[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            TRIBUTE TO MEIKLEJOHN CIVIL LIBERTIES INSTITUTE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 28, 2006

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the efforts of the 
Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute (MCLI), a non-profit organization 
in my district. The MCLI, founded in 1965, is a think tank that works 
on national and international human rights issues as they relate to the 
U.S. In 1995, the Institute's Human Rights Reporting Project began 
using U.S. treaties as tools to work for human rights.
  In 2005, the MCLI issued a report entitled Challenging U.S. Human 
Rights Violations Since 9/11 in response to the failure of the U.S. 
government to submit timely and accurate reports to the United Nations 
(UN). According to 3 U.N. treaties ratified by the U.S. in 1992 and 
1994, the U.S. is required to submit regular reports to U.N. oversight 
committees about human rights abuses and enforcement measures at the 
local, State, and Federal levels.
  On March 15, 2005, the Berkeley City Council passed Resolution 62,841 
in which the City Council resolved to submit a copy of Challenging to 
the U.S. State Department, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 
and the UN Human Rights Committee. On March 31, 2005, MCLI presented 
Challenging to the U.S. State Department for use in the preparation of 
its late reports to the oversight committees.
  Although the second and third reports for the International Covenant 
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) treaty were due in 1998 and 2003, 
the U.S. State Department did not file a report until October 21, 2005. 
According to the MCLI, this combined second and third report fails to 
contain various instances of U.S. human rights violations and lack of 
enforcement measures. The combined U.S. Report will be discussed by the 
U.N. Human Rights Committee in March 2006 in New York and will be 
examined in greater detail by the committee in the summer of 2006 in 
Geneva.
  The Challenging report raises important enforcement and reporting 
violations committed by the U.S. I encourage my colleagues to read this 
report for more information. The U.S. must comply with the treaties it 
signed in order to protect the rights of individuals both domestically 
and abroad and to realign the U.S. with the principles it was founded 
on. I appreciate the work of MCLI to promote and protect human rights 
around the globe and congratulate them on this report.

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