Summer 2021 Human Rights Newsletter: Expanding programs at Wesleyan, fighting impunity in Mexico, environmental racism in New York and Louisiana, and more
Summer 2021
In this edition:
We’re Expanding at Wesleyan!
New Report on Climate Change-Induced Migration: Shelter from the Storm
La Impunidad Activa En México — Addressing Impunity in Mexico
Illegal Fracked Gas Infrastructure in Brooklyn’s Environmental Justice Communities
Updates on Environmental Justice Advocacy in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley
Writer’s Spotlight
University Network Staff Update
We’re Expanding at Wesleyan!
Over the last few years, the University Network for Human Rights has led a pilot program in human rights advocacy in partnership with Wesleyan University. Today, we are excited to announce that this program is expanding, allowing our team to provide students at Wesleyan and from across the country an intensive experience in human rights practice.
In collaboration with Wesleyan, we will offer a new Minor in Human Rights Advocacy and an In-Residence Program in Human Rights Advocacy. Students from Wesleyan and other universities nationwide will be selected to work with University Network staff in an intensive, supervised human rights advocacy training. This program is the first of its kind in the United States and the only full-time clinical human rights opportunity available to undergraduates.
As part of our extended program, students will engage with foundational human rights texts, strengthen their research, writing, and advocacy skills, and engage in real-world human rights projects (including travel to sites of abuse to work with affected communities) under the guidance of our experienced supervisors.
Our in-residence program will begin in the fall of 2022. We expect to announce a call for applications in the fall of this year. We are excited for this significant expansion of our human rights training programming and deepening partnership with Wesleyan University!
New Report on Climate Change-Induced Migration: Shelter from the Storm
In April 2021, we released a 90-page white paper documenting the urgent need for immigration reform in light of increasing climate change-induced migration from the Northern Triangle. Our white paper, titled Shelter from the Storm, assesses the effects of climate change on current and future migration flows from the region. The report also makes policy recommendations meant to promote human rights and social welfare for those most vulnerable to increasingly extreme climate events. Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinic, the Harvard Immigration Project, and Yale Law School’s Environmental Law Association were co-authors of the report.
Our report and its recommendations were covered in Democracy Now!, The Harvard Crimson, Yale Daily News, and Fast Company. University Network staff are pursuing ongoing, related advocacy vis-à-vis Capitol Hill lawmakers, State Department officials, and other stakeholders.
You can read our report, its executive summary, and its recommendations here.
La Impunidad Activa En México — Addressing Impunity in Mexico
This month, we released our first book as part of the University Network’s new partnership with AUSJAL, a network of leading Latin American universities. The book, titled La Impunidad Activa en México, addresses the vicious cycle of impunity in Mexico. ITESO, an AUSJAL member, published the book co-authored by our executive director James Cavallaro, Patricia Cruz Marin, and Alejandro Anaya Muñoz.
La Impunidad Activa en México addresses the ongoing human rights crisis and rampant impunity in Mexico. The book’s authors analyze the state of the country and offer concrete recommendations about how Mexico can break from this cycle. In the report, they assess the success and pitfalls of Mexico's and other Latin American countries' previous efforts to administer justice. Based on their assessment, they recommend that Mexico implement an international mechanism dedicated to supervising the administration of justice in the country.
The University Network and ITESO hosted a virtual book release earlier this month to mark the book's release. Attendees heard from the book’s authors, seasoned scholars, and human rights practitioners about how the Mexican government can address most effectively the pressing issues discussed in the book.
Following its release, the book received media coverage from outlets across Mexico including El Economista and NTR Guadalajara El Diario.
You can watch the launch event (in Spanish) here.
The book is available for open-source download through ITESO’s academic press.
Click here to read La Impunidad Activa en México.
Illegal Fracked Gas Infrastructure in Brooklyn’s Environmental Justice Communities
On July 23, we filed a lawsuit against the City of New York and utility company National Grid to halt illegal construction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) infrastructure in Brooklyn. National Grid is proceeding with construction of an LNG Truck Load/Unload Station and other LNG trucking-related construction activities at its facility in Greenpoint—which is located in and near state-designated “Potential Environmental Justice Areas”—even though environmental review for the construction activities has been pending with the City of New York since 2016 and is not complete. On behalf of our clients, the Sane Energy Project and Cooper Park Resident Council, we are seeking a Temporary Restraining Order and injunction to prohibit any further construction until and unless the environmental review process required by law is fully complete.
To learn more, check out coverage of the lawsuit in Bklyner and read our hybrid complaint for declaratory judgment and Article 78 petition and Memorandum of Law.
Updates on Environmental Justice Advocacy in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley
Our peer-reviewed health study, which found elevated cancer rates in the area of the Denka Performance Elastomer neoprene facility in St. John Parish, Louisiana, was featured in the Washington Post in April.
In May, the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic filed an Emergency Request for Precautionary Measures with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of our partner community organization, Concerned Citizens of St. John Parish. As The Independent reported, the Petition—which requests that the Commission direct the U.S. government to set pollution limits and order Denka to cease operations—extensively cites our health study.
Writer’s Spotlight
Margot Lurie recently published an editorial in OpenDemocracy titled “Protecting 30% of the Earth by 2030 would threaten Indigenous peoples.” In the op-ed, Lurie exposes how conservation policies dispossess Indigenous communities from their traditionally maintained lands. Lurie is an alum of our Human Rights Summer Intensive, a program that trains students in interdisciplinary, community-centered human rights practice.
University Network Staff Update
We are thrilled to welcome Mina Yakubu to the University Network as Program and Communications Associate! Mina is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A Ghanaian-American immigrant, Mina is passionate about migration, immigration, and human rights abuses, particularly as they concern African people. In her college career, she worked with advocacy groups in Ghana, Britain, and the United States to address the needs of vulnerable people. Mina speaks Twi and English and hopes to continue learning KiSwahili. Welcome, Mina!
With heavy hearts, we must bid farewell to Josh Petersen, our Research and Development Officer, who will depart from the University Network at the end of July to pursue a contemporaneous JD at Stanford Law School and PhD at the University of Michigan. Josh joined the University Network shortly after its inception and has played an instrumental role in the organization’s growth and development in our crucial first two years. His many talents will be deeply missed, and we wish him the best of luck in his future work!
