welcome to our listserv announcement!

December 10, 2007

Dear Friends & Allies,

Today, as most of you know, is often called “Human Rights Day” because it is the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).  In 2008, we move into a year long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the UDHR.  This important celebration should be paired with reflection on the state of human rights in the United States, and around the world, and more importantly on what we can do to increase protection for these rights so as to realize their full potential in ensuring human freedom, equality and dignity. 

NESRI’s latest blog post is titled, “What About Human Rights for the Holidays Instead?”  In it, we included the following:

This holiday season over 4,600 units of public housing will be demolished in New Orleans. Simultaneously, almost a thousand people will be summarily thrown out of the cramped FEMA trailers they have called home since the storm. If I didn’t know better, I would think HUD and FEMA were extremely well coordinated in their cruelty. But we have all learned from the storm that they can’t coordinate at all, so this must be one of those tragic coincidences that emerge to sharply remind us what a degraded state we have reached when it comes to social justice.

There are no protections against these abuses that push poor communities out of their homes, schools, jobs, healthcare and ultimately to the outer margins of society where people are treated as disposable, without legitimate needs and desires or real potential. Economic and social rights are concepts we desperately need to imbed in our policy framework to break this degrading dynamic of handouts – meager support afforded without dignity or respect – and push outs. No person can truly be free if they are deprived of these essentials and, in a very real sense, cast out of society. How can we bear to see children doing homework in shelters? History will not be kind to us...

We are firmly convinced we can succeed in changing current abusive policies that degrade our society into a positive public policy framework that protects basic rights, but only if all of us in the progressive community commit to building a long term and sustainable foundation for human rights in our country.  We express our commitments in many ways giving of our time, money, creativity, ideas and passion.  As this year closes, please consider giving to NESRI as part of your commitment to economic and social rights.  Together we can build and resource the movement for human rights in the United States!   

We realize we cannot do this work without you, and we have moved our “thank you's” to the top of our listserv announcement because we want to acknowledge how indispensable NESRI volunteers, donors and allies are to realizing our mission!

Warmest wishes during the holiday season!

NESRI extends a special thank you to:

• The Ford Foundation, the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, and the US Human Rights Fund and all of our supporters for their steadfast support for human rights in the United States.
• Jeff Lipman and 5 Rights, Inc. for his calm, cool and collected help!
• Jon Cadoux and Peak Organic Brewing, Lionette's Market, South End Fromaggio, Plum Produce and The Butcher Shop for their donations and commitment to sustainable food!
• NESRI Interns, Craig Hughes and Piali Basu for their endless energy and creativity.
• NYU Law Students for Human Rights for their research support for our work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
• Amnesty International, U.S.A. for their help with the press release around the public housing solidarity letter.
• Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel LLP for their invaluable research support.
• Marion McCleneghan for her generous spirit and commitment.

HUMAN RIGHTS OF HURRICANE SURVIVORS PROJECT >>>
stop the demolitions!
In support of our community partners in the Gulf Coast, NESRI organized over 40 human rights and housing rights organizations to call for an immediate halt to the pending demolition of over 4600 units of public housing in New Orleans. The sign on letter and press release was sent to Congresswoman Maxine Waters urging her to provide positive leadership for the threatened public housing residents.>>> We express our thanks to Amnesty International, U.S.A., a co-signer of the letter, for their generosity in sending out the press release to their media contacts.  We are working with our partners in the Gulf Coast to stop these demolitions which are still scheduled to happen some time between December 12-15.  Please see our latest blog post on this issue. >>>

November 26, 2007, NESRI Executive Director Cathy Albisa is quoted in the Gotham Gazette about housing as a human right >>>

HUMAN RIGHT TO EDUCATION PROGRAM >>>
PROMOTING ALTERNATIVES TO SUSPENSION & EXPULSION
NESRI continues to promote positive behavior support and restorative justice policies through the national Dignity in Schools Campaign. NESRI Education Program Director Liz Sullivan presented at the Restoring Justice in our Schools, Coalition of Essential Schools, Fall Forum in Denver >>>  and the U.S. Human Rights Network Youth Strategizing Summit in Chicago. >>> She traveled to California to provide training for the California School Employees Association in San Diego on human rights in public schools, and is co-facilitating national tele-conferences on promoting federal legislation for positive approaches to school discipline. The next teleconference call will be in early 2008 on charter schools and pushout. Details will be posted on our website soon!

HUMAN RIGHT TO HEALTH PROGRAM >>>
MAKING HEALTH A RIGHT NOT A COMMODITY
NESRI unveiled the first version of its human right to healthcare assessment tool at the NHeLP 2007 Health Advocates Conference in Washington, D.C.  The healthcare assessment tool offers human rights indicators that provide activists with criteria against which to evaluate the range of current proposals for reforming health insurance.  At the presentation, Anja Rudiger, NESRI and NHeLP’s Director for their joint Human Right to Health Program, emphasized how the tool can be used to measure the extent to which healthcare is being treated as a right versus a commodity.  She stressed that human rights standards require that all aspects of a healthcare system, including the financing, be designed to further public health rather than private market interests.  Publication of this valuable tool is coming soon, in the meantime, see our Right to Health Powerpoint. >>>

LEGAL PROGRAM >>>
PROTECT HISTORIC HUMAN RIGHTS AGREEMENTS FOR FARMWORKERS
NESRI has been working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to counter the legal strategy of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) to prevent their members from participating in the historic human rights agreements between CIW and McDonald's and Yum!Brands Inc.  The FTGE has threatened to impose significant fines on their members for participating in these agreements designed to pay workers a decent wage and monitor for human rights abuses such as forced labor. Without any legal basis, FTGE has also implied that the agreements run afoul of anti-trust laws.  The purpose of anti-trust laws is to protect an open and competitive market in the interests of consumers, not to prevent the protection of fundamental human rights.  With the assistance of Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel LLP in consultation with renowned labor law expert Professor Mark Barenberg, NESRI has been providing legal research and strategic support to address these issues.  NESRI also proudly joined the CIW in their nine mile march under the hot Miami sun to Burger King headquarters to demand they support human rights by committing to giving farmworkers an additional penny per pound for tomatoes through the price they pay to their suppliers! >>>

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
December 2007, NESRI Executive Director Cathy Albisa, NESRI Board Chair Martha Davis, and Cynthia Soohoo edited "Bringing Human Rights Home" a three volume series that is being released this month! >>>

December 3, 2007, Tiffany Gardner, NESRI Legal Director and Exchange Delegate Sam Jackson spoke at the Culture Project's Criminal Negligence and Hurricane Katrina Event on December 3 in New York. You can watch a video of Sam as he provided firsthand testimony >>> and Tiffany served as an expert witness >>>.

Take a look at NESRI NEWS, our first newsletter. You'll hear from our Board of Directors and Staff about how we are working with communities and what we hope for our work in the coming year! >>>

NESRI INTERNS AND VOLUNTEERS
Piali Basu has enthusiastically joined NESRI as a Right to Health Program Intern. She primarily provides research support on the workers with injuries project. Ms. Basu is pursuing her MPH at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. >>>

EVENTS

December 2007

December 15, Washington, DC - Liz Sullivan, NESRI Education Program Director will present on zero-tolerance discipline policies and race at “Civil Rights, Human Rights and Race: An Applied Legal Scholarship Symposium,” Howard University Law School. >>>

FEBRUARY 2008

February 23, New Orleans, LA – NESRI will hold a training workshop on the Right to Education and the School to Prison Pipeline for local organizers with the Friends and Families of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC)

February 25, 2008, Cleveland, OH – NESRI Board Member Paul Farmer will speak on Global Health Equity as part of the Town Hall of Cleveland 2007-2008 lecture series. >>>

MARCH 2008

March 24 – 28, New York, NY – Liz Sullivan, NESRI Education Program Director, will participate in the panel “Framing Dropouts Revisited” at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Conference >>>

SUPPORT NESRI

Stay connected to our work! Tell a friend about NESRI and ask them to join our listserv by sending an email to nesri-subscribe@lists.mayfirst.org.

Follow the NESRI Blog >>>

Please consider a 100% tax-deductible contribution to support NESRI's work! Your contribution will help us strengthen human rights protections for communities across the United States! Donate today! >>>

Thank you for all your support! 

NESRI Staff:
Cathy Albisa, Executive Director
Tiffany Gardner, Legal Program Director
Liz Sullivan, Education Program Director
Anja Rudiger, Health Program Director
Laura Gosa, Program Associate
Craig Hughes, Education Program Intern
Piali Basu, Health Program Intern

NESRI Board of Directors:
Martha Davis,Chair, Northeastern School of Law
Lisa Crooms, Secretary, Howard University School of Law
Patrick Mason, Treasurer, Florida State University, Department of Economics
Mimi Abramovitz, Hunter College School of Social Work and The Graduate Center, CUNY
Carol Anderson, University of Missouri Department of History
Rhonda Copelon, CUNY School of Law
Paul Farmer, Professor of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Bruce Rabb, Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel LLP

The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) promotes a human rights vision for the United States that ensures dignity and access to the basic resources needed for human development and civic participation.