Thursday, March 18, 2010

10-03-18 Submissions for UN High Commissioner Review of US Human Rights Compliance // Peticiones del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para la Revisión de EE.UU. Cumplimiento de los Derechos Humanos


By: Zena Crenshaw Loga...
Group Organizer
Washington, DC


Posted Mar 18, 2010 7:13 PM


http://www.meetup.com/NFOJA-meetup/messages/boards/thread/8786433#34571955



Hello:

As you may know, the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights will review the United States’ human rights record in November 2010.

The U.S. State Department is soliciting comments from citizens, advocacy groups and other non-governmental organizations on the human rights record of the United States.

National Judicial Conduct and Disability Law Project, Inc. (NJCDLP) is preparing comments for consideration by and hopefully submission with its sister organizations:National Forum On Judicial Accountability (NFOJA); the legal reform organizationPOPULAR, Inc. (Power Over Poverty Under Laws of America Restored); and OAK, a national consortium of grassroots advocates (Organizations Associating for the Kind of Changes America Really Needs).

The joint submission would go directly to:

1. The U.S. State Department as requested;
2. The U.N.’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review;
3. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder pursuant to POPULAR’s current campaign for fervent prosecution of 18 U.S.C. sections 241 (conspiracy to violate federal rights) and 242 violations (violation of federal rights under color of law); and
4. Appropriate members of Congress as part of OAK’s Grass On The Hill Day 2010.

Please note that there are very specific, intricate guidelines for our submission, accessible by visiting: Dept. of State

You should familiarize yourself with those guidelines as there won't be much time to evaluate our proposed submission before OAK’s lobby day in late April 2010.

In accord with those guidelines and our technical / organizational capabilities, NJCDLP:

 Will not purport to prove any specific human rights violations by or in the U.S.:
 Will commend the Justice Department’s recent “Symposium On Indigent Defense” and expansion to include prominent Harvard law professor, Laurence H. Tribe, leading the department’s efforts to increase legal access for the poor;
 Note that in addition to criminal law proceedings, such efforts should address so-called child protective services and family courts; and
 Confirm that despite such efforts, the U.S. demonstrates inadequate respect for underlying human rights by persisting for decades to:

(1) generally exempt municipal, state, and federal prosecutors as well as judges from criminal prosecution under Title 18 U.S.C. section 242;
(2) require alleged victims of unlawful bias, discrimination, and / or retaliation – often emotionally and/or financially devastated individuals – to run a gauntlet of costly, protracted civil proceedings for relatively rare vindication;
(3) generally relegate so many constituents to state and federal legislators that only wealthy and otherwise influential constituents enjoy access to these purported representatives;
(4) tout major media as an effective check on government when relatively few Americans generally direct or otherwise influence news content;
(5) defy prudent priorities in the prosecution, incarceration, or other sanction of many government critics through processes triggered by anonymous sources and/or riddled with irregularities;
(6) allow America’s judiciary to essentially control all government processes by which the conduct of its judges are evaluated; and
(7) diminish prudent access by private American citizens to grand juries and jury trials.

Feel free to post questions and / or comments about the foregoing outline.

Please also submit relevant documentation, proof, and/or proposed solutions to any or all of the underlying human rights dilemmas.

Time is of essence. Please try to provide your input by no later than Friday – April 2, 2010.

Thank you for your consideration.

Zena D. Crenshaw-Logal,
Executive Director and Board Member for
NJCDLP and POPULAR; NFOJA Administrator;
and Member of OAK’s Board of Managers 

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