Jack Rendler, Human Rights Consultant

Several of you here have expressed some surprise that the United States—“the home of the free”—would be represented at this conference. In response, I would make two points: First, for poor people and for black people, the United States has never been all that free. Second, the United States as a whole is a lot less free now that it was two years ago.

The US government may not gun down or ‘disappear’ African-Americans on the street. But it allows, is complicit in, the killing of their minds in inadequate schools, the killing of their spirits in drug and violence infested housing projects, and the killing of their souls in prisons and penitentiaries. For African-Americans and other minority groups, for poor people, for immigrants, the United States is increasingly free only to those who are financially secure and white.

The treatment of African-Americans in the US, memorialized in Julius Lester’s brutal phrase, “From the plantation to the projects to the prisons,” constitutes a political and societal abuse of human rights affecting millions of Americans. Mistreatment on the basis of race permeates all areas of human rights performance in the United States.

Incarceration is increasingly used to address social problems such as drug use, poverty, and sexual predation. The sheer numbers of people charged with crimes prevents the limited number of defenders, especially court-appointed ‘public defenders,’ from doing effective work.

In August of 2000, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that the US prison population had surpassed two million people and the rate of incarceration stood at 690 inmates per 100,000 residents--a rate Human Rights Watch believed to be the highest in the world except for Rwanda. One and one-half million children--2 percent of the country's total--had a parent in prison. Department of Justice figures also reveal that African Americans make up nearly one-half of the prison population, even though they represent only twelve percent of the national population. Black men are eight times more likely to be in prison than white men. Nearly ten percent of black men in their late twenties are in prison. US juvenile detention facilities hold over 100,000 children, many in abusive environments. The death penalty in the US continues to fall on disproportionately on the poor, the black, the young, and the mentally unbalanced.

As the case of Ralph Poynter demonstrates, human rights defenders working to improve the standing of African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and other US minorities, often find themselves discriminated against in education, employment, and judicial proceedings. Defenders working in any area of human rights in the US find themselves by necessity drawn to the defense of racial equality. Young black activists such as Malika Asha Sanders and Navajo elders such as Louise Benally-Crittendon are themselves victimized by the prejudice and discrimination they are working to redress.

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, there has been a pronounced pattern of the criminalization of diversity in the US, especially evident in immigration policing, detentions, and deportations. Human rights defenders protecting immigrant and refugee rights find themselves isolated and frustrated by government policies that prevent defender access to refugees in custody, and prevent immigrant access to public services.

According to US Government figures, hate crimes against Muslims and people of Middle Eastern ethnicity in 2001 increased by 1600 percent over the previous year. The backlash suffered by Arabs and Muslims after September 11 includes discrimination in employment, education, and housing; airport profiling; verbal harassment; vandalism; and physical assaults.

Over the past two years, human rights defenders in the USA have become increasingly vulnerable to repressive consequences as a result of their human rights activities. Much of this vulnerability is a result of an atmosphere of governmental intimidation and forced conformity in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. This climate is bolstered by anti-terrorism legislation, measures and practices such as increased use of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act.

The Department of Justice and its constituent entities such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) are increasingly used to monitor and intervene in situations and cases that may allegedly have some impact on US ‘national security.’ Under these conditions, anyone who defends terrorist suspects or their right to a fair trial and a proper defense risks being accused of providing support to terrorism.

The case of Lynne Stewart demonstrates that defenders of ‘terrorist’ suspects may, by virtue of their defense activities, become suspects themselves. Lynne Stewart is a 63-year old civil liberties attorney practicing in New York City. She has built a long and illustrious career defending those alleged to be revolutionaries or terrorists and others perceived as threats by the US Government. Most recently, Stewart has provided legal representation for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of plotting terrorism against the United States, including planning to bomb landmarks in New York. As a result of her defense of Abdel Rahman, Stewart herself has been charged by the US Department of Justice with providing “material support” to a terrorist organization. Stewart and her colleagues have steadfastly and unequivocally maintained her innocence. They point out that the charges leveled by the government accuse her of doing what any good lawyer would do in defense of a client. I am pleased and proud that she is here today representing human rights defenders in the United States.

There is much reason for hope in the continuing courage shown by defenders in the US and in the increasing numbers of human rights defenders in the US are working to redress economic inequalities. As the case of Ken Riley and the Charleston Five demonstrates, there are physical, economic, and professional consequences suffered by such defenders. Human rights defenders in the US are increasingly aware of the potential efficacy of advocating for economic, social and cultural rights as they are articulated in international treaty language. Defenders such as Cheri Honkala at the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia; Bonnie Macri at Justice, Equality, Dignity and Independence for Women in Salt Lake City; and Catherine Albisa at the Center for Economic and Social Rights in New York, are using the principles and the language of international economic and social rights guarantees.

Finally, a point that is particularly appropriate for this conference: human rights defenders in the United States need the solidarity and support of the international human rights community as much as defenders in any other country.