Tag Archives: North America

‘America Belongs to the People’: No Kings Coalition Plans Oct. 17 Early Voting Action

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article by Jessica Corbett from Common Dreams (reprinted according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

“On October 17th, No Kings: Vote Early will show the billionaire elites attempting to destroy our country that We the People have the power by mobilizing turnout to make our elections too big for the evils of  fascism and oligarchy to rig,” according to Sarah Parker, a spokesperson for the 50501 movement.


People hold signs that declare “No Kings” in Detroit, Michigan, on February 17, 2025, which was President’s Day. (Photo by Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The movement is part of the No Kings Coalition that has held a trio of  protests across the United States since President Donald Trump returned to power last year.

Now, with the midterm elections less than two months away, the coalition is planning a fourth day of action. Parker, who’s also executive director of Voices of Florida Fund, declared Tuesday that “the people, united, will never be defeated.”

The first round of protests was held in June 2025, on Trump’s birthday. The ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer, Deirdre Schifeling, said at the time that “No Kings is really about standing up for democracy, standing up for people’s rights and liberties in this country, and against the gross abuse of power that we’ve seen consistently from the Trump administration.”

As with those first demonstrations, millions of people took to US streets again last October. Then, Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, told Common Dreams that “what we’re seeing from this administration is authoritarian slip. We are seeing them attack judges, attack nonprofits, trying to attack the media, stifle First Amendment protected speech, and arrest sitting members of Congress for doing their oversight” of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The third action, in March, followed ICE’s deadly invasion of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and Trump launching his illegal war on Iran. The three themes of those demonstrations,  said Indivisible co-executive director Leah Greenberg, were “no kings, no ICE, no war.”

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Questions related to this article:

The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

How can we be sure to get news about peace demonstrations?

(Article continued from the left column)

Her co-executive director, Ezra Levin, said Tuesday that “since the first No Kings in June of last year, millions of people have demonstrated they are not afraid and they will not bow to any would-be American king. We’ve sent that message loud and clear—but we’re not just sending a message with this next No Kings.”

“We’re taking back power for the people using our constitutional right to organize and our constitutional right to vote,” Levin stressed. “While corrupt politicians and elected officials line their pockets, families across America are struggling to put food on the table and gas in the car. No Kings: Vote Early is about making sure every eligible voter has a plan to vote, knows their options, and is ready to make their voice heard.”

Schifeling, from the ACLU, noted that “this year, voters are facing coordinated efforts from their own government to make it harder for eligible voters to vote and have their vote counted. That’s why this next chapter of No Kings is focused on encouraging all voters to make a plan to vote as early as possible.”

“In a democracy, elected officials are supposed to be accountable to their constituents; voting is one of the best ways to ensure they are,” she continued. “No Kings will be on the ground in communities across the country making sure that all eligible voters can and do vote.” Public Citizen’s Gilbert said that “the importance of as many people as possible voting early cannot be overstated.”

“Early voting can make the difference between voting and not voting for people who are traveling, who are working on Election Day, who need options for childcare while voting, and more,” she highlighted. “Voting is democracy in action at a time when authoritarianism and oligarchy are looming large, and standing together to cast our vote is one of the most patriotic things we can do right now.”

In addition to Trump’s authoritarian policies, US voters are contending with high prices tied to the president’s policies, from the Iran War to his legally dubious tariffs. Cliff Albright and LaTosha Brown, co-founders of Black Voters Matter Fund, noted that “the cost of our groceries, our utility bills, our healthcare—all of it is shaped by the people we elect and the decisions they make, which is why our participation matters.”

“America belongs to the people—not to kings, billionaires, or politicians,” Albright and Brown emphasized.

Other coalition members include the American Federation of Teachers, MoveOn, State Voices, and Voto Latino, whose executive director, Beatriz Lopez, vowed that “on October 17th, we will show up, vote early, and vote like our future depends on it because American democracy has no kings.”

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HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

USA: Bea Lumpkin and How an Antifascist Rests in Power

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article by Stacy Davis Gates in In These Times

When people ask me what it means to be a woman in power, I think about Bea Lumpkin, because power means you don’t wait for permission.

Not power as in proximity to the powerful, or having a seat at a table someone else built. I mean power as in knowing early which side you were on, then spending every day of your life standing on the business of that side.

Bea passed away June 14 at 107 years old. A lifelong communist and the Jewish daughter of Russian immigrants, she married a Black man during the height of the Red Scare in 1949 and raised a family under the restrictive conventions of Jim Crow fascism.


Bea Lumpkin with her husband Frank

The United States in the mid-20th century was a country where inter-racial marriage was still illegal in 30 states, and where the Supreme Court would not strike down those laws until 1967. A federal agent might show up at your door simply because of who you loved and what you believed.

It was the McCarthy era, and the openly Communist Lumpkins were already a target for their activism. But their politics were the least of it. They were an interracial couple in America in 1949. That alone was enough to make them a threat.

In a 2019 article for People’s World, Bea Lumpkin wrote: “In addition to fighting back against school closures and the firing of teachers, it is important to keep the struggle for an anti-racist, multicultural curriculum front and center.”

Bea and her husband, Frank — steel-worker, son of sharecroppers — were undeterred.

To understand what Bea brought to her marriage, and to everything else in her life, you have to understand what she had already lived by the time she married.

Her parents were Russian revolutionaries. Her father was arrested after returning fire on the Czar’s Cossacks when they attacked the synagogue where the Jewish Labor Bund was meeting. Her mother helped engineer his escape.

Bea was born knowing which side she was on, telling the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund in 2025, “I always knew, even when I was 6 years old, how much injustice there was.”

By age 9, she was making solidarity trips in support of striking textile workers. At 14, she lied about her age to get a factory job assembling radio tubes and joined the Metal Workers Industrial Union. At Hunter College, when the school threatened to raise the price of a half pint of milk from five to six cents, she organized a boycott and won. She was later suspended for organizing a conference against war and fascism on campus.

At 19, Bea was one of the organizers hired by the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations to organize more than 30,000 laundry workers in New York City. She was a radio technician with the United Electrical Workers and a defense worker during World War II.

In 1948, she stood alongside Paul Robeson at a labor rally in New York. She marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Marquette Park. She stood alongside the Black Panthers on Chicago’s West Side. Legend in our movement holds that she once babysat a young Fred Hampton.

She bore witness to the state killing striking workers during the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre in Chicago, where 10 were killed and 90 injured when police shot into the crowd. She knowingly took risks to win justice and to marry the love of her life.

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Questions related to this article:

How can we carry forward the work of the great peace and justice activists who went before us?

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Bea was many things that our politics too often tries to reduce and sort into separate boxes. She was a mother, and she was an educator who started her classroom career at age 47. She was a mathematician who published groundbreaking scholarship on the multicultural roots of math and science because her students demanded to see themselves in what they were learning. She was a feminist who co-founded the Coalition of Labor Union Women in 1974. She was a fierce advocate for climate justice in her 100s.

Bea’s existence resisted reduction because it undersells the enormous impact of her life. She wasn’t an “-ism.” She was a force of nature. The labor movement Bea entered as a teenager in the 1930s was fighting for things we now take as bedrock: the right to organize, the minimum wage and the eight-hour workday. She was raised to believe that her existence was to make the world a more just place for everyone. For Bea, the struggle was never a sacrifice. It was a joy.

As a Black woman leading a labor union in this particular moment in America, when the rights Bea’s generation bled for are being dismantled in real time, when public education is under assault, when the multiracial coalitions she built her life around are being deliberately fractured,
I find myself asking what Bea would do.

She would be at the rally, on the picket line and knocking doors. She would be organizing young people and old people in the same room. She would be furious and unrelenting, yet jubilant and optimistic. She didn’t slow down by choice. Her body made that decision for her.

Bea taught us the discipline of showing up, and the refusal to leave a struggle to someone else.

She embodied the understanding that justice is not something you wait for, but something you build, generation by generation, in union halls and church basements, and on picket lines, no matter the weather. Well into her 100s she attended every monthly delegate meeting and protest and caucus meeting for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and oftentimes got there without any support or assistance. I can close my eyes and see that black fanny pack, red CTU cap, and fist held high in proud defiance.

She was our friend, and we are going to miss her.

Roberta Wilson, a longtime organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), gave 80 years of her life to educating students.

Our union also lost in these same days of grief one of our longtime members, Roberta Wilson.

Roberta came north from Thomson, Georgia, as part of the Second Great Migration that helped build Chicago. She gave 80 years of her life to her faith, to educating her students, to organizing her block club, coat drives, and food pantry, and to creating a scholarship fund that sent Black children from Chicago’s West Side to college.

Black history.

Where Bea showed us how to fight, Roberta showed us how to hold, and how to be the root system of a community that allowed everything above ground to grow.

They are the women on whom this movement is built.

Excerpt from her book, Joy in the Struggle: My Life and Love by Beatrice Lumpkin, International Publishers, 2018. Free for any DSA or Union member

‘So how do I feel about fighting for the same issues again and again? My reply is, “Yes, I am tired of the system that puts profits first. But I am not tired of fighting capitalism. Each fight brings us in touch with wonderful fellow-fighters. Each fight hastens the day when organized workers and their allies will be strong enough to get rid of capitalism and begin to build socialism. Yes, there is joy in the struggle.’ —

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The author, Stacy Davis Gates, is president of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

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HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

Thousands march in Washington as leaders warn of voting and civil rights rollbacks

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article from Reuters (reproduced by permission)

More than six decades after Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps ‌of the Lincoln Memorial and declared his dream for a more just America, thousands gathered in Washington on Friday to warn that voting rights and other freedoms he fought and died for are once again under threat.

Civil rights leaders invoked the same demands he made from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial two and a half generations ago: that the fight for equality remains unfinished.

The event, called “March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote,” drew several thousand people to the National Mall, including union members, students, members of Black Greek-letter organizations, and attendees of all ages who traveled from across the country.


Photo from video accompanying the article

The march comes after the Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act this year, setting off a string of redistricting battles across the South, with Republican-led statehouses moving quickly, in some cases within days, to redraw congressional maps in time for midterm elections in November.

“We know in this fight we’re fighting powerful forces, but this is why we rally today,” said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the civil rights organization National Urban League. “This is why we seek to bring Americans together of goodwill from all races, from all sections of the country to push back as forcefully as we can.”

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Questions related to this article:

The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

How can we be sure to get news about peace demonstrations?

(Article continued from the left column)

The gathering was organized by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and Martin Luther King III ‌and Arndrea Waters King’s Drum Major Institute, alongside more than 90 community partner organizations, including the NAACP and National Urban League.

“Defending the vote means defending the foundation of our democracy,” said King III in a statement. “Sixty-three years after my father stood at the Lincoln Memorial, we are called to march again, not only in remembrance, but in action.”

According to the organizers, the march aims to “confront the systemic rollback of civil rights at this critical moment,” referring to President Donald Trump’s efforts to curb mail-in voting, weaken anti-discrimination protections across the federal government and fundamentally shift what civil rights are.

“We stand on the same ground because the work is not finished,” Sharpton wrote in a letter to supporters. “The right to vote, the very foundation of our power, is being chipped away in statehouse after statehouse. When the vote is weakened, every other right grows fragile with it.”

The program began at 9 a.m. ET with confirmed speakers U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

“Black unemployment is up, Black homeownership is down and Black political representation is under assault with Jim Crow-like tactics all throughout the South — challenging times,” Jeffries said, referring to the system of state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the American South until the 1960s.

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HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

California was mostly solar-powered in May — a global first

.. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ..

An article from Canary Media

While the Trump administration is busy pointing out that the sun doesn’t shine at night, solar is breaking records around the world, including in sunny California.

Solar panels produced 51% of California’s electricity in May, the first time the clean energy source surpassed the halfway mark for an entire month. The data counts both large-scale installations and the state’s bounty of rooftop arrays.

(click on image to enlarge it.)

This isn’t just a milestone moment for California; it’s a milestone for the entire world. Think tank Ember says the state is the globe’s first major economy to cross the 50% threshold. (Hungary, at 47% in June 2025, is knocking at the door, though it has a far smaller GDP.)

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Question for this article:

Are we making progress in renewable energy?

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Solar’s rise has helped California cut polluting energy sources out of its power mix. Natural gas is the only fossil fuel that California power plants burn at appreciable levels, and solar is steadily squeezing it out of the system. Case in point: Solar outproduced gas not only during its record month of May but throughout every month in 2026 leading up to it, too.

Solar could not have reached these heights alone. It needed batteries to get here — and California has that crucial energy storage in spades. The California Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state’s grid, now boasts 16 gigawatts of batteries that can shift abundant midday solar production to later in the evening. It’s not uncommon for batteries to meet over one-quarter of the state’s electricity demand for a portion of the night.

All this solar and storage would have been hard to imagine a decade ago. Back then, in its best month — also sunny, mild May — solar accounted for just 17% of electricity. That number is well above the current national average for solar, but a far cry from 51%. CAISO’s battery fleet, meanwhile, was a measly 61 megawatts. So, storage has grown by, uh … 26,129% over the last decade, a number so cartoonishly large that I’m almost hesitant to print it.

Expect California to see more months break the 50% threshold soon. And in the coming years, expect more states and countries to cross the halfway mark, too.

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North America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

US: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights alarmed at deaths in ICE custody, calls for urgent preventive action

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….

An press release from the United Nations Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday [June 26] urged prompt action to prevent further loss of life in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and called for independent investigations into all deaths under ICE custody.

Türk said that it is alarming that, according to US Government official data, in the first five months of this year, 18 people had died in ICE detention. A further case of death in ICE custody has been reported this month. In 2025, a total of 33 deaths were registered, compared with 11 in 2024.

The lack of transparency and clarity surrounding the circumstances of these deaths in custody undermines accountability for them, the High Commissioner added.


ICE detention centre in Newark, New Jersey on June 6, 2026 © RYAN MURPHY / AFP

“I call for prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into all deaths in ICE custody. Those responsible for violations of the law must be held to account, and the rights of the victims’ families to truth, justice and reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence must be upheld,” said Türk.

These deaths occurred in a context of broad expansion of the US immigration detention system, with ICE currently holding over 60,000 individuals compared to approximately 40,000 in early 2025, according to the latest official data. There are plans to further increase the detention capacity up to 90,000 people by the end of 2026.

Detainees, who include entire families with children, and medically vulnerable people, are frequently reported to face inhuman conditions of detention and treatment, including inadequate healthcare and food, and exposure to disease outbreaks in overcrowded facilities. There have been concerning allegations regarding the use of force. Additionally, five of the officially reported deaths in 2026 were classified as suicides.

A lack of information regarding the whereabouts of detainees during transfers has been reported, causing significant distress among families, while prolonged uncertainty surrounding legal status and processes contributes to psychological distress among detainees.

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Question related to this article:

What is the state of human rights in the world today?

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Türk also expressed alarm over the reported use of solitary confinement, which should be an exceptional measure, and, particularly when prolonged or indefinite, could amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

“All these factors exacerbate vulnerability and raise serious concerns as to whether some of these deaths in ICE custody could have been prevented,” said the High Commissioner.

He stressed that alternatives to detention should be prioritized. Immigration detention should be an exceptional measure of last resort and should generally be avoided for people with significant medical or mental health conditions, as well as pregnant women. Regardless of their immigration status or that of their parents, children should not be subjected to immigration detention.

US immigration authorities must ensure that their detention facilities comply with international human rights norms and standards. This includes upholding dignity, avoiding overcrowding, providing timely access to healthcare, including mental health services, family notification, consular assistance, legal representation, and necessary interpretation services for all individuals in immigration detention.

The High Commissioner urged the full restoration and strengthening of independent oversight mechanisms for immigration detention, highlighting their importance as a key safeguard against abuse. He also stressed the crucial role of Congressional bodies in overseeing immigration enforcement practices and associated public funding, to ensure better compliance with international human rights law.

Türk strongly denounced the continued dehumanisation and criminalisation of migrants and refugees. He expressed support for all those who continue to advocate for dignity, fairness, and the protection of their human rights, including lawyers, journalists, faith-based organisations, and civil society groups.

He emphasised that no one should be sent back to a place where they could face serious human rights violations or other irreversible harm.

For more information and media requests, please contact:
In Geneva
: Ravina Shamdasani – ravina.shamdasani@un.org
    
Marta Hurtado – marta.hurtadogomez@un.org

In New York
: Laura Gelbert – gelbert@un.org
WhatsApp
X: @UNHumanRights

Facebook: unitednationshumanrights
Instagram: @unitednationshumanrights

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‘A Moment of Reckoning’: 4,000+ May Day Demonstrations Across US

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article by Stephen Prager from Common Dreams (licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

In thousands of locations across the United States, workers and students are taking off from work and school and swearing off shopping on Friday as part of a national May Day protest.

May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and unions organizing the events, said more than 4,000 actions, from marches to pickets to displays of peaceful civil disobedience, were underway.

It is yet another nationwide display of coordinated resistance to the Trump administration’s agenda, including its war in Iran and its use of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to attack immigrant communities, issues that were at the forefront of March’s “No Kings” protests.

Six young protesters with the Sunrise Movement were taken into custody  after blocking a bridge in Minneapolis in what they said was an act of “nonviolent noncooperation” to “stand up to the war in Iran and against ICE terrorizing our neighbors and our cities.”

Dozens more Sunrise protesters in Portland held a sit-in in the lobby of a Hilton hotel that was housing top officials with the Department of Homeland Security, leading to eight arrests.

“It’s May 1st, it’s workers’ day,” one of the protesters was recorded saying while being led away by police. “Don’t forget that you have power.”

In New York, over 100 activists lined up  outside every entrance  to the New York Stock Exchange in downtown Manhattan, banging drums and chanting “No ICE, no war!” where they were met by a flood of cops.

In the spirit of May Day, a global day of solidarity among workers, Sulma Arias, the executive director of the social justice organization People’s Action, said Friday’s “Workers Over Billionaires” protests are just as much about confronting injustices as about building an alternative.

“During the ‘No Kings’ demonstrations, we showed what we’re against. May Day is the day we’re making clear what we are fighting for,” Arias said. “We are for affordable housing for low-income people. We are for free healthcare for all. We are for utility laws that ensure every home stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer at costs that a person on a fixed income can afford. We are for the right to a fair and equal vote for Americans from every race and in every state. May Day is our day to assert and defend our rights.”

“They want us afraid. They want us divided. But on May 1, we refuse.”

Despite claims by President Donald Trump that the US is entering an economic “golden age” under his leadership, a Gallup poll  released this week found that 55% of Americans said their finances were getting worse, the highest number ever recorded in more than 20 years of polling, and even higher than in the doldrums of the Great Recession.

Question related to this article:
 
What is the contribution of trade unions to the culture of peace?

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A coalition of labor unions across several major cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles, has coordinated  what has been called an “economic blackout,” which includes avoiding buying from private sector retailers.

“When we say ‘workers over billionaires,’ ‘billionaires’ is not just this amorphous figure, right? They’re real people,” said Jana Korn, the chief of staff for the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, in an interview  with The Real News Network. “In Philadelphia, we’re kind of a poor city. We don’t have that many billionaires, but we have one. The CEO of Comcast is the only billionaire that lives in the city.”

“So why should we, as a city, accept that they take and take from us? And then with that money, what do they do? They donate  to Trump’s ballroom project,” she continued. “People in Philadelphia are struggling… Our transportation system barely works. We’re at risk of having 17 schools close down  this year.”

Some labor organizers have described economic boycotts, undertaken  as part of prior mass protest movements against the second Trump administration, as an act of building strength for something larger, such as a future general strike.

“I think really for us in the labor movement,” Korn said, “[the boycott is] about how do we build the capacity to really disrupt, to strike when necessary, to shut things down when we have to. And that’s something that we have not been called to do as a labor movement in a very long time.”

Other unions have used May Day to confront their own employers directly. In New Orleans, hundreds of nurses at University Medical Center announced that they were beginning a five-day strike  after attempting to negotiate a contract for more than two years.

In New York City, Amazon workers unionized with the Teamsters assembled on the steps of the public library before marching to Amazon’s corporate offices to demand the company cut its contracts with ICE, which has used its cloud computing services to target immigrants, including some Amazon workers and contractors.

Matt Multari, who has worked as an Amazon driver for a year and a half, told Mother Jones  that he joined the protest to “demand the one thing that’s worth fighting for in this life: respect.”

Masih Fouladi, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, said, “May Day is a moment of reckoning.”

“Immigrant communities—from farmworkers in our fields to nurses in our hospitals, from refugees fleeing war to families who have built their lives here for generations—are under siege,” she said. “They want us afraid. They want us divided. But on May 1, we refuse.”

“Workers and immigrants—documented and undocumented, native-born and newly arrived,” she said, “will stand together in the streets because we know the truth: there is no workers’ rights without immigrant rights, and there is no justice for working people here while our tax dollars fund devastation abroad.”

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

National Autonomous University of Mexico: Academics suggest intensifying the construction of a culture of peace

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article from Impulso Informativo (translation by CPNN)

Peace requires a perspective that transcends geographical, symbolic, linguistic, and material borders, since they have often been spaces of exclusion and violation of human rights, said Fiorella Mancini, Academic Secretary of the Humanities Coordination at UNAM.

“In light of this, we are challenged us to rethink these limits and to analyze the possibilities of common forces,” he said at the opening of the International Seminar “Transnationalization of the Culture of Peace in North America.” The seminar took place In the Mónica Verea room of the Center for Research on North America (CISAN).

The academic meeting promotes dialogue between specialists from diverse contexts, for example, from the University of Notre Dame – which has developed models applied in more than 100 countries to promote programs in this field in higher education institutions – as well as the analysis of universal principles and local realities.

The meeting proposes a different and complementary perspective on the current geopolitical reality where democracy is backsliding and we are losing rights that were thought to have been won. We want to consider what is possible: resolutions, dialogue, and the challenges of integrating differences, Fiorella Mancini pointed out.

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(Click here for the Spanish original of this article)

Question for this article:

Where is peace education taking place?

University campus peace centers, What is happening on your campus?

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New dimension

According to Juan Carlos Barrón Pastor, director of CISAN, this university entity works in conjunction with UNAM’s campuses in the United States (Chicago, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Tucson, Boston, and Seattle). This serves as the initial point of contact for addressing all types of violence and conflict experienced on both sides of the border. He said that the lines of research we develop take on a new dimension when viewed in light of building a culture of peace, since this is a way to reverse the growing violence in Mexico.

According to Leticia Cano Soriano, head of the University Program on Culture of Peace and Eradication of Violence (PUCPAZ), university efforts to achieve this way of life involve creating community, interweaving actions, knowledge and commitments, in order to propose alternatives for the formation of a culture of peace. (See CPNN article from April 12)

According to Anel Pérez Martínez, director of the Center for Foreign Studies at the National University, we must combat hate speech which is a powerful form of aggression. We cannot imagine a culture of peace without inclusive language, which contributes to critical thinking, she emphasized.

George Lopez, professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and founder of the Krok Institute for International Peace Studies at this institution, contributes to this academic activity a model that consists of exchanges of American students with those from war zones or conflict zones.

He explained that his focus is on building a strategic peace where there is training in mediation, social resolution and community work.

The Seminar was organized by the Humanities Coordination; CISAN; Institute of Social Research; Faculty of Psychology; National School of Social Work; Center for Mexican Studies of the UNAM in Chicago and the University of Notre Dame (based in Indiana, United States).

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EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America, North America,

Sowing the seeds of a culture of peace: Why we founded the New Brunswick Peace Council

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article by Denis Boulet for NB Media Coop

For as long as I can remember, I have felt that our corner of the world – this small part of the planet we call New Brunswick – exists in a state of constant tension. Whether it be our language debates, the climate crisis, social alienation, or the relentless struggle between capital and labour, conflict seems to be our backdrop.

In 2022, it became clear to us that these local tensions are not disconnected from global turmoil. In a context where powers clash, where the spectre of nuclear armageddon resurfaces, and where millions of people are displaced by conflict, we can no longer remain mere spectators. It was in this spirit that the NB Peace Council was born on May 13, 2022.


Demonstrators rally in a blizzard at Fredericton City Hall on March 14, 2026 to protest Canada’s support for US aggression. Photo: Robiin Purcell

Our work is rooted here, on the unceded lands of Wabanaki, people of the Dawnland. We refuse to accept that the territory be used to fuel violence, whether ecological or human. For us, peace is not simply the absence of war, it is an active refusal to accept the destruction of our ecosystems or to allow the Canadian state, or its major commercial interests, to be complicit in the oppression of peoples, whether in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, or elsewhere.

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(Click here for the original French version of this article.)

Question related to this article:


How can we develop the institutional framework for a culture of peace?

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It was to refuse Canada’s support for the Israeli-American war against Iran that we held our very first rally on March 14, braving the stormy weather.

My father has often told me that I couldn’t change the world on my own. He’s probably right. But I refuse to believe that we are powerless. While we cannot transform everything at once, we can certainly organize ourselves to improve our provincial reality, protect our waterways, and cultivate genuine solidarity among citizens.

How can we organize this struggle? We do not have all the answers, but we must start asking the right questions. The Peace Council does not seek to replace what already exists, but to join a large community of consciousness. That is why we stand in solidarity with the Wolastoqiyik grandmothers and the Coalition to Stop the Sisson Mine. Peace also means defending our territory from greed, extractivism, and environmental harm.

Voices for peace are rare in the mainstream media, where the roles of NATO and the military-industrial complex are either obscured or glorified. This is why we believe that a true culture of peace must emerge from the bottom up, through building alliances, by mobilizing all spheres of New Brunswick civil society.

We are a young organization, made up of citizens from various regions and linguistic communities. We know that the road ahead is long and that we sometimes seem very small in the face of global challenges. But we are confident: the more of us who share our ideas and energy, the greater the momentum of our movement.

For those who, like us, refuse to remain silent and wish to participate in this movement of peace, dialogue and disarmament, the doors of our council are wide open. Together, we can make a loud and clear call for peace.

Denis Boulet is a teacher and francophone co-chair of the NB Peace Council. Anyone wishing to get in touch with us can write to paixnbpeace@gmail.com.

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

‘Workers Over Billionaires’: Over 3,000 Events Planned for May Day Across US

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article by Brad Reed from Common Dreams (reprinted according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

A broad coalition of organizations is banding together to stage thousands of planned May Day events across the US based around the theme of building an economy for “workers over billionaires.”

May Day Strong, an initiative anchored by 500 labor and community organizations, is set to host more than 3,000 events throughout the country to demand higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans, an end to US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the war with Iran, and an expansion of democracy over corporate rule.

Organizers of the events are asking participants to refrain from engaging in any economic activity on May 1, which means “no work, no school, no shopping.” This particular action was inspired by the one-day general strike that residents of Minneapolis waged in January to protest against the occupy of their city by federal immigration enforcement officers.

Photo from Labor Day mobilization last year

Flagship demonstrations will be held in major US cities from coast to coast, with thousands of smaller events scheduled to take place in all 50 states.

Neidi Dominguez, executive director of Organized Power in Numbers, said the rallies are being organized to ensure “our tax dollars going to good jobs, schools, and housing, not to sending federal agents into our cities to attack our neighbors.”

Rebecca Winter, executive director of Mass 50501, framed the events as a way for Americans to exert economic leverage to protest injustice.

“The American people are done grinding to get by while our tax dollars fund wars abroad and concentration camps at home,” said Winter. “We pay more for everything while those in power cash in. On May 1, we hit back with our wallets—no work, no school, no shopping. We the people are the economy, and we decide when it stops.”

Greg Nammacher, president of Minnesota-based Service Employees International Union Local 26, drew on the Minneapolis experience to explain what the May Day protests are trying to achieve.

“In January in Minnesota this year we experienced the power when community and workers act together to defend our rights and shared values,” Nammacher said. “This May Day is a chance for us locally, and nationally, to build on those lessons: We are ready to fight to protect our families and our cities from the billionaire agenda of division and hate.”

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), said the protests would also highlight inhumane US immigration policies and demand a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

“On May Day, we rise because worker justice is immigrant justice,” Salas said. “It’s been 40 years since the last time this nation recognized the contributions of immigrants by approving a pathway to citizenship. And it’s been 20 years since La Gran Marcha—when millions of people took to the streets to reject exclusion, racism, and criminalization of immigrant communities—and we are still facing the same forces, especially under the Trump administration.”

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Questions related to this article:

The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

How can we be sure to get news about peace demonstrations?

(Article continued from the left column)

Braxton Winston, president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, described the demonstrations as a good way to bring new people into the movement and strengthen future actions.

“Now is the time to build coalitions between unorganized workers, unions, and community members for mass actions to disrupt the well-organized, joint efforts of corporations and the White House to exploit American workers,” Winston said. “The actions we take on International Workers Day are about building the political, social, community, and labor coalitions needed to disrupt the status quo. The power we flex this May Day will fuel our unwavering commitment to building a bigger, more effective, unified labor movement to win victories for working families.”

. . . . COALITION . . . .

The coalition for May Day Strong lists many hundreds of sponsors.

These include the two leading sponsors of the NoKings demonstrations that have drawn huge crowds in the past two years:

Indivisible
MoveOn

As should be expected from the fact that Mayday is the traditional celebration of workers, there are many sponsors from the labor movement, led by the national associations of teachers and professors :

AAUP, American Association of University Professors
AFT, American Federation of Teachers
APWU, American Postal Workers Union
Jobs with Justice
National Nurses United
NEA, National Education Association
Starbucks Workers United
United Steelworkers of America
USSW, Union of Southern Service Workers
VSEA, Vermont State Employees Association

Other major American trade unions are not represented nationally, but by a few locals:

AFSCME, American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees
CWA, Communication Workers of America
IBEW, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
IBT, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
SEIU, Service Employees International Union
UAW, United Auto Workers
UFCW, United Food and Commercial Workers
UNITE HERE

Other important sponsors include:

50501
CODEPINK
Common Cause
Democratic Socialists of America
Fridays for Future, USA
Greenpeace USA
United States Student Association

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HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

Over 100 International Law Experts Warn: U.S. Strikes on Iran Violate UN Charter and May Be War Crimes

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from Just Security

The United States and Israel initiated strikes on Iran over one month ago, on February 28, 2026. The attack was a clear violation of the United Nations Charter. The conduct of the war, and statements of U.S. officials, also raise serious concerns about violations of international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes. We have written the below statement together with over 100 U.S.-based international law experts, to detail our profound concerns about the war. The letter is signed by international law experts across the United States, including senior professors; leaders of prominent international law associations, non-governmental organizations, and legal clinics; former government legal advisors; and military law experts and former Judge Advocates General (JAGs).


Letter of over 100 international law experts on Iran war
 
We, the undersigned U.S.-based international law experts, professors, and practitioners write to express profound concern about serious violations of international law and alarming rhetoric by the United States, Israel, and Iran in the present armed conflict in the Middle East.

Due to our connection to the United States, our focus here is on the conduct of the U.S. government, but we remain concerned about the risk of atrocities across the region including the continuing risks posed by the Iranian government to Iranians through violent crackdowns on dissent, and to civilians across the Middle East through Iran’s ongoing unlawful strikes on civilian infrastructure using explosive weapons in densely populated areas.

One month has passed since the United States and Israel launched strikes across Iran. The initiation of the campaign was a clear violation of the United Nations Charter, and the conduct of United States forces since, as well as statements made by senior government officials, raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes.  

We collectively affirm the importance of equal application of international law to all, including countries that hold themselves out as global leaders. Recent statements from senior U.S. government officials describing the rules governing military engagement as “stupid” and prioritizing “lethality” over “legality” are profoundly alarming and dangerously short-sighted. These claims, particularly in combination with the observable conduct of U.S. forces, are harming the international legal order and the system of international law that we have devoted our lives to promoting. 

The war, which is costing U.S. taxpayers between $1-2 billion each day, is imposing significant harm to civilians in the region, has resulted in the loss of hundreds of civilian lives across the Middle East, and is causing serious environmental  and economic harms.

We write to express our concern about 1) jus ad bellum, or the decision to go to war, 2) jus in bello, or the conduct of hostilities, 3) rhetoric and threats from senior U.S. officials and their allies, which portend further abuses, and 4) the decimation of civilian harm mitigation structures within the U.S. government as a part of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “gloves off” approach to warfare. 

1. Jus ad bellum concerns: The strikes launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, 2026 clearly violated the United Nations Charter prohibition on the use of force. Force against another state is only permitted in self-defense against an actual or imminent armed attack or where authorized by the UN Security Council. The Security Council did not authorize the attack. Iran did not attack Israel or the United States. Despite the Trump administration’s varied and sometimes conflicting claims to the contrary, there is no evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat that could ground a self-defense claim. Many international law experts have concluded that Israel and the United States’ actions violate the UN Charter, including the President and President-elect of the American Society of International Law, and the President of the American Branch of the International Law Association; UN Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the attacks as undermining international peace and security.

2. Concerns about violations of international humanitarian law: The laws of armed conflict constrain the conduct of hostilities of all parties to the ongoing conflict. We are concerned that these fundamental rules may have been violated, including in the context of reported strikes on civilians and civilian objects such as political leaders who have no military role, oil and gas infrastructure, including South Pars, and water desalination plants. On March 19, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned strikes on energy infrastructure, noting their “disastrous” impacts for civilians. 

We are seriously concerned about strikes that have hit schools, health facilities, and homes. The Iranian Red Crescent reports that “67,414 civilian sites have been struck, of which 498 are schools and 236 health facilities.” A report by leading civil society organizations found that at least 1,443 Iranian civilians, including 217 children, were killed by U.S. and Israeli forces between February 28 and March 23. 

The strike on Minab primary school is particularly concerning. On February 28, Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, Iran, was struck, resulting in the deaths of at least 175 people, many of them children, according to Iranian officials. Based on easily accessible online information and commercially available satellite imagery, it appears the building had been used as a school for a decade. President Trump denied U.S. responsibility, falsely stating that “It was done by Iran.” However, a preliminary investigation by the Department of Defense reportedly determined that the U.S. conducted the strike, and the targeting had been based on outdated intelligence. The strike likely violates international humanitarian law, and if evidence is found that those responsible were reckless, it could also be a war crime. The strike is among the deadliest single attacks by the U.S. military on civilians in recent decades. 

3. Concerns about rhetoric and threats from senior officials. We are deeply concerned about the dangerous rhetoric government officials have engaged in during the war, including: 

a. Threatened denial of quarter: On March 13, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated “We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.” In international law, it is “especially forbidden” to “declare that no quarter will be given,” a prohibition also set out in the Department of Defense’s own law of war manual. Hegseth’s statement likely violates international humanitarian law as well as the U.S. War Crimes statute 18 U.S.C. 2441. Ordering or threatening no quarter is a war crime. 
 
b. Dismissal of rules of engagement and international law: Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s “no quarter” statement followed similarly alarming statements by the Secretary, including on September 25, 2025 and March 2, 2026 that the U.S. does not fight with “stupid rules of engagement.” On January 8, 2026 President Trump had made the disturbing comment that “I don’t need international law.” On March 13, he stated that the U.S. may conduct strikes on Iran “just for fun.”

c. Threats on energy infrastructure: President Trump threatened on March 13, 2026: “I could take out things within the next hour, power plants that create the electricity, that create the water… We could do things that would be so bad they could literally never rebuild as a nation again.” International law protects from attack objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, and the attacks threatened by Trump, if implemented, could entail war crimes. On March 21, President Trump further threatened to “obliterate” power plants in Iran. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, defended power plant attacks the next day, and also said that striking nuclear power plants was not off the table. It is prohibited to attack civilian energy infrastructure. If a power plant has both civilian and military purposes (“dual-use”), it may be considered a military objective where it makes “an effective contribution to military action” and the attack “offers a definite military advantage.” However, any strike must respect the principles of proportionality and precautions in attack. The proportionality principle prohibits attacks expected to cause incidental civilian harm that would be excessive in relation to the military advantage. The civilian harm to be considered includes foreseeable reverberating or indirect harm. In any attack, “all feasible precautions” must be taken to avoid civilian harm. 

Attacks on nuclear power plants, even if they have a military purpose, require particular care because of the high risk of releasing radiation and radioactive material and consequent severe harm to the civilian population. Such a strike could harm the health and safety of millions of civilians.  On March 23, 2026, the ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger expressed her deep concern, noting that “War on essential infrastructure is war on civilians” and described threats to nuclear power plants as “Most alarming.”

4. Concerns about institutional safeguards against further violations: Since the start of the second Trump administration, the Defense Department under Secretary Hegseth has deliberately and systematically weakened the protections meant to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law. This includes removing senior military lawyers without publicly citing misconduct, and replacing the Army, Navy, and Air Force judge advocates general, directly undermining legal oversight of combat operations. It has also abolished “civilian environment teams” and other mechanisms specifically designed to limit harm to civilians during operations. The 2026 National Defense Strategy omits references to civilian protection and international law entirely. These changes are especially concerning in light of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments that rules of engagement interfere with “fighting to win.”  

We are gravely concerned that the conduct and threats outlined here are causing serious harm to civilians in the Middle East, and that they also contribute to escalating the conflict, damaging the environment and the global economy, and that they risk degrading the rule of law and fundamental norms that protect every nation’s civilians. Public statements by senior officials indicate an alarming disrespect for the rules of international humanitarian law accepted by states, and which protect both civilians and members of the armed forces. 
  
We urge U.S. government officials to uphold the UN Charter, international humanitarian law, and human rights law at all times, and to publicly make clear U.S. commitment to and respect for norms of international law. 

We remind all states of their legal obligations not to aid or assist the United States, Israel, or Iran in the commission of internationally wrongful acts, as well as to cooperate to bring to an end through lawful means serious breaches of peremptory norms of general international law (jus cogens) including the prohibition of aggression and the basic rules of international humanitarian law. 

We also urge the U.S. governments’ allies and cooperating partners to take steps to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law, in line with Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions and associated customary international law. The United States has itself acknowledged that states should seek to promote adherence by others to international humanitarian law. The International Committee of the Red Cross 2016 Commentary on the First Geneva Convention of 1949 provides that a state is “in a unique position to influence the behavior” of partner states where the state “participates in the financing, equipping, arming or training of the armed forces of a Party to a conflict, even plans, carries out and debriefs operations jointly with such forces.”  

Signed,*

William J. Aceves

Chief Justice Roger Traynor Professor of Law

California Western School of Law

E. Tendayi Achiume

Professor of Law

Stanford Law School

Rabiat Akande

Wilson H. Elkins Chair and Associate Professor

University of Maryland School of Law

Susan Akram

Clinical Professor of Law

Director, International Human Rights Clinic

Boston University School of Law

Philip Alston

John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law

NYU School of Law

José E. Alvarez

Herbert and Rose Rubin Professor of International Law

NYU School of Law

Faculty Director, US-Asia Law Institute

Diane Marie Amann

Visiting Professor, LSE Law School

Special Adviser to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict (2012-2021)

Baher Azmy

Legal Director

Center for Constitutional Rights

Sandra L. Babcock

Clinical Professor of Law

Director, International Human Rights Clinic

Cornell Law School

Aslı Ü. Bâli

Howard M. Holtzmann Professor of Law

Yale Law School

Carolyn P. Blum

Clinical Professor of Law, Emerita

Berkeley Law, University of California

Christine Bustany

Senior Lecturer in International Law

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Charli Carpenter

Professor of Political Science

University of Massachusetts Department of Political Science

Christina M. Cerna

Adjunct Professor of Law (ret.)

Georgetown University Law Centre

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ret.), OAS

Sandra Coliver

Former Executive Director

Center for Justice and Accountability

Jorge Contesse

Professor of Law

Rutgers Law School

Cody Corliss

Associate Professor of Law

West Virginia University College of Law

Avidan Y. Cover

Professor of Law

Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Rebecca Crootof

Nancy Litchfield Hicks Professor of Law

University of Richmond School of Law

Jamil Dakwar

Director, ACLU Human Rights Program

Adjunct Professor, New York University and Hunter College

Tom Dannenbaum

Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security

Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Frederick T. Davis

Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School
Principal,
Fred Davis Law Office

Christian M. De Vos

Visiting Assistant Professor

City University of New York School of Law

Laura Dickinson

Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law

The George Washington University Law School

Stephanie Farrior

Professor of Law (ret.)

Eugene R. Fidell

Visiting Lecturer in Law

Senior Research Scholar

Yale Law School

Martin S. Flaherty

Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor

School of Public and International Affairs,
Princeton University

Laurel Fletcher

Chancellor’s Clinical Professor of Law

UC Berkeley, School of Law

Claudia Flores

Clinical Professor of Law

Director, Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic

Faculty Co-Director, Orville H. Schell Jr. Center for International Human Rights

Yale Law School

Idriss Fofana

Assistant Professor of Law

Harvard Law School

Barbara Frey

Director Emerita, Human Rights Program

University of Minnesota

Hannah R. Garry

Clinical Professor of Law

Founding Faculty Director, Donna and Spencer Gilbert Global Justice & Human Rights Center

Founding Director, International Human Rights Clinic

University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law

James A. Goldston

Executive Director

Open Society Justice Initiative

Jonathan Hafetz

Professor of Law

Seton Hall Law School

Lisa Hajjar

Professor of Sociology

University of California – Santa Barbara

Rebecca Hamilton

Professor of Law

American University, Washington College of Law

Hurst Hannum

Professor Emeritus of International Law

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Tufts University

Oona A. Hathaway

Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, Yale Law School

Professor, Yale University Department of Political Science

Faculty, Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University

Director, Center for Global Legal Challenges, Yale Law School

President-elect, American Society of International Law

Adil Haque

Distinguished Professor of Law and Judge Jon O. Newman Scholar

Rutgers Law School

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Question related to this article:
 
How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

(Continued from left column)

Hadar Harris

Founder and Principal

Rights and Justice Consulting

Lindsay M. Harris

Professor of Law

Director, International Human Rights Clinic

University of San Francisco School of Law

Sarah Harrison

Former Associate General Counsel

Department of Defense

J. Benton Heath

Associate Professor of Law

Temple University School of Law

Paul Hoffman

Director, Defending Democracy Clinic

University of California at Irvine School of Law

Partner, Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman, LLP

David B. Hunter

Professor Emeritus

American University Washington College of Law

Deena R. Hurwitz, Esq.
Founder of the International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Virginia

Rebecca Ingber

Professor of Law

Cardozo Law

Co-Director, Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy
Senior Fellow, Reiss Center on Law and Security,
NYU School of Law

Former Counselor, Office of the Legal Advisor, U.S Department of State

Tejal Jesrani

Human Rights Clinical Instructor

Director, TrialWatch Project

Columbia Law School

Brett Jones

Charles E. Scheidt Human Rights Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Dr Ioannis Kalpouzos

Visiting Professor

Harvard Law School

Jeffrey Kahn

Professor of Law

Director, Program on Law and Government

American University Washington College of Law

David Kaye

Clinical Professor of Law

UC Irvine School of Law

UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression (2014 – 2020)

U.S. Member, European Commission for Democracy through Law (“Venice Commission”)

Pardiss Kebriaei

Senior Staff Attorney

Center for Constitutional Rights

Michael J. Kelly

Professor of Law

Senator Allen A. Sekt Endowed Chair in Law

Director, Kaiman Center for International Criminal Justice & Holocaust Studies

Creighton University

Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Professor of Law

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

John H. Knox

Henry C. Lauerman Professor of International Law

Wake Forest University School of Law

Former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment

Harold Hongju Koh

Sterling Professor of International Law

Yale Law School

Steven Arrigg Koh

R. Gordon Butler Scholar in International Law

Boston University School of Law

Jeremy Konyndyk

President, Refugees International

David A. Koplow

Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law

Georgetown University Law Center

Christopher Kutz

C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law

Philosophy and Political Science (by courtesy)

Berkeley Law School, UC Berkeley

Beatrice Lindstrom

Senior Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law

Harvard Law School

Katerina Linos

I. Michael Heyman Professor of Law

Co-Faculty Director, Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

UC Berkeley, School of Law

Bert Lockwood

Distinguished Service Professor

Director of the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights
University of Cincinnati College of Law

Editor-in-Chief, Human Rights Quarterly

David Luban

Distinguished University Professor

Georgetown University Law Center

Kate Mackintosh

Executive Director, Professor from Practice

UCLA’s The Promise Institute for Human Rights (Europe)

David G. Mandel-Anthony

Faculty Instructor, Binghamton University Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP)

Former Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, U.S. Department of State

Sarah Margon

Founder and Principal, Windsong Advisory

Former Director of US Foreign Policy at Open Society Foundations

Joseph Margulies

Professor of the Practice of Government

Cornell University

Craig Martin

Professor of Law

Co-Director, International and Comparative Law Center

Washburn University School of Law

Elisa Massimino

Visiting Professor of Law
Executive
Director, Human Rights Institute

Georgetown University Law Center

Daniel Maurer

Associate Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law

Advisor, Center for Military Law & Policy, Texas Tech University School of Law

Board of Directors, National Institute of Military Justice
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (ret.)

Juan E. Mendez

Professor of International Law (ret.)

Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (2010-2016)

Washington College of Law, American University

Gay J. McDougall

Former Vice Chair and 3-term Member, UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Former UN Special Rapporteur on Minorities (2005-2011)
MacArthur Award Fellow, 1999

Senior Fellow and Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence

Leitner Center for International Law and Justice / Center for Race, Law and Justice

Fordham University School of Law

Margaret E. McGuinness

Professor of Law

Co-Director, Center for International and Comparative Law

St. John’s University School of Law

Chi Adanna Mgbako

Clinical Professor of Law

Director, Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic
Fordham Law School

Zinaida Miller

Professor of Law & International Affairs

Northeastern University

Saira Mohamed

Agnes Roddy Robb Chair in Jurisprudence, Ethics, and Social Responsibility

Professor of Law

UC Berkeley, School of Law

Bridget Moix

General Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation

Priyanka Motaparthy

Director, Center for International Human Rights

Clinical Professor

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Karen Musalo

Bank of America Foundation Chair in International Law

Professor & Director, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

U.C. Law, San Francisco

Aryeh Neier

President Emeritus, Open Society Foundations

Former Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

Former Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union

Mary Ellen O’Connell

Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law

Concurrent Professor of International Peace Studies

University of Notre Dame

Diane Orentlicher

Professor Emerita

American University Washington College of Law

Arzoo Osanloo

Professor of Anthropology

Co-Director of the Human Rights Initiative

Princeton University

Jessica Peake

Director, International & Comparative Law Program

UCLA School of Law

Stephen J. Rapp

Senior Fellow, Center for National Security Law, Georgetown Law School

Former US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice (2009-2015)

Paul Rink

Associate Professor of Law

Seton Hall Law School

Francisco J. Rivera Juaristi

Clinical Professor of Law

Santa Clara Law

Scott Roehm

Adjunct Professor of Law

Georgetown Law School

Dr. Cesare P.R. Romano

Professor of Law

W. Joseph Ford Fellow

Loyola Law School, Los Angeles

Gabor Rona

Professor of Practice

Cardozo Law School

Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Distinguished Professor of Law Emerita

UC Law San Francisco

Brad R. Roth

Professor of Political Science and Law

Wayne State University

Kenneth Roth

Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Former Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

Susana SáCouto

Professorial Lecturer-in-Residence

Director, War Crimes Research Office

Director, Summer Law Program in The Hague

American University Washington College of Law

Leila Nadya Sadat

James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law

Washington University School of Law

Director, Crimes Against Humanity Initiative

Chair, International Law Association (American Branch)

Former Special Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity to the ICC Prosecutor (2013-2023)

Margaret L. Satterthwaite

Professor of Law
, NYU School of Law

Beth Van Schaack

Former Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, U.S. State Department

Visiting Fellow (Feb. 2026 – June 2026)

European University Institute

Distinguished Fellow

Center for Human Rights & International Justice,
Stanford University

Michael P. Scharf

President of the American Branch of the International Law Association

Joseph C. Hostetler – BakerHostetler Professor of Law

Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Michael N. Schmitt

Professor of International Law, University of Reading

Professor Emeritus, US Naval War College

Former G. Norman Lieber Distinguished Scholar, West Point

Steven M. Schneebaum

Adjunct Professor
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Visiting Professor, Tashkent State University of Law, Uzbekistan

Eric Schwartz

Professor of Public Affairs

Chair, Global Policy

University of Minnesota

Elizabeth Shackelford

Distinguished Lecturer

Dartmouth College

Gregory Shaffer

Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of International Law

Georgetown University Law Center

Dinah Shelton

Manatt/Ahn Professor of Law (Emeritus)
The George Washington University Law School

Rebecca Shoot

Co-Convener, Washington Working Group for the International Criminal Court
Co-Convener, ImPact Coalition on Strengthening International Judicial Institutions

James Silk

Binger Clinical Professor Emeritus of Human Rights

Yale Law School

Matiangai Sirleaf

Nathan Patz Professor of Law

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
University of Maryland School of Medicine

David Sloss

John A. and Elizabeth H. Sutro Professor of Law

Santa Clara University School of Law

Stephan Sonnenberg

Associate Professor of Practice

Wesleyan University

Milena Sterio

James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law & LLM Programs Director

Cleveland State University College of Law

Jonathan Tracy

Former Judge Advocate, U.S. Army

Jennifer Trahan

Clinical Professor and Director of the Concentration in International Law and Human Rights

NYU Center for Global Affairs

Convenor, The Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression

Rachel E. VanLandingham

Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) (ret.)
Professor of Law & Associate Dean for Research, Southwestern Law School

President Emerita & Director, National Institute of Military Justice

* Signatories are signing in their individual capacities and affiliations are for identification purposes only.

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