We are excited to announce that HRP has awarded its 2025-26 Heningson Fellowship to Isabella Leal Aguilar JD’25 (pictured on the right) and Camila Castellanos Forero JD’25 (pictured on the left).
HRP’s post-graduate fellowships are designed to help launch the careers of students who have demonstrated great promise as human rights-engaged students and advocates while at HLS. Fellows are placed with human rights organizations working under challenging circumstances. In light of the ravages accelerated by climate change, wars, growing authoritarianism and worldwide inequality, HRP reaffirms its commitment to supporting the careers of young professionals devoted to international human rights and social justice. Learn more about the new fellows and their projects below.
Isabella Leal Aguilar is a Mexican international lawyer whose practice centers on human rights advocacy. She will be a Henigson Fellow with Casa Nicolás in Mexico, where she will be working towards strengthening legal protections for the migrant community in northern Mexico by addressing systemic human rights violations, identifying abuse patterns, and advocating for policy reforms that uphold migrant rights in Mexico.
She has previously worked in issues regarding gender equality, women’s rights, environmental justice, and the strengthening of democratic institutions through constitutional advocacy. Isabella received her L.L.B. from Facultad Libre de Derecho de Monterrey and attended HLS to pursue a career in Human Rights and International Law, sponsored by the Fulbright Scholarship Program (COMEXUS) and Fundación México en Harvard through the Ricardo Nassar Zacarías Scholarship. At HLS, Isabella participated in the International Human Rights Law Clinic, the Harvard Human Rights Journal, and the HLS Advocates for Human Rights.
Camila Castellanos Forero is a Colombian lawyer and economist. She will serve as a Henigson Fellow with the International Center for Transitional Justice in The Gambia. In this role, she will support the implementation of the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission, provide technical expertise on reparations, contribute to the establishment of a hybrid transitional court to prosecute those responsible for gross human rights violations during the Yahya Jammeh regime, and promote gender-sensitive approaches to accountability. Camila will also assist with ICTJ projects in other countries across the MENA region and Africa, deepening her comparative understanding of transitional justice in diverse contexts.
Camila holds a Graduate Degree in Constitutional Law from Universidad Externado de Colombia, as well as an LL.B. and a B.A. in Economics from Universidad de los Andes. At Harvard Law School she was a student attorney of the Harvard Dispute Systems Design Clinic, where she co-developed a strategic peace game aimed at preventing and de-escalating conflicts over critical minerals in Africa; served as Project Leader at HLS Advocates for Human Rights, leading research on accountability for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Sudan; and worked as a Research Assistant for both the Program on International Law and Armed Conflict. She served as Article Managing Editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal, Executive Content Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, and held leadership roles with the Harvard Women’s Law Association and La Alianza.
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