American Institute of Human Rights Registration

Dr. Mustafa Ansari

For Immediate Release

From the Office of the Dean, American Institute of Human Rights 

Dr. Mustafa Ansari opened registration for online classes to become Certified Human Rights Defenders. Application can be made at:  administration@scholarsofpeace.com

Graduates will be equipped to file actions [Communications] in the various Human Rights Forums, Courts and Tribunals, such as actions regarding 'reparative remedies'.

The issue in 'race-based racial preferences' euphemistically called AFFIRMATIVE ACTION is what international law experts call 'reparative remedies'. One man fought for them and the other destroyed them prior to leveling the playing field. Ironically, Dr. King sought 'Racial Quotas' as the 'Special Measure' needed to level the playing field because he did not trust customary racists to put in place a fair system. True to Dr. Kings postulation, the Supreme Court began to whittle away at 'Affirmative Action' in 1979 in the Bakke vs. California Board of Regents, when the court said 'racial preference' was 'reverse segregation'. In law, the so-called 'Diversity era' began, although no one could call 'Diversity' a 'Special Measure', because it did nothing to 'repair' the African Americans from nearly 150 years of school 'deprivations'. 

Schools owned and operated by African Americans as well as the training of African American teachers must be in the new formula in order for African Americans to preserve economic, social and cultural rights under the Covenant that the U.S has made to preserver our ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, and CULTURAL RIGHTS. We are apprised of this Convention.

Consequently, we are back to square one. We need to move the action to a different court to decide what 'Special Measures' the U.S must implement to rid the 'educational gap' that was created by the apartheid-framed educational system [1865 to present], which we call the public schools.

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court allowing states to vote to ban Affirmative Action has violated the human rights treaties that the U.S has entered into with other countries to 'Repair' and 'Remedy' racial discrimination.

Our Certified Human Rights Monitors and Certified UN Human Rights Defenders will be trained to lead the way by monitoring the effects of the public school system on our children and filing actions [Communications] in the various Human Rights Forums, Courts and Tribunals.

Please Share:
http://www.wiziq.com/course/44828-certified-human-rights-defender-political-prisoners

Stop waiting for your human rights. Study online courses offered through the American Institute of Human Rights and become certified, then take your issues to an appropriate forum.

Religion vs. Mass Incarceration, May 1-3

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                        April 30, 2014   

Contact: Tel: 617-599-5091 

Email: churchandprison@gmail.com

Website: www.churchandprison.org

Clergy and Religious Leaders’ Conference on Mass Incarceration in the United States’ Prison System

Theme: Proactive Engagement towards Criminal Justice Reform:
The Voice of Religion

(Boston, MA) –The Center for Church and Prison, Inc. will welcome participants at The Clergy and Religious Leaders’ Conference on Mass Incarceration in the United States Prison System- May 1-3 at Saint John Missionary Baptist Church in Roxbury under the theme: Proactive Engagement towards Criminal Justice Reform: The Voice of Religion.

Conference organizers will welcome national and local leaders including pastors and religious leaders, prison reform experts and advocates, former prisoners, prison chaplains, social activists, students, and policy makers to address issues of mass incarceration and its cumulative consequences, reentry and prison ministry development, the role of The Church and religious groups in pursuing adequate forms of criminal justice reform, sentencing reform, and alternatives to incarceration.

Former Congressman: Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake of Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York will kick the conference off at 6p.m. Thursday, May 1. This will be followed by two conference keynote speakers “The Urban Prophet”: Pastor Clenard Childress of New Jersey speaking at 6pm on Friday May 2, and Presiding Prelate of Revival Deliverance Edification Center Churches of Massachusetts/Rhode Island Bishop Jenneifer Hightower on Saturday May 3 at 6pm. The conference will consist of general and breakout sessions, panel discussions, keynote addresses, and empowerment, worship services in the evenings.

The general and breakout sessions include both national and local speakers: Howard University Professor Rev. Dr. Harold Trulear, Founder/Executive Director of Straight Ahead Ministries Dr. Scott Larson, Civil Rights Activist and Author, Rev. Dr. Virgil Wood, Founder of The New Jubilee Family Life Center Richmond /VA Rev. Dr. Owens Cardwell, Vice Mayor of the City of Cambridge Mr. Dennis Benzan, Esq, Associate Justice Judge Leslie Harris, State Senator of Massachusetts Sonia Chang-Diaz, Founder/President of National Gang Council Andre Norman, Hon. Dianne Wilkerson, Pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church- Rev. Miniard Culpepper, Pastor of Greater Love Tabernacle Rev. William Dickerson,  President of The NAACP Boston Mr. Michael Curry, Esq, President of The Black Ministerial Alliance and Pastor of Historic Charles Street AME Church, Rev. Dr. Gregory Groover, Sheriff: Suffolk County House of Correction: Sheriff Steve Tompkins, and Rev. Laura Ahart of  United Baptist Church.

This conference will consist of nearly 20 workshops ranging in a variety of topics including: “Teaching The Church how to work with formerly incarcerated individuals,” “Defining Reentry and Prison ministry from the perspectives of Returning Citizens.” “What is happening to our communities? -Poverty, Violence and Mass incarceration: The Quest for solution.” “Pastoral care and pastoral sensitivity: Understanding and ministering to congregations under the system of mass incarceration,” “The Church as a Healing Center: Strengthening relationships during and after incarceration,” “Reaching the youths before juvenile detention and incarceration: Lessons from a former gang member,” and “Mobilizing congregations to advocacy and coalition building: A movement against mass incarceration and the systems of The New Jim Crow.”

“Our goal for this conference is to provide information, inspiration, and resources to churches, faith-based organizations, and community leaders with the focus towards strategic intervention in the high rate of incarceration and recidivism in the American criminal justice system, said Rev. George Walters-Sleyon, founder of The Center for Church and Prison, Inc. “Hosting this conference is a way for us to equip, empower and encourage others to do this important work on sentencing and prison reform, rehabilitation and adequate reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals. We believe The Church of America, like the Civil Rights movement, has the potential to end the mass incarceration of human beings in the American criminal justice system” he said.

The Center for Church and Prison, Inc. has partnered with a number of groups and organizations, including The Boston Theological Institute, The Boston Foundation, St. Paul AME Church of Cambridge, St. Susanna Parish-Dedham, Historic Charles St. AME Church, Greater Love Tabernacle, Bethel AME Church, Grace Church of All Nations, Straight Ahead Ministries, Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Touch 106.1 FM, Boston Praise Radio, Union Baptist Church of Cambridge, United Baptist Church, Roxbury Presbyterian Church, Historic Charles St. AME Church, and St. John Missionary Baptist Church.

A complete schedule is located at www.churchandprison.org.  For media interviews with any participants, please contact The Center for Church and Prison, Inc. 

Tel: 617-599-5091, Email:  churchandprison@gmail.com

Press Release: Clergy and Religious Leaders' Conference on Mass Incarceration in the United States' Prison System.

  

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings Apr 29

Here is a sign that prison investors in the government do not plan to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. U.S. Senate hearings are planned for April 29 on only ONE provision of the bill: CIT training for police officers. H.R.3717 also provides for: 
~ Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients
~ AOT programs, providing subsistence assistance and mandated psychiatric treatment for persons with acute mental illness who lack the mental clarity to stay on their meds
~ Relaxed HIPPA laws, enabling family members' inclusion in relatives' treatment 

Better training for police officers without the other provisions in H.R.3717 might enable more sick Americans to join 1.25 million mentally ill inmates in one piece, if police obey their training. Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) originated in Memphis, Tennessee. That is where my mentally, physically disabled brother, Larry Neal, was secretly arrested in 2003, incarcerated for 18 days while police denied having him, and murdered. His kidnapping and death are treated like a national secret rather than investigated and handled by due process of law. A mentally dysfunctional teen was killed by police there in 2012. In fact, 23 people in Memphis were killed by police officers in 2012 and 2013. CIT training in a culture where police accountability is seldom demanded will not significantly enhance the safety of mentally challenged people or anyone else. Continuing to react to mental health crises AFTER a person proves to be a danger to self and others compromises our sick citizens AND our communities. But this keeps the prisons full, and that seems to be the plan.

Please support H.R.3717. Learn more about how this bill can prevent psychiatric crises that lead to altercations with police officers in the first place.
http://murphy.house.gov/helpingfamiliesinmentalhealthcrisisact

As Director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill, I call three emergency sessions for people who care about the mentally ill and may not be able to attend next Tuesday's Senate hearings to speak on air about the need for ALL the provisions of H.R.3717. Please meet us at Blogtalkradio on Sunday and Monday, April 27 and 28, at 3pm EST. Please call to speak on air at (347) 857-3293 at "Human Rights Demand" channel. We will meet a second time Monday at midnight EST at Blogtalkradio. Please call (818)572.2947 for the Monday midnight broadcast. Your comments on the air will be sent to the U.S. Senate, and senators will be notified of the broadcasts in case they are interested in tuning in to the live radio shows. Yes, we tire of reading about mentally ill people brutalized and killed by untrained police officers, but moreover, we tire of a system that allows mental illness to go untreated until a person proves through violence that he/she is a danger to self and others. We tire of seeing disabled Americans homeless and hungry because their basic needs are ignored. We tire of prison investments taking precedence over the welfare of sick Americans and community safety.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings announcement is below:

*******

Law Enforcement Responses to Disabled Americans: 

Promising Approaches for Protecting Public Safety
Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights
Link to details on website: http://goo.gl/6oLil7

Date: April 29, 2014
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226

NOTE: Sometimes there are late changes to room assignments for hearings. We encourage interested parties to check the Committee's website the day of the hearing to confirm the location. Keep track here: http://www.judiciary.senate.gov

Description: U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Senate’s Assistant Majority Leader and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, will chair a hearing entitled “Law Enforcement Responses to Disabled Americans: Promising Approaches for Protecting Public Safety.” Because of inadequate social and mental health services, law enforcement officers have increasingly become the first responders for individuals with mental illness or developmental disabilities who are in crisis.

Recent high-profile tragedies have demonstrated the need for law enforcement officers to receive additional training to safely address these situations. State and local law enforcement agencies have taken the lead in developing innovative solutions, such as Crisis Intervention Teams. Localities that use these approaches have seen fewer injuries and deaths among officers and people with mental illness or developmental disabilities, increased jail diversion rates, fewer lawsuits following crisis incidents, and stronger ties with the mental health and disability communities. This hearing will explore how Congress and the Executive Branch can support and strengthen these efforts.

Hearing Attendance: This hearing is open to the public. Interested members of the community are encouraged to attend. For planning purposes, the Committee requests that those planning on attending indicate their intent to come by completing an online RSVP at: http://goo.gl/2dmgSH

Statements for the Record: Chairman Durbin invites stakeholders to offer their perspectives and experiences on these issues by submitting written testimony to be included in the hearing record. These statements help educate Committee members about this issue and are important to demonstrating community interest.

Statements must be submitted as a PDF or Word Document of 10 pages or less, and should be emailed to Durbin_Testimony@Judiciary-dem.Senate.gov as early as possible, but no later than Monday, April 28, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. Please note that the Subcommittee cannot accept previously published information, such as newspaper articles or reports, as a statement for the record.

Senator Dick Durbin is Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. The Subcommittee has jurisdiction over all constitutional issues, and all legislation and policy related to civil rights, civil liberties and human rights. The Ranking Member of the Subcommittee is Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Witnesses
Panel I
The Honorable Denise E. O'Donnell
Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance
United States Department of Justice
Washington , DC

Panel II
Alfonza Wysinger
First Deputy Superintendent
Chicago Police Department
Chicago, IL
A.D. Paul
Sergeant
Plano Police Department
Plano, TX
The Honorable Jay M. Quinn
Judge
Fourth Judicial District of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
Pete Earley
Author
Fairfax, VA
Patti Saylor
Frederick, MD
--------------
National Council on Disability
1331 F Street, NW, Suite 850
Washington, DC 20004
202-272-2004 Voice
202-272-2074 TTY
202-272-2022 Fax
Website:
http://www.ncd.gov
NCD’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/NCDgov
Follow NCD on Twitter:
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Sign up for regular email updates at:
http://www.ncd.gov/subscribe

About the National Council on Disability (NCD): NCD is an independent federal agency of 15 Presidentially-appointed Council Members and full-time professional staff, who advise the President, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policy, programs, and practices.

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
JUDICIARY.SENATE.GOV

Paragraphs 1 and 2 repeated: Here is a sign that prison investors in the government do not plan to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. U.S. Senate hearings are planned for April 29 on only ONE provision of the bill: CIT training for police officers. H.R.3717 also provides for: 
~ Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients
~ AOT programs, providing subsistence assistance and mandated psychiatric treatment for persons with acute mental illness who lack the mental clarity to stay on their meds
~ Relaxed HIPPA laws, enabling family members' inclusion in relatives' treatment 

Better training for police officers without the other provisions in H.R.3717 might enable more sick Americans to join 1.25 million mentally ill inmates in one piece, if police obey their training. Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) originated in Memphis, Tennessee. That is where my mentally, physically disabled brother, Larry Neal, was secretly arrested in 2003, incarcerated for 18 days while police denied having him, and murdered. His kidnapping and death are treated like a national secret rather than investigated and handled by due process of law. A mentally dysfunctional teen was killed by police there in 2012. In fact, 23 people in Memphis were killed by police officers in 2012 and 2013. CIT training in a culture where police accountability is seldom demanded will not significantly enhance the safety of mentally challenged people or anyone else. Continuing to react to mental health crises AFTER a person proves to be a danger to self and others compromises our sick citizens AND our communities. But this keeps the prisons full, and that seems to be the plan.See the Senate meeting plans below. Please support H.R.3717. Learn more at
http://murphy.house.gov/helpingfamiliesinmentalhealthcrisisact

For your information, regarding the Blogtalkradio shows for Sunday and Monday, 3pm EST is 2pm Central, 1pm Mountain, and Noon Pacific. Regarding the Blogtalkradio show at Midnight EST, the time is 11pm Central, 10pm Mountain, and 9pm Pacific. This is YOUR opportunity to speak about YOUR mentally challenged loved ones and the safety of YOUR community and how YOUR tax money should be spent - on prisons, that help nobody get well and where the mentally ill are often relegated to solitary confinement, or on hospitals and better community care, which can actually restore sick people to wholesome lives. Nobody deserves to be arrested for having a common, treatable health condition. 

UN Celebrates Heroes, Resisters, Survivors of Slave Trade

Press Release Note No. 6341 Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

Note to Correspondents

THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE:  HONOURING THE HEROES, RESISTERS AND SURVIVORS

TO BE HIGHLIGHTED IN SERIES OF ACTIVITIES AT HEADQUARTERS

The fifth annual commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade will be observed at United Nations Headquarters under the theme "The Transatlantic Slave Trade:  Honouring the Heroes, Resisters and Survivors".  This year’s theme will focus on many of the courageous individuals who, in various ways, resisted slavery and fought for their own freedom and that of others.

The following events are scheduled:

Friday 23 March:  The weekly non-governmental organization briefing will take place in the Economic and Social Council Chamber, North Lawn Building from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  It will feature panellists from Africa, North America and the Caribbean in discussion on the theme “Honouring the Heroes, Resisters and Survivors” of the transatlantic slave trade.  Featured panellists include historian and writer Sylviane Diouf, Curator of Digital Collections at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Sasha Turner, Assistant Professor of History, Quinnipiac University; Rita Pemberton, History Professor at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, and author of several books on the topic of slavery; and Herb Boyd, author, journalist and activist.  The briefing is to be webcast live.  Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Public Information, will moderate.

Weekend of 24-25 March:  Special radio features produced by UN Radio in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Kiswahili and Fanti will be made available on the UN Radio website starting Saturday, 24 March.

Monday, 26 March:  A special commemorative meeting of the General Assembly to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (25 March) will be convened by the General Assembly President and take place at 3 p.m. in the General Assembly Hall.  Statements will be made by the President of the General Assembly, the Deputy-Secretary-General and regional group chairs.  The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Rick Kittles, the Scientific Director of the Washington, D.C.-based African Ancestry Inc., a genetic testing service for determining individuals' African ancestry via DNA testing.  He is also Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  A number of artists are scheduled to perform at this event.

Tuesday, 27 March:  An exhibition will open in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at 6 p.m.  It will include images of heroes and activists, original documents, historical illustrated newspapers and artifactsfrom a private 19^th century collection, the installation “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, maps and radio interviews.  The exhibition will run until the end of May 2012.

Tuesday, 27 March:  At 6:30 p.m. in the General Assembly Lobby following the exhibit opening, an evening celebrating the cultural and culinary specialties of Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas will take place.  Chef and culinary consultant Scott Barton, Instructor at the Institute for Culinary Education, and doctoral student in Food Studies at New York University, will discuss the Columbian Exchange and explain the historical similarities between the foods and culinary practices of African countries from which enslaved Africans came and the countries to which they were brought.

Wednesday, 28 March:  The documentary Slavery by Another Name:  The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II will be screened in Conference Room 2 of the North Lawn Building from 6:30 to 9 p.m.  The film is based on the Pulitzer-prize winning book of the same name by Douglas A. Blackmon that challenges the belief that slavery in the United States terminated with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865.  It chronicles the ways in which African-Americans were coerced into forced labour in the Reconstructionist South following the Civil War and into the 20^th century.  The film’s producer, Sam Pollard, will introduce the film and the screening will be followed by a question and answer session.

Friday, 30 March:  In Conference Room 2 in the North Lawn Building, a global video conference will bring together students from secondary educational institutions in six countries — Bermuda (African Diaspora Heritage Trail), Dominican Republic (Amistad America), Gambia, Ghana, United Kingdom and the United States.  This live interactive forum will aim to:  link the history of the transatlantic slave trade to the places where people live; share local stories about heroes, resisters and survivors to raise global awareness of the wide spread resistance to slavery; consider the legacy of slavery and its link to racism and prejudice; and discuss concrete actions that can be taken to address this problem.

A selection of images and materials is available for download on the Remembrance website at:  www.un.org/events/slaveryremembranceday.

Accredited correspondents are invited to cover the events in observance of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

For more information on the Remembrance events, please e-mail:  adamsg@un.org.

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