[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17595]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING MEIKLEJOHN CIVIL LIBERTIES INSTITUTE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 15, 2010

  Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the 
recent successful efforts of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute 
(MCLI) in persuading the California State Assembly and Senate to adopt 
Assembly Member Bill Monning's ACR 129, making California the first 
state in the nation to agree to publicize the text of three, U.S-
ratified U.N. human rights treaties, and to make the required periodic 
reports on race discrimination, police conduct, health care, prison 
conditions, treatment of the homeless, immigrant rights and many other 
violations of civil and political rights in all cities, counties and 
state agencies.
  Templates will be furnished for the state-wide reports, which seek 
ultimately to protect all civil rights, including those of arrested 
people, the unemployed, welfare applicants, members of the LGBT 
community, the disabled, children, seniors and union members.
  The treaties and protocols included in ACR 129 are: International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); Convention on 
Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD); and 
Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading 
Treatment or Punishment (CAT), ratified by the U.S. in 1992 and 1994. 
Two Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on the 
Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and on 
Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified by the U.S. on 
December 23, 2002, are also covered. Yet, there is still much that can 
be done to ensure compliance with these treaties.
  MCLI was founded in 1965 and soon established its Human Rights 
Reporting Project dedicated to educating lawyers, legal workers, 
judges, legislators, and non-governmental organizations on existing 
international human rights law.
  Under the U.S. Constitution, Article VI, Clause 2, a treaty is the 
supreme law of the land and its terms apply to state governments. These 
treaties require that their terms be publicized and that periodic 
reports be made at the federal and local levels. However, until 
attorney Ann Fagan Ginger of MCLI proposed the resolution, no state had 
publicized the treaty text or submitted information to be included in 
U.S. reports to the U.N. Committees administering the treaties.
  In 2008, MCLI persuaded the Berkeley City Commission on Peace and 
Justice to ask Berkeley City Council to require that each of its 
agencies prepare periodic activity reports and submit them to the U.S. 
Department of State for inclusion in its reports to the four U.N. 
Committees. On September 29, 2009, the Berkeley City Council adopted 
the United Nations Treaty Reports resolution on the basis that the 
human rights treaties reporting process had heightened concern about 
human rights in the city.
  On behalf of California's 9th Congressional District, I want to 
extend my congratulations on this important milestone for the State of 
California. Thank you, MCLI staff and supporters, for all that you do 
to promote and protect human rights throughout the United States. I 
wish you continued success.

                          ____________________