Winter 2021 Human Rights Newsletter: AUSJAL partnership, project updates, and more
Winter 2021
In this edition:
AUSJAL Partnership
Fighting Fracked Gas in Brooklyn, New York
Criminal Justice in Connecticut
Summer Intensive with Children of Incarcerated Parents
Environmental Justice Advocacy in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley
Human Rights in Bolivia: an Update
AUSJAL Partnership
The University Network for Human Rights is proud to announce its new partnership with thirty universities across Latin America through the Asociación de Universidades Confiadas a la Compañía de Jesús en América Latina (AUSJAL). Building on the longstanding Jesuit tradition of social justice and academic excellence, AUSJAL unites leading research and teaching centers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Domincan Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
On March 12, 2021, the two organizations signed an agreement to strengthen joint efforts in human rights education. The partnership represents a major development for human rights clinical education in the Americas. Through this collaboration, the two organizations have already completed an important book-length study of impunity in cases of grave rights violation in Mexico. A research team at ITESO, a Mexican member university of AUSJAL, has joined the University Network to identify the factors that undermine investigations and protections in the country. ITESO’s academic press is scheduled to publish this manuscript in late 2021.
We’re excited to announce this major milestone, and we look forward to developing future opportunities in practical human rights education with AUSJAL and its member universities.
Learn more about this exciting partnership here.
Fighting Fracked Gas Infrastructure in Brooklyn, New York
Over the last several months, we have partnered with the Brooklyn-based Sane Energy Project to fight corporate utility National Grid’s expansion of fracked gas infrastructure in New York City. National Grid seeks to install two new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) vaporizers at its LNG facility in Greenpoint, which is located in and near state-designated “Potential Environmental Justice Areas.” The Greenpoint facility is the destination point of National Grid’s planned Metropolitan Reliability Infrastructure Project, also known as the North Brooklyn Pipeline—a massive gas transmission pipeline that would transport fracked gas under seven miles of predominantly Black and brown communities.
In November 2020, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) found that National Grid’s proposal to build additional LNG vaporizers at the Greenpoint facility would have no significant adverse environmental impacts. If allowed to stand, this determination would effectively halt the environmental review process.
We have submitted three public comments opposing DEC’s determination. Along with Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, we are currently representing Sane Energy, Cooper Park Resident Council, and three individuals in an Article 78 legal challenge against DEC and National Grid in New York State Supreme Court.
• Read our public comment #1 here
• Read our public comment #2 here
• Read our public comment #3 here
• Read our Article 78 petition here
Our legal challenge was covered in Reuters, S&P Global, Brooklyn Paper, and BK Reader. The University Network’s Ruhan Nagra was on WBAI’s Eco-logic radio show in January to discuss National Grid’s proposed Greenpoint LNG expansion.
Criminal Justice in Connecticut
In March of 2021, the University Network for Human Rights released a white paper on criminal justice in Connecticut in partnership with the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, one of the state’s leaders in criminal justice policy reform.
The report, titled Connecticut at the Crossroads, draws on international human rights standards, quantitative analysis, and case studies of success in decarceration and rehabilitation to argue that Connecticut must continue to reduce its use of prisons and jails while strengthening reentry, education, and vocational programs. Our research documents a dramatic decrease in incarceration across the entire Northeast region during COVID-19. As prisons close across Connecticut, our paper recommends that the state adopt a community-centered, justice reinvestment framework, redirecting funds to the communities most affected by decades of mass incarceration and overpolicing.
The paper served as a centerpiece for one of the state’s largest gatherings of criminal justice activists and advocates. This two-day conference, Building Bridges 2021, brought together over two hundred stakeholders, including lawmakers, direct service providers, academics, and formerly incarcerated people.
In a recently published open letter, nearly three hundred stakeholders express strong support for the report and its recommendations.
The IMRP and the University Network submitted the report to the Appropriations and Higher Education Subcommittees of the State Assembly and addressed its findings in public testimony on Friday, February 26 and March 2, 2021.
Click here to learn more about our criminal justice initiatives in Connecticut.
Summer Intensive with the Children of Incarcerated Parents
The Connecticut Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative has partnered with the University Network for Human Rights and Wesleyan University to develop a unique training program exclusively for undergraduate students who have personally experienced the incarceration of an immediate family member. Participants will receive training in the history and practice of human rights while learning practical skills to fight for social justice.
Environmental Justice Advocacy in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley
Last month, our groundbreaking health study of the area surrounding the Denka Performance Elastomer neoprene facility in St. John Parish, Louisiana was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Environmental Justice. Read the full manuscript here. Ruhan Nagra was on New Orleans Public Radio to discuss the newly published study, which was also covered by Desmog.
A few weeks later, Louisiana State University released the results of an audit of the state’s Tumor Registry. Although our originally published study in July 2019 prompted Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to commission this audit, the audit is not a study and does not answer any questions about potential links between air emissions from the Denka facility and cancer among local residents, as Ruhan Nagra explained on New Orleans Public Radio. Our peer-reviewed study was also discussed in The Advocate’s coverage of the Louisiana Tumor Registry audit.
Human Rights in Bolivia: an Update
Since the publication of our report They Shot Us Like Animals, the University Network has continued to advocate for victims of human rights abuses carried under Bolivia’s Añez presidency, including those victims of the Senkata and Sencaba massacres.
University Network supervisor Thomas Becker has spoken to numerous international media outlets about the atrocities documented in our report, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Grayzone, Kawsachun News, Al Jazeera, Opinión, and more.
Last week, ex-President Añez was arrested on a number of charges in connection with abuses committed under her government. As Thomas Becker explained to Al Jazeera, justice and accountability for recent atrocities are crucial as the country moves forward. We continue to monitor developments in the country during this time.
