Brett Jones '23 and Sheryl Wallin '22 on Movement Lawyering and The MMIP Crisis
Advocacy is an essential part of movement lawyering. It is critical to bring awareness to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) crisis. Indigenous women are going missing at a rate 10 times higher than the national average, and those responsible for investigating their cases refuse to do so. This crisis is occurring across the country, especially in urban centers. But people in New York City are unaware that the city has an indigenous population, although 2% of American Indians and Alaska Natives (110,000) live within the five boroughs.
We were given the opportunity to present our work to Dean Melanie Leslie and other distinguished faculty. It was important to highlight the specifics of the client work we completed over the semester, but that was not our main intention. We designed the presentation to model how to give an indigenous land acknowledgment, highlight the scope of the MMIP crisis across the country, bring awareness to the size and complex living situation of the New York City indigenous community and elucidate risk factors, including mental health, transient housing, economic disparities, high incarceration rates and high intimate partner violence rates that greatly increase the likelihood of a person’s going missing or being murdered. As we gave the presentation, it was clear that few people in the room had a sense of what this crisis was or how close to home it is. Now, Cardozo's decision-makers are aware of the crisis and what needs to be done to combat it. They have been empowered with language and knowledge to advocate on behalf of the MMIP movement in their positions, and we are incredibly thankful to have had the opportunity.
Heidi Sandomir ’23 and Mika D’Angelo ’23 Contribute to U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health Report
In the spring semester, we assisted the United Nations' Special Rapporteur (SR) on the right to health, Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, on her thematic report to the General Assembly on violence and its impact on the right to health. Our team contributed to the report by focusing on conflict-related sexual violence. We observed the dialogue between civil society organizations, state governments and United Nations mechanisms by reviewing submissions, researching the historic and current context of conflicts and sexual violence and collating our findings into a brief that was incorporated into the SR’s final report. We also had the privilege of meeting Mofokeng and the rest of the drafting team.
It was very educational to experience how the United Nations operates and participate in the process that gives voice and recognition to civil society organizations documenting sexual violence and rights violations in the context of armed conflict and humanitarian crises. Our subsequent work expanded this dialogue by including academics in a nuanced conversation regarding language, social construction and gender -- some of the greatest concepts we use to understand identity and identity-based violence today.
Hayley Bronner ’22 and Sydney Osterweil-Artson ’23 on the Process of Feminist Collaboration and Drafting the Ongwen Amicus Brief
Our clinic team worked on an amicus brief that was submitted to the International Criminal Court Appeals Chamber in the Ongwen case in December. The brief focused on cumulative convictions and on sexual and gender-based crimes, particularly enslavement and sexual slavery, arguing that the intentions of the Rome Statute drafters and customary international law require that enslavement include sexual slavery, rather than sexual slavery being a separate, more specific crime. Recognizing that all acts of a sexual nature, including control over sexuality, sexual integrity and sexual and reproductive autonomy, constitute indicia of the exercise of powers of ownership makes visible the harms of victims and survivors of all genders and ages and refrains from imposing additional legal burdens on such victims and survivors. The brief advocated for the chamber to enter convictions for the crime against humanity of enslavement, rather than sexual slavery, because the conduct criminalized under sexual slavery is covered by enslavement.
We researched the Ongwen case, customary international law and jurisprudence from the ICC and other international tribunals relating to the crimes against humanity of enslavement and sexual slavery. In addition to research assistance, the team drafted and edited the amicus brief and participated in strategy meetings with the brief's signatories and coordination meetings with the feminist collective. The brief may be found here.
Eliana Aklepi ’22 and Matthew Cannon ’23 Presented at International Human Rights Conference in La Pampa, Argentina
During the first week of March, we presented our clinic work at an International Human Rights Conference at the Universidad Nacional de La Pampa in Santa Rosa, Argentina. As clinic students, we reflected on our experiences with law professors and practitioners from several countries throughout Latin America. The conference exposed us to varied human rights issues, such as the right to health and advocacy to address health rights in Latin America.
An additional benefit of attending the conference was the opportunity to further develop professional relationships with legal practitioners from around the world. Through conversations and sharing experiences, we were able to reflect on the work we did and the work of others. The experience helped us to grow as students, professionals and future legal practitioners.
