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Overview

Founded in 1965, MCLI has become part of the infrastructure of the peace and justice community, empowering people to protect and expand their rights under law. Meiklejohn is a center for peace law, an organizer for the right to education, an information clearinghouse on social change, an advocate of government accountability, a training center, and repository of history. It has been called a "Civil Liberties Church" and a think tank combining archives and ongoing research.

In 1995, the Institute's Human Rights Reporting Project began using new U.S. treaties as new tools to work for human rights, full employment, economic conversion, and saving the environment. Since 1984, the Institute's Peace Law and Education Project has been using peace law and history to work on these issues.

The Institute joins networks and provides speakers.

The Institute publishes and distributes the Human Rights Organizations and Periodicals Directory, Peace Law Packets and the "Human Rights Now!" quarterly newsletter.

The Institute's highly regarded Studies in Law and Social Change include Alexander Meiklejohn: Teacher of Freedom, The Cold War Against Labor, and The Ford Hunger March.

The Institute works with the India Legal Centre for Human Rights and the Law on common issues of concern.

The Institute's survival depends on the support of those who share its goals and values.

Mission Statement

Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute seeks to promote social change by increasing the recognition and use of existing human rights and peace law at the local, national, and international levels.

The goals are:

  1. To help individuals use human rights and peace law to enforce their civil rights and their right to peace, education, jobs, justice, and a healthly environment.
  2. To lecture, hold forums, and publish materials on United States and international human rights and humanitarian law, emphasizing the connection between civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights.
  3. To remain especially alert to human rights and to maintaining the physical and mental integrity of the most disadvantaged in the United States, including children tried and sentenced as adults, those who face the death penalty, and those facing distinctions based on race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, and physical and mental disability.
  4. To offer internships that provide practical and multifaceted learning experience to college and law students and opportunties for volunteers to do meaningful work to assist activists, writers, and scholars.
  5. To develop innovative ways of using human rights law in new venues from city commissions to U.N. committees.
  6. To collect, index, archive, and make accessible the United States history of human rights and peace law that is not reported by traditional law services.

History

Board Members

Organizations and/or affiliations are for identification only and do not imply support by the organization

  • Linus Pauling (1901-1994)
  • Frank Newman (1918-1996)
  • Barbara Blong, President, Peace/Human Rights Activist
  • Rev. Daniel A. Buford, Vice President, Community Activist
  • Jim Syfers, Treasurer, Prof. Emeritus, SF State University
  • Adam Shearer, Secretary Pro Tem, Student Activist
  • Charles Bonner, Consumer Attorney
  • Seth Chazin, Trial Lawyer
  • Jan Goodman, Southern California Attorney
  • Charles Henry, African American Studies, UC Berkeley
  • Deborah Lagutaris, New Activist Lawyer
  • Wilson Riles, Jr., Community Organizer
  • Colleen Rohan, Criminal Appeals Attorney
  • Leslie Rose, Attorney
  • Bill Simpich, Civil Rights Attorney
  • Lindsley Smith, Arkansas Legislature
  • Michael Sorgen, Human Rights Attorney
  • David Watts, Computer Specialist
  • Phoebe Watts, Community Activist
  • Steven Birnbaum, Worker Injuries Attorney

Executive Director

  • Ann Fagan Ginger

Advisory Committee

  • Steven Birnbaum, Chair, Worker Injuries Attorney
  • Zipporah Collins, Editor
  • Emma Dawley, Black Women Stirring the Waters
  • Riva Enteen, Community Activist
  • Elizabeth Guarnieri, Anti-Trust Attorney
  • Nancy Hormachea, Immigration Attorney
  • Aileen C. Hernandez, Urban Consultant
  • Wes McGee, Minneapolis Black Trade Unionist
  • Hon. Claudia Morcom, Retired Detroit Judge
  • Mark Van Der Hout, California Immigration Lawyer
  • Howard Watkins, Fresno Family Law Attorney

MCLI has been a non-profit corporation since 1965 and depends on the financial contributions and volunteer time of people who support its mission and work. Please join us!

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