U.S. Files Report on ICCPR Enforcement
The U.S. filed its 4th periodic report on compliance with the U.S.-ratified International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to the U.N. Human Rights Committee December 30, 2011. The report is over a year late and received very little media coverage, perhaps due to it's holiday release.
Civil Society Organizations like Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute now have a short period of time in which to analyze the report and write "shadow" reports on the many deficiencies of the U.S. report. For example, the report does not mention anything about police reactions to Occupy Protests and offers next to nothing on compliance at the state and local level.
Stay tuned for the Spring Human Rights Now! newsletter from MCLI in which Ann Fagan Ginger, Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of MCLI, will provide an analysis of the report. And look for our "shadow" report this summer.
To read the report, follow these links:
U.S. 4th Periodic Report on ICCPR
Common Core Document of the U.S. 4th Periodic Report on ICCPR
Annex A to the Common Core Document
National Lawyers Guild Passes Resolution for Human Rights
A new resolution for human rights passed at the October 2011 Philadelphia National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Convention. The resolution calls for the NLG to: support MCLI in the distribution of UN Human Rights Treaties Posters; support efforts to enforce ACR 129 and efforts to file local-level reports to the UN on treaty implementation; encourage trainings on human rights treaties and protocols and their use in litigation, in legislation, and in administration; and continue to make clear the relationship between civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights. Click here to read the resolution.
CA Votes for Human Rights!
August 27 — Sacramento, CA: the California Senate took the historic step of voting 22-11 that California should become 
the first state in the US to agree to publicize the text of three UN Human Rights treaties ratified by the US! The State Assembly had already voted 52-11 to pass ACR129, introduced by Assembly Member Bill Monning (27th AD–Monterey/Santa Cruz), proposed by Ann Fagan Ginger for MCLI. Read the resolution here.
Board President Daniel Buford and ED Emeritus Ann Ginger, were joined by MCLI interns and supporters of Human Rights on two occasions as they testified in front of the Judiciary and Appropriations committees in support of ACR 129. You can read Ann's testimony [here].
The International Human Rights Poster is Here!
Inspired by the Labor Law posters that employers are required to post in the workplace, MCLI created a poster to educate the public on their rights under the three international human rights treaties that are the law in the U.S.*
Click here to order your copy today.
*(1)The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
*(2) The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
*(3) The International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Berkeley Adopted Human Rights Law Protecting Women
Jan 31 - The Berkeley City Council unanimously passed a new ordinance that makes law the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The new definition of discrimination against women in Berkeley is:
"any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of gender which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women of human rights and fundamental freedoms in political, economic, social, cultural, civil and other fields, irrespective of their marital status and on an equal basis with men."
To read the full ordinance, click here.
Occupy Human Rights!
MCLI prepared an informative document detailing how the Occupy Movement can use human rights law. Read it -- click here!Winter 2011 Newsletter
Read it -- click here!Highlights
*The Occupy Movement's Protest Roots & the 1712 Slave Revolt in New York
*Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Spurs Investigation by the O.I.G.
*Occupy: A Local Movement
*The Right to Occupy
*Human Rights Internships
