Human Rights Insider - July 2024

PURSUING ONE LAST AVENUE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY AFTER MICHAEL BROWN’S MURDER BY FERGUSON POLICE

On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson. Michael’s murder has been stymied by impunity in the decade since, but on July 10, his family had one last avenue for justice before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. By using international human rights standards to critique U.S. law and the Justice Department, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University have pursued an innovative, potentially extremely powerful route to justice for Michael’s killing. Learn more about the case?→ ?

OUR VOICES

KERRY KENNEDY IN THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: ‘YOUNG PEOPLE UNDER ARREST NEED LEGAL PROTECTION’

35 years ago, five Black and Latino teenagers, later dubbed the “Central Park Five,” were falsely accused and wrongly convicted of assault, attempted murder, and rape of a woman jogging in Central Park. Their convictions were overturned in 2002 when the real culprit was identified, but their case remains emblematic of the vulnerability minors face to being abused in the U.S. justice system or coerced into a false confession. Writing in the NY Daily News, RFK Human Rights President Kerry Kennedy argues that additional legislation, like New York’s proposed Youth Interrogation Bill (S1099/A1963), is crucial in protecting future generations from the irreversible impacts of wrongful convictions. Read the full op-ed?→

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BOOK CLUB

HISTORIAN BLAIR LM KELLEY ILLUMINATES THE LIVES OF THE BLACK WORKING CLASS IN LATEST RFKHR BOOK CLUB CONVERSATION

On July 23, author and 2024 RFK Book Award winner Blair LM Kelley joined our first book club conversation of the summer to discuss her latest book,?Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class. In this conversation with fellow author and historian Ted Widmer, Kelley discusses her research on the lives of the laundresses, Pullman porters, domestic maids, and postal workers who established the Black working class as a force in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.? Read more and listen to the conversation?→ ?

RFK HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE NEWS

• Kerry Kennedy in Bloomberg Originals —The Controversial Case Against the 'Banker to the Poor': For more than a decade, baseless stories have circulated about Muhammad Yunus , a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, for his work on fighting poverty through microfinance. RFK Human Rights President Kerry Kennedy appears in Bloomberg Originals’ July 17 video to highlight how Prof. Yunus' treatment is indicative of the Bangladeshi government's broader move to silence critics.?
• Karen Robinson in Human Rights Education NOW! podcast: Our program director of Human Rights Education, Karen Robinson , appeared on episodes 33–35 of the Human Rights Education NOW! podcast to discuss her journey into human rights education, her current work at RFK Human Rights, the potential for human rights to be incorporated into any area of education, and how she maintains hope and solidarity in the face of persistent violence and injustice.?
• Sarah Gillman in Documented —Federal Civil Rights Complaint Demands Investigation into Abuse Against Hunger Strikers at New York ICE Jail: Director of Strategic U.S Litigation Sarah Gillman discussed the civil rights complaint RFK Human Rights filed in collaboration with partner institutions against New York State’s largest immigration detention facility, Buffalo Federal Detention Facility (BFDF), after staff unfairly retaliated against detained individuals who engaged in a peaceful hunger strike to protest the facility’s excessive use of solitary confinement.?

• Sofia Jaramillo in LatAm Journalism Review—Latin American Governments Use Hostile Speech, Judicial Harassment and Spying to Censor Journalists: A new protocol discussed during a July 8 hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) could better protect freedom of expression in Latin America by reducing the spread of misinformation and setting clearer obligations for public officials. “This initiative can have a preventive effect in a context in which a parallel is already evident between the increase in physical violence against journalists and the hostile environment promoted by official stigmatization,” said Sofía Jaramillo , senior staff attorney for civic space.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• July 31—Bid on our CharityBuzz Auction! Now’s your chance to enjoy a once in a lifetime opportunity to have dinner for 20 at the Food Network Kitchen in New York City, which is known as the hardest dinner reservation to get in the country. Learn more and place your bid by July 31!
• December 11—2024 Ripple of Hope Award Gala, New York, NY: This year's laureates include Lin-Manuel Miranda, songwriter, actor, director, and producer; Antonio Neri, president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise; John W. Rogers, Jr., chairman and co-CEO of Ariel Investments; and Tom Wilson, chair, president, and CEO of The Allstate Corporation. The laureates will be honored on Wednesday, December 11, at a ceremony in New York City emceed by Alec Baldwin. Learn more about this year’s laureates and register for the ceremony.

Header photo of Sen. Robert Kennedy ? Lawrence Schiller.

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