IU Human Rights and Environmental Defenders

IU Defenders: U.S. Human Rights Treaties Sign and Ratify Drive

2008-12-12T23:14:00.000-05:00

IU Defenders calls upon the White House/U.S. Senate

to sign/ratify the following human rights treaties:

Convention on the Rights of the Child, New York, 20 November 1989

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, New York, 13 December 2006

· Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, New York, 13 December 2006

· International Convention against Apartheid in Sports (New York 10 December 1985)

· International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (New York, 20 December 2006)

· International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, New York, 18 December 1990.

· Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (New York, 15 December 1989

· Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, New York, 18 December 1979

· Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, New York, 6 October 1999

· Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, New York, 18 December 2002

Food for the Hungry Campaign

2008-12-12T23:08:00.000-05:00

IU Defenders calls upon governments to allocate three to five percent (3 - 5 %) of their budget to feed the hungry.

Administrative costs for feeding the hungry should be minimized to from five to fifteen percent (5 - 15 %), so that 85 to 95 percent of the budget will directly benefit people who are starving.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has posited that famines are not caused by lack of food, but occasioned by the people’s lack or deprivation of access to food.

Governments have the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill the most basic human right to live.

Aims: IU Human Rights and Environmental Defenders

2008-12-12T23:01:00.001-05:00

Objectives

· Establish an Indiana University School of Law-based volunteer, independent, nonpartisan, educational and multi-sectoral organization, with representatives from the faculty, staff, students, and alumni

· Help fortify the rule of international human rights law through ahimsa (nonviolence)

· Adopt the international human rights law framework in addressing human rights issues and problems, with a racial and gender perspective

· Promote the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders

· Open up and develop channels and opportunities for collective engagement by IU Law Faculty, staff, students, and alumni in real life, action-oriented, and impact-generating initiatives, programs, projects, activities, and campaigns in the Law School, community, local, national, regional, and international arenas

· Help bridge IU Law to the grassroots

· Encourage IU Law Faculty, staff, students, and alumni to assume a visionary and proactive leadership role in addressing emerging human rights and environmental issues in the U.S. and various parts of the world

· Complement and support the scholarly and advocacy goals of the Law Faculty, staff, students, and alumni by raising awareness about international human rights law and how it intersects with and addresses various emerging issues, especially the following:

o trafficking

o slave labor

o domestic violence, woman or spousal battery and abuse

o immigration

o child detention

o housing discrimination

o prisoners’ rights

o disability rights

o health issues

o copyright and intellectual property

o apartheid, etc.

· Coordinate and consolidate efforts to address and raise awareness about emerging human rights and environmental issues and challenges through the lens of international human rights law

· Help develop, protect, and support international human rights and environmental defenders, lawyers, scholars, and advocates among members of the IU Law community

· Assume a leading role for IU Law in human rights and environmental defense and promotion in the national and international arenas

· Help motivate IU Law Faculty, staff, students, and alumni to initiate programs, projects, activities, and campaigns to deal with human rights and environmental challenges through the power of international human rights law

· Coordinate and help facilitate human rights and environmental information-sharing among IU Law Faculty, staff, students, and alumni