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Law Students for Human Rights

Advocacy Accomplishments 2003 - 2007


Selected LSHR Advocacy Committee Achievements, 2005-2007:

2006 - 07:

  • Collaboration with West Harlem Environmental Action: LSHR team assisted WE-ACT in negotiations with the MTA to convert NYC's bus fleet to natural gas, a fuel that emits less asthma-triggering pollution than conventional fuels. The students performed legal and factual research on the following issues: factors that affect the Transportation Workers Union members' exposure to diesel pollution; ways to control exposure to fumes, including through new technology; environmental regulations that govern emissions from bus depots; OSHA regulations and possible workers compensation benefits. The LSHR team also prepared residents to testify at City Council hearings.
  • Collaboration with the World Organization for Human Rights to assist Guantánamo Bay Detainees: LSHR students researched the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to GTMO detainees, the constitutionality of the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA), and the applicability of the habeas stripping provisions of the DTA to habeas cases pending before the district courts before the DTA became law. They also worked on challenging portions of the Military Commissions Act (MCA), which purports to rewrite the Geneva Conventions.
  • Collaboration with the Brennan Center for Public Policy on the Ali Al Marri case: The LSHR team supported the Brennan Center in its case against the government on behalf of a detainee labeled by Bush as an “enemy combatant.” They researched two issues related to the dismissal of al Marri's habeas petition: 1) Whether the President has the authority to detain indefinitely a non-citizen who is legally in the United States by labeling him an “enemy combatant,” and, assuming the right to detain, 2) What process is due to such an individual, including whether or not s/he has the ability to challenge the detention's factual basis. The LSHR group also looked at previous terrorism prosecutions since 9/11; the AUMF, PATRIOT Act, and the newly-passed MCA; and the possible retroactivity and applicability of the MCA to this case.
  • Collaboration with Human Rights Watch: Students assisted HRW in their anti-terrorism & human rights work by developing memos on various aspects of “glorification of terrorism” and “incitement to terrorism” crimes. They translated and provided a human rights analysis of decisions from Spain and the Netherlands which involved the conviction of minorities for glorifying or promoting terrorism by comparing the reasoning in each case with case law of the European Court of Human Rights, conventions against terrorism, and non-governmental policies on the balance between freedom of speech and national security. One LSHR student also contributed research for an article on international humanitarian law and human rights throughout the semester.
  • Collaboration with the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center : Students performed research for Louisiana Capital Assistance Center , an organization representing capital defendants in Louisiana . They researched and catalogued incidents of prosecutorial misconduct according to the legal reasoning underlying each prohibition (i.e. “it unfairly appeals to emotion and racial bias and thereby distracts the jury from conducting a logical, well-reasoned analysis of the individual facts of the case”) for publication in the forthcoming Louisiana State Defender's Manual. The manual will be distributed widely by LCAC to assist other organizations performing indigent capital defense.
  • Collaboration with the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in their Campaign against McDonalds – Students assisted with NESRI and CIW's corporate accountability campaign against large produce purchasers, seeking to persuade McDonalds to improve conditions for farmworkers.  The LSHR team researched stakeholders' right to participation and wrote an issue brief arguing that investors who have committed to ethical investment should include stakeholder participation as part of their mandates. The brief will be submitted to the Norwegian Petroleum Fund's Council on Ethics in order to encourage it to include participation as a human right under its Ethical Guidelines for investment. 

2005 - 06

  • Collaboration with Human Rights Watch: Counter-Terrorism Laws in Europe : LSHR students researched two areas where the law has changed throughout Europe in response to perceived terrorism threats: 1) Renditions to states with a record of torture (with or without diplomatic assurances), and 2) Criminalization of speech acts that fall short of imminent incitement to crime.
  • Research on Wal-Mart Lawsuit for International Labor Rights Fund : Students conducted research related to a labor-rights suit against Wal-Mart on behalf of poor workers in developing countries.
  • Collaboration with the World Organization for Human Rights: In the Fall of 2005, LSHR s tudents looked at recent legal efforts to prevent rendition of Guantánamo detainees. In the Spring, students researched issues related to an amicus brief WOHR filed in the D.C. Circuit on Al Odah v. Bush .
  • Research for PRAXIS: Truth Commissions in Peru : LSHR students completed wide-ranging research synthesizing the huge body literature related to the theoretical foundations of Truth Commissions. Several students remained with the project through Summer 2006.
  • Hurricane Katrina Legal Relief Efforts : Students participated in three projects with the Lake to the River Foundation (“Katrina Legal Aid”): 1) Identifying FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers in the NYC area and interviewing users, 2) Replying to calls made to KLA's legal assistance hotline, and 3) Writing short, accessible summaries of several insurance law questions likely to be important to hurricane survivors, to be posted online at www.unitedpolicyholders.org . Students also participated in an email update series to track local, state, and federal legislation related to Hurricane Katrina.
  • Collaboration with the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights and the Immigrant Voting Project at the World Policy Institute : LSHR students researched the practice of non-citizen voting in foreign jurisdictions and summarized their findings for use in the IVP's public education campaigns.  Students also supported the campaign to introduce non-citizen voting rights in New York City by preparing materials for and participating in Coalition rallies.

 

Selected LSHR Advocacy Committee Achievements, 2003-2005:

  • Students and faculty affiliated with LSHR and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice formed a delegation to an October 2003 ACLU Conference on the use of international human rights law in domestic courts. Upon returning, they hosted a Law School discussion to report on and further explore methods of promoting accountability on domestic issues through the framework of human rights advocacy.
  • Students organized a symposium entitled, “Bringing Human Rights Home: Promoting Accountability in the Corporate Arena,” featuring renowned legal scholars and practitioners to discuss recent development of tools to hold corporations accountable in labor and other arenas, including the fate of the Alien Tort Claims Act and practicability of corporate codes of conduct.
  • Students launched a campaign to introduce a 1L elective in international law and expand the offering of upper-level human rights courses at the Law School . After collecting over two hundred signatures and gaining faculty support, they were successful in getting the Law School administration to convene a Special Committee to restructure the 1L curriculum, and subsequently, introduce a spring elective.
  •  A team of students assisted in annotating and editing a draft New York City ordinance codifying the international CERD and CEDAW discrimination treaties in municipal law. They were subsequently invited to participate in further drafting sessions and political strategy meetings between prominent human rights organizations to urge passage of the ordinance.
  • A team of students researched the history of U.S. legislation relating to Mariel Cubans for the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project. The students' research was incorporated into an amicus brief submitted by the ACLU in the case of Benitez v. Mata.
  • Students worked with the Center for Justice in International Law (CEJIL) to research and write a memo on national, regional, and international legal standards with respect to treatment of HIV/AIDS in Latin America . This memo forms the basis of one of the first petitions on economic and social rights to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
  • Students participated in demonstrations protesting continued violations of human rights in post-war Iraq . In particular, they researched violations of international humanitarian law by state actors and transnational corporations, and possible claims around restructuring of the Iraqi economy. The research was incorporated into educational materials and distributed to the public.
  • A team of students collaborated with the World Policy Institute to research issues around non-citizen voting, including a comprehensive survey of state and local laws across the country. The research also extended to international comparative law on the political rights of non-citizen residents. The same students collected signatures in support of a New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights petition and are monitoring the introduction of legislation in the City Council to the same end.
  • LSHR sent two representatives to a conference at American University , Washington College of Law on the crisis in Darfur , and reported back on the event to our membership. Students also researched and wrote a report for Human Rights Watch on whether the situation in Darfur over the past year and a half could be characterized as genocide in a legal sense, as per the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the ICC. The report focused on the specific intent required for the crime of genocide and applied the facts currently available to come to a determination of whether genocide is occurring in Darfur . The team presented their report in person to senior members of HRW including the Executive Director and Program Director, among others.
  • Students organized two tabling events to raise awareness about the Darfur crisis. The first tabling emphasized distribution of informational materials and members fasting to protest the slow response of the international community; this event made the cover of the university-wide paper. The second tabling came a couple months later and emphasized raising money for aid efforts. Student leaders raised over $1,500 in a single day and donated the money to organizations like MSF and the WFP.
  • Students assisted in the final preparation of a report on extraordinary rendition released jointly by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and the Committee on International Human Rights of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York .
  • Several students have collaborated with Voices of Women and Picture the Homeless to improve conditions at local Emergency Assistance Units. They investigated requirements for federal funding for use a leverage point in advocacy and researched possible due process claims for individuals applying for shelter.
  • Students have organized up to eight or ten educational events each semester open to the NYU Law School community, on topics ranging from the situation of Afro-Columbians to rebuilding the legal system of Afghanistan to the rights of juvenile criminal defendants. Students have also coordinated panels on how to prepare for international human rights careers.
  • The Steering Committee has brought together an Advisory Board composed of leading members of the professional and academic Human Rights. This Advisory Board functions as a resource for its members and for LSHR. It is a keeps LSHR grounded and connected to the professional Human Rights community through discussions and advice on topics and speakers that could provide value to the dialogue at NYU. It also keeps the professional Human Rights community aware of the tremendous passion and competence that NYU Law students bring to the table by providing an outlet for members to outsource organizational projects to interested students.

 

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