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Controversy at the Human Right Commission


Mayor Bloomberg's 12 new human rights commissioners (plus one holdover held their first meeting on January 29. The session started with controversy and went on to focus on "doing more with less," as Commission Chair Patricia Gatling put it.

The agency, cut 80 percent in the Giuliani years, received a slight increase in the budget passed in June. But since then it, along with all other agencies, has been asked to cut its budget for this year as well as for the coming fiscal year. That has spurred the commission to try to get grants from the federal government and others to expand its work.

When I expressed interest in covering the meeting, Betsy Herzog, the director of public information, told me not to expect any fireworks. But just as the meeting began, Rabbi Avi Weiss and others from the Coalition for Jewish Concerns stood up to vociferously protest the appointment of Commissioner Omar T. Mohammedi, an attorney in private practice who is the general counsel for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The protesters said the American-Islamic group "condones terrorism" and have called for a City Council investigation into Mohammedi´s appointment. Mohammedi refused to comment for Gotham Gazette, but his biography on the commission's web site does not mention his work for the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

Commissioner Haskell Lookstein, a rabbi, had previously expressed concern about Mohammedi's involvement with the, but seemed to have reconciled himself to serving with him by the time of the meeting. George Spitz, a community activist and Orthodox Jew who attended the meeting, presented a letter to Gatling hailing the Mohammedi´s appointment, writing that he "will provide much needed representation" for the Muslim community. Spitz said that he checked out the group's web site "and found nothing of a bigoted nature."

Police led the demonstrators out, and the meeting resumed. But the controversy continued. Ed Skyler, Mayor Michael Bloomberg´s press secretary, called Weiss and the other protestors "extremists". This prompted an editorial in the conservative New York Sun criticizing Sklyer and commenting, "Mr. Mohammedi has so far refused to answer questions from the press about CAIR or about what he thinks of Hamas, Hezbollah, the American Jewish Committee or the World Trade Center bombing."

The meeting, though, proceeded to other matters. Gatling and her staff of deputy commissioners told the unpaid commissioners what the agency was doing. The commissioners serve as advisors and also make determinations on civil rights rulings made by an administrative law judge.

Deputy Commissioner for Law Enforcement Avery Mehlman chronicled the commission´s efforts in 2002 to resolve the huge backlog of complaints and to deal with "systemic discrimination" in the city. This included sending out newly hired testers (former police officers) to see whether landlords were violating the city's human rights law. Combating discrimination against women and people with prior criminal records was also cited as a priority. For example, the agency is working with Princeton University on testing the extent to which people coming out of prison face employment discrimination.

"This agency hasn't been a litigation agency," Gatling said, but she is working to change that. For example, the human rights commission is seeking a change in the city´s human rights law that would allow the agency to go to state court to pursue discrimination cases.

Given the agency´s limited resources, Deputy Commissioner for Investigations Cliff Mulqueen said that the agency "is trying to contract with [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] to pay us" to handle housing discrimination cases.

Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs Lee Hudson reviewed a broad range of programs at the agency, including a current survey of discrimination against Muslims, Arabs and South Asians that is available on the agency's revamped web site. It is available in six languages (in two, English and Arabic, on the web site) and so far more than 500 surveys have been returned.

The seven neighborhood human rights offices are being consolidated into one in each borough. And a new computerized system to track case is being developed. All the satellite offices will be able to use it.

For the first time, the agency is developing compliance guidelines for the newest category covered in the human rights law, "gender identity and expression." People of transgender experience have been protected from since early last year.

General Counsel Randy Wills proposed a new set of by-laws for the commission, including moving from meeting once a month to once every four. While that prospect and Gatling's commitment to one-hour meetings was welcomed by some, it was not adopted as the New York Times reported. Privately, some commissioners expressed the desire to meet more frequently to fulfill their obligations "to foster mutual understanding and respect among all persons in the City of New York and to encourage equality of treatment for, and prevent discrimination against, any group or its members."

Defending Affirmative Action

On April 1, high school and college students from around the nation will stage a Civil Rights March to the Supreme Court to "defend affirmative action and save Brown v. Board of Education." It is being organized by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (BAMN).

Andy Humm is a former member of the City Commission on Human Rights. He is co-host of the weekly "Gay USA" on Manhattan Neighborhood Network (57 on Time-Warner; 109 on RCN) on Thursdays at 11 PM.

The Special Registration Program


When Mohammad Ferdous Bin Zaman turned on the TV to find out about the weather, he could not believe what he heard.

Bangladesh became the latest nation, along with Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait, to join the list of 25 countries whose male citizens must register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service if they intend to stay in the United States

"Why Bangladesh?" asked Bin Zaman, 24-year-old Bengladeshi student who now lives in Astoria, Queens. "We don't have a past record of terrorist activities."

The special registration applies to all U.S. visa holders including international students, immigrants whose permanent resident status are pending and undocumented immigrants. Women, green card holders, naturalized U.S. citizens and those who have political asylum are exempt.

The first registration deadline ended up with a massive arrest of immigrants in Los Angeles last December. Although no similar arrest was reported in New York City, immigrant communities here are nervous.

"All of a sudden we got a lot of work to do because we have clients who are petrified," said Jo Anne C. Adlerstein, head of the immigration law practice at Proskauer, Rose.

In some cases, Adlerstein encouraged her clients to leave the country before the registration date because they might be detained for over-staying their visas or other criminal records if they register.

"We had one client from Tunisia who went back last week before the [second] deadline and a number of Pakistani clients are evaluating their options," she said.

Some Pakistani immigrants decided to move out of the country altogether before the third registration deadline on February 21.

"This definitely bred fear, intimidation and confusion on the part of many affected," said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director at New York Civil Liberty Union. "There are so many who just don't understand: why them?"

By next month's deadline more than 24,200 men through out the country are expected to be registered, fingerprinted and photographed, according to an Associated Press report. One Lebanese citizen who has already registered said that he felt "humiliated having to go through the interrogation and the whole process."

Jorge Martinez , a U.S. Justice Department spokesperson, has said that the registration system is meant to protect the United States and the countries on the list are places that harbor terrorist organizations. "It's all based on national security," he said. "It has nothing to do with race or ethnicity."

"[Bagladeshis] are very peaceful people," Bin Zaman said. In fact President George Bush had once cited Bangladesh as a tolerant, moderate and practicing democracy with Muslim majority.

North Korea aside, most countries on the list are ones with a large Muslim population. "It's an extreme example of racial, religious and ethnic profiling," said Lieberman.

Critics also doubt that the registration would prevent future terrorist attacks and point out that some of the 19 hijackers were registered with the INS as students. "How do you know if somebody is a terrorist who has been here in a sleeper cell for 10 years? How do you know that they're not already a citizen?" Alderstein said.

Some immigrants are concerned about what will come after registration. "I don't know what they will do next, " said Kabir, a 26 years old Bangladeshi who lives in Jamaica, Queens. " I fear maybe two months after registration, they will send us all letters saying that there are no jobs available, the economy is going down, and that there is no need for us to be here and we should leave."

Immigrant groups such as the New York Immigration Coalition, the Coney Island Project and the Asian American Legal Defense Fund have arranged protests against the registration program. But at the same time they conduct workshops on how to deal with it because there is no alternative for immigrants who want to remain in the country.

"I would not recommend that you would stay in the country past the registration date without registering," Alderstein said.

'I'm going to register," said Kabir. " Whatever they ask me to do, I'll do it."


First Group

  • Registration deadline: December 16, 2002
  • Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Syria

Second Group

  • Registration deadline: January 10, 2003
  • Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen

Third Group

  • Registration deadline: February 21, 2003 (extended to March 21)
  • Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

Fourth Group

  • Registration deadline: March 28, 2003 (extended to April 25)
  • Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt Jordan and Kuwait

Learn more at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/lawenfor/specialreg/index.htm


In response to the Special Registration, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has produced informational alerts in Korean, Urdu and English and provided free legal advice by telephone.

If you believe that this new registration rule applies to you, You can get free, confidential advice from Sin Yen Ling, a lawyer at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, 212-966-5932 extension 213.

Learn more at http://www.aaldef.org/news.html

An immigrant from Bangkok, Thailand, Chaleampon Ritthichai.

The New Commissioners


It took him more than ten months to do it, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg has filled eleven vacancies on the New York City Commission on Human Rights with some of the leading civil rights leaders in the city. Among those named were two college presidents, five attorneys, and eight people with doctorates. They are diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, sex, religion, and sexual orientation. But it is their depth of experience working for civil rights that makes this perhaps the most high profile panel in the commission's history.

In alphabetical order, they are:

Rev. Calvin O. Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and President of the State University of New York at Old Westbury, has been one of the leading voices against racism in the city for decades. While he has taken his fight to the boardrooms of New York, he has also engaged in such street actions as whitewashing billboards promoting malt liquor to people of color in his community.

Matt Foreman, director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, the state's leading gay and lesbian lobby group, also once led the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. He just negotiated with Governor George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno to get a commitment that they would finally vote on a state lesbian and gay rights bill next month. He said that he wants to focus on "policy and systemic issues around discrimination" through the commission.

Edison O. Jackson is the President of Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York and serves on the board of the Catholic Interracial Council of New York. He has "written extensively on issues of concern to educators with particular concentration on minority students and the community, academic preparation and student performance," according to his biography from the Brooklyn-based college.

Rabbi Haskell Lookstein is considered a leading centrist in Orthodox Judaism. Since 1959, he has been the rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jesurun and since 1966 the principal of the Ramaz School. He is the author of "Were We Our Brothers' Keepers?" about the horrors of the Holocaust. He is not afraid of controversy. Earlier this year, he was in the news for calling for a boycott of the New York Times over their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Grace Lyu-Volckhausen, an adviser to Council Member John Liu (D-Queens), is active in several Korean-American groups including Koreans for Civic Action, the Coalition of Korean American Voters, and the Black-Korean American Mediation Project. With Vicki Alexander, she wrote in Ms. Magazine about "Black/Asian Conflict: Where do We Begin?" back in 1991 about two feminists, one Asian American and one African American, who "sit down as strangers to discuss the conflicts between their communities." She is president of the Tiger Baron Foundation and a board member of the Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute.

William Malpica, an attorney in private practice, does pro bono legal work for the NAACP. He is also on the Junior Advisory Board to the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, the group dedicated "to improving the quality of life of Latino children and families."

Omar T. Mohammedi is also an attorney, among whose specialties is discrimination law. He is the president of the 9/11 Coalition for Constitutional and Human Rights and of the New York Area Muslim Bar Association. His work as general counsel for the Council on Islamic Relations has drawn some fire and that group has sent out an action alert saying that "representatives of the pro-Israel lobby are pressuring officials to withdraw the appointment of Omar T. Mohammedi." The alert does not specify which groups are doing the pressuring. It should be noted that while the chair of the commission serves at the pleasure of the mayor and is compensated, these other commissioners get three-year unpaid terms and may not be removed except for failure to perform their duties.

Bryan Pu-Folkes, who describes himself as Jamaican-Burmese American, is the president of New Immigrant Community Empowerment in Queens, working on helping new immigrants as well as building bridges between longtime residents and new arrivals. He wrote about his mission in an article for Gotham Gazette called "Nice But Not Easy" this past February. And last October, he was presented with the 2001 Brooke Russell Astor Award from the New York Public Library recognizing "unsung heroes who have contributed substantially to improving the quality of life in New York City."

Lisa Quiroz is the publisher of "People en Español" and is a member of the board of both the Hispanic Federation and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Institute, dedicated to engaging "the public sector in support of Latino higher education achievement." Quiroz told Gotham Gazette, "The reason I took this appointment is that as a lifelong New Yorker, I saw this as an opportunity to make a difference for the communities I care about. I got the sense that there will be renewed focus at the commission. The new chair is terrific and she is intent on getting things done, especially around housing and education rights. Don't see it as a ceremonial post, but as a chance to get things done."

Jenny Rivera was once an Administrative Law Judge for the New York State Division on Human Rights and associate counsel for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. She is now associate professor of law at the City University of New York School of Law. She concentrated on constitutional and feminist law at Columbia Law School. She has testified on legislation concerning discrimination and domestic violence against Latinas and was an observer at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

And Susan R. Scheer is a longtime disability activist. She is now the director of Disability Services for Columbia University. She has been executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York Independent Living Services and was once the deputy director of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. Bloomberg announced that Matthew P. Sapolin is the new executive director of his Office of Disabilities. He had been the co-executive director of the Queens Independent Living Center.

All in all, just putting this diverse group of people into the same room has the potential of building some bridges in New York that were not there before. When conflicts between communities arise as they inevitably do in New York, they can be eased through the kinds of relationships among commissioners that are fostered at meetings.

Commissioner Patricia Gatling said that she and her staff have reduced the backlog of complaints from 5,000 to 2,000. She also said that despite the new round of budget cuts anticipated at most city agencies, since most of the commission's money comes from federal "community block funding," the Human Rights Commission is not being asked for more cuts. Gatling said that the agency took an 83 percent cut under the previous administration.

Gatling ticked off several cases that were as much as 12 years old that had recently been settled. These eleven new commissioners' only official duty is to be the final arbiter of cases, which are first decided by an administrative law judge. When busy people like these give up their time for such work, without compensation, the odds are they are not doing it just to get called "commissioner" and put "Honorable" in front of their names. They now have a position from which to seriously enhance intergroup relations in this most diverse of cities. How far they go with that mission is entirely up to them.

Andy Humm is a former member of the City Commission on Human Rights. He is co-host of the weekly Gay USA on Channel 35 on Thursdays at 11 PM.



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