The tribunal is dedicated to the commemoration of the first anniversary of the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Rural Teacher´s College of Ayotzinapa. Puerto Rico will be represented by Wilma E. Reverón Collazo, Co-President of Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano.

¨Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.¨  (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 1963)

Alleged crimes against humanity committed by the Mexican government and its allies in the U.S and beyond will be the focus of special hearings held by an International Tribunal of Conscience in New York City on Friday September 25 and Saturday September 26, 2015. The tribunal is dedicated to the commemoration of the first anniversary of the forced disappearance of 43 students from the Rural Teacher´s College of Ayotzinapa. The current human rights crisis in Mexico is unprecedented in the country´s history in terms of scale, depth, and extent (over 160,000 dead and 27,000 disappeared since 2007,¹ not including a still unknown number of disappeared migrants): Mexico is the single worst violator of human rights in Western Hemisphere and one of the most egregious in the world.

The focus of the hearings in New York will be on Mexico´s deepening human rights crisis in all of its relevant dimensions, including the role of U.S aid (over $3 billion dollars in military, police and other aid directly related to the so-called ¨drug war¨ since 2007 through the ¨Mérida Initiative¨, which many analysts consider analogous to ¨Plan Colombia¨, plus over $4 billion in arms sales²) and that of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The event will open September 25 at 6 PM with an evening of speakers, culture and art including representatives of the parents and students of Ayotzinapa and of indigenous victims of human rights violations from Chiapas, renowned Latino poet Martín Espada, father Alejandro Solalinde, exiled Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández, a special performance by jazz percussionist Warren Smith of the Composer´s Workshop Ensemble, and the unveiling of a piece donated by artist Lynda Black, among others (NYU Kimmel Center room 917 Silver, 6 to 9 PM Friday Sept. 25), 60 Washington Square South. The tribunal hearing will be all day Saturday Sept. 26 from 9 to 5 Pm at Meeting Room 475, Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, 238 Thompson St., Manhattan (NYU).

Events will include a cultural event Saturday night from 7 to 9 PM at the Migrant Center of St. Francis of Assisi Church (135 W. 31st Street, Manhattan), and an all day cultural festival Sunday Sept. 27 from 9 to 5 at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center at 1680 Lexington Ave. (between 105th and 106th Streets, Manhattan), cosponsored by the Popular Assembly of Migrant Families (APOFAM).

Conveners include Mexico´s national network of human rights defenders plus internationally renowned intellectuals and human rights scholars such as Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, Boaventura Sousa de Santos, Greg Grandin of the History Department and the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University (NYU, who together are hosting the event together with the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers´ Guild and the NLG itself), the Migrant Center at St. Francis of Assisi Church, Franciscans International, and former UN Special Rapporteurs Rodolfo Stavenhagen and Jorge Bustamante.³ Jurors will include participants from the U.S, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

The initiative to convene the Tribunal grew out of the caravan in the U.S in March and April 2015, and subsequently in Europe, of representatives of parents and students from Ayotzinapa in the Mexican region of Guerrero. 43 students from the Rural Teacher´s College there, mostly from the country´s poorest indigenous communities, were victims of the single worst incident of forced disappearances in recent Latin American history in September 2014.⁴

This special session of the International Tribunal of Conscience of Peoples In Movement (ITCPM) is timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Ayotzinapa case, and with this year´s opening session of the UN General Assembly, and will be dedicated to solidarity with the Ayotzinapa case. From the perspective of the conveners of the Tribunal, the Ayotzinapa case is illustrative, not exceptional: the Mexican government typically seeks to position itself as a victim of drug-related violence, but like its Colombian counterpart, is in fact the perpetrator of, or complicit in, most serious violations of human rights.

Another key priority of these hearings will be an examination of persistent serious human rights violations against immigrants of Mexican origin in the U.S, and against migrants in transit from Central America and beyond on Mexican territory, including the implications and impact of a continuing exodus of migrant children and youth. The Tribunal´s mandate includes exploration of the relationship between current human rights crisis in Mexico and the crisis in the U.S as to police violence, mass incarceration, and racial injustice, including how these two crises converge within the context of issues as to immigrant rights in the U.S (abuse of deadly force by ICE, Border Patrol, local and state police; detention policies and practices, profiling, deportations, separation of families, impact on children and youth, e.g Dreamers)

A key aspect of the Tribunal´s mandate is to explore the relationship between the impact of U.S policy in Mexico and the impact of related U.S policies (free trade, drug war, and other forms of intervention) throughout Latin America, including key cases such as Central America, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Colombia.

It is of course U.S support which keeps the current Mexican régime afloat, and which is thus the single most decisive factor in in sustaining corruption, violence and repression against the Mexican population without the threat of punishment. The impact of such aid and of foreign investment on intensifying human rights violations has been intensively debated by the European Parliament as well.⁵


PLEASE JOIN US! CONTACTS:

Joelle Lingat (201) 675-8278

Sadie Williams (510) 325-3757

Georgia Bowen-Quiñones (214) 392-0698

Robert Robinson: (770)-500-7885

Email: cperezbustillo@gmail.com


1. https://justiceinmexico.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-Drug-Violence-in-Mexico-Report.pdf

2. http://ustired2.com/facts/, http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/01/05/mexicous-obama-should-press-pena-nieto-justice

3. Additional conveners include: the International Association of People´s  Lawyers (IAPL and its Mexican branch), the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), the American Association of Jurists (AAJ), the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers of the United Kingdom, IBON International, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, and the network of U.S-Mexico activists known as Fuerza Mundial Global.

4. https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/03/mexico-six-months-of-failure-in-search-for-missing-ayotzinapa-students/

SEPTEMBER 25TH & 26TH, 2015

Sponsored By:
Fuerza Mundial and the International Tribunal of Conscience and Hosted by the National Lawyers’ Guild and the History Department and Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics of New York University

1ST U.S. HEARINGS ON HUMAN RIGHTS, IMMIGRANT JUSTICE, AND THE IMPACT OF
U.S POLICY IN MEXICO & CENTRAL AMERICA,
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 1ST
ANNIVERSARY OF THE FORCED DISAPPEARANCE OF THE 43 STUDENTS OF AYOTZINAPA

OPENING CULTURAL EVENT/FORUM:  FRIDAY, SEPT. 25, 2015, 7 – 9 PM, KIMMEL CENTER, ROOM 917 SILVER, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY (NYU) 60 WASHINGTON SQUARE SOUTH, MANHATTAN:

KEYNOTE AND CULTURAL PRESENTATION BY AWARD WINNING POET MARTÍN ESPADA,
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

TRIBUNAL HEARINGS: Saturday Sept. 26, 2015, 9 – 5 PM, Meeting Room 475, NYU Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, 238 Thompson St., Manhattan
Participants/conveners include: (organizations listed only for purposes of identification): Noam Chomsky; Boaventura Sousa Santos; Tariq Ali; Parents and students of Ayotzinapa; Red Nacional de Organismos Ciciles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos (Red TDT), Sociedad Civil de Las Abejas de Acteal (victims of the Acteal massacre); Movimiento Por Justicia del Barrio (NY); Migrant Center, Church of St. Francis of Assisi (NY); Rosalinda Santis, Kinal Antzetik, Chiapas;/Weaving for Justice; Marco Antonio Castillo, Asamblea Popular de Familias Migrantes (APOFAM; Peoples´Assembly of Migrant Families, Mexico/U.S); Families for Freedom (NY); Rosa Martha Zárate, Alianza de ExBraceros del Norte; Maria Eugenia Ponce Sevilla, Dream in Mexico (Mexico); Colectivo Contra la Tortura y la Impunidad (CCTI; Collective Against Torture and Impunity, Mexico); Colectivo de apoyo para personas migrantes, A.C. (COAMI), México; (Mexico); PRECADEM, A.C (Mexico);journalist Anabel Hernández (Mexico);  Azadeh Shahshahani (Pres., National Lawyers´ Guild); Natasha Bannan (Pres.-Elect, NLG); Kerry McLean (Chair, Anti-Sexism Comm., NY NLG chapter); Wilma Reverón-Collazo (Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano, Puerto Rico); Estela Vázquez (Executive V.P, 1199 SEIU); Eva Golinger (Venezuela); Ezili Danto (Free Haiti Movement, Haitian Lawyers´ Network); International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines; Julia Camagong (Intl Migrants Alliance-IMA); IBON International (Manila, Philippines); Bill Fletcher Jr.(IPS/BlackCommentator.com); John Jairo Lugo (Unidad Latina en Acción); Prof. Greg Grandin (History Dept. NYU); Marcial Godoy-Antivia (Hemispheric Institute, NYU); former Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso of the California Supreme Court; former UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights of Migrants, Dr. Jorge Bustamante: former UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Rights, Dr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen; Father Alejandro Solalinde (Oaxaca); Fray Tomás González (Tabasco); Tlachinollan Human Rights Center (Guerrero); Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Chiapas); Asociación Mexicana de Abogados del Pueblo (AMAP; Mexican Association of Peoples´ Lawyers- IAPL),; Jeanne Mirer, International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) ; Vanessa Ramos, Asociación Americana de Juristas (AAJ); Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers (London, UK); Julio da Silveira Moreira, President, International Association of Peoples´ Lawyers (IAPL, Brasil); Katherine Culliton González (DC); Mark Naison (Fordham Univ.); Hans Egil Offerdal (theologian, Norway); Sandra Trujillo (NY), Zoilo Torres (NY), Margo Támez (Canada); David Bacon (Calif.); Jennica Carmona (NY); Prince Adegoke Fugisboye (Nigeria); Ana Gabriela Contreras (Guatemala); Laura Carlsen (CIP, Americas project, U.S/Mex.); Lucy Rodríguez (Calif./Colombia)

DRAFT SCHEDULE FOR SATURDAY Sept.26

Ist session, 9:15-10 45 AM

welcome (10 mins.) begin by 9:15

presentation of overall indictment, summary of key cases: 30 mins. (team of prosecutors)

presentation of initial witnesses, testimony, documents in support of overall indictment, key cases: 30 mins. (prosecutors)

questions by members of the jury:  30 mins.

recess 10:45 to 11 AM

2d session, 11 AM to 12:30

presentation of additional cases, witnesses, testimony, docs: 60 mins.

questions by jury:  30 mins.

lunch break: 12:30 to 2

3rd session, 2 to 3:15 PM

additional cases, testimony, docs, etc.: 45 mins.

questions by jury: 30 mins.

recess: 3:15 to 3:30

4th, closing session, 3:30 to 5 PM

additional cases, testimony, docs, etc.  30 mins.

closing arguments: 30 mins.

questions by jury: 30 mins.

CLOSING DINNER/CULTURAL EVENT

6 to 9 PM