comprise full-time work for the fellows for a minimum of three months.
    • The deadline to apply for the 2025–2026 academic year is February 17, 2025. Applications have now closed and will reopen in Fall 2026.
    • Applications must include a cover letter introducing who you are and the way(s) the Lester Fellowship would deepen or broaden your existing knowledge and advance your trajectory.
  • Selection Criteria
    • The project has the potential to make a tangible impact in the promotion of the rule of law/human rights
    • The project is fieldwork (something practical), rather than academic research
    • The project is practical, manageable, and realistic
    • The project should be in a country different from the applicant’s own, should be a different experience for them, and should come at a time in applicant’s career where it may make a real difference to career trajectory
    • Diversity of geography and subject matter
  • After the Fellowship
    At the end of the fellowship, fellows will be invited to give a presentation at Bard’s campus in New York’s Hudson Valley (their travel and accommodation costs will be paid). Fellows will write a short report on their project, to be published on the Human Rights Project’s website. Fellows may wish to publish their report elsewhere (crediting their support from the Anthony Lester Fellowships at Bard College). They will also have the chance to discuss their work with those who worked with Anthony Lester at the Odysseus Trust, which supported his legislative work.
2025–26 Lester Fellows

L-R: Hadeal Abdelatti and James Rooney.

2025–26 Lester Fellows

The 2025–26 recipients of the Anthony Lester Fellowships are Hadeal Abdelatti and James Rooney. Abdelatti, a Cambridge law finalist and aspiring barrister, will use the fellowship to investigate concerns around the handling of deceased inmates’ organs in the state of Alabama. James Rooney, a barrister-at-law specializing in public interest and human rights law from Ireland, will use the fellowship to provide legal advice and assistance to the Streha Centre, an LGBTI+ shelter and community service in Albania, for three months in summer 2025.
Read the Press Release
2024–25 Lester Fellows

2024–25 Lester Fellows

The Human Rights Project at Bard College has announced the first recipients of the inaugural Anthony Lester Fellowships. Fellowships have been awarded to Hilina Berhanu Degefa, and Marian Alejandra Da Silva Parra. Degefa (an expert on women’s rights, public policy, and advocacy from Ethiopia) will use the fellowship to work to combat proposals to legalize female genital mutilation in The Gambia. Marian Da Silva Parra (a human rights lawyer from Venezuela) will develop a project to train and support local human rights defenders in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Read the Press Release

Lester Fellow Final Reports

Below you can find the reports put together by each fellow at the end of their fellowship.