Litigation and Advocacy in the United States
Doe v. Chiquita Banana International
On July 19, 2007, Colombian families represented inter alia by Earthrights International (ERI), an international NGO based in Washington DC and IHR Clinic partner, filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (CBI), the multi-national produce company formerly known as the United Fruit Company. Chiquita is accused of funding and arming known terrorist organizations in Colombia starting in the mid-1990s in order to maintain its profitable control of Colombia’s banana growing regions.
In March of 2007, Chiquita pled guilty to criminal charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice; it confessed to making more than 100 payments, totaling more than $1.7 million, to the United Self-Defense Committees of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC), designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. government. Chiquita agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s payments to the AUC were approved by senior executives of the corporation, and supported the targeted killings of thousands of individuals, including trade unionists, banana workers, and political organizers. The ERI case was filed pursuant to the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) , and is one of at least seven civil suits pending against Chiquita (it is the only class action). The IHR Clinic is co-counsel on the case, along with several of the leading ATS litigators in the country; collectively we represent the relatives of nearly 250 victims killed by the AUC in Urabá between 1997 and 2004.
On June 3, 2011, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida denied Chiquita’s motion to dismiss the various claims brought under international law and the ATS, including, extrajudicial killings, torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This case is now in discovery. Since its filing, IHR Clinic students have worked on the case in support of the legal team by research and writing legal memoranda and motions, as well as assisting in the preparation of client communications. On a parallel front, the IHR Clinic in 2008 initiated a fact development strategy in partnership with the National Security Archives at GW University to obtain case-related information from federal agencies through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.
After years of insistence, this strategy is bearing fruit. For example, the Department of Justice and various related law enforcement agencies have produced thousands of pages of heretofore classified information. Many of these documents were published online by the NSA as “The Chiquita Papers”. IHRC students have participated not only in the analysis of Chiquita-related documents received in response to our FOIA requests, but also in advancing our ongoing litigation strategy against federal agencies that are not cooperating in the timely production of requested information. Currently, one such suit is pending against the SEC.
*See DOJ Press Release and Chiquita MTD order
**In addition to the cases summarized here since 2007 the IHR Clinic has assisted ERI on several other projects including research for amicus briefs as well as support on non-litigation campaign initiatives that promote greater corporate responsibility in relation to human and environmental rights in their spheres of influence.
Magnifico, et al.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) Docket: Advocating for the rights of trafficked workers: As part of a broader effort to enforce the rights of trafficked workers, the clinic represents 18 survivors of human trafficking in a lawsuit against their former employers. Clinic students have been actively involved in all aspects of the litigation, including selection of the case, interviewing clients, drafting discovery responses and drafting a successful opposition brief to defendants' motion to dismiss plaintiffs' human trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering claims.
As set out in the complaint filed last year in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, defendants recruited plaintiffs from the Philippines and United States using fraudulent visa applications, false promises, and misrepresentations to induce them to work in the United States. Once employed by defendants, plaintiffs were compelled to live in severely crowded housing and to work long hours in country clubs and hotels in Florida and New York. During their employment, plaintiffs were threatened with arrest, imprisonment, deportation, cancellation of their visas, loss of work, lawsuits, and blacklisting.
The clinic is lead counsel in this case and students benefits from working with co-counsel World Organization for Human Rights USA and local counsel, experienced farmworker attorney, Greg Schell of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project.
*Read the Magnifico complaint and decision.
International Litigation and Advocacy
Vélez v. Colombia:
Case 12.658, Inter-American Court of Human Rights
The GW International Human Rights Clinic will be litigating its first case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2011–2012. Case 12.658, Luís Gonzalo "Richard" Vélez Restrepo and Family v. Colombia involves an attack suffered by journalist Richard Vélez on August 29, 1996, at the hands of soldiers of the Colombian National Army. It also denounces the subsequent persecution of Richard and his family as a result of his unsuccessful pursuit of justice in the Colombian courts. The case was sent to the Inter-American Court on March 2, 2011, because the Inter-American Commission found that the Colombian State had not complied with recommendations contained in the Commission’s final merits report.
At the time of the attack, Richard Vélez was filming a protest in which soldiers beat several protesters, incidents documented by the journalist. These events were followed by death threats against Richard and his family, which intensified when he tried to move the judicial proceedings forward. In this context, and after he had suffered a kidnapping attempt, Richard was forced to flee Colombia on October 9, 1997; he was separated for a year from his wife, Aracelly “Sara” Román, and their two small children, Juliana and Mateo, who remained in hiding in Colombia. In the fall of 1998 the family was reunited in New York City, where the family currently resides (they were granted political asylum and recently acquired US citizenship).
According to the Commission’s findings, the serious human rights violations that led to Richard’s forced exile and that of his family remain in total impunity, as the Colombian State did not conduct serious, effective investigations to identify, much less punish, those responsible. The attack and subsequent acts of harassment, which were motivated by the journalist's determination to document and denounce the abuses by the Colombian armed forces, violated his rights to physical integrity and to freedom of thought and expression, and also had a chilling effect on other journalists and on Colombian society in general. The special protections afforded by the American Convention on Human Rights to the family and children were also violated by the Colombian State. Richard is currently unable to practice his profession as a journalist, and the family has endured tremendous hardship acclimating to a new country and culture.
The IHR Clinic has been involved in the litigation of this case since it was submitted to the Inter-American Commission in 2005. Dozens of law students over the years have worked to defend Richard and his family’s rights through a range of activities, including legal research and drafting of pleadings, in addition to interviewing and counseling our clients. The public hearing, which acts as an abbreviated trial, is likely to be set for February 2012.
*Admissibility report
Jamaica Project on Extrajudicial Killings and other Police Abuses in Jamaica
The IHR Clinic works in partnership with Jamaicans for Justice a Kingston-based NGO, to implement a campaign against excessive use of force and extra-judicial executions by the Jamaican Constabulary Force (JCF), the Jamaican police. In March 2008, JFJ and the IHRC published a joint report on the subject, entitled Killing Impunity: Fatal Police Shootings and Extrajudicial Executions in Jamaica: 2005-07, which was submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR or IA Commission). As a result in part of this initiative, the IA Commission agreed to carry out a weeklong mission to Jamaica–the first ever to an English speaking Caribbean nation–to investigate police killings, impunity and other human rights abuses. The IACHR visit took place in December 2008; the IHR Clinic helped the Commission prepare for the visit with legal memos and a background paper analyzing the Jamaican human rights situation.
At the same time, we are in the process of litigating jointly with JFJ several cases before the Commission. The first is the case of Patrick Genius, submitted in May 2007; Patrick Genius was a young Jamaican man arbitrarily executed by JCF agents in 1999. The most recent is the case of Janice Allen, a 12-year-old girl shot in the back and killed in 2000 by a police detective, filed in August 2009. In the summer of 2010, the IHR Clinic filed two more actions before the Commission. Once concerns the killing of a 14-year-old boy, Amanie Wedderburn, and his uncle; the other a Jamaican man, Shaun Duncan, who has been repeatedly detained and harassed by police on the basis of Jamaica’s arbitrary detention laws and practices. Students were actively involved in all aspects of the case planning, inter-American legal research and analysis, client interviewing and counseling, petition (complaint) drafting, and fact development (investigation).
*Listen to hearings
Promoting LGBTI human rights in the Americas
LGBTI communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual or intersexual people, are often confronted with severe human rights violations and discrimination. For example, in the Caribbean and Central America, LGBTI communities face persistent violent attacks, severe discrimination, and laws criminalizing behavior that is central to sexual or gender identities. Within this context, the clinic’s LGBTI Initiative utilizes numerous strategies to combat the ongoing discrimination and violation of human rights of LGBTI individuals.
Focusing primarily on the Americas, clinical students working on this initiative have been involved in a variety of projects aimed at promoting LGBTI rights in the region. Students have, in partnership with a local coalition of advocates in Trinidad and Tobago, conducted research and reporting on the activities of Christian religious forces in the Caribbean to assess the impact they are having on LGBTI communities there. Students collaborate with gay rights activists throughout the world and with the Heartland Alliance to draft shadow reports on the status of LGBTI individuals for submission to the UN’s Human Rights Committee . The clinic has recently submitted reports in collaboration with activists in Jamaica and Guatemala, advocating for those countries to fulfill treaty obligations regarding treatment of LGBTI communities. Finally, students have conducted outreach and built relationships among LGBTI communities and human rights advocates with the goal of utilizing the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights as a forum for protection of LGBTI rights.
*Read the Shadow Report “Human Rights Violations of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) People in Jamaica.” This report was submitted for consideration at the 103rd Session of the Human Rights Committee October 2011, Geneva, lead-authored by IACHR students.
*Read the Shadow Report“Human Rights Violations of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) People in Guatemala.” This report was submitted for consideration at the 104th Session of the Human Rights Committee, March 2012, New York, lead-authored by IACHR students.
Advocating for LGBTI Refugees in Detention
Human rights abuses associated with immigration detention conditions have become increasingly concerning to human rights advocates as more and more governments use detention to address influxes of refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers. Human rights violations against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons propel thousands to flee their countries. Yet many refugees continue to be deprived of basic safety even after leaving their home countries. Sexual minorities—particularly those who are non-gender conforming— are vulnerable to a wide array of abuses while held in immigration detention. In most countries, detention authorities are at best unaware of LGBTI protection concerns, and at worst, place LGBTI inmates in solitary confinement to “protect” them or even condone violence against them by guards and other inmates.
The clinic is working to identify specific harms suffered by sexual minorities in immigration detention, identify best practice examples, and develop targeted policy recommendations.