Social Movements & the Law

COVID-19 was a global pandemic that altered many aspects of American life. From January 2020 to August 2024, over 1,100,000 Americans died from the disease. Quarantine measures, enacted to avoid the spread of COVID-19, altered the way Americans worked and lived. Many social activities—including school and faith-based gatherings—moved online. Even at this writing, COVID-19 continues to impact many Americans’ everyday experiences.

The health of the planet and its people are at risk. The deterioration of the global commons—ie, the natural systems that support life on Earth—is exacerbating energy, food, and water insecurity, and increasing the risk of disease, disaster, displacement, and conflict. In this Commission, we quantify safe and just Earth-system boundaries (ESBs) and assess minimum access to natural resources required for human dignity and to enable escape from poverty. Collectively, these describe a safe and just corridor that is essential to ensuring sustainable and resilient human and planetary health and thriving in the Anthropocene.

Various Tucson neighborhoods have rules saying non-white people can’t live there and one Midtown neighborhood association is getting rid of their rules.

Federalism is rightly viewed as a bulwark of human rights. Yet rights advocates should be aware of its limitations in the protection of marginalized communities and democratic norms.

The Show's Sam Dingman visits the "The Place Where Clouds Are Formed" exhibit and asks the co-curators about the stories behind the effort to illustrate a heavily guarded barrier between two regions of the ancestral O’odham homelands.

New Census Bureau data shows women are making 82.7 cents per every dollar a man makes. The gap is even wider for most women of color.

Agents of change: Community efforts to overcome racial inequities is an editorial series created in collaboration with Report for America, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, that highlights how local initiatives address racial inequalities through grassroots approaches.

STRONG BUSINESS LEADERSHIP AND CONTINUED OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT IN ADVANCING RACIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY

Attendees will learn strategies for broadening Banned Books Week (BBW) programming through the inclusion of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) BBW materials a...

Listen to The Clayman Institute for Gender Research's The Feminist Present podcast on Apple Podcasts.

On Saturdays in late ’90s, my father, a taxi driver, would pool his tips for the week and take me, a child too precocious for his own good, to a local bookstore in search of my next read. Together,…

See what humans rights campaigns Amnesty International USA is working on to inspire a global movement of people to fight injustice & promote human rights.

October 4 -National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) by CalgaryLibrary_Indigenous - a staff-created list : In Canada, Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are murdered, abused, or disappear at shockingly high rates. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded that this violence is rooted in colonization. Whether you are personally affected by this crisis and are looking for stories of healing and empowerment, or you want to become an ally by learning more about the devastating epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada, these resources can be a source of information, reflection, action, resilience, and hope.

Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-desc-ytWe're joined by award-winning Cherokee writer and journalist Rebecca Nagle, whose new book, By th...

Mixed-status families in Arizona face fears of separation. A Donald Trump presidency could exacerbate that. Nationwide, 22 million people live in mixed-status households, including over half a million in Arizona, according to estimates from FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group.

On September 10, 2024, AAP and allies filed a second amicus brief in support of Texas public library patron plaintiffs in Little v. Llano County following the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ order of a full court rehearing of its June 6, 2024 decision. That earlier decision largely—but not entirely—upheld a preliminary injunction against the unconstitutional […]

UW Magazine | University of Washington

As Publishers Weekly reported this week, the Internet Archive, nonprofit home to a robust digital library, has lost its latest appeal in a case brought by publishers. A panel from New York’s …

Procedure : What does the University of Arizona Require?

The University of Arizona (“University”) values its relationship with sovereign Indian Tribes and is committed to honoring the fundamental principles of tribal consultation (“Consultation”) and respect required by the Arizona Board of Regents Tribal Consultation Policy (ABOR 1-118). The purpose of the Tribal Consultation Policy is to provide a framework for the University to preserve a foundation of respect and to acknowledge the cultures, traditions, beliefs, governance processes, laws, codes, regulations, and protocols of sovereign Indian Tribes, while maintaining compliance with federal, state, and local laws.

Viet Thanh Nguyen fled Vietnam as a child, escaping Saigon with his family the day before the capital city fell. They went to military bases in the Philippines and Guam, then lived in Pennsylvania for a few years before finally settling in San Jose, California, where he discovered the American dream was complicated. His literary work, most notably his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,

Penguin Random House LLC et al v. Gibson et al (6:24-cv-01573), Florida Middle District Court, Filed: 08/29/2024

Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona (DPAA) is a non-profit educational organization working to inform the public about the injustices surrounding the death penalty and the criminal punishment system. DPAA consists of volunteers from around the State of Arizona organized into the Northern, Central, and Southern regions of the state.

The remote Duck Valley reservation that straddles Nevada and Idaho has battled toxic contaminants on its land for decades.

American Libraries travels through time to outline our country’s history of censorship—and those who have defended the right to read.

For nearly 50 years, the remains of two Native American individuals have been stored at the Arizona Capitol. Now, they are on their way back to their final resting place, but one state senator says that isn’t enough. In 1976, two fragments of bones were donated to the Arizona State Library. The remains were transferred to the newly opened Arizona Capitol Museum in 1982, where they remained until 2024. “Unfortunately we just know very little,” said Stephanie Mahan, a senior administrator at the Capitol Museum, of the remains and the individuals they belonged to. The remains are subject to a federal policy called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which was passed in 1990. NAGPRA requires all museums and universities receiving federal funding to return Native American remains and artifacts in their collections to the tribes they are most closely affiliated with. Many of the remains held by institutions across the country were taken by archaeologists working at burial sites of Indigenous peoples in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The federal law was enacted to outline a process by which tribes could recover those remains and return their ancestors to their homelands. Some of Arizona’s representatives in Congress at the time, like late-Rep. Morris Udall and late-Sen. John McCain, advocated for the law’s passage. In an effort to comply with the law, Capitol Museum officials reached out to the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona and transported the remains to Tucson earlier this year. The museum currently holds the largest collection of Native American remains in Arizona and is working to repatriate them back to the tribes they came from, in addition to assisting other institutions with their repatriations. Neither the Capitol Museum nor Arizona State Museum were able to determine a definitive cultural identity for the individuals in the Capitol Museum, but the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Gila River Indian Community have made a joint claim to the remains. Now that a claim has been made, Arizona State Museum can work with the tribes to return the individuals for reburial. It’s unclear where the remains held at the Capitol originated from or how they arrived in Phoenix, but an official from the State Museum said it's likely that the remains belonged to individuals who were part of one of the many Indigenous communities in the Phoenix area. “Because we can say … that there is a bit of a probability that the remains came from this general region, then it was decided that the tribes within the Phoenix basin area would claim those remains and provide them with a place to rest again,” said Cristin Lucas, the repatriation coordinator at the State Museum. “It may not be this specific group of individuals who are the specific descendants, but the ultimate concern is that everyone should be provided a place of rest in the end.” A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees the State Library, said there are no records at the library related to the individuals or their time before they were transferred to the Capitol Museum. Mahan said that the remains were stored at the Polly Rosenbaum State Archives and History Building – which is managed by the Secretary of State’s Office – not the Capitol Museum, which is located in the old Capitol building that once housed the state House and Senate. Despite the Secretary of State Office’s control over the archives building, the Capitol Museum retained legal control over the remains. Now, Arizona State Museum is working to transfer legal control over to the two tribal communities that will receive the individuals for burial. According to Lucas, the remains will likely be repatriated to the tribes in the next few weeks. “Cases like this are really important because they are individuals who basically no information is known [about], and so it's a complex situation both for institutions but also for tribes,” Lucas said. A representative for the Gila River Indian Community declined to comment for this story, citing the sensitive nature of repatriations. A representative for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community did not respond to requests for comment. State Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, D-Tuba City, is a member of the Navajo Nation and said she was not aware that Native American human remains had been stored at the state Capitol, but said it is “an absolute shame.” “Tribal members are very respectful of how they handle their loved ones' remains,” Hatathlie said. “It's a time of observance and reverence, and so each culture has a certain process in place, but for it to be held like this, it's denying that individual's spiritual process.” Although the federal act governs the repatriation of Native American remains at the federal level, Hatathlie said she thinks more needs to be done at the state level. Museums and institutions in the state can receive federal funding for repatriation efforts, but the state government does not offer any support for institutions – even those like Arizona State Museum that are considered state entities. According to state statute, the musdeum is Arizona’s official archaeological repository and is responsible for all human remains and artifacts that are unearthed on state or private land. Arizona State Museum is allowed by state law to charge for the handling and storage of those remains and artifacts, but it does not receive any specific funding from the state to carry out those duties. “Going forward, specifically for the state of Arizona, to put together a policy tied with consequences, I think that that's a process that needs to take place,” Hatathlie said of institutions that are noncompliant. She said the return of the two individuals who have been held at the Capitol Museum is a start, but she doesn’t want “people [to] think they can walk away with a clear conscience.” “It's an absolute shame that we are even having this conversation in this day and age,” Hatathlie said. “It goes right back down to the blatant disrespect to the Indigenous tribes of the state of Arizona and all over the U.S.”

"Unsettled examines the role of young American Jews in the Palestine solidarity movement and argues that their activism and commitment to ending the occupation and Israeli apartheid is a Jewish value, which is a necessary response to the changing conditions of American Jewish life in the twenty-first century"--

Through the perspectives of patients, providers, activists and lawmakers, the author, as the landscape of abortion rights continues to shift, forcing people to cross state lines to seek life-saving care, presents this timely examination of human rights, healthcare and economic and racial inequality in America.;"On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the impact was immediate: by 2024, abortion was virtually unavailable or significantly restricted in 21 states. In Undue Burden, reporter Shefali Luthra traces the unforgettable stories of patients faced with one of the most personal decisions of their lives... A revelatory portrait of inequality in America, Undue Burden examines abortion not as a footnote or a political pawn, but as a basic human right, something worthy of our collective attention and with immense power to transform our lives, families, and futures"--