AMERICA'S DISAPPEARED cratic wrangle, Dunn recalls, because the list could only be revised - quarterly - by Bureau of Prison officials in Washington. In New Jersey, said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the Immigrants Rights Project, the first step to providing help was to meet with the regional director of the INS in Newark to negotiate better access to men detained at Passaic County Jail, Bergen County Jail and other detention facilities under contract with the INS. Earlier, the ACLU had learned, lawyers had shown up at some facilities - after sending fax requests to see detainees 48 hours in advance, as instructed - only to be denied access to the men on the faxed list because the fax couldn't be found. "That happened more than once," said Gelernt. "So we tried to attack on two fronts: We used whatever information we had from organizations, news reports or from families trying to see people directly." Lawyers would also ask to make a "Know Your Rights" presentation and offer detained immigrants free assistance as a way to learn names. "Initially, we had no luck with that," Gelernt said. "The officials said we needed specific names." Eventually, after a few months, ACLU attorneys and others were allowed to conduct "Know Your Rights" presentations. ACLU attorneys continued to provide assistance to immigrants still in detention throughout 2002. By the end of the year, most of the immigrants detained after September 11 had been deported. But the ACLU continued its advocacy. Following Anthony Romero's contact with the In October of 2003, the ACLU convened a landmark conference on "Human Rights at Home: International Law in U.S. Courts." Held in Atlanta at the Carter Center, this was the first national conference ever held on using interna 'David Rohde, "U.S.-Deported Pakistanis: Outcasts in 2 Lands," The New York Times, Jan. 20, 2003. tional human rights law in the American justice system. The gathering drew an overflow crowd of lawyers and community activists from 30 states. Workshops featured practicing lawyers, judges and organizers from the U.S., Britain and South Africa. "Our goal," announced Ann Beeson, associate legal director of the national ACLU and the conference organizer, "is nothing less than to forge a new era of social justice where the principles of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights are recognized and enforced in the United States." Expanding this movement is crucial now to stem the backlash against rights in the name of national security. A global human rights framework holds the U.S. government accountable for its actions abroad as well as at home. For example, in October 2003, the ACLU and other groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding government documents in response to reports that it is intentionally sending detainees to countries known to engage in torture and other illegal interrogation techniques. If successful, this action will help us determine whether the U.S. has violated the Convention Against Torture, one of the few human rights treaties that the U.S. has actually signed and ratificd. A global lens can also illuminate the ripple effect that rights violations in the U.S. have in other countries. The USA PATRIOT Act, now being challenged from across the political spectrum, has already spawned copycat An ACLU Report "PATRIOT Acts" throughout the free and notso-free world that in many cases are even less respectful of human rights than the homegrown law. In addition, a human rights framework is motivating a new generation of activists because it integrates a wide range of related rights issues - such as poverty, discrimination, immigration and workers' rights - and fosters closer collaboration between lawyers, grassroots organizers and educators. Finally, putting the "human" back into "human rights" extends protections to every human being. The concept sounds simple but is increasingly ignored by our own government. In the name of "national security," the U.S. has begun to detain a growing number of people in legal limbo in Guantanamo and elsewhere, arguing that they have no rights under our Constitution and no enforceable rights under international humanitarian or human rights laws. Framing rights in terms of human rights stops this legal shell game. After leading efforts to internationalize protections for human rights, the United States has spent the last several decades exempting itself from a growing body of international human rights conventions. Especially given the current climate for rights protections within the United States, it is vital that civil rights and human rights activists in the U.S. come together to fight this growing exceptionalism. As the nation's premier civil liberties organization, the ACLU is perfectly positioned to take a leading role in this movement. AMERICA'S DISAPPEARED OTHER SAFE & FREE REPORTS Sanctioned Bias: Racial Profiling Since 9/11 (January 2004) A New Era of Discrimination? Why African Americans Should Be Alarmed About the Ashcroft Terrorism Laws (September 2003) Unpatriotic Acts: The FBI's Power to Rifle Through Your Records and Personal Belongings Without Telling You (July 2003) Seeking Truth From Justice: PATRIOT Propaganda-The Justice Department's Campaign to Mislead The Public About the USA PATRIOT Act (July 2003) Independence Day 2003: Main Street America Appetite for New Powers in the Post 9/11 Era (July 2003) Freedom Under Fire: Dissent in Post-9/11 America (May 2003) Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society (January 2003) Insatiable Appetite: The Government's Demand for Unnecessary Powers After September 11 (October 2002) Civil Liberties After 9/11: The ACLU Defends |