4 hours of CLE credit for Recognition and Elimination of Bias in the Legal Profession and Society through the State Bar of CA (a certificate will be emailed after completion)
In the beginning of 2021, 12 international experts heard 44 cases of people of African descent killed or severely injured by systemic racist police violence in the US under the auspices of the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the US. The Commission produced a detailed report including both a historical and legal analysis that presents a record of U.S. violations, including finding a prima facie case of Crimes against Humanity warranting an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Commission was convened by the NLG, the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. After the murder of George Floyd and many other egregious killings of Black people, families of victims demanded the UN Human Rights Council conduct an investigation into U.S. police violence. When the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was tasked with doing a report about racist police violence around the world, the IADL, NCBL and NLG determined to establish the International Commission of Inquiry. This CLE will delve into how practitioners can use the findings and Report of the Commission in their work pursuing accountability for racist police violence.
Panelists:
Kerry McLean is an international human rights lawyer and social justice activist. She is a Co-Chair of the NCBL's International Affairs Section, and has done work with the IADL for over a decade. An NLG member since 2003, Kerry is the founder and Chair of the NLG’s Africa Subcommittee and is a former NLG national board member. She also chaired the NLG's Anti-Sexism Committee for several years. Over the past 17 years Kerry has lived in Africa, Europe and Asia, working with local and international organizations on human rights and international development. She has engaged in significant United Nations advocacy, including litigation with treaty monitoring bodies, writing shadow reports concerning compliance with CERD, CEDAW and CAT, contributing to UPR reports and working with UN Special Rapporteurs. She has provided training on and delivered lectures on international human rights in the US and other parts of the world.
Lennox S. Hinds is a Professor Emeritus of Law and former Chair of the Administration of Justice Program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. A graduate of The City College of New York and Rutgers Law School, he was awarded City College’s highest Townsend Harris Alumni Award and Rutgers Law School’s J. Skelly Wright Award for contribution to civil rights. He was a Charles H. Revson Fellow, Center for Legal Education and Urban Policy, City College of New York 1979-1980. In addition to his practice as a criminal defense and international human rights lawyer, he was Nelson Mandela’s US attorney and counsel in the US to the Government of South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa and (SWAPO) of Namibia. He is the permanent Representative to the UN for the IADL. He is admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court, the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Rwanda (ICTR), the ICC for Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Permanent ICC in The Hague and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He has published and taught about crimes against humanity under international law for more than two decades, and has presented expert testimony on the Crimes Against Humanity of the Apartheid Regime before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Johannesburg, South Africa presided over by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Professor Niloufer Bhagwat served as a Commissioner on the International Commission of Inquiry. She is an Advocate since 1971 at the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, the Supreme Court of India, other Courts and Tribunals, and before Commissions of Inquiry. Former Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law for post graduate studies, and Administrative Law and International Law for undergraduate studies at the University of Mumbai. Vice President of the Indian Association of Lawyers and of the Confederation of Lawyers for Asia and the Pacific region. On the panel of Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan at Tokyo, constituted by Japanese Jurists and lawyers investigating the US political leadership for crimes of aggression, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan. President of the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Middle East at Lebanon, convened by jurists and lawyers of the Middle East, to try crimes of aggression, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. Has published research papers and articles in international and Indian journals.
Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she taught from 1991-2016, and a former NLG president. She lectures, writes, and provides commentary for national and international media outlets. Professor Cohn has served as a news consultant for CBS News and a legal analyst for Court TV, as well as a legal and political commentator on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, and Pacifica Radio. She served as a Rapporteur on the International Commission of Inquiry. The author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and co-author of Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice (with David Dow) and Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (with Kathleen Gilberd), Professor Cohn is editor of and contributor to The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse, and Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.
Ms. Dominic Archibald is the Mother of Nathaniel “Nate” Pickett II. She is a retired Army Colonel and two-time combat Veteran, having served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. She was assigned to the Joint Staff J4 stationed at the Pentagon on 9-11-2001. Dominic has served in her community with youth initiatives for over 30 years and is on the National Board for Families United 4 Justice. She has testified in several states for bills to protect all people from police brutality. Dominic is a member of the Circle of Red for the American Heart Association, a fundraiser for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a member of Top Ladies of Distinction and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She has a bachelor’s degree from Stillman College, and two graduate degrees from California State University Dominguez Hills and the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, respectively. She is also a graduate of Emerge Nevada and was most recently a doctoral candidate. Nate was her only child.
Dr. Vickie Casanova-Willis, MBA, MAT, and PhD in Global and Comparative Education, is co-executive director of the US Human Rights Network. She is a non-profit administrator and educator, and a teaching artist and cultural worker working in the Black and Latino communities on Chicago’s South and West Sides. Dr. Casanova-Willis's current work includes board roles as well as direct engagement with underserved youth and families across ethnicities and nationalities. Dr. Casanova-Willis is a founding member of Black People Against Police Torture, the grassroots organization that helped lead a broad based coalition to internationalize Chicago’s police torture issue, while creating the Torture Inquiry Relief Commission.
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