Projects
Racial Profiling and Counter-Terrorism
In its work to end human rights abuses committed globally in the name of national security, the Center addresses the disparate impact of counter-terrorism policies on South Asian, Middle Eastern, Arab, and Muslim communities both within and outside of the United States. Around the world, many governments have institutionalized policies of discriminatory profiling of individuals deemed to be terrorism “suspects” on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity, and/or national origin. Two of the Center’s reports highlight the problematic use of such profiling in the context of “shoot-to-kill” policies and in security checks for U.S. naturalization applications. Most recently, the Center has launched a documentary and advocacy campaign around citizenship delays and border-crossing detentions and delays that result from discriminatory profiling in the context of post-9/11 U.S. immigration policies.
DOCUMENTARYAmericans on Hold Documentary Film and Advocacy Project (2010)In 2010, CHRGJ produced a documentary film Americans on Hold: Profiling, Prejudice, and National Security. The documentary film exposes the U.S. government’s use of discriminatory profiling in the name of national security, and its impact on South Asian, Arab, Middle Eastern, and Muslim community members. Through the personal stories of Zuhair Mahd and Anila Ali, the film reveals the discriminatory profiling at the heart of both citizenship delays and border-crossing detentions and delays. Ali, a teacher, mother, and community organizer originally from Pakistan, received her American citizenship in 2002, but continues to experience humiliating and invasive treatment by Customs and Border Protection officials as a consequence of her national origin. Mahd, a blind adaptive technology specialist from Jordan, waged and won a five-year legal struggle against the Department of Homeland Security in his effort to become a U.S. citizen. In the process, he was repeatedly interrogated and pressured by the FBI to become an informant. |
PRESS RELEASE
CHRGJ Launches Documentary Americans on Hold, Exposing Discrimination
Calls on U.S. Government to Stop Racial Profiling in the Name of National Security
(NEW YORK, April 27, 2010)—The U.S. government’s use of discriminatory profiling in the name of national security violates human rights and has a profound and wide-reaching impact on South Asian, Arab, Middle Eastern, and Muslim community members, says a new documentary being released tomorrow by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law. The release of the film, Americans on Hold: Profiling, Prejudice, and National Security, comes on the heels of the enactment of SB 1070 in Arizona, which mandates state law enforcement authorities to demand immigration papers from anyone based on the mere suspicion that they may be undocumented. Advocates are concerned that this is yet another policy that legitimizes and institutionalizes racial profiling.
PRESS RELEASE
CHRGJ Calls on Congress to Stop Discriminatory Profiling, Fix Watchlists
Urges Respect for Human Rights as Government Reviews National Security Measures
("NEW YORK, January 20, 2010)—Congress must uphold respect for human rights by ending the use of illegal and discriminatory profiling methods being used to populate watchlists under the guise of national security, said the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice today. The Center made its statement as three Senate committees convened to discuss the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack and its implications for the Terrorist Watchlist and related databases.
Citing a documented history of false matches in databases that include countless individuals who are not suspected of any wrongdoing, as well as those whose names have been cleared but who remain on the list, the Center urged Congress to reject proposals that would lower the criteria for inclusion in the Terrorist Watchlist.
Ethnic Profiling in the European Union: Pervasive, Ineffective, and Discriminatory (2009)
CHRGJ's Jayne Huckerby and Smita Narula--along with students from the Center's International Human Rights Clinic: Mana Barari, Jennie Kim, and Margie van Weerden--were among the key contributors to a recently released, groundbreaking report by the OSI Justice Initiative, Racial Profiling in the European Union: Pervasive, Ineffective, and Discriminatory (2009).
Excerpts from: Racial Profiling in the European Union: Pervasive, Ineffective, and Discriminatory:
Since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, 32 percent of British Muslims report being subjected to discrimination at airports. Police carrying machine guns have conducted identity checks on 11-year-olds at German mosques. Moroccan immigrants have been called “moro de mierda” (“Arab shit”) by Spanish police. The personal data of 8.3 million people were searched in a massive German data mining exercise which targeted—among other characteristics—people who were Muslim, and which did not identify a single terrorist.
These are examples of ethnic profiling by police in Europe—a common, longstanding practice that has intensified in recent years. Evidence from countries across the European Union shows that police routinely use generalizations about ethnicity, religion, race, or national origin in deciding whom to target for identity checks, stops, and searches. Contemporary concerns about terrorism underlie a rising interest in ethnic profiling in Europe, which many see as an effective way to identify terrorist suspects.
It might be comforting to believe that police can spot terrorists and other criminals based on generalizations about ethnicity, race, national origin, or religion. But that is not the case. As this report demonstrates, ethnic profiling by police in Europe may be pervasive, but it is inefficient, ineffective, and discriminatory. Fortunately, better alternatives exist.
To read the full report, click here
To read CHRGJ reports on racial profiling, click here
REPORT
Mohammad Razvi and Cyrus D. Mehta at launch of report Americans on Hold: Profiling, Citizenship, and the "War on Terror"
'Americans on Hold': Profiling, Citizenship, and the "War on Terror" (2007)
(New York, April 25, 2007) The U.S. government is illegally delaying the naturalization applications of thousands of immigrants by profiling individuals it perceives to be Muslim and subjecting them to indefinite security checks, charged the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) in a new report released today.
The 63-page report, titled 'Americans on Hold': Profiling, Citizenship, and the "War on Terror," documents the impact of expanded security checks on the lives of those experiencing citizenship delays, often for years on end. The report analyzes these delays and their impact within an international human rights framework, and offers specific policy recommendations to help end discrimination in access to citizenship and other human rights violations.
Profiled Immigrants Delayed Years in Seeking Citizenship (CHRGJ Press Release, Apr. 25, 2007)
Full Report (63 pages), Briefing Report (12 pages) and a one-page summary in Arabic and in Urdu
Jayne Huckerby and Lema Bashir at launch of report Americans on Hold: Profiling, Citizenship, and the "War on Terror" |
NEWInterview with Jayne Huckerby, WBAI, Asia Pacific Forum, May 29, 2007 On May 21, 2007, Prof. Narula was interviewed live and in Urdu on Pakistan Satellite TV's news program. Interview with Prof. Narula and Mohammad Razvi, WNYC, Leonard Lopate Show, May 17, 2007 Interview with Jayne Huckerby and Mohammad Razvi, WBAI, War on Immigrants Report, May 1, 2007 Interview with Prof. Narula, WBAI, Talk Back, April 30, 2007 The April 27, 2007 Brooklyn launch was covered by Brooklyn Channel 12 News (link coming soon). The April 24, 2007 report launch at NYU was featured on Bridges TV - aired May 5, 2007 (link coming soon). |
CHRGJ Human Rights Law Podcast Series
AOH Segment 2: Interview with Prof. Smita Narula, Faculty Director, CHRGJ
AOH Segment 3: Lives Affected by Name Check Delays
AOH Segment 4: Interview with Jayne Huckerby, Research Director, CHRGJ
AOH Segment 5: Interview with Mohammad Razvi, Executive Director, Council of Peoples Organization
SUBMISSION
Written Submission to U.N. Human Rights Committee (July 2006)
This 11-page note was submitted to the Committee for the Committee's examination of the second and third periodic reports of the U.S. and addresses how "shoot-to-kill" policies with respect to suspected suicide bombers may potentially violate Articles 2, 6 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
REPORT
Irreversible Consequences: Racial Profiling and Lethal Force in the "War on Terror" (2006)
This 71-page report critiques two trends in "shoot-to-kill" policies that are embodied in Training Keys issued by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP): the use of certain behavioral and other indicators to detect a suicide bomber that act as proxies for religious, racial, ethnic and nationality profiling; and removal of the usual safeguards that attach to the use of force when responding to the threat of suicide bombers.
