Center for Constitutional Rights staff join hunger strike in solidarity with Dang Dinh Bach, environmental lawyer unjustly imprisoned in Vietnam 

Center for Constitutional Rights staff members joined the global solidarity hunger strike for our colleague Dang Dinh Bach, an environmental lawyer in Vietnam who was unjustly sentenced to five years in prison on trumped up charges, in retaliation for his work to end the country's reliance on coal. Bach has vowed to commence a hunger strike and maintain it, until freedom or death. Members of our staff were on hunger strike in solidarity with him this week. Learn more about Bach at standwithbach.org. The website contains information about Bach and other environmental defenders jailed in Vietnam. The website calls on governments, UN agencies, and others to demand his release, and provides ways to take action in support of the #StandwithBach campaign. Please share and sign this petition from Avaaz. You can also read a letter calling for Bach’s release, signed by over 90 organizations, including Center for Constitutional Rights.

“I have witnessed so many painful stories of poverty and terrible diseases that weigh on abused communities in Vietnam. They are deprived of their land and livelihoods and do not have opportunities to speak out for justice and the right to be human in the face of environmental pollution, especially in places with coal-fired power plants across the country. In order to conceal the truth and threaten the voices of people, the Vietnamese authorities have arrested, convicted and unjustly detained environmental and human rights activists in defiance of national and international law.”

- Dang Dinh Bach, in a recent statement from prison

Center for Constitutional Rights endorses U.S. Congresswoman Cori Bush’s resolution for reparations to descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent  

Congresswoman Cori Bush introduced a resolution calling for the federal government to provide reparations to descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent. Along with nearly 300 other organizations, the Center for Constitutional Rights endorsed the resolution, which outlines various forms those reparations should take. The Reparations Now Resolution seeks to advance federal reparations, support existing reparatory justice efforts such as H.R. 40 and H. Con. Res. 44, and provide further momentum to reparations efforts at the state and local levels. Read the full text of the resolution at Congresswoman Bush’s website. You can also read a one-pager with additional background information, also on Congresswoman Bush’s website. 

“I am one of the 40 million people in this country descended from enslaved Africans. Our ancestors were torn away from their homes and families, enslaved, and forced to fuel this country’s economy since the day it was founded. And then they were left landless, impoverished, and disenfranchised. Black people continue to bear the harms of slavery and its vestiges, through the Black-white wealth gap, segregation and redlining, disparities in health outcomes, a racist and destructive criminal legal system, and countless other ways. …This resolution will move us closer to a federal government that acknowledges its responsibility for this injustice and enacts a holistic and comprehensive reparations package that begins to address the harm it has caused, the wealth it has extracted, and the lives it has stolen.”

- U.S. Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01)

Senior Staff Attorney J. Wells Dixon to participate in virtual expert panel discussion for the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales 

Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney J. Wells Dixon will participate in an expert panel discussion for the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales's (BHRC) virtual launch of their observation report on USA v. Abd al-Nashiri. The virtual event will take place on Zoom on June 1 at 1 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. UK time. Register for the event through Zoom at this link.

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales has kept a watching brief on the use of the detention facility at Guantánamo and procedural developments in the Military Commissions held there. In 2019, BHRC became the only UK-based organization to be granted official observer status for the trials in the Military Commissions. Since then, BHRC has observed two cases at Guantánamo and has expressed serious concern that these proceedings demonstrate fundamental flaws and departure from fair trial norms. For more information, view our website.

Report back from NYC Book Launch: The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated 

Photo from the book launch. Sitting from left to right, Baher Azmy, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights; Alejandra Ancheita, founder and Executive Director of the Mexico City-based NGO ProDESC (The Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project), and Center for Constitutional Rights Board Member; Ayisha Siddiqa, Pakistani-American Climate Justice Advocate recently named a TIME Woman of the Year; and Katie Redford, Executive Director, Equation Campaign and editor of the book. 

Last week, we celebrated the release of The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated. At the launch, Baher Azmy and Alejandra Ancheita told compelling stories of successful movement lawyering in a transnational context. Alejandra spoke of ProDESC’s recent success with the Indigenous community of Unión Hidalgo in Mexico, defending their collective rights to land, territory, and natural resources against the wind power industry, and Baher told the story of lawyering with Black and Brown communities against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices. This year marks the 10th anniversary of that extraordinary win. In April, the Center for Constitutional Rights, ProDESC and the European Center for Human and Constitutional Rights convened a powerful global meeting in Mexico City to deepen transnational work that centers Gender, Racial and Environmental justice in human rights work. You can order a copy of The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated through OR Books.

Search for the Center for Constitutional Rights' next Communications Director is open 

We are looking for a communications leader who will oversee communications strategy and implementation in alignment with our priorities. The ideal candidate will help lead the Center for Constitutional Rights and continue to share important stories, shifting narratives and supporting our political thought leadership. The new Communications Director will work with a deeply committed and talented staff working with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. You can view the full job description on our website.