More than 2 million Gulf Coast residents were evacuated from their homes as Hurricane Gustav barreled toward Louisiana and Texas. According to the US Human Rights Network, a coalition of more than 250 human rights groups, in the days following the hurricane, tens of thousands of those residents were subjected to violations of their basic human rights, including disparate and discriminatory treatment; inadequate provision of food, water and shelter; and failure to provide for a safe and timely return. 

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights, hurricane gustav, Hurricane Katrina

As the result of coverage by Facing South and a few other media outlets about the decision to not evacuate over 1,000 inmates and staff of the Galveston County jail for Hurricane Ike, officials are now reassuring the public that the inmates were not hurt and are being well cared for.

In the last 24 hours, the Galveston County Sheriff's Office website has been updated with a section titled "Current status at the Galveston County jail." The link takes you to four pictures with captions. Here's the first:


Their caption:"At no time did the tidal surge breach the walls of the Galveston County Jail."

Our comment: And it's a miracle it didn't.

The Sheriff's department picture appears to confirm that the County Jail is a one-story structure. As you'll remember, the National Weather Service was warning that those in one-story buildings faced "certain death" if they did not evacuate for the Hurricane.

Labels: criminal justice, galveston, galveston county jail, gean leonard, human rights, hurricane ike, hurricanes

Information continues to be scarce about the over 1,000 inmates in the Galveston County, Texas jail who were inexplicably not evacuated for Hurricane Ike.

A report in yesterday's Galveston County Daily News echoes our report that the inmates appear to be safe:

Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough said search and rescue efforts would be fully under way today as more help streamed into the county.

The sheriff’s office didn’t evacuate county prisoners, and Yarbrough said they were unharmed as Saturday’s storm surge failed to reach the county jail or Justice Center on 57th Street.

But Judge Yarbrough is next quoted as making the following statement:

“The good Lord took care of those 1,050 inmates,” Yarbrough said. “There was no rising water, but some wind-driven rain did make it into the law building.”

Is it the policy of Galveston officials to rely on divine intervention to ensure the safety of 1,000 people in government custody in the face of a deadly hurricane?

Our calls to the Texas Attorney General's office and the mayor of Galveston, Texas have not yet been returned.

Labels: criminal justice, galveston county jail, human rights, hurricane ike, hurricanes, texas

I cross-posed our piece at DailyKos yesterday on the Galveston County jail's decision to not evacuate 1,000 inmates despite a mandatory evacuation order for the city and warnings that those who remained in the area faced "certain death."

The story became a top-ranked diary and has so far generated 585 comments. It also inspired some grassroots journalism, with contributor IngeniousGirl getting in touch with one of the Galveston deputies and delivering this report:

I just talked to the Deputy on duty at the jail, yes they do answer the phone, and they are all ok ... I grilled the Deputy very hard, and she was professional.

If true, that's reassuring news. Facing South is still waiting to hear back from Texas officials we have contacted for comment, including Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot.

What isn't reassuring is that IngeniousGirl's report confirms that the Galveston County jail inmates and staff were NOT evacuated in the face of deadly Category 2 hurricane and were somehow exempted from the mandatory evacuation in place for the area.

In other words, Galveston officials -- specifically, the sheriff who apparently had authority -- deliberately placed the inmates and staff in harm's way.

As I noted yesterday, this directly violates the United Nations human rights standards regarding those affected by natural disasters [pdf], which has strong language about protecting the rights of those who are incarcerated. It also stipulates that there cannot be discrimination in the hurricane response -- for example, evacuating one group and leaving another in harm's way.

It's also reminiscent of the horrible treatment of inmates in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Jordan Flaherty described the situation New Orleans:

When Hurricane Katrina hit, there was no evacuation plan for the 7,000 prisoners in Orleans Parish Prison, the New Orleans city jail, generally known as OPP, or the approximate 1,500 prisoners in nearby jails. According to first-hand accounts gathered by advocates, prisoners were abandoned in their cells while the water was rising around them. They were subjected to a heavily armed “rescue” by state prison guards that involved beatings, mace and being left in the sun with no water or food for several days, followed by a transfer to state maximum security prisons. Although their treatment brought national attention to the condition of prisoners in Louisiana, and comparison to prison abuse scandals from Attica to Abu Ghraib, local government officials have attempted to dodge accountability and continue with business as usual.

Apparently we didn't learn after Katrina.

Labels: criminal justice, galveston, galveston county jail, human rights, hurricane ike, prisons, texas

The U.S. Human Rights Network is seeking volunteers to monitor potential human rights violations, gather information, and conduct interviews in shelters housing Gustav evacuees. Volunteers are needed in Memphis, Knoxville and Nashville, Tenn.; Alexandria and Shreveport, La.; Houston and San Antonio, Texas; Atlanta; and Fort Chaffee, Ark. USHRN is looking for volunteers who speak the various languages of the Gulf Coast, particularly Spanish, French and Vietnamese. For more information, call (404) 588-9761 or e-mail jwilliams [at] ushrnetwork.org.

Labels: human rights, hurricane gustav, US Human Rights Network

Hurricane Gustav made landfall yesterday southwest of New Orleans in the historically Cajun community of Cocodrie in coastal Terrebonne Parish. Gov. Bobby Jindal says he's received reports of widespread damage in Terrebonne as well as coastal Lafourche and St. Mary parishes, and helicopter crews will be searching the area for the injured and dead.

Terrebonne residents who stayed through the storm told reporters it was easily the worst they'd ever seen. They questioned whether it was a really just a Category 2.

Ricky Trahan, a 47-year-old shrimper from the Terrebonne community of Chauvin who rode out Gustav on his boat, also told the Times-Picayune that conditions across coastal Louisiana seemed to be getting more dangerous:

"It used to be safe harbor down here," Trahan said. "Not anymore. We keep going further up" the bayou when storms approach.

The increasing danger Trahan is witnessing is due in part to the erosion of coastal wetlands that help soften the blow from tropical storms. And that erosion is due in part to the state's oil and natural gas industries, which are concentrated in Terrebonne and other nearby coast parishes. They have contributed to wetlands erosion by cutting channels in and otherwise developing coastal wetlands for exploration and extraction.

While there are a number of public efforts underway to restore degraded coastal lands and thus better protect Louisiana's residents from storms, none of them comes close to the minimum estimate of $14 billion needed for truly sustainable restoration. If the federal government does not take action soon, the problem will only grow much worse -- and Louisiana's wetlands are already disappearing at the fastest clip in the nation, with up to 40 square miles lost each year.

Tragically, this erosion threatens not only land but traditional cultures tied to that land -- that of Cajun fishers like Trahan, whose name can be traced back to Louisiana's original Acadian settlers, and the indigenous Houma people who live along south Louisiana's bayous and in coastal fishing communities.

Last August, I visited rural Terrebonne Parish to interview United Houma Nation Principal Chief Brenda Dardar-Robichaux about how her community was recovering from Katrina and Rita. The impact of land loss on her community came up in our discussion, as I reported in "Blueprint for Gulf Renewal" (pdf):

"We witness firsthand on a daily basis how coastal erosion affects communities," says Dardar-Robichaux, pointing out that the Gulf of Mexico is now literally lapping at the doorsteps of some tribal members. "It's just a matter of time before some of our communities no longer exist."

As we noted in our recent report titled "Hurricane Katrina and the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement" (pdf), the Guiding Principles -- which the Bush administration has explicitly endorsed -- say governments have a "particular obligation" to prevent the displacement of indigenous people due to manmade or natural disasters. Yet the indigenous people of Terrebonne Parish, and their longtime Cajun neighbors, are watching as the Gulf swallows their land, and their government fails to act.

Labels: Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, Cajun culture, coastal protection, human rights, hurricane gustav, Hurricane Katrina, louisiana, Terrebonne Parish, United Houma Nation

By: U.S. Human Rights Network

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights, hurricane gustav, Hurricane Katrina, united nations

With the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching, it's becoming clear that many New Orleans residents displaced by the disaster won't be coming home any time soon. As Bill Quigley recently reported, half of the city's displaced working poor, elderly and disabled residents still have not returned, and demolition of the city's public housing stock continues despite the protests of international human rights officials.

Given that harsh reality, some of Katrina's displaced are stepping up organizing efforts in the communities where they live now. In Atlanta, for example, they recently created Network New Orlanta, a social networking community with a mission to connect the people of New Orleans who are now living in Georgia's biggest city:

The goal of the social network is to pool and identify financial resources, job placement and business opportunities, mental healthcare access and educational advancement programs that will assist in stabilizing families [affected] by Hurricane Katrina. Network New Orlanta further plans to serve as a watchdog organization that will advocate, lobby and demand accountability of elected officials and agencies fundraising on behalf of Hurricane Katrina families. Organizers are all natives and supporters of New Orleans who are dedicated to the rebuilding progress and process and the quality of life for those who remain displaced.

The first Network NewOrlanta mixer will take place on March 15 at Blaxx Entertainment Complex, 1245 Fowler St., from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. and will feature traditional New Orleans food and cocktails. Says ChiQ Simms, a publicist who's one of the event's organizers:

"It is important that we gather more frequently to effect change for ourselves. It is vital that we posture ourselves to be a part of the solution. Our message is about prioritizing New Orleans people, not the politics."

For more information about Network New Orlanta and the upcoming mixer, contact Sandy at sugathesoutherndiva [at] gmail.com. To make a financial or in-kind donation, call the group's offices at 404-816-6000 or e-mail divadend [at] bellsouth.net.

Labels: Atlanta, Georgia, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, housing, human rights, louisiana, new orleans, organizing, public housing

Human rights activists from the United States are gathering in the Swiss city of Geneva this week to hold the government to account for violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The international committee in charge of monitoring and reporting on compliance with ICERD will examine U.S. adherence to the convention in a session scheduled for this Thursday and Friday, Feb. 21 and 22.

Among the organizations that will be attending the session is the Atlanta-based U.S. Human Rights Network, which submitted to the monitoring committee a comprehensive shadow report addressing a host of issues largely ignored by the U.S. government in its own compliance report. Those issues include racism in the criminal justice system, treatment of immigrants and indigenous people, and ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. USHRN staff will be blogging from Geneva; you can read that blog here.

Labels: human rights, race and racism

Later this month, representatives of the Bush administration will travel to Geneva, Switzerland to defend the the United States' human rights record before a United Nations committee. Meanwhile, human rights advocates charge that the administration is not only failing to comply with a treaty to eliminate racial discrimination but is trying to whitewash the reality of racial inequality in America -- particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

On Feb. 21 and 22, officials with the U.S. State Department and the Department of Justice will appear before the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is examining compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. When the United States signed the ICERD treaty in 1994, it agreed -- though with some reservations -- to eliminate "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."

Under the treaty, the United States is obligated to prepare a report every two years documenting its compliance and steps it's taking to remedy racism. However, the United States has submitted only two such reports, the first [PDF] in 2000. The second report [PDF], released last April, met with widespread criticism among human rights advocacy groups -- including many associated with the Atlanta-based U.S. Human Rights Network, which produced its own so-called "shadow report" documenting problems the Bush administration's report fails to acknowledge or discuss in depth. Said USHRN Executive Director Ajamu Baraka:

"Our analysis reveals that the Bush Administration is utterly out of touch with the reality of racial discrimination in America. From failing to address the chronic persistence of structural racism to even acknowledging the disparate racial impact on people of color of Hurricane Katrina, the State Department reports reads like a fantasy; unfortunately a fantasy that is to often experienced as a nightmare for Americans of color."

According to USHRN, the U.S. government's report:

* does not mention the race- and poverty-related impacts of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath;
* ignores the issue of policy brutality, which it calls "one of the most blatant and common forms of ongoing differential treatment based on race";
* does not discuss the "school to prison pipeline," in which discriminatorily applied "zero tolerance" policies and criminal justice-based responses to overcrowding and under-resourcing of public schools drive children of color out of the educational system and into the prison system;
* provides information about compliance with the Convention at the state level only for Oregon, South Carolina, Illinois and New Mexico while overlooking states with some of the country's largest populations of people of color and immigrants as well as the Gulf Coast States impacted by Katrina;
* suggests that racial disparities in incarceration rates may be "related to differential involvement in crime" rather than the cumulative impacts of racial disparities in the treatment of minorities at every stage of the criminal justice process;
* fails to acknowledge widespread racially and ethnically targeted law enforcement practices since 9/11 such as the special registration program and aggressive round-ups and interviews of thousands of non-citizen Muslims, Arabs and South Asians; and
* ignores the profound and ongoing effects of colonialism and racial discrimination on indigenous people in the United States.

Activists and experts affiliated with the Network will be attending the Geneva hearings to monitor the U.S. presentation and hold press briefings.

Last month the Institute for Southern Studies released its own report documenting U.S. non-compliance with international human rights standards in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, focusing specifically on the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

Labels: human rights, Hurricane Katrina, race and racism

Mississippi Public Radio will be doing a segment this morning covering the report released by the Institute this week on Hurricane Katrina and human rights.

The segment will air around 9:40 am EST; you can tune in and listen live here.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights

It's a cold, rainy day here in New Orleans -- but that didn't stop all of the city's major TV networks from coming to our press conference to release our new report on Hurricane Katrina and global human rights (you can download the full PDF here).

The media event was held at the offices of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, a group pushing the U.S. government to more faithfully comply with U.N. standards for responding to disasters, particularly the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

As we extensively document in our report, the U.S. response to Katrina breached many U.N. human rights principles. Perhaps most importantly, it's still failing to live up to the standards -- for example, by failing to prevent future displacement (the levees still aren't 100%) and help those still displaced by Katrina (remember the battles over public housing?).

Also on hand at the press conference was Walter Kalin, a top U.N. official from Switzerland, who forcefully argued that the U.N. Guiding Principles are still deeply relevant to Katrina victims.

The reporters asked a lot of questions, and seemed genuinely intrigued to learn that -- perhaps with appeals to Washington and Baton Rouge feeling increasingly futile -- the residents of New Orleans might have a case before the world community to confront the ongoing Katrina crisis.

But what does it all mean? they wanted to know. Does the U.S. care what the U.N. thinks? What can a family still trapped in a FEMA trailer do with this information?

Appeals to the world community can have impact -- think of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

But the real issue raised by our report and Mr. Kalin's visit to the Gulf Coast is the need to reform U.S. disaster law, especially the Stafford Act. Currently, officials have almost complete discretion in how they respond to disasters, and there are no clear standards to ensure the rights of those uprooted are protected.

One can only speculate: if the steps and standards outlined in the U.N. Guiding Principles -- which the U.S. embraces and promotes in other countries -- had been U.S. law when Katrina struck, how much of the hardship could have been avoided?

That's the message of our report, and Mr. Kalin's visit -- not only to New Orleans, but the rest of the country: know your rights when disaster strikes. And get your elected officials in Washington to put these globally-recognized standards into law here at home, so the next disaster doesn't become another Katrina tragedy.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights

Institute for Southern Studies Director Chris Kromm was one of the speakers at a Brookings Institution panel discussion held yesterday titled "Fires, Floods, Earthquakes and Tsunamis: A Human Rights Perspective for Major Natural Disasters."

Other panelists at the event, held at Brookings' Washington headquarters, were Walter Kaelin, representative of the United Nations' Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and a member of the U.N. Human Rights Committee; Monique Harden, co-director of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights in New Orleans; Ajamu Baraka, director of the Atlanta-based U.S. Human Rights Network; and Linda Poteat of InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based humanitarian aid organizations. The panel was moderated by Elizabeth Ferris, senior fellow of foreign policy at Brookings.

The event marked the public kickoff of Kaelin's five-day visit to the United States to learn about the challenges faced in the aftermath of a disaster as catastrophic as Hurricane Katrina. At the invitation of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, Kaelin will be meeting with displaced persons across the Gulf region and leading training sessions to help public officials understand their obligations under human rights standards. He plans to make similar visits later this year to disaster-stricken regions of Latin America, Africa and Asia.

In conjunction with Kaelin's visit, the Institute will formally release a report on Katrina and human rights at a press event scheduled for tomorrow in New Orleans. Titled "Hurricane Katrina and the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: A Global Human Rights Perspective on a National Disaster" [PDF], the report by Kromm and Institute Editorial Director Sue Sturgis was produced in collaboration with the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement and marks the most in-depth study produced to date on the Principles' applicability to the ongoing Katrina crisis.

Completed in 1998 by Dr. Francis Deng of the Sudan and embraced by the United States and the rest of the international community, the 30 Guiding Principles draw on existing international law to outline human rights protections for those displaced by disasters and conflict through three phases: before displacement, during displacement, and in the return, reintegration and resettlement of those displaced. The Institute report documents how the U.S. government and other authorities failed to adhere to basic provisions of the Guiding Principles before, during and after Katrina, and it offers recommendations for how the government can protect the right of return for those still displaced by the storm and prevent human rights abuses during future disasters.

The report "makes a valuable contribution in analyzing the response to Katrina-induced displacement in light of accepted normative standards," Ferris wrote in her foreword.

To watch C-Span's video of the event, click here and scroll down to "Recent Programs."

(PHOTO: Walter Kaelin, representative of the United Nations' Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, speaks at the Jan. 14 Brookings Institution panel discussion on human rights and disasters. From left to right, the other panelists included Ajamu Baraka of the U.S. Human Rights Network, Linda Poteat of InterAction, Chris Kromm of the Institute for Southern Studies, Monique Hardin of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, and moderator Elizabeth Ferris of Brookings.)

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights, institute for southern studies

A New Orleans city committee yesterday refused to approve demolition of one of the four public housing complexes as part of a redevelopment plan being pushed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Times-Picayune reports. Though the Housing Conservation District Review Committee approved demolition of the C.J. Peete and B.W. Cooper complexes, it deadlocked over the demolition of the Lafitte development, which means the matter now goes before the City Council. The St. Bernard development is also slated for demolition.

More than 100 people crowded into a City Hall conference room for the meeting, with protesters holding a banner that said "Housing is a human right." Illustrating the intense emotions surrounding the demolition plans, posters have been appearing around the city threatening, "For every public housing unit destroyed, a condo will be destroyed." They are signed by "the angry and the powerless."

Meanwhile, HUD officials are blaming public housing defenders for the severe shortage of affordable housing in New Orleans, where rents in some neighborhoods have doubled since Hurricane Katrina, as has the city's homeless population. According to the Times-Picayune, HUD released a two-page statement Monday that said if the lawsuit seeking to halt the demolitions never occurred, "more housing could have already been built." The suit was brought by Loyola law professor and occasional Facing South contributor Bill Quigley.

For more information about the planned teardowns and the actions taking place this week to protest them, visit Defend New Orleans Public Housing, Justice for New Orleans and the People's Hurricane Relief Fund.

(Photo by Craig Morse courtesy of survivorsvillage.com.)

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, housing, human rights, new orleans

About a dozen people gathered outside the offices of Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) in Raleigh this afternoon asking her to support the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act (S. 1668). The action was one of many taking place across the nation today -- Human Rights Day -- as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development prepares to begin demolishing four large public housing complexes in New Orleans. A lack of affordable housing is slowing the Hurricane Katrina recovery and has contributed to the doubling of the city's homeless population since the storm.

The legislation is being blocked in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee -- of which Dole is a member -- by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) It would require that demolished public housing units be replaced by comparable affordable units or by vouchers to help low-income residents afford private-market rents, which have risen sharply since the disaster.

Among those who spoke at the event were Ajamu Dillahunt, an outreach coordinator with the N.C. Justice Center and an Institute for Southern Studies board member; Chris Kromm, the Institute's executive director; and Nana Nantambu, a displaced New Orleans resident who now lives in Durham, N.C. Nantambu blasted the top-down decision-making process behind the planned public housing demolitions.

"It's a violation of human rights guaranteed by the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement to not get the input of persons who were renters or who were displaced from housing developments," she said.

Following a brief press conference outside the Terry Sanford Federal Building, Dillahunt, Kromm and others went inside and visited Dole's office, where the senator's staff invited them to share their concerns about the housing situation on the Gulf Coast and the importance of passing S. 1668. A companion measure, H.R. 1227, passed the House overwhelmingly earlier this year.

Among those attending today's event in Raleigh were members of the N.C. Public Workers Union UE 150. They drew a connection between human rights violations on the Gulf Coast and a North Carolina law prohibiting collective bargaining for public employees, which they say is a violation of workers' human rights.

There are also protests and actions around the worsening New Orleans housing crisis planned this week in Oakland, Calif., Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Denver, Cleveland and Boston, among other places. Details can be found here.

At a protest held last Thursday at a New Orleans City Council meeting, Bill Quigley -- an attorney representing public housing residents and an occasional Facing South contributor -- was hauled off in handcuffs after refusing to leave the premises, the Associated Press reports.

For more coverage of the Raleigh event -- including a video of Dillahunt speaking -- visit the Raleigh News & Observer's "Under the Dome" blog. There's also a story about the action on the N.C. Democratic Party's website here.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, housing, human rights, new orleans

Speaking of criminal justice in post-Katrina New Orleans, an Orleans Parish grand jury declined to indict Gretna Police Officer Lawrence Vaughn on a charge of illegal use of a weapon in connection with his firing a gun on the Crescent City Connection two days after Hurricane Katrina, the Times-Picayune reports. The charge was related to a controversial incident in which officers from Gretna and other jurisdictions forcibly prevented people from fleeing New Orleans in the wake of the disastrous flooding caused by levee failures. The blockade -- which has triggered five civil suits -- appears to have been a violation of the U.S.-endorsed United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which guarantee that "every internally displaced person has the right to liberty of movement" as well as the "right to move freely in and out of camps or other settlements."

Labels: criminal justice, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights, new orleans

A new Amnesty International report on death by lethal injection urges doctors and nurses not to participate in state-ordered executions in breach of their ethical oath to do no harm. It also examines the legal and ethical implications of lethal injection.

The technique involves injecting prisoners with massive doses of three chemicals: sodium thiopental to induce unconsciousness, pancuronium bromide to paralyze muscles, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. But medical experts have raised concerns that if inadequate levels of sodium thiopental are administered, the anesthetic effect can wear off before the prisoner’s heart stops, putting him at risk of excruciating pain as the chemicals enter the veins producing cardiac arrest. And due to the paralysis caused by pancuronium bromide, he would be unable to communicate his distress.

For these reasons, the American Veterinary Medical Association has decided that the chemical cocktail used for euthanizing dogs and cats should not include a paralyzing agent. Texas, which leads the nation in executions, has outlawed pancuronium bromide in the euthanasia of cats and dogs because of the potential for pain -- but it's still using the chemical to kill human beings.

"Medical professionals are trained to work for patients’ well-being, not to participate in executions ordered by the state," said Jim Welsh, Amnesty’s health and human rights coordinator. "The simplest way of resolving the ethical dilemmas posed by using doctors and nurses to kill is by abolishing the death penalty."

Since 1982, at least 1,000 people have been executed by lethal injection around the world: three in Guatemala, four in Thailand, seven in the Philippines, more than 900 in the United States (including about 400 in Texas alone), and up to several thousand in China, where executions remain a state secret. The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review the constitutionality of lethal injections.

(Photo of lethal injection kit from Amnesty International)

Labels: criminal justice, death penalty, human rights, texas

Since Hurricane Katrina, many employers on the Gulf Coast have turned to the federal H2B "guestworker" visa program to meet their need for employees. But labor rights advocates have long warned that the program is prone to abuse, since it ties foreign workers to a single employer for the entirety of their U.S. stay, creating a relationship of extreme dependence that's ripe for exploitation.

Today we got word from folks with the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition about allegations of extreme abuse involving a Pascagoula, Miss. law enforcement official, a Texas shipyard, an Alabama labor recruiter and 30 Mexican men who came to this country looking for an opportunity to better support their families. Instead, the Mexicans are now hiding in New Orleans, without work or money.

The next time you hear President Bush or other politicians calling for expanding "temporary worker" programs, remember that this is what they're talking about:

For Immediate Release
August 22, 2007
New Orleans, LA
Contact: Saket Soni – 504 881 6610

Pascagoula Police Captain Kidnaps Guestworkers

Mexican H2B visa workers charge ranking officer with kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, and gross civil rights abuses; File Notice of Intent to announce that they will bring major lawsuit.

More than 30 Mexican nationals who entered the country on H2B visas were kidnapped in Pascagoula, Mississippi by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula police department and a US labor recruiter.

Workers and advocates charged Tillman with State and Federal crimes kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and violations of the workers’ civil and constitutional rights. They filed a Notice of Intent declaring that that they will sue Tillman and the Pascagoula Police Department.

Workers released a formal statement today that recounted their journey as guestworkers across the post-Katrina Gulf Coast:

We are welders and pipefitters from Veracruz, Mexico, who entered the United States on H2B visas in July 2007. We are fathers and husbands, with families to feed. Like all workers we came to the United States because of economic desperation. We are here to feed our children, to send money to our families. We came to work for a Texas shipyard called Southwest Shipyards, LP.

Within days of our arrival we realized that recruiters had lied to us about the living and working conditions in the United States. Several of our co-workers sustained life-threatening injuries on the job. One man was electrocuted. When we organized to ask for safer conditions, we were threatened.

Faced with retaliation, we ran away from Southwest. We went to Alabama, where a recruitment agency named Black Hawk promised us jobs. We signed up with Black Hawk, but the agency packed all 30 of us in two trailers in rural Alabama -- and abandoned us. We stayed in the trailers for 6 days without food or transportation.

Desperate again, we escaped from the Alabama trailers to Pascagoula, Mississippi. There we were kidnapped by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula Police Department.

On the night of August 2, 2007, Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula Police Department arrived at our doorstep in uniform, with his badge and gun. He was accompanied by another officer and the recruiter from Black Hawk. Tillman told us that the recruiter from Black Hawk was our "owner," and that we had to go with him. He said that if we didn't, we would face prison and deportation.

We resisted. But we were forced to pack our bags and get into vans. We were transported to a new location. Tillman and the others packed all 30 of us into three rooms. He warned us that the area would be monitored by the police.

The next morning the recruiter returned to take mugshots of us and videotape us. With the help of several organizations, we escaped, hid in a Walmart, and eventually fled to New Orleans, where we have been living in hiding without work or money.

Workers and advocates challenged federal officials to recognize that the H2B program is creating slave-like conditions for workers across the Gulf Coast. Thousands of guestworkers have arrived to work for US companies after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Daniel Castellanos, organizer with the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, a Gulf Coast-wide organization of guestworkers. "I am a guestworker and I know the realities of the H2B visa," said Castellanos. "We are brought here on false promises. Our members report being sold, being kidnapped, being told they are owned. Meanwhile survivors of Katrina and Rita are still shut out of work two years later. The federal government is allowing this. They’ve traded the old slaves for new slaves."

Nsombi Lambright, director of the American Civil Liberties Union-Mississippi called on Mississippi lawmakers to ensure that legislation outlawing kidnapping and human trafficking are enforced. "We can't leave it up to conscience to ensure that people of color and poor people are protected from the hundred of Tillmans out there. We have laws. They need to be enforced."

Workers and advocates called on US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate the abuses of civil and constitutional rights guestworkers face in the Gulf Coast. Advocates pointed out that law enforcement seldom protects and often intentionally violates the civil rights of H2B visa workers. "Corporations, law enforcement agencies, and recuiters work hand-in-glove to coerce and control workers. Police often enforce company policy, not US law," said Bill Chandler, director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance.

Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice called Tillman's actions "immoral, unjust, illegal -- but not uncommon. Tillman's abuses tell us we need policy changes in Washington DC. But meanwhile, Tillman's going to have to pay up in Pascagoula."

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights, Hurricane Katrina, immigration, labor

In a civil trial set to open today in a federal courtroom in Birmingham, a jury will hear evidence that an executive with an Alabama-based coal company paid a right-wing paramilitary unit to kill union leaders who were organizing mine workers in Colombia.

The suit was sparked by a 2001 incident in which a bus carrying several dozen workers from the Drummond Company's La Loma coal mine was stopped by 15 gunmen -- some in Colombian military uniforms -- who forced off two union leaders. The gunmen shot union local president Valmore Locarno Rodriguez in the head and kidnapped deputy Victor Hugo Orcasita, who was tortured and killed.

Lawyers representing the Sintramienergetica union has presented affidavits from two people who say they were present when Drummond's chief executive in Colombia, Augusto Jimenez, handed over $200,000 in cash to associates of the local right-wing paramilitary leader, the Associated Press reports. Jimenez has since resigned.

Drummond's largest U.S. customer for Colombia coal is the Atlanta-based Southern Co., according to the Web site Drummond Watch. Drummond began relocating its mining operations from Alabama to the civil war-torn South American company in 1994.

The suit (PDF) was filed in 2002 under the Alien Tort Claims Act, Torture Victim Protection Act and state tort law. It alleges that Drummond "hired, contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced" leaders of the union representing workers at Drummond facilities in Colombia. The murders occurred while contract negotiations with Drummond were underway.

The incident was also the topic of a June 28 congressional hearing held by the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight chaired by Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), who said in a statement:

"If we are a nation that respects the rule of law, we cannot countenance injustice, no matter where it occurs, or who commits it. If American investors and companies have played a role -- even an unwilling one -- in Colombia's violence, we can't look the other way."

Drummond has repeatedly denied the charges. In a statement (PDF) released in response to the congressional hearing, it called the allegations "completely without merit" and said they had "no basis in facts."

Among those scheduled to testify at the trial is Garry Neil Drummond, a former University of Alabama trustee and president of the company founded by his father in 1935, the Birmingham News reports.

Here in the United States, Drummond and other members of his family exercise considerable political clout: In the past year alone, they have donated more than $19,000 to the Republican National Committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' contribution database.

Labels: Alabama, human rights

The New Orleans-based group Advocates for Environmental Human Rights is not happy with remarks about Gulf Coast rebuilding that Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) made at this week's Essence Music Festival in that city.

Speaking yesterday, presidential hopeful Obama told the crowd that New Orleans suffered from poverty, failing schools and high crime rates long before Hurricane Katrina, and called on people to take action to address the region's legacy of poverty and racism. Clinton was scheduled to address festival goers today.

In response to the presidential hopefuls' comments, AEHR released a statement today charging that poverty is hardly the biggest problem facing the city:

Senator Obama and Senator Clinton speak about the problems in the recovery of New Orleans as though our only obstacle is poverty, when in fact our biggest hurdle is the United States government.

In the nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina, the federal government has made it clear that its interest does not lie with supporting the people of New Orleans who remain displaced and are struggling to return to and rebuild our homes and communities. The federal government has barred African American residents of public housing from returning home in order to make way for companies who are planning to replace these homes with golf courses and condos. The federal government has not approved sufficient funding for repairing our flood-damaged homes, and has conducted levee repairs in a majority African American city in a way that only protects white neighborhoods that were flooded during Katrina. We have a federal government that resists compensating residents and local governments for our losses; rejects the rebuilding of our public hospital and public schools; and doles out contracts that enrich companies abusing and exploiting Latino migrant and immigrant reconstruction workers. Our federal government is violating our human right to return and rebuild our communities with dignity and justice.

Presidential candidates need to specify how they plan to reform the federal governmental responses to Hurricane Katrina in order to protect our human rights and the human rights of other Americans who become displaced by future disasters.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights, Hurricane Katrina