On-going Projects of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights

PLEASE COME BACK SOON FOR AN UPDATED PROJECT LIST

After receiving the RFK Human Rights Award, laureates form a partnership with the RFK Center to tackle human rights issues facing the laureate's social movement. Over time, RFK Center works with the laureate to develop a portfolio of projects using cutting edge human rights techniques to help make significant changes towards long-term goals. Many of these projects are implimented with the help of RFK Center staff, NGOs, universities and the generous volunteer efforts of skilled professionals who make up the RFK Center Global Advocacy Team.

Please read below to learn more about our projects:

SONIA PIERRE (Dominican Republic- 2006)
Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, Program Officer; gmargerin@rfkmemorial.org (202) 463-7575 ext 224

STEPHEN BRADBERRY (New Orleans - 2005)
Jeffrey Buchanan, Information Officer; buchanan@rfkmemorial.org; (202) 463-7575 ext. 241

DELPHINE DJIRAIBE (Chad - 2004)

First Public Interest Law Center in Chad:
Delphine and RFK Center have made significant progress towards laying the groundwork for the first ever public interest law center in Chad. The Public Interest Law Center is a legal resource that will provide access to justice for the millions of Chadians who cannot afford representation. The center will provide low cost/pro bono legal services to poor Chadians and use litigation to effect large-scale improvement of human rights in Chad based on disputes regarding a number of different issues, including the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline Project.

After receiving a start-up grant from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Delphine and the RFK Center formulated an initial work plan and a preliminary budget to launch the center. During the summer of 2006, RFK Center staff visited Delphine in Chad to provide capacity building assistance to lay the framework for the firm. The group, joined by François Côté, a French-Canadian veteran litigator who was matched with Delphine by the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP), traveled to the oil pipeline region and spoke with residents who have been affected by the construction and operation of the pipeline. François assisted in identifying potential causes of action to be brought by the firm as well as training Delphine on basic litigation techniques. Delphine has been able to use initial start up funds from Rockefeller to lay the logistical groundwork for the firm; including securing office space in N’Djamena.

In February 2007, RFK Center staff traveled to Kenya with Djiraibe to visit 1988 RFK Laureate, Gibson Kamau Kuria, who is one of Kenya’s foremost constitutional law experts. Gibson shared his 36 years of legal experience with Djiraibe and facilitated meetings with his colleagues in the Kenyan legal community. This visit helped Djiraibe clarify the direction of her PILC and provided her with a support network of trained legal professionals who have extensive experience effecting change under a dictatorship, as Djiraibe is doing in Chad.

Delphine opened doors to the PILC in May 2007 and provides services to over 10 clients on in the areas of child and spousal support, child custody, land rights and damages.

Chad Cameroon Pipeline: World Bank Advocacy:
In December 2005, the Chadian Government amended the Oil Revenue Law (Law 001) which required the majority of revenues from the World Bank-financed Chad/Cameroon Oil & Pipeline Project be distributed to certain priority sectors, including healthcare and education. The Amendment to Law 001 greatly reduced the revenues directed to these sectors, and allowed the government to define new priority sectors such as security. It also eliminated the Future Generation Fund, which set aside 10% of oil revenues for projects to help the future generations of Chadians.

The World Bank responded by temporarily suspending its funding to the project. In May 2006, Delphine visited Washington to discuss the amendment with representatives from the World Bank, Congress, and other NGOs. Accompanied by RFK Center staff, Delphine advocated for a new agreement requiring funds be disbursed to the previously defined priority sectors as well as an increase in funding to Chadian civil society and the College de Control (the Pipeline Project monitoring body).

In July 2006, a temporary agreement was reached between the Chadian Government and the World Bank which restored revenue disbursement to the original priority sectors and eliminated the Chadian government’s ability to define priority sectors itself. This agreement did not call for reinstatement of the Future Generations Fund. The details of the long-term agreement are currently being worked out and time will tell whether the revenue disbursement situation will improve. RFK Center continues its World Bank advocacy to ensure proper distribution of oil revenue to the Chadian people who need it most.

Sushetha Gopallawa, Program Director gopallawa@rfkmemorial.org; (202) 463-7575 ext. 270

COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS (USA – 2003)

Alliance for Fair Food: Coalition Building:
The Alliance for Fair Food (AFF) works to extend precedents for corporate responsibility and advance real rights for farm workers in cooperation with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. AFF is a network of consumers from national and international religious, human rights, student, and labor organizations. RFK Center, a founding member of the AFF, has been working with CIW to secure endorsements for the AFF campaign. RFK Center helped secure an endorsement from the AFL-CIO and its President, John Sweeney, who joined RFK Center and Ethel Kennedy in visiting Immokalee, FL, to announce their support of the AFF. In October 2006, RFK successfully advocated for more endorsements for the AFF campaign at a gala performance of the play based on Kerry Kennedy's book, Speak Truth To Power, in New York City. Additional endorsements included Martin Sheen, Giancarlo Esposito, Gloria Reuben, and Mathew Modine.

Fast-Food Industry Advocacy:
The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights partnered with CIW to lobby major produce buyers in the fast food industry to implement an industry-wide surcharge on Florida tomatoes that will provide a livable wage for Florida’s farmworkers. In March 2005, CIW signed a historic agreement with Yum! Brands and Taco Bell implementing the penny-per-pound wage increase (that will increase farmworker's wages seventy-five percent) and enacting a meaningful supplier code of conduct banning practices such as forced labor.

As a result of advocacy with McDonald’s Corporation, a more comprehensive agreement was signed between CIW and McDonald’s in April 2007. This monumental agreement calls for:
- A pay raise of a penny per pound of tomatoes picked, nearly doubling the going piece rate when workers pick tomatoes;
- Supply chain transparency and a verifiable zero tolerance policy for modern-day slavery;
- The right for farmworkers to participate, through the CIW, in the development and implementation of an enforceable code of conduct.
With the successes of agreements with Yum! Brands and McDonald’s behind them; CIW is now setting its sights on Burger King and the RFK Center will work with CIW to lobby Burger King and other players to follow the examples set by Taco Bell and McDonald’s. RFK Center Staff and Kerry Kennedy joined the CIW for a hugely successful protest, including a 9 mile march and rally, on November 30, 2007, in Miami outside the corporate headquarters of Burger King.

Norwegian Petroleum Fund:
The Norwegian Petroleum Fund is the largest pension fund in the world and is heavily invested in McDonald's (at roughly $88 million as of December 31, 2005) and several other major American food retailers. Following the CIW and RFK Center staff meeting with the Fund's ethical policymakers last year, the Fund divested from Wal-Mart citing serious and systematic violations of human rights and "the unacceptable risk of contributing to" such human rights violations by maintaining its investments in the company. This project advocates for involving the impacted community, like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, in funding decision to achieve the Fund's goals.
The CIW, Erin Kelly, a philosophy professor at Tufts University, and National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, and RFK Center worked to implement this project.

Sushetha Gopallawa, Program Director gopallawa@rfkmemorial.org; (202) 463-7575 ext. 270

LOUNE VIAUD (Haiti - 2002)

Accountability for the International Community’s Interventions in Haiti:
From 2000-2003, the US government used its power within the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to block greatly needed loans to Haiti for projects to improve water quality, health, education and roads. In violation of the IDB’s charter, these loans were blocked for political reasons. In response in 2003, RFK Center launched an aggressive advocacy plan targeting the US government. The strategy included taking a Congressional delegation to Haiti to examine the devastating health consequences of withholding the loans, holding Senate hearings, and direct advocacy. In late 2003, after almost four years of being blocked, the loans were released. However, neither the US government nor the IDB were held accountable for the consequences of withholding/blocking these loans, including deaths from water-related diseases in the areas that were to benefit from the loan projects.

Concerned that such political tools would be used again with similar health and economic impacts on Haitians, the RFK Center continues its work on this particular case. Further, many of the life-saving loan projects have yet to be implemented. The RFK Center seeks to use evidence of the devastating impact as an example to prevent similar actions by the US government and the IDB in the future. Through Freedom of Information Act litigation, the RFK Center received 4,500 pages of internal communications at the Treasury Department detailing the methods they employed to block the loans. RFK Center has reviewed these documents and is sharing them with Members of Congress to call for accountability for the US government’s actions.

Ensuring Haitians have access to clean water:
In Haiti, access to water, which is critical to health and to food availability through agriculture, is extremely limited: 46% of all Haitians lack access to an improved water source. By contrast, in Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole, 91% of the population has access to improved water. The Water Poverty Index, a combination of measures of water availability and access, ranked Haiti’s water quality as 101st out of 122 countries (for more on health and access to water in Haiti, see
http://www.rfkmemorial.org/human_rights/2002_Loune/haitisnapshot.pdf.

In 2007, RFK Center, Zanmi Lasante/Partners In Health, and the NYU Center for Global Justice and Human Rights developed and implemented a groundbreaking right to water study in Port-de-Paix, Haiti. Port-de-Paix was chosen by the IDB as the first town scheduled to receive funds under previously blocked IDB loans because it had the least access to clean water in Haiti. By surveying community water sources, meeting with community leaders and employing human rights and public health methodologies to assess the right to water in Haiti this cutting-edge right to water project resulted in a report which analyzes the devastating consequences of the failure of the Inter-American Development Bank to disburse approximately $54 million in life-saving loans for water and sanitation improvements. The implementing organizations seek to contribute to a change in policy so that international financial institutions, national governments and other entities respect the full range of human rights for people impacted by development projects. The report will be launched at an event at NYU on June 23, 2008.

Monika Kalra Varma, Director monika@rfkmemorial.org; (202) 463-7575 ext. 228

DARCI FRIGO (Brazil - 2001)
Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, Program Officer; gmargerin@rfkmemorial.org (202) 463-7575 ext 224

MARTIN MACWAN (India- 2000)
Monika Kalra Varma, Director monika@rfkmemorial.org; (202) 463-7575 ext. 228

ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL KPAKALA FRANCIS (Liberia – 1999)

Freedom of Information Act Request:
With assistance from RFK Center, Liberia's Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), founded by Archbishop Francis, compiled a list of atrocities that occurred during Liberia’s civil war, in order to identify individuals and groups responsible for human rights violations. The U.S. government has been deeply involved in Liberian politics and, therefore, JPC requested information from several government agencies, which, it is believed, retain important intelligence on atrocities that occurred during the war. The JPC hopes to share the information received from FOIA requests with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia. To this end, the RFK Center worked on a FOIA request for documents pertaining to human rights violations in Liberia in 1979-2003. This project was transitioned to the National Security Archive (NSA) in June 2006. NSA has filed FOIA requests on behalf of JPC and the RFK Center. The Department of State has already complied with a FOIA request. The RFK Center is working to secure Congressional support on pending FOIA requests to the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency so that the information requested can be shared with JPC, as well as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia, whose mandate expires in June 2008.

Bridgestone Firestone Litigation:
Bridgestone Firestone has been exploiting Liberian plantation workers since 1926. With a quota of 650 trees per day – one which tappers claim to be actually as high as 1,000 – Firestone’s workers are forced to bring their children to work in order to meet such quotas and are only paid $3.19 per day as compensation. Firestone also boasts providing housing, hospitals and schools for the community, but has not renovated any of these buildings since they were built in 1926.

RFK Center collaborated with the International Labor Relief Fund (ILRF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) on behalf of JPC to bring an Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) case in US federal court against Firestone challenging the slave-like conditions at its plantation in Liberia. As part of this campaign, the Center and Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s office collaborated to submit a letter to Firestone expressing the Congressman’s concern about the situation in Firestone’s plantation operations. This project has been transitioned to ILRF and IPS. The RFK Center will continue to collaborate with the advocacy campaign and to advocate for support from Congress on this project.

Web-broadcasting Radio Project:
Radio Veritas is a community radio station run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Monrovia and broadcasts programs on current affairs and human rights education in all 16 dialects of the country. Radio Veritas is looking to expand its broadcasts to reach the Liberian expatriate communities via the web. To this end, the Center is partnering with a software engineer to extend broadcast capabilities through the World Wide Web. Radio Veritas is receiving technical assistance to begin broadcasting on the web and maintaining a website.

Wheelchair Accessibility Project:
RFK Center helped secure and ship a wheelchair accessible van with the help of Archbishop Francis’s Advocacy Team in order to help improve his mobility in Liberia. This project was completed in September 2006.

Tracing the Allocation of Humanitarian Funds to Liberia:
The US Congress allocated large sums of money to help repair the destruction caused by civil war in Liberia. While the Liberian community is grateful for the funds, JPC is concerned that the money allocated to Liberia is not reaching the Liberian people and has not been maximized on the ground. Therefore, JPC hopes to determine how the congressional funds promised for Liberian rehabilitation and reconstruction have been spent.

RFK Center researched public laws, reports from the government, and reports from outside observers as well as interviewing representatives from donor organizations. RFK Center is seeking an organization to take on and continue this important research. RFK Center is also in the process of identifying another organization to take over its coordinator role with JPC.

Human Rights Training for Priests of the Archdiocese of Monrovia:
Due to the continued transition of leadership in JPC, Monsignor Andrew Karnley, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Monrovia, requested an opportunity for human rights training for priests of the Archdiocese of Monrovia. In order to facilitate this training, the Center is identifying schools that would be able to provide the requested training for periods of 6 weeks to 6 months. RFK Center communicated with staff at Georgetown University and Catholic University about exploring possible options at these universities. If you are able to assist, please contact Sushetha at 202-463-7575 ext 270 or gopallawa@rfkmemorial.org.

Sushetha Gopallawa, Program Director gopallawa@rfkmemorial.org; (202) 463-7575 ext. 270

BERENICE CELEYTA, GLORIA FLOREZ & JAIME PRIETO (Colombia - 1998)
Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, Program Officer gmargerin@rfkmemorial.org; (202) 463-7575, ext. 224

DR. NGUYEN DAN QUE (Viet Nam – 1995)
Monika Kalra Varma, Director
Email: monika@rfkmemorial.org Phone: (202) 463-7575 ext. 228

RAJI SOURANI (Palestine – 1991)
Sushetha Gopallawa, Program Director gopallawa@rfkmemorial.org;(202) 463-7575 ext. 270

GIBSON KAMAU KURIA (Kenya – 1988)

Human Rights Library and Resource Center for ICCRG:
The Human Rights Library, which was donated in early 2006 by Professor Richard Pierre Claude, founding Editor of Human Rights Quarterly, was shipped to Kenya in September. The law firm of Kenyon & Kenyon made a generous donation of $2,500 to facilitate the shipment of these books. Along with the Library, RFK Center was able to donate two computer work stations to the Resource Center. These work stations have been equipped with UNESCO library software which will greatly facilitate research at the Resource Center.
Once the Resource Center is fully operational, it will serve as a meeting and mentoring place for lawyers, judges, students and scholars—an unprecedented space for the promotion and cultivation of human rights, democratization, and constitutional research through the valuable exchange of ideas both in Kenya and the entire East Africa region. Given the constitutional instability that continues to plague Kenya, this library will provide the region with essential dialogue and scholarship.

Public Interest Litigation Project:
RFK Center facilitated the visit of two senior lawyers from the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) to Nairobi to assist Gibson in capacity building with the ICCRG and with public interest litigation training for the junior attorneys at Gibson’s law firm. The husband and wife team of Kim Matthews and William Coogan traveled to Nairobi in September to provide five months of support for Gibson’s projects. Kim assisted the attorneys of the law firm of Kamau, Kuria, and Kiraitu with professional skills development and training in public interest litigation. William worked with the ICCRG on organizational development and the drafting of constitution and other memoranda.

Kim and William also assisted Gibson in taking on cases. One of the first cases they looked at involved suing a Belgian developer who illegally took over some Masaai tribal land and built three luxury tourist hotels on it. Gibson, Kim and the Masaai tribal leaders are filing a complaint against the developer. Gibson is confident that this case is in a good place to move forward. The Public Interest Litigation Project was transitioned to the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) in August 2006.

Laureate-to-Laureate Partnership:
In February 2007, RFK Center staff traveled to Kenya with 2004 RFK Laureate from Chad, Delphine Djiraibe, to visit Gibson. Gibson shared his 36 years of legal experience with Djiraibe and facilitated meetings with his colleagues in the Kenyan legal community. This visit helped Djiraibe clarify the direction of the Public Interest Law Firm that she is establishing in Chad and provided her with a support network of trained legal professionals who have extensive experience effecting change under a dictatorship, as Gibson did in Kenya and Djiraibe is doing in Chad.

Sushetha Gopallawa, Program Director gopallawa@rfkmemorial.org; (202) 463-7575 ext. 270