UTWorking Group to Testify on Human Rights Impacts of the Texas/Mexico Border Wall

University of Texas Law School ^ | October 16, 2008

[3AngelaD]

AUSTIN, Texas– In response to its claim that the Texas-Mexico border wall violates human rights law, the University of Texas Working Group on Human Rights and the Border Wall was granted a general hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the “Commission”). The Commission, comprised of seven independent jurists from across the Americas and the Caribbean, is the body of the inter- governmental Organization of American States (“OAS”) responsible for monitoring and ensuring respect for human rights in the Americas, including in the United States. The public hearing will be held October 22, 2008 in the Commission’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and simultaneously webcast to a global audience through the OAS website. The Working Group, a multi-disciplinary collective of faculty and students at the University of Texas whose work was facilitated by the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at UT School of Law, submitted a series of briefing papers on the border wall to the Commission in June 2008 and then followed up with a request for a general hearing in August 2008. The Working Group further requested that a high ranking policy official from the Department of Homeland Security participate in the hearing.

“It is unfortunate that we must go to an international forum to address the actions of the United States on its own border, but we are very pleased that this important human rights body will consider the extremely harmful impacts of the wall through a human rights lens,” said Denise Gilman, Clinical Professor at the University of Texas School of Law and member of the Working Group. At the hearing, the Working Group will present its arguments to the Commission that the border wall violates a number of provisions of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (the “American Declaration”), including rights to private property, freedom of investigation and expression, private and family life and culture, judicial protection, and equality before the law.

The Working Group will describe the difficulties it has faced in obtaining essential information from the U.S. government, including the precise planned locations for the wall and any consideration given to the impact the wall will have on traditional Native American ceremonial lands. The Working Group’s requests under the Freedom of Information Act have gone without answer since April of this year.

[3AngelaD]

Texans, your tax dollars at work. This group is going to try its own country before an international commission that happens to sit in Washington, D.C. They are challenging the authority of Congress to authorize and build the border fence. This makes me want to scream. All the information they say they can't get has long been posted on the Internet for anyone to read.

[3AngelaD]

You’ll love this one, Nana.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The U.S. Constitution and the U.S.C overrides any dumbass “human rights laws.” We’ve got the U.S. Military and a sh*tload of law enforcement officers to protect and defend our Constitution and the United States Code. What do you “human rights” guys have?

[VR-21]

We can’t have any barriers that interfere with the migration of the cuckoos.

[Da Coyote]

I’ve had it with libs. Sooner or later, it’s going to come to battle. May as well have it now.

Human rights, eh? What about my right to have my language spoken in my town. What about my right to not pay for medical care for folks who aren’t legally here? What about my rights to think that other folks on the road actually have insurance and licenses? What about my expectations that the illegals be sent to jail for doing things that would most certainly send me to jail?

Rights? Bite me!

[wac3rd]

Obama will converge the three nations, like Bush started to do. The NAU is wanted by both parties, as demonstrated by the lack of rhetoric on the campaign trail.

More people = more power in less people’s hands.

EU, AU, Asian U, SAU...then the NAU

If you don’t believe in that whacky conspriacy stuff, then why are we having to answer to the OAS about our own sovreignty?

It is madness, sheer madness and TREASON.

[Czar]

Yes, especially TREASON.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

[deport]

Let them ensure all the human rights they can but don’t impose another country’s laws upon the USA or ours upon theirs.

[YellowRoseofTx]

extremely harmful impacts of the wall through a human rights lens

No bias there

[YellowRoseofTx]

violates a number of provisions of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (the “American Declaration”), including freedom of investigation and expression, private and family life and culture,

Where in the U.S. Declaration are these things?

[FlingWingFlyer]

That's a good question. Must be something those wacky "human rights" morons created.

I'm still pretty sure that the Constitution and the U.S. Code overrides anything those bozos come up with.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The Declaration was adopted by the nations of the Americas at the Ninth International Conference of American States in Bogotá, Colombia, in April 1948, the same meeting that adopted the Charter of the Organization of American States and thereby created the OAS.

By America they mean South, Central and North America. This was written by a bunch of pot smoking hippies. As far as I'm concerned this crap means nothing to us. Our Constitution and the U.S.C. overrides anything that these pot smokers dream up.

[itsthejourney]

Just another day of UT helping to “keep Austin wierd”.

[3AngelaD]

Yes, you have identified the issue precisely.