IHR Clinic, with ACLU and Other Groups, Ask for Emergency Hearing on the Muslim Ban from International Human Rights Body
The International Human Rights Clinic, the ACLU, and more than 40 other organizations jointly sent a letter to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding President Trump’s immigration executive order. The groups requested an emergency hearing on allegations that the executive order violates U.S. commitments under the charter of the Organization of American States and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man. The Commission is a human rights body that monitors that enforces the Declaration and the Inter-American Convention on Human rights and thus has a particular interest and stake in reviewing the executive order to determine if it violates the human rights of protected individuals.
The executive order aims to prevent tens of thousands of migrants from the seven majority-Muslim countries named and also bars entry to Central American children feeing violence in countries including Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
The executive order, implemented just over two weeks ago, infringes U.S. obligations and commitments under international law and counters the Refugee Convention, a landmark document drafted after the Holocaust to respond to the 20th century’s largest refugee crisis. The Refugee Convention was later integrated into U.S. domestic law after the U.S. ratified the Protocol Related to Refugees in 1968.
The letter strongly urges the Inter-American Commission to consider convening an emergency hearing on President Trump’s executive order at its March 2017 period of sessions and to extend an invitation to representatives of the U.S. government to participate in the hearing.