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CLINICAL & SKILLS PROGRAMS > International Human Rights Law Clinic > Projects & Cases >
The clinic's Promoting Human Rights Within the United States program has three purposes. First, it harmonizes the law, policies, and practices of national, state, and local governments with the United States' legal obligations under international human rights law. Second, it engages U.S. policymakers at all levels with international human rights standards and principles to develop and implement programs that incorporate universal norms into the domestic context. Finally, it improves policy effectiveness, by exposing U.S. decision-makers to the ways other countries have addressed similar policy challenges.
The program currently focuses on improving human rights protections for immigrants in the United States.
Human Rights in California’s Unincorporated Communities
IHRLC is collaborating with residents of unincorporated areas of California’s Central Valley to improve their access to water and other basic services and combat discrimination. These communities are impoverished areas of unplanned residential development that are not part of any municipality and have significant immigrant communities. Although the Central Valley is one of the country’s richest agricultural areas, more than 400,000 residents of unincorporated communities experience extreme poverty and few employment opportunities. Many of these communities lack basic infrastructure, clean water, and access to social services. Residents are frequently excluded from political decisions that profoundly impact their day-to-day lives.
IHRLC, with several partner organizations, is extending and supporting residents’ existing political advocacy, which previously has not incorporated a human rights framework. We aim both to achieve concrete improvements in their living conditions and health and to develop and test a replicable model for using human rights to stimulate change at the local and state levels.
In May 2007, Clinic students Harini Raghupathi ’07 and Irene Gutierrez ’07 helped Central Valley activists present evidence on shoddy subcontracting operations, inhumane working and living conditions, and language-based exclusion of migrant workers to United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants during his visit to Los Angeles.
In November 2007, Corteleyou Kenney ‘09, Melinda Pilling ‘09, and Malika Sarkaria ‘09 joined nearly 100 Central Valley activists at a day-long workshop in Fresno on the problems facing unincorporated communities and strategies for addressing them. The students distributed Human Rights at Home: The rights to housing, water and political participation in San Joaquin Valley unincorporated communities. The paper discusses the advantages of using international human rights institutions, standards, and advocacy techniques to improve conditions in unincorporated communities. Activists responded with great enthusiasm, reporting that IHRLC’s analysis opened up important new avenues for their advocacy.
Hurricane Katrina and Human Rights Projects
The clinic applied its experience with the tsunami to the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes to highlight the importance of human rights protections in natural disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. The clinic undertook three initiatives to: (1) provide new information about the experience of immigrants - documented and undocumented - in the wake of the hurricanes; (2) engage human rights mechanisms to highlight and strengthen human rights protections of hurricane survivors; and (3) promote recognition and compliance by US officials with international human rights standards protecting survivors of natural disasters without regard to their legal status.
Advocacy Before Regional and International Monitoring Bodies : In March 2006, clinic students presented a briefing paper at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. which analyzes the human rights impact of the hurricanes. Students advocated for domestic initiatives to address human rights vulnerabilities and participated in a congressional briefing on natural disasters and human rights. Students met with selected congressional staff members to educate lawmakers about the human rights dimensions of the disaster. Clinic student also completed a shadow report analyzing U.S. compliance with its treaty obligations toward hurricane survivors for the United Nations Human Rights Committee which was submitted in June 2006.
Litigation on Behalf of Immigrant Hurricane Survivors : Clinic students initiated litigation before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights against the United States for its exclusion of certain categories of immigrant survivors of Hurricane Katrina from federal disaster assistance. The clinic requested injunctive measures and asked the Commission to order the United States to take immediate steps to protect the right to life of these immigrants. In response to the clinic's request, in June 2006, the Inter-American Commission requested information from the United States on three key issues: (i) the availability of emergency information and alerts in languages other than English, (ii) immigrants access to health care in the disaster zone and (iii) the due process guarantees provided to immigrants detained by authorities including information regarding consular assistance.
Human Rights Study on Latino Workers : Clinic students worked with Tulane University's Payson Center and UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center to conduct an empirical study of the nature and extent of exploitation faced by workers in the Gulf Coast area in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The report, "Rebuilding after Katrina: A Population-Based Study of Labor and Human Rights in New Orleans" confirmed anecdotal evidence that undocumented workers are being abused even as they provide critical help to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The study documented the vulnerability of undocumented workers, including severely reduced access to health care, wage discrepancy and unsafe working conditions. Students assisted in the study design and administration. Clinic students traveled to New Orleans and interviewed hundreds of workers for the study. The report received national attention and strengthens the work of domestic groups and policymakers at the local, state, and national levels to incorporate a human rights perspective to address immigrant worker exploitation.
This project was supported by the Koret Foundation.
Forced Labor and Slavery Project
Clinic students worked with UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center to complete the first report on forced labor in the United States.
On September 23, 2004 the Human Rights Center released the report, Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States. The study measures forced labor in this country as well as illuminates its human costs; the nature of the U.S. legal response; and the barriers to, and best practices supporting, eradication of forced labor.
The report, featured on ABC's "Nightline," provides disturbing details of how individuals across the United States are forced through threats or violence to work in deplorable conditions for little or no pay.
The study documents incidences of forced labor in at least 90 cities across the United States. The data also suggests that at any given time 100,000 or more people are forced to toil in sweat shops, clean homes, labor on farms, or work as prostitutes or strippers. The report covers the period of 1998 to 2003 and is based on quantitative and qualitative data, including a survey of 49 service providers experienced in forced labor cases; an analysis of 131 cases of forced labor reported in U.S. newspapers; eight case studies of forced labor in various regions of the United States; and key informant interviews.
To eradicate forced labor, the study recommends launching a broad-based public awareness campaign; improving monitoring of industries vulnerable to forced labor; increasing training and coordination among law enforcement officials in the United States; and strengthening protections for survivors of forced labor.
This project was supported by the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation.
Anti-Trafficking Law in California
On September 21st, 2005 Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law two bills designed to combat human trafficking and modern-day slavery. The clinic served as legislative counsel to the California Anti-trafficking Initiative, a statewide coalition of service providers that proposed the legislation. The California Trafficking Victims' Protection Act, AB22, and the related bill SB180, criminalize trafficking as a felony, establish a privilege clause between victim and counselor to facilitate trust-building, provide civil remedies that allow victims of trafficking to receive compensation for damages suffered, and create a statewide task force to review and make recommendations about ways to improve the statewide response to human trafficking. To date the bills are the most comprehensive state legislation enacted in the United States to combat modern-day slavery. The legislation builds on two research studies on forced labor published in 2004, "Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States," and 2005, "Freedom Denied: Forced Labor in California," by UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center, in which clinic students participated.
U.S.-Mexico Anti-Trafficking Working Group
In April 2004, the Clinic and the Human Rights Center convened a conference of international anti-trafficking experts to strengthen protections for Mexican victims of human trafficking. Clinic research on forced labor in the United States indicates that hundreds and possibly thousands of Mexican men, women, and children are trafficked into this country each year and forced to work in brothels, agriculture, and sweatshops as modern day slaves. Yet even when victims manage to escape or are rescued, their ordeal is not over. Family members of survivors who prosecute their perpetrators have been intimidated or attacked in home countries. Fear of reprisal against family members in the survivors' home country once perpetrators are released from prison in the United States is an on-going concern to survivors and delays their rehabilitation. Similarly, fear that law enforcement will be unable to protect them or their families discourages many victims from assisting in prosecution of their traffickers.
Clinic interns presented their research, Transnational Frameworks for Prosecuting Traffickers and Protecting Survivors. The paper sets forth the legal framework for transnational prosecutions of Mexican traffickers, protection measures available to survivors in Mexico and the United States, as well as international models for protecting victim of this illicit trade. Conference participants included officials from the Mexican and U.S. governments, service providers and human rights advocates in both countries, and trafficking survivors. The final conference report (in English and Spanish) includes policy recommendations to improve protection and support for Mexican nationals trafficked to the United States.
The Conference was supported by the Ford Foundation, Sandler Family Supporting Foundation, Townsend Center for the Humanities, War Crimes Documentation Center, and the Wang Family Foundation.
Human Rights Protections for Domestic Workers
In November 2003, clinic students, in collaboration with UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center produced a policy paper, Left Out: Assessing the Rights of Migrant Domestic Workers in the United States, Seeking Alternatives. This paper includes a comprehensive normative analysis of federal law regarding immigration and trafficking, as well as of federal, California, and local law on labor and employment, in order to identify gaps in protections for domestic workers. It also surveys strategies utilized by cities, countries, and international organizations to address the struggles of domestic workers. The clinic's analysis supports efforts by human rights and labor advocates to initiate legal reforms to protect this vulnerable population of workers.
Due Process Rights and Detention of Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal Proceedings
The clinic participated in an award-winning multidisciplinary project to examine the effects of expedited removal on people seeking asylum in the United States. This project arose out of a Congressionally-mandated study conducted by the clinic and other partners for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan, federal agency. Students who worked on the expedited removal project had unprecedented access to Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice activities and records, including inspections at ports of entry and detention decisions and conditions. The study, which was recognized with the 2005 Arthur Helton Human Rights Award by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is available at www.uscirf.gov.
Asylum & Religious Persecution
Individuals fleeing religious persecution face particular legal hurdles to establishing protection. This has been an underdeveloped area of asylum law, and only recently have international standards to adjudicate claims of individuals fleeing religious persecution been promulgated.
To promote uniform application of the international Refugee Convention, clinic students in fall 2003 prepared a comprehensive analysis and review of asylum jurisprudence regarding religion-based claims in the United States. This evaluation informed efforts by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to develop training materials for U.S. asylum adjudicators.
Supporting Gay and Lesbian Asylum-Seekers from Mexico
While representing two gay asylum seekers from Mexico in spring 1998, the clinic became aware of a report commissioned by the INS regarding the treatment of homosexuals in Mexico, which was released in April 1998. In response, clinic students drafted an analysis of the INS report. The purpose of the clinic's analysis is to provide additional sources of evidence that complement, supplement or contradict information contained in the INS report regarding the treatment of sexual minorities in Mexico, which helps support asylum claims of gays and lesbians from Mexico.
Refugee Resettlement
Refugees who escape persecution may find safe haven in the United States through a program known as refugee resettlement. The United States admits refugees according to a complex set of criteria determined by the United States and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Yet this vital tool of refugee protection has not been fully utilized. In recent years, the United States has admitted very few refugees under this program because of security and other concerns.
In fall 2003, clinic students worked to influence U.S. refugee policy by conducting a study of the treatment of refugees currently hosted in countries of first asylum, where there are reports of religious persecution. Based on their report, students developed an advocacy strategy to urge the United States to assert leadership and resettle refugees who are at risk or suffering persecution in countries of first asylum.
Death Penalty and Human Rights
In conjunction with the law school's Death Penalty Clinic , students in the International Human Rights Law Clinic prepared model briefs based on international law to be used in the defense of two death row inmates represented by the Death Penalty Clinic. Recent Supreme Court decisions in capital cases recognize international norms as increasingly relevant. The students crafted novel arguments alleging that common practices in the U.S. capital punishment system (e.g. capital charging techniques, the felony murder rule, and the system of elected judges) violate international human rights standards. The students' work contributes to the defense of the Death Penalty Clinic's clients and also assists defense attorneys around the country seeking to provide a more effective defense of their clients' human rights.
In This Section
Accountability and Transitional Justice
Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights
A Rights-Based Approach to Combating Poverty: Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
Promoting Human Rights Within the United States
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