Task Force of the People’s Academy of International Law – Monique and Roland Weyl People's Academy of International Law

Task force

Chief Charles Taku

Task Force Member

Chief Charles Taku has been lead defense counsel at the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. A traditional Chief in Southern Cameroon, he has been an advocate for the return of and reparations for African cultural artifacts stolen by colonial powers. He is a member for life of the Governing Council of the African Bar Association.

Chief Charles Taku

Task Force Member

Jeanne Mirer

Task Force Member

Jeanne Mirer is former President of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, a founding Board Member of the International Commission for Labor Rights and co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild's International Committee.

Jeanne Mirer

Task Force Member

Jeanne Mirer is former President of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, a founding Board Member of the International Commission for Labor Rights and a Board Member of the Sugar Law Center. She is the co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild's International Committee. Additionally, Jeanne is a member of the Core and the National Board of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign. She has been a member of the NLG for 42 years and has held numerous positions in the Guild. She practices labor, employment and civil rights law in New York City. Among her clients are Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange who have taken to court the U.S. chemical companies that profited from manufacturing the poison. In addition to the Guild and the IADL, she is a member of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, the National Employment Law Association, and the NAACP. Jeanne has a deep and extensive history of work in both the international and domestic sphere, including the application of international laws, standards and treaties to the United States. She has authored and co-authored countless white papers, briefs, and articles on everything from the human right to peace, to Agent Orange, to drones, to women’s rights, to labor law and international law.

Email:jmirer@workingpeopleslaw.com

Maria LaHood

Task Force Member

Maria LaHood is Deputy Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, with expertise in constitutional rights and international human rights.

Maria LaHood

Task Force Member

She works to defend the constitutional rights of Palestinian rights advocates in the United States in cases such as Davis v. Cox, defending Olympia Food Co-op board members for boycotting Israeli goods; Bronner v. Duggan, defending Steven Salaita in cases against him and others for the American Studies Association’s resolution endorsing the call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions; and Awad v. Fordham, compelling Fordham University to recognize Students for Justice in Palestine as a student club. She works closely with Palestine Legal to support students and others whose speech is being suppressed for their Palestine advocacy around the country. She also works on the Right to Heal initiative with Iraqi civil society and Iraq Veterans seeking accountability for the lasting health effects of the Iraq war. Her past work at the Center for Constitutional Rights includes cases against United States officials, Arar v. Ashcroft, Al-Aulaqi v. Obama, and Al-Aulaqi v. Panetta; against foreign government officials, Matar v. Dichter and Belhas v. Ya’alon; and against corporations, Wiwa v. Royal Dutch/Shell and Corrie v. Caterpillar. Prior to coming to the Center for Constitutional Rights she advocated on behalf of affordable housing and civil rights in the San Francisco Bay Area, and she graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. She was named a 2010 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalist. Her writing includes “Poisoning Iraq” on the Huffington Post, “Obama Might Want to Look Forward in 2012, but America's Torture Legacy Will Keep Staring Back” on Truthout, and “The Role of Universal Jurisdiction in the Fight Against Impunity” on Badil, and she has appeared on outlets including Democracy Now!, NPR, and Al Jazeera.

Email:mlahood@ccrjustice.org

Gail Davidson

Task Force Member

Gail Davidson is the founder of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada. For the past 20 years, she has worked to promote improved understanding and enforcement of international human rights law.

Gail Davidson

Task Force Member

Gail Davidson is the founder of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada. For the past 20 years, she has worked to promote improved understanding and enforcement of international human rights law. She was the founder in 2000 and, until 1 June 2020, the Executive Director, of LRWC. In 2001, she co-founded with Professor Michael Mandel, Lawyers against the War, to oppose war, promote peace and encourage accountability for war crimes. She has authored, co-authored and edited hundreds of communications about international human rights and humanitarian law directed at decision makers, human rights defenders, victims and suspected perpetrators of violations. These communications include: amicus briefs to international, regional and domestic tribunals, factums; reports to the UN bodies (the Human Rights Council, Special Procedures, Treaty Monitoring bodies and the UN Security Council)l guides and books on international law rights guarantees; and communications to government officials in dozens of countries. She has spoken, made presentations and/or organized education events in Cameroon, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. She received the UBC Great Trekker Award in 2004, the Courage in Law Award from the UBC Indigenous Law Students’ Association in 2013 and was appointed as the Grace MacInnis Visiting Scholar by the SFU Institute for the Humanities in 2016. Gail is a (retired status) member of the Law Society of BC. She practiced first criminal and then family law for almost two decades before entering the field of international human rights.

Email:lrwc@portal.ca

Martha Schmidt

Task Force Member

Martha Schmidt is a former labor and community organizer and college teacher who recently retired from active law practice and a founder of Healthcare is a Human Right-WA.

Martha Schmidt

Task Force Member

Martha Schmidt is a former labor and community organizer and college teacher who recently retired from active law practice. Martha has worked for the right to health care for more than a decade with a number of organizations in Washington State and has served chiefly as an educator on human rights law. She is a founder of Healthcare is a Human Right-WA.

Email:martha@marthalschmidt.net

Arturo Fournier

Task Force Member

Attorney Arturo Fournier served as Costa Rica’s Ambassador to Russia. He was a strong advocate for political freedom and against tyranny including Somoza’s repression in Nicaragua. He is member of the Continental Advisory Council of the American Association of Jurists, and was a Commissioner for the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the U.S.

Arturo Fournier

Task Force Member

Jun Sasamoto

Task Force Member

Jun Sasamoto is the General Secretary of COLAP, the Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific, and a Bureau Member of IADL, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.

Jun Sasamoto

Task Force Member

Jun Sasamoto is the general secretary of COLAP, the Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific, and a Bureau Member of IADL, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Based in Japan, he is an active member of JALISA, the Japan Lawyers International Solidarity Association.

Email:jun@sasamoto.jp.net

Task force

Chief Charles Taku

Jeanne Mirer

Maria LaHood

Gail Davidson

Martha Schmidt

Arturo Fournier

Jun Sasamoto

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