Beyond the Rule of Law:
Civil Liberties and Human Rights Violations
in Guantánamo Bay

Tuesday, February 20, 2007
4:00–6:00 p.m.
Subotnick Center

Co-sponsors
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest (BLSPI)
International Law Society (ILS)

Speakers
Jamil Dakwar, ACLU
Jonathan Hafetz, Brennan Center for Justice
Shane Kadidal, Center for Constitutional Rights
John Sifton, Human Rights Watch
Speaker Bios

Moderator
Professor Susan Herman, Brooklyn Law School

January marked the 5th anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where close to 400 men are held without charge, unable to challenge the lawfulness of their detention before federal court. Our panelists will provide insights and updates since the nationwide virtual teach-in, held in October. Reception to follow

Speaker Biographies

Jamil Dakwar, Counsel, ACLU

Mr. Dakwar is a senior human rights attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Working Group, which uses a human rights framework and strategies to advance social justice in the areas of national security, immigrants' rights, women's rights and criminal justice. Previously, Mr. Dakwar was a senior attorney with Adalah, one of the most prominent human rights groups in Israel focusing on Arab Palestinian citizens. At Adalah, Mr. Dakwar used both international human rights and domestic law to advance and protect the human rights of Palestinian citizens. He has filed and argued dozens of cases before the Israeli Supreme Court, and advocated before international forums including the UN treaty bodies. Mr. Dakwar has also worked at Human Rights Watch where he conducted research on issues of torture and detention in Egypt, Morocco and Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories. He is the co-author of a recent Human Rights Watch report: "Morocco: Human Rights at a Crossroads." Mr. Dakwar received his law degree in 1996 from Tel-Aviv University and an LL.M. in public service law from New York University in 2003. Mr. Dakwar speaks Arabic, Hebrew, English and basic French.

Jonathan Hafetz, Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice

Mr. Hafetz focuses on a range of post-September 11 detention issues, government secrecy, and immigrants’ rights. Before coming to the Brennan Center, Mr. Hafetz was a John J. Gibbons Fellow in Public Interest and Constitutional Law at Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C., and an attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. Mr. Hafetz clerked for Judge Sandra L. Lynch of the U.S Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he received honors for his advocacy and scholarship, and a B.A. from Amherst College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. Mr. Hafetz also holds a masters degree in history with high honors from Oxford University and served as a Fulbright scholar in Mexico. He is the author of numerous articles in scholarly and popular publications, including the Yale Law Journal, California Western Law Review, and Fordham Journal of International Law, Legal Affairs, and the New York Law Journal. He also frequently serves as an expert commentator for television and radio on liberty and national security issues.

Shane Kadidal, Counsel, Center for Constitutional Rights

Mr. Kadidal is a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and has been at CCR since 2001. He works on the Center's major case on the illegal NSA domestic spying program, CCR v. Bush, as well as the Center's Patriot Act case, and testified before Congress this past spring on the material witness statute. He also works on Turkmen v. Ashcroft, representing people swept up on immigration charges after 9/11 and unlawfully detained and abused; with the Vulcan Society of Black Firefighters challenging discriminatory hiring policies of the New York City Fire Department; and with the Sikh Coalition against religious discrimination by New York's Transit Authority, among other cases. He graduated from Yale Law School, worked for the High Court of Karnataka in Bangalore, India, and clerked for Judge Kermit Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Mr. Kadidal is also a contributor to Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, from Melville House Publishing.

John Sifton, Counsel, Human Rights Watch

Mr. Sifton is an attorney and senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, where he focuses on Afghanistan, Iraq and military, terrorism and counterterrorism issues. His writing on Afghanistan has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Nation, the Washington Post, Slate, and Salon, and he is a regular contributor to several online blogs.