AIUSA: Just Earth: Earth Day 2000 Newsletter

Program Updates

Staff Updates
Folabi Olagbaju replaced Ellen Dorsey as Director of the program. Folabi was the Field Program Coordinator prior to assuming this new position. Before joining Amnesty, Folabi worked in the US labor movement where he helped low wage workers organize unions and negotiate collective bargaining agreements.

Beginning mid-September Lisa Sock will join our team as Field Program Coordinator. Lisa is a long-time Amnesty student activist and volunteer, and was an Area Coordinator in Nebraska, a member of the Area Coordinator Steering Committee, and very active in abolition work. She has been employed for the past two years as the National Field Program Assistant for Training and Evaluation.

Update on the International Right to Know Initiative
The Human Rights and the Environment Program, is working with a number of human rights, labor and environmental NGOs including Earth Rights International, Friends of the Earth, the AFL-CIO, and Environmental Defense, on a concept paper that would require US based corporations doing business abroad to disclose relevant information about their business operations abroad. The human rights component of this initiative would require companies to reveal terms under which they hire security forces to protect their staff and facilities and the extent to which they engage affected communities in decisions regarding projects. The environmental component of the initiative outlines standards for publicly disclosing information on the release of toxins and emissions, and resource extraction. The labor component requires companies to disclose the location of their facilities, and occupational health and safety standards records. The initiative includes an implementation and enforcement mechanism.

Russian Environmental Defender Aleksandr Nikitin visits Washington, DC

Aleksandr Nikitin

Human rights and environmental defender Aleksandr Nikitin spent July 19-21 in Washington, DC speaking to US government officials and media about the challenges faced by environmental activists in the Russian Federation. The Washington, DC segment of his trip was co-sponsored by Amnesty International, the Sierra Club, Bellona Foundation and the Union of Councils of Soviet Jews and was initially planned as a "thank you" tour. However, to everyone's dismay, Nikitin reported upon his arrival that the Prosecutor General had decided to appeal his case to the full Presidium of the Supreme Court on September 13. Nikitin, a former Naval captain, has been subjected to extensive harassment by the Federal Security Services for documenting the risk of radioactive contamination from aging nuclear submarines in Russia's Northern Fleet.

Nikitin's visit was nevertheless a success. A lunch was held in his honor at the State Department and he spoke extensively with Vice President Gore's top foreign policy advisor at the National Security Council. He also met with key Members of Congress and spoke at a congressional briefing before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Nikitin's visit received coverage in multiple media sources including the Associated Press, Moscow Times, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Pacifica Radio, and the National Journal.

Nikitin returned to the US in mid August to present a paper at the American Chemical Association meeting. Amnesty hosted an NGO reception for him on August 22 in Washington, DC. More than 80 activists and NGO representatives came to hear him speak. Nikitin also visited Boston where our Northeast Region organized media events for him and Group 133 in Cambridge held a reception in his honor.

On September 13, the Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court rejected the Prosecutor General's appeal of Nikitin's acquittal. Nikitin's case is closed for good. Your activism helped attain this successful outcome.

Year of Student and Youth Activism to be launched with a National Youth Summit
Organizing efforts in the third year of the program's joint campaign with the Sierra Club will focus on energizing youth and student activism throughout the country. Both Amnesty and the Sierra Club have a large student activist base that has shown remarkable interest in the program. This phase of the campaign will be kicked off with a three-day National Youth Summit in Washington, DC from January 26-29. The Summit will bring together approximately 200 students from Amnesty, the Sierra Club and partner organizations. Participants will be trained to become lead activists in their schools and communities. They will engage in strategy discussions about the program, our defender cases, providing long term institutional protections for environmental defenders and demanding accountability from corporations. Participants will develop key activist skills such as coalition building, lobbying, media work, and organizing campuses and communities. Applications for the Summit will be available in late September.

Another central component of the year long student and youth initiative will be to develop educational materials, including classroom curricula, and to train educators on how to teach about the links between human rights, the environment, and corporate accountability. The educational materials will be created in collaboration with other NGOs and Amnesty's Human Rights Educators Network. A number of pilot projects are planned at middle school, high school, and college levels throughout the country in 2001.