DipLawMatic Dialogues

Report no.40 on COVID-19: Mexico’s Amparo Law in the Context of a Pandemic

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Marcelo Rodríguez (En Español)

COVID-19 has impacted Mexico in a transformationalway. A lot has been observed and analyzed when it comes to the slow and confusing federal response to the crisis since the beginning. Realizing the absence of national authorities, communities and the civil society in Mexico rapidly mobilized resources to confront COVID-19. These same organizations found themselves overwhelmed with the scope and scale of the emergency. To this end, Mexico’s amparo law was used multiple times to force the government to act and respond diligently. Despite the suspension of judicial activities for several months, the amparo law served as a tool to reestablish services and provide help to all citizens at the beginning of the pandemic, during the reopening states and vaccination process.

In this brief report, I will mention a succinct definition of the amparo in the context of Mexican law as well as various examples of how it has been used during the pandemic. I have chosen examples related to immigration, refugees and energy. Furthermore, I will also talk briefly about the period of time when judicial activities were suspended and the current process of access to vaccines.

Brief Definition of Amparo

The amparo is a legal recourse that protects individuals’ human rights which have been established by both the Mexican constitution as well as applicable international agreements and treaties. The amparo can be executed against a public or private entity and its decision may have consequences for everyone. Despite being associated mostly with Mexico, the amparo is also present in similar ways throughout Latin American countries of civil law tradition. At the end of 1960, the amparo was also added to the American Convention on Human Rights protected by both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Amparo Law Facing COVID-19: Suspension and Application

As we have mentioned before in our reports, the inept and confusing response from the federal government contributed to Mexicans’ loss of confidence, while being forced to take matters into their own hands. At the same time, civil society groups organized themselves to demand a response from the government. The amparo law was one of the tools they were able to use. Baja California, Guerrero, Nuevo León, Michoacán, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa and Oaxaca are among some of the Mexican states in which decisions from amparo lawsuits forced the administrative authorities to act and to implement measures. These measures included the reappropriation of financial resources to respond to the health emergency, the possibility for federal authorities to grant tax incentives or allowing to postpone tax payments. Some of the most urgent measures included supporting and protecting medical personnel and other employees who found themselves working in the frontlines as well as making available COVID-19 tests to people showing symptoms. Furthermore, the amparo law was used successfully to demand that the government made COVID-19 information accessible to people with hearing impairment.

The accumulation of decisions from multiple amparo lawsuits, the rapidly growing rate of infected people, and the demands of citizens forced the federal government to declare a health emergency throughout the entire territory for two months, from March 30 to April 30. The emergency plan prohibited all non-essential activities and it encouraged people to stay at home as much as possible, without demanding a curfew or a total lockdown. At the same time, the country’s judicial system followed the national emergency plan and consequently it suspended all its activities until April 2020. Courts in all Mexican states followed the same protocol, albeit with slight differences when it came to reopening dates. During this time, using the amparo became an impossible thing to do. Citizens had to comply with the emergency measures, and to patiently wait until the reopening of courts at both the state and federal levels.

Mexico’s Ministry of Health

Immigration, Energy and Vaccines

Immediately after the reopening of courts, the amparo became once again an essential tool to safeguard everyone’s human rights in the country. Immigrants and refugees have found themselves in a state of high vulnerability as a result of the lack of health resources to combat COVID-19. The asylum and migratory centers have contributed to spread the virus within groups completely deprived of any medical help. A few civil society organizations in Mexico put forward an amparo lawsuit against the National Institute of Migration (Instituto Nacional de Migración, INM in Spanish) to demand them to provide “basic guarantees” of access to health, security and protection. The situation has become a critical one both along the Northern border with the United States as well as the Southern one with Guatemala. Civil society organizations have obtained favorably decisions from the courts, and they will continue to use the amparo law as a way to look for solutions at both borders as well as asylum centers throughout the country.

Mexico’s Commission of Defense and Protection of Human Rights

The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, AMLO, through its National Energy Control Center (Centro Nacional de Control de Energía, CENACE in Spanish) published on April 29 its response to the pandemic. The national energy protocol aimed at strengthening the trust on the country’s electrical energy produced mostly by fossil fuels, and it also suspended any planned testing activities conducted by renewable energy as those were deemed “unreliable”. Only a few days after it was announced, various amparo lawsuits were filed throughout the country requesting not to allow the government to stop such activities. This is not the first time that AMLO finds himself in a battle against renewable energy companies. However, experts coincide that this is the first time that CENACE finds itself facing an amparo lawsuit.

Mexico’s National Energy Control Center

Despite being the first country in Latin America to kickstart a national vaccine program on December 24, 2020, Mexico decided to only vaccinate its medical personnel. The national authorities plan to begin vaccinating the second group, older than 60 years old by March 2021. The decisions have been the result of what the Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebard called at the United Nations, the “phenomenon of hoarding” pursued by various rich countries.

In this uncertain context, Eva Flores Medina filed and won an amparo lawsuit on January 11, 2021 against the Secretary of Health’s Vaccination Plan. The lawsuit demanded a local hospital in Mexico City to vaccinate Flores despite her medical condition. The amparo lawsuit also forced the government to prioritize people with chronic conditions as well as comorbidities. Unfortunately, Flores passed away before getting vaccinated. However, the decision of her amparo lawsuit has inspired other people to use the same legal recourse in order to reform the country’s current vaccination plan.

Report no.39 on COVID-19: Impact on Guyana and Its Indigenous Peoples

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Janette Bulkan and Rachel Thomas-Caesar

Increase of confirmed cases, lack of consistent testing and tracing, economic disruption, illegal mining and national elections have all impacted the entire country from the coast to the hinterlands. In this brief report, we will enumerate some of the most salient events affecting the current pandemic situation in Guyana. We will also highlight several of the specific challenges and issues affecting the nation’s indigenous population.

Source: Amerindian Peoples Association

COVID-19 Stats

The Ministry of Health reported a total of 8,457 confirmed Covid-19 cases from the detection of the first case to 24 February 2021. Of that number, 7,834 persons had recovered, but 431 active cases remain. There were 192 deaths.

The weekly dashboard of cases posted by the Ministry of Health and reported in the daily newspapers showed that all ten regions of Guyana had confirmed cases in 2020. Just less than one-third of confirmed cases were in the four regions (1, 7, 8 and 9) where the Indigenous Peoples are mainly located, with 2,072 of 6,348 cases recorded by 1 January 2021.

On the coastland where 85 percent of the population live, three public and five private clinics provide COVID-19 testing. The cost of a Covid-19 test is about US $45 at a private clinic. Covid-19 testing is also carried out at the Lethem Public Hospital in Region 9, in the south of the country and bordering Brazil’s Roraima State.

Economy and Elections

A variety of local restrictions were also imposed on in-country travel, including seating on the ubiquitous minibuses, as well as social distancing and use of face masks. Implementation of the restrictions nationwide was variable throughout 2020.

The Guyanese economy has been severely disrupted by Covid 19. Although the government classified the gold mining sector as an essential service in 2020, Covid outbreaks led to a few mining shutdowns initially. Some of the national protected areas including the Iwokrama Rainforest in the centre of the country were the sites of notable increases of illegal mining activities.

Source: Guyana Civil Aviation Authority

The tourism sector was arguably the hardest hit. Several stakeholders in the industry were disappointed and felt that there was not sufficient direct support from the country’s national government. Since March 2020, tourism entities all over Guyana closed doors and sent home staff. Many of those who remained agreed to pay cuts or no-pay leave. The tourism industry slowly started to re-open from December 2020 with the Guyana Tourism Authority providing voluntary assessments of lodges to provide ‘safe to open’ certification. However, with international travel reduced, many of the tourism entities have designed new marketing packages to entice the domestic market.

Most international air travel was curtailed, except for essential business travel. This allowed the oil companies to fly-in/fly-out their rotating crews to the offshore deep-water Stabroek tract, with mandatory quarantine enforced before workers were moved offshore. The President of ExxonMobil American said that “to date [December 2020], we’ve moved over 6,000 people offshore and not had one single case of COVID-19 offshore, which is truly remarkable”.

National elections were held in Guyana on 2 March 2020 but the transfer of power from one administration to the next was delayed until 2 August 2020. The APNU+AFC government (May 2015 to August 2020) was distracted by electoral matters from December 2019 when a vote of no-confidence passed in the National Assembly and consequently gave only sporadic attention to mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact on Indigenous Communities

It is thus likely that the infection rate in the hinterland territories where the Indigenous Peoples form the majority population is under-estimated. Testing sites were identified in each community and mobile teams from the Ministry of Health could be deployed for testing, tracking and tracing if the Village Councils reported rising infection rates. Tracking and tracing are more difficult in the rural areas, however, because of the scattered farming population and logging and mining crews, along with much lower rates of cell phone coverage than on the coast.

Elected Village Councils in Indigenous communities imposed various rules to mitigate the pandemic, including face masking and social distancing. Some villages imposed temporary lockdowns, aided by Ministry of Health monitoring teams. Villages in north-eastern Guyana on travel routes to Suriname were identified as hotspots. Some villagers were opposed to limits on inter- and intra-community movements, expressing the traditional sense of Amerindian autonomy against rules felt to infringe personal liberties.

The government aided some NGO efforts made special efforts to communicate the terrible potency and infectiousness of the coronavirus in culturally appropriate language via radio and social media. Nevertheless, the infection rate in Amerindian communities was three times greater than in the more densely populated coastal areas by the end of 2020. Press comments noted the silence of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs but most news articles commented favorably on the geographical spread of efforts by the Ministry of Health. The NGO Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) was critical of the government’s insufficient efforts to protect Indigenous communities. The APA was also active in distributing posters about COVID-19 designed specifically for Indigenous communities, and was important in distributing food parcels, supported by a donation from the Government of France.

Source: Amerindian Peoples Association

Indigenous communities such as Surama, Rewa and Yupukari, recognised to have world class community tourism, were very hard hit and are still without significant income from this particular income-generating business.

Report no.38 on COVID-19: Mexico’s Initial Federal Health Measures

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By David Isom

This article will discuss major elements of the Mexican federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including identifying the principal legal measures it has taken. However, please note that under Mexico’s federal system, Mexico City and the 31 states also have significant legal authority over various aspects of the pandemic. However, such state actions are beyond the scope of this article.

BACKGROUND

The Mexican Constitution of 1917 (currently in force) declares Mexico to be “a representative, democratic, secular, federal, Republic, made up by free and sovereign States” (English translation from the Constitute Project). The federal government has three branches—executive, judicial, and legislative, with the latter consisting of the bicameral Congress of the Union. Having inherited much of its legal tradition from 300 years of colonial rule by Spain, Mexico is a civil law jurisdiction.

Traffic Light System of the Country’s Epidemiological Risk for Feb 15-18 2021

COVID-19 has hit Mexico very hard—it was the country’s second-leading cause of death in 2020, and as of February 20, 2021, the country had the second-highest case-fatality rate in the world (8.8%), the 15^th-highest number of deaths per 100,000 people (141.82), and the third-highest total number of deaths caused by COVID-19 (178,965). As of September 3, 2020, more health workers (1,320) had died from COVID-19 in Mexico than in any other country. As grim as these data are, the actual scale of the pandemic in Mexico is likely even worse, as the country has conducted limited testing during the pandemic and therefore is likely to be significantly undercounting the number of people infected with and killed by COVID-19.

The federal government created a national campaign to promote social distancing using a cartoon superhero named “Susana Distancia” (from su sana distancia, or “your healthy distance”) and devised a four-color traffic light guide to the regional dangers of the pandemic and the corresponding lockdown status. On December 24, 2020, Mexico became the first country in Latin America to begin vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2.

“Susana Distancia” indicating the traffic light guide.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has rarely worn a mask publicly and has criticized them as ineffective. He fell ill with COVID-19 in January 2021; since recovering, he has continued to reject calls to wear a mask.

PRINCIPAL LEGAL MEASURES

Secretary of Health Jorge Carlos Alcocer Varela issued an agreement on March 24, 2020 which imposed a series of preventive measures: avoiding going to workplaces, public places, and other crowded places by those 65 and older or at other risk of developing serious illness; the closing of schools through April 17, 2020; and the suspension of activities by the private, public, and social sectors which necessitate the movement of people through April 19, 2020, with exceptions for essential activities (including hospitals =and other medical activities; financial services, telecommunications, and the media; hotels and restaurants; gas distribution, gas stations and transportation services). In addition, the agreement banned gatherings of more than 100 people; stipulated hygienic measures such as frequent handwashing and covering of the nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing; recommended healthy distancing and avoiding greeting with kisses, handshakes, and embraces; and a 15-day quarantine for those who have shown symptoms of COVID-19. It further stated that the federal government must coordinate with the Ministry of Health to implement these measures.

A decree by President López Obrador on March 27, 2020 authorized “extraordinary actions” to combat the spread of COVID-19, directing the Ministry of Health to employ the “medical and social assistance resources of the public, social and private sectors” in affected areas of the country as well as streamlining the importation and purchase of medical supplies and services.

The Mexican Constitution authorizes the General Health Council to declare health emergencies, and it did so by issuing an agreementon March 30, 2020. The emergency was initially scheduled to remain in effect through April 30, 2020. The agreement authorized the Ministry of Health to determine the actions necessary to address the crisis; the following day (March 31, 2020), the Ministry issued a decree which ordered the suspension of non-essential activities through April 30, 2020, exempting activities “directly necessary” to combat the pandemic (such as medical activities, the production and distribution of medical supplies, and the disposal of medical waste); public security, national defense, and the administration of justice; and activities in “fundamental sectors of the economy,” such as finance, taxation, distribution of fuel, and the sale of water, nonalcoholic beverages, and food.

The decree was followed by a set of technical guidelines issued on April 6 which specified particular industries that could continue operations in some capacity during lockdown: coal mines and coal distribution (to support the uninterrupted generation of electricity); the production of steel, cement, and glass so as not to cause “irreversible effects on their operation,” as well as to continue to supply the federal government with materials needed for President López Obrador’s “megaprojects”; information technology work supporting the public, private, and social sectors; courier services; and the maintenance of critical infrastructure.

The Ministry of Health issued an agreement on May 13, 2020 which set forth a strategy for reopening “social, educational, and economic activities” in three stages as well as establishing the traffic light guide to regional dangers and lockdowns. The first stage of the reopening plan—scheduled to begin on May 18, 2020—allowed for municipalities with no cases of COVID-19 and with no neighboring municipalities with cases of COVID-19 to commence reopening. The second stage (May 18–31, 2020) consisted of preparing for reopening through the development of sanitary protocols, employee training, and the modification of work environments and processes to accommodate necessary changes to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2. In the third stage (beginning June 1, 2020), the traffic light guide would indicate what activities were permitted or prohibited—for example, the red light indicates that schools, public spaces, and nonessential economic activities must all be closed or prohibited. This was followed by another agreement on May 29, 2020 which specified the technical requirements required for various economic activities to resume by June 1, the first day of what the agreement described as la Nueva Normalidad (“the New Normal”).

Timeline to the “Nueva Normalidad” (The New Normal Plan)

New FCIL Librarian Series: FCIL Favs

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 11:10:00 GMT

By Traci Emerson Spackey

This blog post may be a bit of a snore for FCIL veterans, because I’m doubtful I will say anything insightful to the more experienced. Rather, this post is for anyone truly new to Foreign, Comparative, or International legal research. This is just a brief primer of some of my favorite FCIL sources, as well as some pros and cons.

Max Planck’s Encyclopedia of Public International Law

Surprisingly, I didn’t learn about this resource until late into library school when I did my directed fieldwork at the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library. My fieldwork director recommended it for getting familiar with an area of international law. It has saved my *ahem* derrière a few times.

I often find myself consulting this resource when a student emails me, thick in the weeds of their international law research paper, assuming I know exactly what they are talking about.

So…I’ve had a few professors introduce me to their students as an “expert” on international law, and I do try to clarify when I can (with a smile): “I am a specialist in foreign & international law, not an expert…yet.” (Maybe that’s my way of trying to manage expectations?!) What the students don’t usually know is that sometimes I’ve never even heard of the treaty they are researching, and I definitely don’t know what Article __ of it says. That doesn’t mean I can’t help them find what they need, but it does mean I need to get up to speed quickly.

Enter Max Planck’s. This resource is vast, but palatable. It’s perfect for when you just need to quickly get your bearings on a topic, and you can’t read the student’s whole rough draft to get familiar with it. The entries are rife with hyperlinks to primary source material, other encyclopedia entries, and there are bibliographies at the end of each topic for good secondary source reading.

Pros:

Extremely thorough, annotated, authoritative. There’s an entry for just about everything Public International Law related, you usually just have to find the right vocabulary (or spelling!).

Cons:

The search features can be a little clunky at times. It’s fine for me as a librarian, but sometimes I wonder if it’s harder for students to navigate. Also, the bibliographies are often slightly outdated.

Brill’s Foreign Law Guide & GlobaLex

I usually end up using and/or recommending these resources together. They are both directories of nations and how to find their laws. Both are annotated, and fairly frequently updated. Some countries have more info than others on each respective site, so I usually end up looking at both when trying to hunt something down. That said, I often find that GlobaLex goes into more detail about each country’s legal system, which can be particularly helpful when trying to understand where to look for law. (This always surprises me because of the two, GlobaLex is the free resource.) However, there have been times when I’ve found links to online sources of law through Foreign Law Guide that were not indicated in GlobaLex. Used together, these are wonderful resources for finding foreign law. There is a lot of overlap between the two, but I’ve taken to always looking at both to cover my bases.

Pros:

Did I mention GlobaLex is free? Also, Foreign Law Guide has a helpful subject directory as well as a country index. It’s Brill-iant.

Cons:

I’m not sure if other libraries struggle with this, but we often run into access issues with Foreign Law Guide and I have to clear my cache just to get into it. (It’s some kind of fluke that I think our Electronic Services librarian is sick of hearing me complain about.) Also, not necessarily a con, but a tip on navigating GlobaLex: when selecting a country, click the link that says “UPDATE” (in All Caps) to get the latest info. If you click the other link you’ll get an older version that may not be up to date in terms of what you’re looking for.

HeinOnline

I saved this one for last because…oh how I could extol its virtues!

I’ll try to be brief, though. HeinOnline has a constantly expanding universe of legal material to be found, and an impressive amount of international material. While I was aware of HeinOnline’s existence in law school, I did not fully appreciate it till I became a librarian. Even though it’s true that much of the primary source content on HeinOnline can be found elsewhere, Hein has a very sophisticated Advanced Search, as well as browsing features that allow for easy navigation to what you need. Recently, as a “database of databases”, Hein has started allowing search of more than one specific database, leaving behind its one or all approach (you know you’re meant to be a librarian when that is exciting news).

Several important international law databases within Hein include:

U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library
World Constitutions Illustrated
World Treaty Library
United Nations Law Collection (includes some League of Nations material)
Hague Academy Collected Courses Online / Recueil des cours en ligne
History of International Law
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP)

And this is naming only a few. Besides international law primary sources, I also find that Hein is my #1 recommendation for law students looking for international law related law review articles. But that’s another blog post altogether.

Pros:

So. Many. Hein is very responsive to ideas and is constantly innovating. The full-text search is very reliable, and you can save your research by creating a “MyHein” account (highly recommended). Also, don’t miss the “Search Tips” link under the search bar for Hein-specific boolean.

Cons:

Honestly, the UI feels a little outdated. I do not really complain about this too much, because I’d rather Hein channel resources toward content than the interface, however, students are often intimidated by Hein for this very reason.

So, this is just a short little fly-over of some of my favorite FCIL resources. I hope they serve you as well as they have me. Thanks for reading!

Volunteers Needed: New FCIL-SIS Appointments Committee

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:59:00 GMT

Dear FCIL-SIS Membership,

In an effort to formalize the committee and IG membership/leadership appointment process, the Executive Board has decided to form a new FCIL-SIS Appointments Committee that will be responsible for soliciting and assigning volunteers to committee and IG membership and leadership positions. It is our hope that formalizing the process will lead to greater diversity on FCIL-SIS Committees and in Committee and IG leadership, will allow for more frequent turnover in membership and leadership positions, and will provide leadership with the needed support to accomplish their projects and goals. The new Committee Charge is as follows:

Collect information on which Committees and Interest Groups need new chairs, co-chairs, and/or members.
Keep track of term limits to ensure that chairs, co-chairs, and members are rolling off committee and interest group appointments when appropriate.
Administer annual volunteer survey in advance of AALL Annual Meeting.
Assign volunteers to membership and/or chair/co-chair positions in advance of AALL Annual Meeting.

We are currently seeking volunteers to chair and to serve on the new Appointments Committee! The Committee term is 2 years. Please contact me at sgua@law.upenn.edu if you are interested!

Sincerely,
Susan Gualtier

Call for FCIL-SIS Awards Nominations

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 11:22:00 GMT

Have you, or an FCIL-SIS member you know, made a significant contribution to our profession this year? If so, please let us know! The Executive Committee needs your help identifying the folks who deserve these prestigious FCIL-SIS Awards:

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels.com

The Daniel L. Wade FCIL-SIS Outstanding Service Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member who has made an outstanding contribution to our SIS in the areas of section activity and professional service.

The Thomas H. Reynolds & Arturo A. Flores FCIL-SIS Publications Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member who has greatly contributed to the professional development of their AALL colleagues during any given year. The winning “publications” may be print, digital, or electronic initiatives.

The Spirit of the FCIL-SIS Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member whose work furthers our mission, serves the entire FCIL-SIS, and inspires others to act.

The Blog Post of the Year Award: honors an AALL member who contributes an outstanding blog post for the FCIL-SIS blog, DipLawMatic Dialogues, during the previous year.

The Newsletter Article of the Year Award: honors an FCIL-SIS member who contributes an outstanding article for the FCIL-SIS Newsletter during the previous year.

The Interest Group/Committee Project of the Year Award honors the FCIL-SIS Interest Group and/or Committee that produces an outstanding project for the benefit of FCIL-SIS and/or AALL members during the previous year.

Nominations for all awards are due by April 15, 2021, to any member of the Executive Committee: Susan Gualtier (sgua@law.upenn.edu), Hunter D Whaley (hwhaley@law.columbia.edu), Jennifer Allison (jallison@law.harvard.edu), or Loren Turner (lturner@umn.edu). We look forward to hearing from you!

Report no.36 on COVID-19: Solidarity in the Transgender Community While Facing Multiple Crises

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Marcelo Rodríguez (En Español)

Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, national states of emergency, permanent lockdowns, ever changing curfews and all-encompassing quarantine measures have tremendously affected and impacted historically marginalized and vulnerable groups, including trans and non-binary communities. In enacting and implementing these measures and policies, governments have at times paid little or no attention whatsoever, whether purposely or not, to trans lives and their livelihoods. The precarious situation in the region prompted the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to call upon all states to guarantee essential rights to all LGBTI people.

In this brief report, I will broadly enumerate a few areas in which we can explicitly observe the severe impact of rapid government actions on trans lives. COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean has exacerbated an already fragile and precarious situation for trans and non-binary communities in the region. Patterns of lack of access to much-needed and affordable health care and basic services, institutionalized violence and fear to report abuses are problems which were already plaguing these communities even before the arrival of COVID-19. With the new normal, there is an unprecedented need for the community to remain together and rely on solidarity more than ever despite in the face of some legislative and political gains this year.

“Pico y Género” Lockdown Threatens Trans Lives

On April 2, 2020, Peru, together with Panama, began restricting movement by gender in a policy called Pico y Género (Peak and Gender in English). Women and men were allowed to leave their houses exclusively on the three days assigned to their gender. No one was allowed to leave their houses on Sundays. This gender-based restrictive policy proved to be controversial with the transgender community notably in Peru where it created a significant amount of confusion and chaos. On April 10th, Peru cancelled the controversial policy. However, Panama has continued its implementation, including when new surges have prompted new restrictive measures. Colombia’s capital city, Bogota has also implemented a similar policy since the end of April and until May 2020. In Colombia, gender-based lockdown measures have returned at different intervals in several other cities.

These failed and discriminatory policies are unfortunately part of a pattern of transphobia which COVID-19 has exacerbated and/or has brought to everyone’s attention: lack of access to health care, harassment by the public as well as police forces, and fear to report any abuses. Pico y Género has been discredited as not effective against preventing the spread of the disease. Instead these gender-based restrictive measures created an untenable and precarious environment for trans people fearing for their lives while trying to obtain and access vital services and basic products.

Logo of the 2020 Virtual Conference on Transgender in Latin America. Source: RedLACTrans

Lack of Access to Financial, Social and Health Services

COVID-19 is restricting access to health care for many transgender and non-binary people. Due to the rapid developing pandemic and saturation of hospitals and medical facilities, many trans people are fearful of seeking much needed care. Access to HIV and trans-related care is also being restricted, as medical providers prioritize COVID-related care. In some cases, transgender persons are desperately awaiting the restoration of health services. Additionally, the socioeconomic conditions that are insufficient to guarantee a dignified survival affect the capacity of most transgender people to purchase any medication, as well as personal hygiene supplies.

The livelihoods of transgender and non-binary people are being decimated during the pandemic. Discriminatory patterns and policies have prevented them from accessing any safety or financial help provided to other citizens. Due to the exclusion in workplaces and social isolation, a significant number of transgender people previously relied on informal and fragile sectors within national economies. Abrupt and all-encompassing lockdown measures destroyed livelihoods which were extremely tenuous and without any insurance of official recognition or solvency from governmental authorities.

Pervasive Institutionalized Violence

Logo of RedLacTrans

Transphobia and stigma are constantly present in most governments and institutions in the region. These patterns are so widespread and prevalent that violence, either physical or psychological, has become endemic in the institutions which should be protecting and safeguarding these vulnerable communities in the first place.

Transgender and non-binary people have been victims of abuses from police forces and authorities. Those who are socially perceived from economically disadvantaged backgrounds tend to meet the criteria of police selectivity and are recurrently arrested and interrogated. Those who have documents that identify them as men or female but an image read as “ambiguous”, or who have not changed their documents and instead are socially perceived as male or female experience situations of violence in the street which include selective searches, questioning of their right to movement and their gender identity, undue and unjustified physical contact, and arbitrary arrests.

Lack of accountability and transparency when these traumatic instances and abuses happen feed into a pattern of fear to report. Several countries in the region are sadly entrenched in a culture of impunity which leaves transgender people with zero possibilities or any alternatives to demand legal protections or the implementation of existing laws. Most of the time, transgender people are afraid to report discrimination or any violence because of previous cases of abuse of power. These patterns of insecurity create a perfect environment for killings and disappearances which extend for significant periods of time and are completely unpunished in most cases.

Trans Solidarity Showing Signs of Hope

In the face of an ever increasing cascade of unprecedented crises and immense challenges, the transgender community show resilience and perseverance by relying on each other. From Argentina to Mexico and Peru to Barbados, the different local, national and regional organizations have led the way in creating and sustaining multiple initiatives such as funds, networks and raising awareness at all levels. Organizations such as RedLacTrans , IGLALAC and TvT are great examples of how these organizations can play the middle ground between connecting local grassroots groups with highly influential international organizations.

Logo of TvT

UNAIDS, World Bank, Human Rights Campaign, UNDP, UNESCO among others have all expressed concerns regarding the precarious situation for the transgender and non-binary communities in the region only exacerbated during the COVID-19. They have also contributed to create specific programs and funds targeting those in need and mobilizing significant resources for a greater impact. Local communities and groups are also focused on using every tool and connection at their disposal to raise awareness and more importantly to help each other survive the multitude of crises.

Report no.35 on COVID-19: Special Update on Mexico & Central America

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Ulysses Jaen

The Coronavirus continues to devastate the most economically unequal region of the world with 16.5 Million cumulative COVID-19 cases in Latin America & the Caribbean as of January 10, 2021. In addition, the Раn-Аmеrісаn Неаlth Оrgаnіzаtіоn (РАНО) has also reported in a new epidemiological update that three new variants of the ЅАRЅ-СоV-2 virus whісh саuѕеѕ СОVІD-19 have bееn dеtесtеd in 14 соuntrіеѕ асrоѕѕ the Аmеrісаѕ.

With the spread of the disease, experts blame informal economies in Mexico and Central America which force people outside of the homes to earn their daily livings . Because there are not enough formal jobs, people are forced to invent ways to sell their services for cash without any protections. The crowded living conditions, poverty, social discord, poor governance and fragmented/underfunded health systems exacerbate the problem. Latin Americans also have high levels of obesity, diabetes and other underlying chronic health conditions. Central Americans have been fleeing their corrupt governments, violence, poverty and the desolation caused by two recent hurricanes and the pandemic and thousands of them are on the move in caravans to the USA.

Taking into account this precarious context, our special report will enumerate each of the countries in this subregion and provide an update from when we reported back in June 2020. Undoubtedly a lot of things have changed and people in these countries have had to endure unprecedented circumstances which seem to only further complicate as the pandemic continues to ravage the region unrelentingly. This special report also serves an introduction to the multiple reports this February which will shed some light on specific situations in Mexico and all Central American countries.

Mexico

Mexico’s fast-rising caseload of over 1,857,230 active cases leads these grim statistics, with Mexico City reporting general hospital beds and beds with ventilators that are both currently over 85 per cent occupied. There is also a lack of enough oxygen crisis evolving in the region because supplies can’t keep up. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting, some hospitals’ demand for oxygen has increased between five and seven times above normal. Mexico’s COVID-19 death toll of more than 158,074 humans as of January 10 is the world’s fourth-highest fatality toll after the United States, Brazil and India, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

“Let’s find new ways to say hi!” Source: Mexican Civil Service Social Security and Services

Guatemala

In Guatemala, up to February 3, 2021, there have been 160,299 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 5,709 deaths. Guatemala’s president said he had received word from the health ministry that between mid and late February Guatemala would be receiving the first 800,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The Guatemalan government has announced that, as of January 06, 2021, all arriving passengers who originated or transited from any airports within the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) or South Africa will be denied entry due to a new variant of COVID-19 found in those countries. All persons aged 10 or over arriving in Guatemala must now present a negative COVID-19 PCR or antigen test result within 96 (up from 72) hours of flight departure. Guatemala has also become a battleground for migrants being held back from continuing their caravans up north. The Mexican Government is also involved with personnel and equipment to capture refugees and return them back mainly to Honduras.

Government of Guatemala – Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance

Belize

Belize is the most underpopulated country in Central America and the most isolated. The good news is that COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Belize, with approx. 24 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 6% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on December 8. There have been 11,957 infections and 303 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began. Belize is like a remote beach and rainforest with few citizens, visitors and COVID-19 patients.

Honduras

Honduras COVID-19 infections are increasing with 987 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 97% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on January 26, 2021. There have been 149,791 infections and 3,638 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began. Honduras was hit the hardest by hurricanes Eta and Iota. Approximately 95,000 Hondurans were forced to take refuge; 85,000 homes were damaged and nearly 6,000 destroyed completely in the storms. As in other Central American countries, arable land was washed away, erosion damaged the harvest of basic staples, food insecurity and massive homelessness is a fact and is pushing thousands to flee. The corruption levels in Honduras during the pandemic seem to increase with fraud and theft rampant as in the case of mobile hospitals fraud during the pandemic.

El Salvador

COVID-19 infections are decreasing in El Salvador, with 209 new infections reported on average each day as of 02/03/2021. That’s 48% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on August 8, 2020. There have been 55,195 infections and 1,646 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began. Like in other countries, international travelers having the UK or South Africa in their flight itinerary within the past 30 days remain barred from entry in response to a new strain of the virus that was discovered in the UK and South Africa. Other arriving travelers must present proof of having tested negative for COVID-19 using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test taken no more than 72 hours before travel.

President Bukele and his government have been accused of corruption. Salvadoran officials paid more than $800,000 to a hotel chain used as quarantine centers that authorities had earlier seized from an accused drug dealer. Another case concerned a procurement contract for $225,000 worth of rubber boots, granted to a company owned by the aunt of Health Minister Francisco Alabi. And the government purchased 300,000 masks from a firm linked to Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya, for $750,000—double the manufacturer’s price.

Regions of El Salvador

Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, the Ortega dictatorship doesn’t contribute to international watchdogs and there have been officially reported only 5,263 infections and 147 coronavirus-related deaths in the country since the pandemic began. John Hopkins reports a slightly higher number of confirmed cases of 6,299 and 170 deaths. Experts and observers have expressed concern that some countries, such as Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, are significantly undercounting their death tolls. Many observers have expressed special concern for Venezuela, where the health care system was collapsing prior to the pandemic.

However, the numbers reported by the independent Citizen’s Observatory source estimates 12,716 cases and 2,947 suspicious deaths. Nicaragua’s Vice President Rosario Murillo announced on 02/01 that a first batch of over half a million doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 will soon arrive in the country. Mr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO’s assistant director which is the regional office of the World Health Organization stated that Russian Vaccines are expected soon. “Nicaragua is negotiating with the Russian laboratory Nikolay Gamaleya to acquire the…Sputnik V vaccine.” Elections are scheduled for November 2021 and the Ortega government is tightening its grip on power with severe repression to prevent the opposition from getting anywhere. The political climate makes the suffering of COVID-19 in this country difficult to assess thus likely worse than reported.

“We can all prevent COVID-19”. Source: La Vida Cambió campaign

Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s average number of new infections reported each day falls by more than 540 over the last 3 weeks, 33% of its previous peak. COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Costa Rica, with 523 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 40% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on September 26. There have been 195,009 infections, and 2,641 coronavirus related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began. Costa Rica has administered 57,701 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, President Carlos Alvarado declared.

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health

Panama

In Panama, there have been 322,201 reported infections and 5,339 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began. COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Panama, with 1,195 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 33% of the peak or the highest daily average reported on January 9. There were 197 infections per 100K people reported in the last 7 days. The average number of new infections reported each day in Panama fell by more than 2,400 over the last 3 weeks, 67% of its previous peak. COVID rules restrict women to enter shopping locationson Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Men are allowed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The country is on full lockdown from 9 p.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Monday. Panama expects its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech, totaling 40,000 doses, Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes said on Monday 02/01/2021.

The forecast does not bode well for most of these Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. According to the IMF, in 2020, GDP in was expected to contract by 8.1% compared to only 4.3% in the US. Before the pandemic, these emerging economies were growing faster than developed nations. The IMF, predicts that “most countries [in LAC] will not go back to pre-pandemic GDP until 2023, and real income per capita until 2025,” whereas the US is expected to recover fully by 2022.

These conditions are naturally going to increase the pressure for the poorest in the region to flee unless concerted effort is made to reduce and eliminate dictatorships and corruption. The need is great to also improve the educational gaps so that climate and financial downturns do not keep resulting in life and death situations for most of the people in this region.

Report no.34 on COVID-19: Interviews with Law Libraries in Puerto Rico and Recommendations for ...

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Samuel Serrano and Jeannette Lebrón (En Español)

As part of our new normal, social distancing as a COVID-19 preventive measure has created considerable challenges to all levels of society. The arrival of the pandemic has rapidly introduced changes in technology which have not been easy to integrate. A few law librarians in Puerto Rico have not become accustomed to the absence of public, and they can’t bring themselves to completely substitute face-to-face services. Nevertheless, law librarians on the island also recognize the opportunity to increase services in both their format as well as access. In some instances, it has been necessary to increase services to communities which were not previously reached and to international users as well. As in other libraries around the world, a significant increase in the usage of electronic resources was observed as well as more training to students using databases and other online resources. Furthermore, librarians have been able to find much-needed training and to develop new skills to better manage communication tools not previously used. This particular training represents a clear opportunity to reach out to other users and to expand library services.

In this report, we will highlight the incredible work of several law libraries in Puerto Rico, both academic and governmental. Despite the fact that some of them have not yet reopened to the general public, they are still offering virtual services. In general, the difficulties due to the pandemic can’t be underestimated. However, it is also critically important to recognize the opportunities which will allow law libraries in Puerto Rico to pursue future projects to the great benefit of their respective institutions and the essential services offered to all users.

University of Puerto Rico Law Library

University of Puerto Rico Law Library

The University of Puerto Rico Law Library is a specialized academic entity which serves mainly a community of students and professors from the Law School at the Río Piedras Campus as well as external users. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the library closed its doors to face-to-face services without ever discontinuing services.

As part of its virtual services, the Law Library has supported information requests through email, chat reference services, electronic forms, video conference on Zoom, Google Meet, Messenger and other platforms. For the virtual reference services, “Ask Your Librarian” (“Pregúntale a Tu Bibliotecario” in Spanish) uses OS Tickets with electronic forms and LibAnswers as chat platform and recently video conference through Zoom. The librarians also offered inter-library loans as well as sending photocopies when needed.

Since August 2020, the Law Library began to offer limited face-to-face services which include book loans, “bookpulling” of magazines and digitization of print materials while applying copyright restrictions. A system of appointments was implemented through the LibCal platform, which allows the librarians to control the amount of students entering and leaving the premises. Library personnel also needs to observe health and sanitary protocols when checking out and receiving materials. The use of face masks, hand sanitizers and hand washing are mandatory for all staff and users.

Other services offered at the law library during the pandemic included training on how to better manage and how to take full advantage of the pedagogical, technological and communication tools to better serve the law school, students and the community in general. Managing individual accounts on multiple platforms such as Lexis, Westlaw and Microjuris was also maintained as well as solving numerous issues from students and faculty. The tools used to organize and manage meetings and communicate events were Google Forms, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Streamyard. Some trainings were recorded and uploaded to our Youtube channel available 24/7.

Fremiot Torres Oliver Law Library, Catholic University of Puerto Rico

The Fremiot Torres Oliver Law Library belongs to a private academic institution and it serves primarily patrons from the Catholic University of Puerto Rico as well as the public in general. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the law library remained closed until June 2020 when staff returned to the premises to offer only virtual services. Occasionally, professors are allowed inside the library. However, this is not a recurrent practice at the moment.

Library requests for services are received mostly via email. Some of the services offered include sending photocopies, internal inter-library loans among the different libraries located in several campuses belonging to the Catholic University and access to databases through its Virtual Library. Users can also consult numerous open access resources available in the same Virtual Library.

Domingo Toledo Álamo Information Access Center, Interamerican University Law School

Information Access Center

The Information Access Center (Centro de Acceso a la Información, CAI in Spanish) at the Interamerican University Law School serves the university community belonging to the institution. Since the beginning of the pandemic, it has offered virtual services via email, virtual rooms and phone. The library also offers tutorials on the use of multiple databases through Genially.

Since June 2020, loans of print books have been offered through car service. Users must request the materials via email and the books are handed out in the university’s parking area. Once books have been returned, these are quarantined for 14 days. Recently, the institution has approved a protocol to begin allowing entry to a limited number of students while respecting social distancing. Access to the library will require a confirmed appointment. Seats at the library will be numbered and safely distanced from each other. Interactions will not be allowed. Once spaces have been used, these will be disinfected and the chairs will be changed. This new protocol should be implemented in the coming months.

Supreme Court of Puerto Rico Library

Supreme Court of Puerto Rico

The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico Library provides primarily services to judges and judicial staff concerning issues presented to the courts in the island. At the beginning of the pandemic, the library only offered services to judicial personnel via private phones. At the end of March 2020, laptops were provided to court employees in order to provide library services remotely to the public. By May 2020, the library had changed its schedule to virtual services twice a week and face-to-face services the rest of the week.

Virtual services include helping with requests either via phone or email. The library’s homepage hosts the court’s decisions since 1998 to present. They are also using both Skype and Microsoft Teams for trainings and meetings. Face-to-face services include photocopying and scanning of documents for court employees and the public in general, inter-library loans and book loans limited to personnel from the different courts. At the same time, space is provided to court employees in order to pursue their investigations. Face-to-face services require preventive health measures such as taking body temperature, hand washing, disinfecting used areas with alcohol and using face masks.

Court of Appeals of Puerto Rico Library

Court of Appeals of Puerto Rico

The Court of Appeals Library provides services primarily to judges, court personnel and staff. Since the beginning of COVID-19, face-to-face services have been interrupted, although not the virtual ones. On June 2020, the library reopened thanks to safety measures, as recommended by government authorities. Despite its physical reopening, they have continued offering remote services by phone as well as sending requested copies via email. Interlibrary loan services have become more robust and available only to staff from the Court of Appeals. The main page of the Court of Appeals includes various electronic resources as well as a database of its decisions published since 2015 onwards. Currently, the physical space usually designated for work and investigations is not available.

As part of their services, the library also offers face-to-face training to new judges or court staff on databases while making sure all necessary precautions are followed. Using face masks, washing your hands and disinfecting work spaces are all mandatory.

Court of First Instance of Puerto Rico Library

Court of First Instance of Puerto Rico

The libraries of the Court of First Instance of Puerto Rico provide information services to judges, court officials and the public from the thirteen judicial regions throughout the island. As soon as the pandemic was declared and the government shutdown was enacted, the libraries discontinued their face-to-face services and solely maintained virtual services. During the first months, services were limited to only court personnel. On May 2020, the libraries began to offer services to the public in general via email and phone. Part of the available services includes sending photocopies.

Face-to-face services include loans of print materials, currently only to judges. Any other person who wishes to consult any print materials needs to visit the libraries’ physical premises. Since July 2020, limited physical spaces or rooms are available in various judicial centers by appointment. Health and sanitary measures include the use of face masks, taking body temperature and disinfecting spaces as well as installing plexiglass panels.

Recommendations

Based on the current state, experiences and practices observed in various law libraries in Puerto Rico to maintain services, we offer the following recommendations as a starting point in our conversation:

Strengthening virtual reference services – In times of social distancing, virtual reference represents one of the library services which have taken a significant importance when it comes to continuing to respond to the information needs of all users. Virtual reference won’t depend solely on the previously assigned team. It will also require available electronic resources (databases, online catalogs, educational resources, repositories, open access, instructional manuals), communication tools (chat, email, electronic forms, video conference) and guidelines regulating these workflows.
Creating repositories or video channels – Some of the best educational tools available to all libraries are institutional repositories and video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo. When it comes to academic institutions, it is preferable that these electronic resources are available publicly and that they are easily accessible through various access points in order to reach out to the largest amount of users.
Creating multiple channels of communication – With the pandemic, a significant amount of either free or for pay alternatives to face-to-face synchronous communication offer a perfect opportunity to diversify channels of communication. Some of these alternatives are Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Team, Skype, Streamyard and Messenger among others. This is the time to take advantage of these current technologies and how to apply them in our libraries.

Services through synchronous communication, different channels of communication, educational materials, dynamic information and clear guides about information resources are the tools we need to continue building upon and to keep our libraries alive online. We must be creative information professionals and to put forward recommendations and solutions which are both modern and innovative in order to improve our library services. We must continue to strengthen our practices and processes which sustain our services regardless of the crisis we might face in the future.

Report no.33 on COVID-19: Education Through Televised Classes in Cuba and Community Efforts in ...

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Bianca Anderson and Ana Delgado

Undoubtedly, the pandemic has had far reaching, catastrophic and often permanent effects on health and socio-economic well-being. A recent report from UNICEF [available also in Spanish] highlights how the pandemic crisis is exacerbating pre-existing conditions and exclusions faced by the world’s children, “as the most disadvantaged households struggle to cope with damaging fallout from the loss of jobs, livelihoods, income, mobility, learning, health and access to services.” The effects of the pandemic will be felt for years to come as “[c]hildren face a trifecta of threats: direct consequences of the disease itself, interruption in essential services and increasing poverty and inequality.” Speaking specifically of the issue of education and learning, the report states that while some consequences of the pandemic “such as a year of interrupted school with little learning…may not seem all that serious against the backdrop of this global pandemic…these experiences will reverberate into the future of every child who goes through them.” The UNICEF report states that at its peak, school closures due to COVID-19 affected almost 90% of children around the world, translating to 1.5 billion schoolchildren, including 743 million girls and 111 million children in the world’s least developed countries.

In this report, we will briefly identify the impact COVID-19 has had on students, teachers, parents, schools, and the community, while also highlighting community-based efforts to move students’ education forward in both Cuba and Puerto Rico. Despite having radically different educational systems, the two Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands share the same resilience and expectations to face these turbulent times. Compared to other parts of Latin America, the Caribbean as a whole has not experienced overwhelming amounts of confirmed cases and mortality rates of COVID-19. However, various sectors of their societies have been dramatically and, some will argue, permanently altered. Education is definitely one of them.

Broadcasting Classes on Cuban TV

Cuba’s Educational TV Channel

In Cuba, the Ministry of Education closed schools on March 24, 2020, at the time hoping to reopen on April 20. Steps were implemented to continue education via classes on national television. In addition to televised classes, other methods were used by teachers and families to continue education, including publication of materials over social media, WhatsApp and other messaging apps, and telephone communication. The ministry also shares the televised classes via an online portal and app. Online review tools that were normally available for a fee were made free to students during the school lockdown. In anticipation of reopening schools, in May 2020 the Ministry also announced adjustments to evaluation methods and measures for primary education with an emphasis on flexibility. Along the same vein, it was also announced that once schools reopened, adjustments would be made to the subjects methods, and timing of assessments for each level.

As previously reported, the Cuban economy is in dire crisis, and no sector has been left unscathed, including education. In preparation for the reopening of schools, school uniforms were rationed and limited according to grade levels and courses, due to a shortage of fabric imports. The government also increased education funding, both in anticipation of the January 1, 2021 currency devaluation, and to also maintain health and educational goals during the pandemic. The Ministry of Education also received donations of thermometers and hand soap from the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization.

Ultimately schools were reopened using strict cleaning protocols, health screenings, sanitary measures and mask requirements for in person learning in early September 2020, except in seven municipalities and the entire province of Havana which continued with remote learning, due to the prevalence of coronavirus in those areas. Upon reopening in person, the schools set about to complete the interrupted 2019-2020 school year, ending the term in late October, and then beginning the new 2020-2021 school scheduled to run from November 2, 2020 until July 24, 2021, with the goal of resuming a normal school calendar in September 2021 for the 2021-2022 school year.

Screenshot of televised classed on Cuban National TV. Source: Cuba’s Ministry of Education Twitter Account, MINED

The province of Havana reopened schools for in person instruction on November 2, 2020 to complete the 2020-2021 school year, and began the new school year on December 7, 2020. Bearing in mind the need to catch the province up to the rest of the country, officials adjusted schedules and staggered starting times, in order to meet educational goals while avoiding overcrowding. The Minister of Education Dania López announced that the 2019-2020 school year had concluded without any coronavirus transmissions in schools. Unfortunately, due to a rise in coronavirus cases in the country, the Minister of Education announced that schools would once again be closed to in person learning, and that classes would once again be delivered via television beginning January 20, 2021. A number of primary schools in Havana, and in other provinces, remained open for the benefit of allowing parents to continue to work. The government maintained its dedication to continuing the country’s educational system, with President Miguel Díaz-Canel commenting that this new normal would require more institutional, social, familial and individual responsibility to succeed.

Communities in Puerto Rico as The Education Guarantors

Teacher and child at the Puerto Rico Community Foundation.

The right to public education is embedded in the Constitution of Puerto Rico, Article II Section 5. However, as education goes beyond formal and traditional instruction because of COVID-19, we have witnessed the multidimensional impact the disruption of education has had in our communities. The structural deficiencies of the education systems, the social inequality experienced by students and teachers, the digital gap, and the absence of school communities’ participation in educational plans are unsolved. Like the government in general, public schools in Puerto Rico closed operations on March 15, 2020. This government shutdown included special education centers and services throughout Puerto Rico. When a temporary shutdown turned indefinite until further notice, and temporary online education became the norm, we can’t but highlight that according to the U.S. Census Community Survey, for the 2013-2017 period, only 54% of households on the island have internet access and 62% have a computer. These percentages did not reflect Hurricane Maria’s impact in September 2017 or the January 2020 earthquakes that shook the island’s southwest side. Technology and natural disasters aside, like in many other places worldwide, parents, grandparents, guardians, siblings, and neighbors became the teachers, among many other daily schooling duties. 

Puerto Rico Community Foundation

January 11, 2021, marks the first day for the second semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. Currently, the public education system has more than 270,000 enrolled students, many of whom have not been back to school since mid-March 2020. With over a quarter-million students receiving education from home, communities have identified new and creative ways to make school accessible and just plain doable. For example, the municipality of Juncos, with the help of the Puerto Rico Community Foundation,( the FCPR is the first community foundation in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean) developed an initiative to support children and young adults on their online education by creating a physical space, where up to 50 students, in staggered schedules, could visit the center to use WiFi, computers and educational support. Ruteando Mi Isla led another incredible and local initiative. They are originally a local Puerto Rico spot finder to promote tourism turned community advocate. This initiative’s goal was to raise funds to buy computers, desks, school supplies, and others for a child in need. 

In April 2020, the Puerto Rico Health Department enabled a new online application called BioPortal. BioPortal is an application that allows medical/hospital facilities and clinical laboratories in Puerto Rico to report the laboratory results of samples analyzed for COVID-19. Using data from this portal, the Health Department created a weekly report on COVID-19 for decision-making in the school communities of Puerto Rico. According to the latest report, there are 344,534 registered students (276,626 from public schools and 67,908 from private institutions). From the total of registered students, 6,071 of them tested positive to COVID-19. The Department of Education uses positivity percentage as a top indicator to reopen schools. The Puerto Rico Community Foundation drafted a plan in July 2020 called “Educación segura y accessible: Consideraciones para un plan integral para el reinicio de las clases en Puerto Rico.” In this plan, the Foundation outlines the top considerations when planning the re-opening process: physical health, food insecurity, mental and socio-emotional health, the digital gap, curriculum materials, student-teacher interaction, and academic balance, and special education.  To re-open schools sometime in 2021, Puerto Rico’s private, public, and non-profit sectors need to develop an integral re-opening plan.

The Road Onwards

A report jointly published in August 2020 by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) [available in Spanish] reported that more than 160 million of these were students in Latin America and the Caribbean. UNESCO maintains a listing of national responses to COVID-19 in regards to education in Latin America and the Caribbean, which was last updated in September 2020 [available in Spanish]. A November 2020 press release from UNICEF reported that at the time of that writing, over 97% of schools in Latin America and the Caribbean were still closed, affecting more than 137 million students. That press release states that children in Latin America and the Caribbean have already lost on average four times more days of schooling (174 days) compared to the rest of the world. “In a region with more than 11 million cases of COVID-19 to date, most students are now at risk of missing out on an entire school year.” Prolonged school closures give rise to concern in five main areas- a deepening digital divide, loss of mental health support, student nutrition, the worsening of already existing inequities in connection to economic status, disability and gender, and an increase in abuse and violence against children. According to UNICEF, 90% of governments adopted some form of remote learning, reaching almost 70% of school children. However, the other 30% either do not have the necessary technology at home for remote learning, or were not reached by government remote learning efforts. At the greatest disadvantage in this regard are younger children and girls. Girls tend to have less frequent use of or access to household computers and the internet, and information and communication technology skills training tends to favor boys.

UNICEF – for every child

Caribbean territories, such as Puerto Rico, are absent or severely limited with associate membership at most international organizations and mechanisms. In these instances, we invite you to consult local sources for reliable data. In the case of Puerto Rico, please visit the Puerto Rico Public Health Trust and the Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico.

Introducing…Traci Emerson Spackey as the February 2021 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 17:12:32 GMT

1. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a small town outside of Portland, Oregon called Canby. I was born and raised there. The town is very typical, rather quaint, and unremarkable except that it is known for its world-class dahlia farm. Very random.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career?
I actually didn’t know law librarianship was a thing until law school. I went to law school knowing I wanted to pursue the law, but not necessarily in what capacity. At my law school, during 1L year the law librarians co-taught legal research and writing with adjunct professors and that’s how I learned that law librarians existed. However, it wasn’t exactly “love at first sight” with terms and connectors and The Bluebook, etc. But, not far into 1L year our class’s law librarian announced that the library was hiring RAs to work some evening shifts. My immediate thought was “I want to work at the library!” I have ALWAYS loved libraries and books.

Well, I loved working at the law library. I would pick up extra shifts when I could, and the library director or the law librarians would sometimes give me extra projects because they saw my interest. Over the next year and a half I asked questions and got to know them all. I was shocked to learn they all had law degrees AND library degrees. I was also struck by the fact that they all seemed very happy, were very well-respected within the law school, and were just generally wonderful/knowledgeable people. However, it wasn’t until my 3L year when it was manifestly clear to me that I really dreaded a) the adversarial nature of practicing law, and b) the pressure of billable hours. So, I seriously began to consider other options.

It sounds kind of cliché, but I literally had an epiphany one day. One particular afternoon I was perusing blogs about law librarianship as a potential option and I realized that I had considerably less angst about getting a whole new graduate degree in MLIS than I did taking the bar exam. I figured I should probably listen to that. So, I marched into the library director’s office, announced my decision, and asked what I needed to do. She asked how I felt about Seattle–because she recommended the University of Washington program–and I said “great!” (since I was from the PNW). Next, I requested a book on law librarianship from ILL. I read all about all kinds of different areas of law librarianship and when I read Mary Rumsey’s chapter on FCIL librarianship my mind was blown…and set. That was it! I did end up taking a year off between law school and library school, taking the bar exam, and practicing a bit, but my goal stayed the same (was even more solidified, actually): FCIL librarianship.

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and international law?
My interest in FCIL was really just an extension of my general life interests. I have always been drawn to “other”: other languages, other cultures, other places…food! So, when I started law school I naturally wanted to take international law. After that first class, I ended up taking every international law class I could–all my electives were somehow related to international law or things. I studied abroad in Rome both rising 2L and 3L summers, and I did one clinic that went to the United Nations for a week. I also did immigration law clinic where I got to help someone from the Democratic Republic of Congo apply for asylum–to this day this is still one of the most meaningful things I’ve been able to do with my legal education. During law school I also became friends with my international law professor (I’m still in contact with him), and I joined the board of the International Law Association at my law school too. I’m so grateful for all my international experiences that gained from my legal education.

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there?
I work for the Jacob Burns Law Library at The George Washington University Law School. I started here in September 2019.

5. Do you speak any foreign languages?
I speak French most fluently. I majored in French and then lived in Paris for a year teaching English. I also speak Italian (I’m in love with the place), and I can read Spanish enough to find materials in it. I also took advantage of being a university employee last semester and took a beginning course in Latin. While I am unable to continue at the moment, I hope to carry that on at some point. I also have a life goal of learning Russian.

6. What is your most significant professional achievement?
This is more of an “opportunity” than achievement, however I had the opportunity to intern at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at the United Nations in New York for a few weeks at the end of library school. It had been a dream of mine and I’m still so grateful that I was able to do that. In terms of actual achievement I’d have to say two things. As previously mentioned, I’m very proud of being involved in getting our client granted asylum in the US in immigration clinic in law school. I was humbled and grateful to be able to use my legal and language skills to impact someone’s life so meaningfully. Second, in library school my colleague and I wrote a piece on Ghost Guns that got published in ALA’s Documents to the People. I’m early on in my career, so it’s the first I’d seen my name in print. I can’t wait to reflect on this question in years to come! This is…three things–whoops!

7. What is your biggest food weakness? Tortilla chips. It’s a funny one but I can literally eat almost any size bag of tortilla chips (salted, of course) in a sitting. Costco size might be pushing it, but I’m not going to test that one.

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance? Boston’s More than a Feeling. It’s one of those “stop where you are, lip sync, and air guitar right now” kind of songs for me.

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?
I wish I could play a musical instrument! I would love to be able to play the cello, or viola, or jazz piano. My husband is an amazing saxophone player so it would be incredible to be able to join him in that. Maybe someday.

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without? Maybe this falls under the “basic necessities” category, but I’m going to surprise myself by saying: Tea. Being from Portland, I was once such an avid coffee drinker that it was a common joke among my family and friends. Health problems required me to quit that habit and I found solace in black tea a few years ago. It feels weird to say, but I now actually prefer tea! I start every day with a pot of English Breakfast Tea. (What a lame thing to say–maybe I should think more on this.)

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?
1) For anyone considering law librarianship and is still deterred by the student loan burden, the vast majority of government and academic law librarian positions make you eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. It was a law librarian that told me about this in law school, and I am passing this along to any prospective law librarians still trying to figure things out. It was this fact that pushed me over the edge to take the dive into this career, and I haven’t looked back.

2) Less importantly, this photo is my first “shelfie” that I ever took…last week. I don’t know how I never knew a shelfie was a thing, but when I learned the word of course I had to. The mug was a gift from a dear friend in Italy that clearly understands what makes me tick.

Report no.32 on COVID-19: Dominican Republic as the First of Many in the Region

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Marisol Floren

First in total cases and mortality rate in the Caribbean

Dominican Republic

As of January 25, 2021, the Dominican Republic reported a total of 203,943 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,513 deaths based on the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the Ministry of Public Health of the Dominican Republic, and the World Health Organization.

During the second half of 2020 and beginning of 2021, the Dominican Republic experienced two upsurges of COVID-19 cases. The first one, in the month of July 2020coinciding with the electoral campaign. The second, during the December 2020 holidays. On January 06, 2021, the country reported 2518 cases, the highest number of confirmed cases per day since the beginning of the pandemic. Furthermore, the latest data from the Ministry of Public Health reflect a change in the type of population affected by the coronavirus. The number of people under 20 years old infected by the coronavirus increased to a total of 18,547 cases, as well as the number of pregnant women who acquired the virus increased to 309. To date the Dominican Republic has the highest incidence of cases, and the highest overall mortality rate in the Caribbean.

First confirmed case in the Caribbean

On March 2, 2020, the Dominican Republic reported the first 5 confirmed cases in the country. These are the earliest reported cases of COVID-19 for the Greater Antilles. Immediately afterwards, the Congress of the Dominican Republic invoked article 265 of the Constitution (2015), declared the State of Emergency and granted the President of the Republic, at the time Danilo Medina, exceptional powers to address the actions required to control the pandemic in the country. From July 2020 to date, the President of the Republic has invoked 5 times the state of emergency or extended these powers for additional 45 days. The most recent extension of the powers was declared on January 8, 2021, by Decree No. 6-21.

Protocols and preventive measures adopted by the government nationwide during the first half of 2020 included restrictions of entry into the country of any travelers, limitation of flights, social distancing, quarantine, working and staying at home for public employees over 60 years of age. Furthermore, flexible work schedule for all public employees, suspension of sporting and social events, prohibition of interurban bus circulation, and mandatory use of a mask were among the expansive preventive measures.

First presidential elections in times of a pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean

Central Electoral Board

The Dominican Republic became the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to hold a general election during a pandemic. Elections in the Dominican Republic are held every four years on the third Sunday of the month of May. As the year 2020 was supposed to be an election year, elections were initially planned for May 17, 2020. However, the scrutiny had to be postponed for a month due to the pandemic and the Central Electoral Board (Junta Central Electoral, JCE in Spanish) gave its consent with resolution no. 42-2020, April 13, 2020.

The Dominican Republic has no early voting or voting by mail mechanism. Usually, citizens cast their vote in person. Even though the government took preventive hygienic measures during the electoral campaigns and the day of the elections, abstentionism in the recent presidential election increased 14 points compared to the previous one, 44.71%.

The candidate of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Luis Abinader obtained 53% of the votes cast. Most experts agree that the vote reflects the rejection and dissatisfaction with the previous ruling party due to the high level of corruption.

On July 5, 2021, Luis Rafael Abinader, candidate of the government opposing party, the Modern Revolutionary Party (PLM) was proclaimed President of the Dominican Republic and sworn into office on August 16, 2021. With President Abinader, 16 years of continued governance of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) ended. The new president continued the social assistance programs promoted by his predecessor for employees and independent workers and announced a stimulus package of 1,694 million dollars to assist different economic sectors badly hit during the pandemic.

First approved vaccine agreement in the Caribbean

The Dominican government signed agreements with three pharmaceutical companies for the acquisition of 20 million of doses of the vaccine. These are AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Covax. Although the government announced that the vaccines will arrive on March 2021, there is no certain date as when the vaccines will begin to be distributed among the population. The national government is also requesting support from the international community in order to purchase more vaccine doses as well as to distribute vaccines throughout the entire country.

Despite criticism on the slow pace to even begin a vaccination process, Dominican Republic was the first Caribbean nation to approve a vaccine. AstraZeneca was approved in the country on December 31, 2020.

Public Health – Government of the Dominican Republic

Useful Links:

Ministry of Public Health. Boletines Sobre el COVID-19 (daily Covid-19 Bulletins)
Ministry of the Presidency. Listado de medidas related to COVID-19
The SICA Central American Integration System, Coronavirus-COVID-19 Dominican Republic, as of November 16, 2020 lists the measures taken by the government of the Dominican Republic, in health, displacement, education, economy, and if they are in force.
For the adverse effects of the pandemic on the economy see Hector Valdez Albizu, La economía dominicana frente al Covid-19: Retos y perspectivas (Junio 2020).
Social and Economic Impacts of the COVID-19 and Policy Option in the Dominican Republic, UNDP LAC C 19 PDS No. 15, (July 23, 2020), providing an overview of the challenges for the Dominican Republic of the pandemic, loss of foreign exchange, reduction of key activities such as tourism, shutdown of economic activities with direct and indirect effects on employment and household income, and fiscal challenges.
Reports to Congress on measures taken during the state of emergency and decrees and resolutions enacted by the government can be found on the webpage of the Consultoría Jurídica del Poder Ejecutivo of the Dominican Republic.

Report no.31 on COVID-19: Context and Health Protocols for the 2020 Municipal Elections in Uruguay

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Leonor Porras Segurola (En Español)

On March 13, 2020, through decree no. 93/020, the Executive Power declared the State of National Sanitary Emergency following four cases of coronavirus. Thereafter, multiple activities throughout the country were canceled and closed. Some of the first activities to close were primary and secondary schooling as well sports clubs, shopping mall and other commerce. All public cultural and social performances were canceled as well as any event which could prompt an agglomeration of people.

In this context, the May 10 municipal elections, which usually take place every month of May after the presidential ones were canceled by resolution of the country’s Electoral Court and after confirmation from the Legislative Power. The change of date was confirmed in Parliament almost unanimously. The increase of coronavirus cases was seen as the main reason behind the cancelation of May elections and the change in date. In the same resolution, a new date was fixed for September 27, 2020.

Municipal Elections – September 27 2020

Different sectors within the Uruguayan society, including doctors, requested multiple times an obligatory quarantine. It never took place. On the country, certain activities were allowed to open gradually and in June 2020 classes were allowed to take place with different levels of in-person classes. The government asked each citizen for “responsible liberty.” Cases were maintained relatively slow, despite some outbreaks taking place generally along its border with Brazil. All these outbreaks were controlled after a short period of time.

On June 2020, the country managed to have three consecutive days with zero confirmed cases and on June 11, Uruguay had a total of 37 cases and 23 fatalities. Despite these numbers, the country continued to be an example for the rest of the world on how to control the pandemic and Uruguayans overall supported the government’s decisions. With the extension of some of the emergency measures and a certain fatigue among the population, the government has had to appeal more and more to the citizens’ “responsible liberty” and to insist on constant social distancing. Relatively speaking, the low levels of confirmed cases was encouraging and the country continued to be in the green zone, based on Harvard COVID risk levels.

Within this context, municipal elections took place in Uruguay on September 27, 2020. Through its note no. 10976, the country’s Electoral Court published the sanitary and health protocol to be implemented during the electoral process. The measures include the use of hand sanitizers, face masks, social distancing and a designated “facilitator” to enforce the protocol as well as kits for each voting site. Furthermore, other rules were enacted such as to show your voting ID without having to hand it out, not to close your voting envelope with saliva and to remove your face mask for a few seconds to be identified.

Health guidelines for elections

The sanitary and health protocol was respected as much as possible during the electoral process, especially when it came to the use of hand sanitizers, face masks and social distancing among voters. However, some rules were not respected among the tables used in various polling sites because of the lack of physical space available. Furthermore, the elections mobilized a lot of people from the capital city to inland towns and from aboard, when almost 6000 Uruguayans travelled to the country just to vote on that day. Besides the health protocols, elections did not count with the usual festivities and rallies due to the risk of contagion. A significant police presence was also noted throughout the country.

Only two weeks after the municipal elections, the cases began to increase from 12 daily confirmed cases to 23 per day. The Ministry of Public Health concluded that this increase could be the result of two events: the massive Walk for Diversity which took place in Montevideo on September 25 and/or the municipal elections of September 27. Considering the significance movement of people during the electoral process and the rapid increase of cases throughout the country, the new cases are easily related to the scrutiny. As noted by the president of the State Health Services Administration (ASSE in Spanish), Leonardo Cipriani, in November 2020, confirmed cases of coronavirus haven’t ceased to increase since the municipal elections. Some noteworthy outbreaks include those in Montevideo, Rocha and Rivera.

Uruguay’s levels of confirmed cases from March 2020 – January 2021

As the months continue, the situation has only worsen. The traditional holidays such as Christmas and New Years, together with summer and vacation time have exacerbated the situation in the country considering the significant movement of people. On January 18, 2021, the country surpassed its own daily rates with an increase of 15% and a new record of 1200 cases in one day. Uruguay entered the “red zone” as indicted by the Harvard COVID index and eventually left it with 7926 active cases and 319 fatalities. The overwhelming majority of these new cases appeared over the last three months.

GlobaLex January/February 2021 Issue is Live

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 12:29:00 GMT

By Lucie Olejnikova

GlobaLex January/February 2021 Issue is live featuring seven updates including Estonia, India, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, International Human Rights, Travaux Prèparatoires, European Union Working Documents, and one new article titled The Human Right to Education. This issue brings several important updates just in time for the spring semester. Webmasters and content managers, please update your pages. We thank all our wonderful authors, new and established, for their excellent contributions!

UPDATE: Estonian Legal System and Legal Research by Margaret Makk at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Estonia1.html.

Margaret Makk is studying for bachelor’s degree of law at the University of Tartu School of Law and is a member of The European Law Students’ Association

UPDATE: India’s Legal Research and Legal System by Megha Srivastava at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/India_Legal_Research1.html.

Megha Srivastava is a civil and commercial attorney from India with an LLM in Intellectual Property from the George Washington University Law School. She graduated from the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow in 2015. Prior to attending GW Law, she was an Associate in the Litigation Team at Dua Associates and Solicitors, New Delhi, a top-tier law firm and have hands on experience in arguing several matters before the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court, National Company Law Tribunal, Competition Law Tribunal, District Courts and other Courts in India. She was counsel for the Delhi Urban Art Commission, State Bank of India, Royal Bank of Scotland and Competition Commission of India. She has handled more than forty mediations and arbitrations and pro-bono matters with the Delhi High Court Legal Services Authority. She has been a Research Associate in the IPR Division at the National Law University, New Delhi. She is registered with the Delhi Bar Council and has a solo practice in Delhi.

UPDATE: Sierra Leone Legal System and Legal Research by Hanatu Kabbah at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Sierra_Leone1.html.

Hanatu Kabbah holds an LL.B (Hons.) and an LL.M (Public Service Law) degree from NYU. She is a senior legal consultant and researcher, public interest practitioner with extensive experience working on access to justice in the formal and informal justice sector. She has researched widely on rule of law issues and developed tools for legal and non- legal advocates. She taught at the Faculty of Law, University of the Gambia and was the Director of the Law Clinic of the UTG. She received her Bachelor of Laws Degree with Honours (LL.B. HONS.) from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone and a Degree of Utter Barrister at the Sierra Leone Law School. She was admitted to the Sierra Leone Bar in 1999. She holds a Diploma in the Equal Status and Human Rights of Women in 2002 from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University in Sweden and has also studied at the Rene Cassin International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She is a Transitional Justice Fellow after studying at the Transitional Justice Fellowship Programme organized by the International Centre for Transitional Justice and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa in 2007. She is the author of ‘A Training Manual on Women’s Rights in Sierra Leone’.

UPDATE: Legal Research and Legal System in Sri Lanka by Ayomi Aluwihare and Shakthi Ratnakumaran at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Sri_Lanka1.html.

Ayomi Aluwihare and Shakthi Ratnakumaran are attorneys at law in F.J. & G. de Saram. F.J. & G. de Saram is a legal firm in Sri Lanka with practice areas of corporate and commercial law with experience of over 178 years.

UPDATE: Researching International Human Rights by Susan M. Boland and James Hart at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Human_Rights1.html.

Susan M. Boland is Associate Director and Associate Senior Librarian at the University of Cincinnati Law Library. Her work includes serving as liaison to the Human Rights Quarterly and teaching research to the LL.M. students.

James Hart is Senior Librarian Emeritus at the University of Cincinnati Law Library. He holds the M.A. in classics and the M.S.L.S. from the University of Southern California. Part of this article is derived from his article titled The European Human Rights System, 102 Law Library Journal 533 (2010).

UPDATE: À la Recherche des Travaux Préparatoires: An Approach to Researching the Drafting History of International Agreements by Jonathan Pratter at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Travaux_Preparatoires1.html.

Jonathan Pratter has been the Foreign and International Law Librarian at Tarlton Law Library, Jamail Center for Legal Research of the University of Texas at Austin since 1985. He holds a law degree from the University of Nebraska and an MLIS from the University of Illinois. When not working, teaching, or writing as a law librarian, he can be found studying a new foreign language or taking a long walk.

UPDATE: European Union –Tracing Working Documents by Patrick Overy at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/European_Union_Travaux_Preparatoires1.html.

Patrick Overy wasSubject Librarian for Law and Business at the University of Exeter and managed the European Documentation Centre at Exeter from 1991 until he retired in 2016. He was involved in European information networks at national and international levels, especially through the now defunct European Information Association, which published European Information: A Guide to Official Sources in 2005. The 4th edition was published online at the end of 2010 and is available to download from ORE (Open Research Exeter).

The Human Right to Education Research with an Annotated Bibliography by Jootaek Lee at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Human_Right_Education.html

Jootaek Lee is an assistant professor and librarian at Rutgers Law School (Newark). Jootaek Lee is also an adjunct professor and an affiliated faculty for the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) at the Northeastern University School of Law, and a Massachusetts attorney. Professor Lee, a prolific scholar and author, has been published in prestigious journals, including Georgetown Environmental Law Review, Northwestern Human Rights Journal, Law Library Journal, International Journal of Legal Information, Legal Reference Services Quarterly, Korea University Law Review, and Globalex by New York University Law School. His research focuses on contemporary human rights including artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and human rights to land, water and education, Asian practice of international law, legal informatics, Korean law and legal education, and pedagogy in law. He made numerous presentations at national and international conferences. He is active with the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and the American Society of International Law (ASIL), having served on AALL’s Diversity Committee, CONELL Committee, and Awards Committee. He is the former Co-Chair of International Legal Research Interest Group of the ASIL (2012-2015) and the former president of Asian American Law Librarians Caucus of AALL (2013-2014).

For more articles, visit https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/index.html.

Report no.30 on COVID-19: Cuba’s Landmark Currency Unification Amidst Severe Economic Woes

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Bianca Anderson

CUP, CUC and US dollar

Despite Cuba’s relatively low number of coronavirus cases and deaths, the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic and Trump era tightening of U.S. economic sanctions has pushed the Cuban economy to its worst crisissince the fall of the Soviet Union. On December 17, 2020, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced during a year-end session of Cuba’s parliament that the Cuban economy had shrunk by 11% in 2020. This figure is even worse than that predicted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL), which had predicted an 8.5% contraction for the Cuban economy, compared to an average 7.7% overall regional decline for Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuba’s Economic Minister Alejandro Gil reported to Parliament that the nation had received just 55% of the hard currency it had planned in 2020, brought on by the overnight closure of the nation’s industry, Cuba’s major source for hard currency. Minister Gill also reported that the nation had received only 60% of expected imports. This translates to a 30% reduction in imports compared to 2019, meaning that Cubans faced scarcity and long queues for even the most basic products. This dire scarcity is directly due to the fact that Cuba imports more than 50% of its food, fuel, medicine and other vital resources, and these resources have significantly suffered, since the 2020 drop is on top of an import decline of 15% in 2019.

In a bid to turn the tide of the worsening economic crisis, the government of Cuba announced that it would unify its dual currency system, eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso, known as the CUC, on January 1, 2021, and leaving the Cuban Peso, known as the CUP, as the country’s sole currency. The dual currency system has been in place since 1994, instituted by the Cuba government during the country’s severe economic crisis caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the intensification of policies surrounding the long-standing U.S. economic embargo of the country. The CUC was introduced as a replacement for the U.S. dollars that were trading on the island’s black market at the time. The currency unification is part of a wider reform package that would also see a fivefold increase in state wages and pensions to compensate for the inflation caused by the devaluation of the currency. Private sector workers will largely have to face the devaluation of the currency and subsequent inflation on their own. Cuba economist Ricardo Torres of the University of Havana stated, “It is very concerning because you have a significant portion of the population that could become very poor with this change.”

Two thirds of Cubans are state workers who were paid in CUP, which was worth about 4 U.S. cents, while workers in the country’s private sector, like tourism and foreign imports, were paid in CUC before the monetary reform, and earned seven times what state employees made. The value of the CUC was attached to the value of the U.S. dollar one to one. Cubans could buy the CUC at a rate of 24 CUP, and sell it for 25 CUP. While the Cuban government claimed that both currencies are of equal value, neither had tradable value abroad. Further exacerbating disparities and resentment towards Cubans who worked in tourism and had access to the stronger currency, the Cuban government used the two currencies to set extremely low prices for basic goods while many imported goods, often considered luxuries, were priced with huge markups when purchased in the domestic currencies.

As of January 1, 2021, dubbed Dίa Cero (“Day Zero”) the CUP will have an official exchange rate of 24 CUP to 1 CUC, and the population will have 180 days, until June 2021, to exchange their CUCs at banks and exchange houses. The devaluation of the currency at that rate means that private sector workers who have been paid in CUCs for years will lose significant buying power, in a year that so many of those workers have struggled due to the hit to the tourism sector as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, despite the increase in wages to state employees, the entire population will experience massive inflation, and see an increase in the price of basic goods in addition to a decrease of subsidies for water, transport and electricity. The Cuban government will also impose controls on prices at new higher levels for services as well, like haircuts and shoe repair. Companies will receive assistance from the government and temporary loans for a year to curb massive layoffs and to mitigate the effect of the elimination of the double currency.

As previously noted, state employees will see increases in their wages as a means to soften the blow of the currency unification. The minimum monthly wage for state employees will increase from 400 CUP ($17) to 2,100 CUP ($88). The Ministry of Labor and Social Security published a new salary framework, which, in addition to raising the minimum wage, would also increase the maximum monthly wage to 9,510 CUP ($396). Under the framework, mid-level high school teachers and certain circus workers, like lion tamers and magicians earn the same monthly salary of 4010 CUP ($167). Mid-level school librarians will receive a monthly wage of 3610 CUP ($150), unless they work at a pre-university vocational school or military academy, earning them an additional 100 CUP ($4) per month. Recent medical graduates without specialization will receive 4610 CUP ($192). The governor of the province of La Habana will receive a monthly wage of 9010 CUP ($375) and the governors of all other provinces will receive 8510 CUP ($354).

In addition to the monetary reform, the Cuban government has taken other steps to revive its economy. Early on in the pandemic, it sold the services of its medical workersto other Caribbean nations as a source of revenue. Travel restrictions were eased in October 2020, opening airports in some provinces to international flights, in an effort to reopen the island to tourism. In December 2020, the nation eased restrictions on foreign investment, allowing foreigners to have majority ownership in Cuban businesses, except in companies dealing with natural resource extraction and public services. Perhaps most controversial, Cuba took steps to reinvigorate its economy in late 2019, by ending a fifteen-year ban on dollar transactions.

Even then, the Cuban economy was suffering because the government’s reserves of foreign currency were running dry, and the nation was suffering fuel shortages caused by a drop in imports of subsidized oil from Venezuela. In a bid to move money that was in the pockets of Cuban citizens into the government’s emptying coffers, Cuba announced that citizens could open bank accounts that receive dollars, yen and European currencies. They could then use their bankcards to buy imported goods, mostly household appliances and automotive parts, from state owned stores called Tienda Moneda Libremente Convertible. In July 2020, the government expanded the effort, opening additional foreign currency shops that sell food and toiletries, in addition to eliminating the 10% tax on transactions with the U.S. dollar. In September 2020, the Cuban government reported that more than 120 official outlets pricing goods in dollars were in place, and planned to open more.

The move was met by a push back by many Cuban citizens, concerned by the deepening disparities created by the shops, as not all Cubans can afford to buy dollars, nor receive remittances of foreign currency from abroad. The country was already experiencing food shortages, even before the pandemic, because the government could not afford to import all the food it needed for its citizens, due to a lack of foreign currency. Cuba imports 2/3 of its food, as the local production of food is very difficultfor farmers. They must sell the bulk of their products to the state, at prices set by the state. The government gives them seeds, fertilizer and tools, but it is often not enough to produce maximum yields from their land. One farmer recently complained that the state required him to produce 15,000 lbs. of pineapples, but the state failed to transport the produce, nor was he paid for his crop, leaving the pineapples to rot. The new economic reforms do not address the problems faced by farmers, but further reforms may occur throughout 2021.

Citizen’s concerns about the foreign currency shops appear to be justified, based on the first-person accounts reported on social media and other media outlets. International journalists have visited one of these foreign currency shops, and found products in foreign currency shops that were missing from peso stores, including detergent, chicken, beef and canned goods. However, even in the foreign currency shops, scarcity prevails, and the food that is available is often exorbitantly priced. A recent reportincluded an account of a 17-pound ham selling for $230 and a seven-pound block of manchego cheese for $149. To make matters worse, queues to get into government-run peso supermarkets means two queues: one to get a number for a time slot, and another to get into the store, with waits of 8-10 hours, only to be confronted by shelves empty of meat and basic toiletries. The success of the shops largely relies on remittances from Cuban exiles abroad to the island, but it was unclear how successful the move would be, given the impact of the pandemic on the global economy. Remittances sent by Cubans who live in the U.S. began to quickly dry up as the pandemic led to huge unemployment in the United States as well.

Compounding the nation’s economic woes, are the ever-tightening sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, implemented in the hopes of forcing the Communist Party out of power, or possibly to win favor with Cuban American voters in Florida. The sanctions imposed have included: restrictions on people to people trips and the barring of “direct financial transactions” with a long list of restaurants, shops and hotels owned by the Cuban government, further efforts to restrict non-family trips to the island,limitations on remittances from the U.S. to $1000 per quarter, banning cruise ship travel, and cancelling a deal to allow Cuban players from playing in the MLB without defecting. In November 2020, the U.S. banned remittances from U.S. companies to Cuban military-controlled companies, that include Western Union’s main Cuba partner. The move forced Western Union’s 407 offices in Cuba to close, cutting off a vital lifeline to Cuban citizens. In the waning days of his presidency, Trump dealt another crippling blow to Cuba, placing on it the list of state sponsors of terrorism. These latest sanctions were imposed despite pleas by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to the international community to “alleviate or suspend sanctions and embargoes” as a humanitarian gesture during the coronavirus pandemic. The Cuban government may be hoping that the incoming Biden administration will undo some of the sanctions imposed by the previous administration. Even if this occurs, and the measures instituted by the Cuba government begin to pay off, the situation in Cuba will get worse before it gets better, as economists predict that further devaluations will be needed in the future. Time will tell if Cuba’s efforts or an easing of U.S. sanctions may help in turning the tide of the crisis, bringing relief to the Cuban people.

Propose a panel for CALL’s next annual meeting!

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 13:00:00 GMT

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is pleased to announce that they are extending the deadline to submit your application to present at #CALLACBD2021. The NEW deadline for proposals is Monday, January 25, 2021. Submit your proposal here: callacbd.ca/2021-Virtual-Conference

Report no.26 on COVID-19: Uruguay’s Early Use of Technology and Innovation

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Dr. Michele A. L. Villagran

According to the World Health Organization on 12/29/2020, there were 16,728 cases with 158 deaths in Uruguay from January through December 2020. Uruguay has been seen to have a successful track record of low number of cases and minimal deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, and even avoided mandatory quarantine, even though situated between two of the most impacted countries in South America – Argentina and Brazil.

Just as other countries are seeing a spike in numbers over December, Uruguay was not alone. The ‘first wave’ as President Luis Lacalle Pou termed it was upon Uruguay in mid-December. President Pou set new measures in place due to the increase in cases including: the regulation of Article 38 of the Constitution (the power of the executive power to dissolve agglomerations), the prohibition of entry from abroad between December 21-January 10, and the reduction of the capacity in interdepartmental transportation by half on those dates.

Screenshot of the country’s Covid-19 app called Coronavirus UY

The first case was confirmed March 13, 2020 and that same day the Coronavirus UY was launched by the government. Uruguay’s digital government agency (AGESIC) already had a digital plan with 90% of services already available onlinebefore the pandemic began. Additionally, the majority of the population had access to the internet already. However, even with these digital innovations and advancement of the country, there were still concerns regarding privacy and data governance specific to technologies such as with the Coronavirus UY app. Giovanni Escalante of the PAHO/WHO noted that Uruguay’s success was due to the efficient public health care system, the strong leadership of the health sector and government, and their digital innovation.

Uruguay was one of the first countries to create their very own Coronavirus test and had sequenced the virus genome from patients beginning in March to help track and understand the spread of the virus. This proved effective to help slow the spread of the virus because they did not have to wait to begin testing.

As in most countries, the airports are critical to the management of the crises as a main point of entry and exit to other locations. Uruguay took innovative measures to help slow the spread by implementing the use of big data to aid the national prevention, and a containment campaign. This included analyzing and examining travelers as to their risk profile through Easy Airport. With the data from risk profiling, they were able to swiftly move forward in initiating protocols in real time to help with the containment. This was one of the earliest and first steps.

Another tactic used included focus on the healthcare system with their healthcare app and contract tracing software. Uruguay already had a universal healthcare system in place and the majority of the residents had trust in their government authorities according to a 2017 study. Everyone in Uruguay has the same rights when it comes to medical care.

According to Giovanni Escalanre, the PAHO/WHO representative of Uruguay, the countryhas “one of the most resilient health care systems in Latin America and there has been sustainable investment in it over a decade.” Therefore, when an official Coronavirus UY app was developed that integrated with social media most of the population were accepting of this technology for digital health records, information on healthcare providers and more. In a quick 7-days, the multi-communication channels were built.

Besides healthcare, Uruguay had also transformed education with universal access to computers. The Plan Ceibal, a national virtual program, was offering online educationwhile schools were closed due to technologies that had been developed over the last decade in partnership with Uruguay’s government-owned telecommunications company, Antel. As of June 2020, 100% of public schools had wi-fi networks for example. In 2007, there was a policy instituted where each family would receive one laptop per child to support digital inclusion and equity. Having this national plan already in place meant that the country could easily move to a digital learning environment within your home.

Source: infobae/AP

One could say Uruguay was still winning due to its swift technology implementation and innovation; both which have been instrumental in the fight against COVID. They took proactive steps with testing strategies, integration of big data, contact tracingmethods, and innovative approaches to education. Even with concerns regarding the privacy of data and the possible use of the data for political means, the country seems to have made a significant impact in the pandemic fight and continues to try to stay ahead when it comes to innovation.

Join Us, Tomorrow, 01/21: Webinar on The Origins and Progression of the #ENDSARS2020 Movement ...

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:30:00 GMT

Please join the Black Law Librarians Special Interest Section (BLL-SIS) and the Foreign, Comparative and International Law Special Interest Section (FCIL-SIS) on tomorrow, January 21, 2021 at 11 am-12:30 pm Central for a webinar on the origins and development of Nigeria’s #ENDSARS2020 movement, including information on government responses to the movement and background on police brutality in Nigeria.

The webinar will feature panelists Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa (Chair, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission; Former member of the Nigerian House of Representatives) and Femi Cadmus (Associate Dean and Director of the J. Michael Goodson Law Library, Duke Law; Former AALL President).

Register now at https://tinyurl.com/fcilsisendsars!

Report no.28 on COVID-19: A Brief History of Abortion in Argentina

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 13:00:00 GMT

This is a series of reports by the AALL FCIL-SIS Latin American Law Interest Group and Latino Caucus in a project monitoring COVID-19 legal responses in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

By Barbara Krieger (En Español)

The history of the right to terminate a pregnancy in Argentina begins in 1886. In the first Penal Code of 1887 all cases of abortion are penalized without exceptions. In 1903 with the penal code’s reform, a first exemption is established when decriminalizing the cases of attempt to abort. In 1921, after a new reform, other instances are decriminalized (article 86) such as when conducted to protect the mother’s life or health or when pregnancy was the result of sexual abuse or an attack against a mentally ill woman. In 1968, proof of adjudication becomes a necessary condition for all cases of abortion, under law no. 17.567. After a series of back and forth throughout the years, law no. 23.077 in 1984 rolls back the legal framework for abortion to the 1921 Penal Code, where the decriminalized cases were reestablished.

A protest for legalizing abortion at Argentina’s Congressional Plaza. Source: Julieta Ferrario, infobae

In 2012, Argentina’s Supreme Court decidedunder its case “F.A.L.” on cases of abortionconducted after sexual abuse. This decision resolves that any woman victim of sexual abuse may terminate her pregnancy without previous judicial authorization and without fear of subsequent criminal charges. The decision also exonerates any doctor executing the abortion procedure. Based on the decision, only a sworn declaration is needed as proof of the crime endured by the victim willing to terminate her pregnancy.

Furthermore in 2015, the country’s Ministry of Health developed the Protocol for the Comprehensive Care of People with a Right to Legally Terminate a Pregnancy (Protocolo ILE in Spanish). This protocol retook the guidelines from the F.A.L decision and includeda series of health considerations, be it physical, mental or social.

Let it be law! = ¡Qué sea ley!

Having access to legal, safe and free abortion is one of the main demands of women’s movements in Argentina. Articulated since 2005 by the National Campaign to the Right of Legal Abortion, this demand or “cri de guerre” accompanies social protests and it’s also included in the collective “Not One [Woman] Less” (Ni Una Menos in Spanish). Banners, graffiti and the green handkerchiefs are icons of this struggle, despite the fact that the legal proposals did not manage to advance in the country’s Congress until 2020.

The “green wave” in the streets of Buenos Aires prior to the vote at the Senate. Source: infobae

In 2018, the Project to Legalize the Voluntary Termination of a Pregnancy (Proyecto de Ley de Interrupción Voluntaria del Embarazo, IVE in Spanish) is presented to Congress. It obtains more than half the votes in the Chamber of Representatives with 129 for and 125 against. However, the project is reject at the Senate with 38 votes against, 31 for and 2 abstentions.

The proposed law guaranteed the right to abortion within the 14 gestation weeks with only the woman’s consent. The debate polarized the Argentinian society, between those protesting for and against abortion. On one side, there were the light blue handkerchiefs for those against the project, self-defined as defending “two lives” and on the other, the green handkerchiefs with the motto #quesealey (#letitbelaw) advocating for “safe, legal and free” abortion.

The pressure of religious and conservative groups to maintain the status quo on criminalization was particularly strong, with the media accusing its “lobby” to have influenced the vote in the Senate. On May 2019, a new project is presented, known as “The Campaign” (“La Campaña” in Spanish). This new project includes with some modifications from the previous years, for example to consider all women or other identities with the physical capacity to gestate, or not to include the conscientious objection for health professionals.

On November 2020, Argentina’s President, Alberto Fernández announced that he sent the project of Legally Terminating a Pregnancy to the National Congress for its consideration. The text of the project includes both the previous projects as well as some modifications such as including the conscientious objection, to extend up to 10 days the time to guarantee the objection, to criminalize any abortion conducted after 14 weeks for those that are not included in the exempt instances and abortion is included in the obligatory health insurance.

Screenshot of the moment when abortion wins the vote in the Argentinian Senate (12/30/2020). Source: https://www.senado.gob.ar/

On December 10, the Chamber of Representatives approved the project with 131 votes for, 117 against and 6 abstentions. On December 30, the Senate also approved the project with 38 votes for, 29 against and 1 abstention. It is now the law in Argentina, women who decide to terminate their pregnancy can choose to do it in a legal, safe and free way within the health system.

Undoubtedly, the feminist movement in Argentina achieved a significant victory. However, some legal backlash is expected mainly based on the unconstitutionality of its arguably incongruous agreement with the established superior norms. Therefore, it seems to break with the harmony and hierarchy which must prevail in the Argentine judicial system.

Searching for the middle ground

One of the many protesters wearing the emblematic green color in the streets of Buenos Aires. Source: latfem.org

mageOn November 17, together with the project to Legally Terminate a Pregnancy, another project called Comprehensive Care and Health Treatment during Pregnancy and Early Childhood, known as “Plan for the 1.000 days” was also sent to Congress and it includes care and support for maternity and the first three years of a new born. On December 11, it was approved in the Chamber of Representatives with 196 votes for and on December 30, it was approved unanimouslyin the Senate.

The new abortion law (Law no. 27.610) and the Plan for the 1.000 days (Law no. 27.611) both help secure rights for people in vulnerable situations and they seek an equilibriumbetween the decision to voluntarily interrupt a pregnancy and a pregnancy with trust and safety.

Despite all the anticipated legal backlash, Argentina has become the first “big” countryin Latin America to move forwards toward the legality of women’s reproductive rights in the region.

From the Reference Desk: Gangs and Human Rights in Central America’s Northern Triangle

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 13:00:00 GMT

By Amy Flick

I frequently assist students in the International Humanitarian Law Clinic, who work with international tribunals and NGOS on cases involving war crimes and crimes against humanity. I also work with students in the Human Rights Advocacy class, who work on projects with human rights organizations. During this past fall semester, I had questions from students in both groups who had projects requiring research on gang violence in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. One student in the IHL Clinic was looking for court documents and orders, including indictments, for cases involving these gangs, including MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) and the 18^th Street Gang, Central American gangs with U.S. ties and origins. She wanted to find court documents from U.S. federal courts and from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The students in the Human Rights Advocacy class were working on asylum cases with citizens of those countries fleeing gang violence. They were specifically looking for any reports of treaties or agreements between the gangs and those countries to make claims of state action, but more broadly for human rights reports supporting their cases.

I did not put together a full analysis of the human rights situation in the Northern Triangle countries, or of asylum law, with these students, and I can’t do so here, but briefly, the gang-related violence in those countries has contributed to some of the highest homicide rates in the world, fueling a large migration to the United States, including by families and unaccompanied children. Asylum seekers from Central America have reported incidents of violence, murder, rape, and coercion to join gangs as impetus for their decision to flee. Secondary sources and news reports have referred to weak criminal justice systems, overwhelmed law enforcement agencies, and government corruption including high level cooperation with criminal organizations. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has reported on the need for international protection for individuals fleeing the Northern Triangle and Mexico.

In the Trump administration, U.S. agencies, in cooperation with units in Central America and funded through CARSI (the Central American Regional Security Initiative), have brought criminal charges against thousands of MS-13 members in the United States. Administration policies have included Presidential Proclamation 9822 of November 9, 2018 requiring that asylum seekers enter the U.S. at a legal port of entry and making aliens attempting entry without legal permission ineligible for asylum. The “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially the Migrant Protection Protocols, has required asylum seekers since January 2019 to remain in Mexico to await immigration court hearings in the U.S.. “Safe Third Country” agreements, including the July 26, 2019 agreement with Guatemala, require migrants to seek asylum in countries they travel through rather than in the United States, with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement deporting migrants to Guatemala rather than allowing U.S. hearings. The “Zero Tolerance” policy of family separations has come in for particular criticism for its cruelty. Even in the last few weeks of the Trump administration, ICE officers are being instructed to review whether migrant children are still “unaccompanied” in reviewing immigration status.

Under 8 CFR part 208 on asylum eligibility, the burden of proof is on the applicant for asylum to establish that he or she is a refugee. The applicant must show that they have suffered past persecution or that they have a well-founded fear of future persecution “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” The current rule, §208.13(c)(3), makes applicants crossing the southern border and passing through another country ineligible unless they have applied for protection in another country and have been denied. But U.S. policy has considered most individuals from Northern Triangle countries ineligible for asylum and subject to deportation as not fitting the technical definition of a refugee, considering the violence to not be based on political opinion, membership in a particular social group, or the other criteria, and as not suffering persecution from a governmental or government-sponsored actor under 8 CFR 208(b)(3). The administration’s final rule on asylum, Procedures for Asylum and Withholding of Removal; Credible Fear and Reasonable Fear Review, 85 Fed. Reg. 80274 (Dec. 11, 2020) would have made it all but impossible for most applicants to be granted asylum; the District Court for the District of Columbia enjoined enforcement of the rule in Human Rights First v. Wolf, . President-elect Biden has said that he will roll back Trump administration changes to the asylum process over the next several months.

Two Honduran women and their daughters fleeing poverty and gang violence in the second caravan to the U.S. walk to get a truck to their next stop. (Vic Hinterlang, Santo Domingo Ingenio, Oaxaca/Mexico – Nov. 8, 2018, Source: Shutterstock)

I was only able to offer limited help to the student looking for court orders, indictments, and other court documents. The U.S Department of Justice has issued press releases and reports on its U.S. criminal cases, including a recent indictment of MS-13 leaders. I recommended Bloomberg Law for finding federal dockets. The student could search by keyword for gang names (e.g., MS-13, 18^th Street Gang) in District Court criminal cases. For any large dockets, she could search within the docket for terms like “indictment.” Our access to state courts is more limited; with news accounts of any individual cases, she could check court websites and try Google searches, but for most state courts she would have to pay fees to obtain copies of documents. Foreign court documents seemed to be impossible to find. Even caselaw below the Supreme Court level is limited; we found a few cases involving maras in the Juzgados de Primera Instancia on vLex Global, and Mexican appellate caselaw is also on vLex. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has its SHERLOC database that includes caselaw; it can be searched by country and by type of crime. There were summaries and case reports involving maras or organized crime from El Salvador and Honduras, with a few even from lower courts. I also suggested news databases for stories that might mention indictments or convictions in criminal cases; some might be found in vLex, campus databases including Latin American Newspapers and Access World News, and international news on Westlaw and Lexis.

As I worked with the student in the IHL Clinic, we found sources for background on the Northern Triangle’s gang troubles, but few that referred to governmental ties with gangs. The Law Library of Congress’ Global Legal Monitor had a story on an El Salvadorian case from 2019 on an anti-mafia tribunal with references to the organization’s relationship with the country’s rulers. It linked to a Univision story on the MS-13 trial. A story from the San Diego Union-Tribune from October 11, 2020, noted that gangs in these countries serve as a parallel or replacement authority due to lack of government presence, and observed that state actors are involved in the persecution or turn a blind eye to the violence. The UNODC had a helpful report on The Importance of Territorial Groups in Central America, including the maras or street gangs; on the maras it referred to their “lack of capacity to engage in pseudo-state functions,” but it did refer to political and police ties among the various organized crime groups. CRS Reports offered a great deal of helpful starting point information, including footnote citations to documents; among those we found on EveryCRSReport.com were Latin America and the Caribbean: U.S. Policy and Issues in the 116^th Congress and Gangs in Central America. The latter of these discussed “weak criminal justice systems and overwhelmed law enforcement agencies” and said that “government corruption included high-level cooperation with criminal organizations.”

We did find numerous sources on the human rights situation in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador more generally. One category of sources that was new to me was Country of Origin research collections. These are research sites with collections of human rights reports for use in supporting asylum claims and relief from removal motions before immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals in the United States, or immigration courts in other countries. The Executive Office for Immigration Review has collections of reports for country conditions research. These include the State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, reports from the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, human rights reports from foreign governments, and NGO reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and others. The European Country of Origin Information Network has collections of human rights reports from a few different sources, including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Most of these human rights sites had other reports and news stories on conditions in Central America when we searched the sites.

As a last question, the student working on the asylum project needed some general background on asylum law. I frequently start with CRS Reports, and we found several that had useful information, including Asylum and Gang Violence: Legal Overview, not up-to-date with a 2014 publication date but still offering definitions and citations, and, most helpful, Immigration: U.S. Asylum Policy from February 19, 2019. The treatise Law of Asylum in the United States on Westlaw was invaluable for the project, with citations to cases on non-state actors and failure of state protection. Vox had articles that explained the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, along with earlier articles on the Trump administration’s policies of refusing asylum seekers. For international standards, the UNHCR has published Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers, covering gangs and state security forces, state responses to gang violence, and refugee protection under the 1951 Convention on the Treatment of Refugees.

As the United States prepares for a change of administration, it is expected that the Biden administration will have a less draconian policy towards Central American asylum seekers, and that it will implement policies to assist the Northern Triangle countries with the problem of gang violence. I hope that our future students in the Human Rights Advocacy class and the International Humanitarian Law Clinic will not be needed for assisting with cases involving Central American gangs.