While news of Ebola quarantines being lifted in Dallas on Monday brought a measure of relief in the United States’ effort to combat the spread of Ebola, healthcare workers and officials across the globe are saying that the only way to contain what could become the “definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation” is with a united response that includes emergency funding, uniform implementation of safety measures, and federally mandated action.
In contrast to the American healthcare system, that pits patient and worker health against profit, world health authorities are commending the national efforts of two West African nations that have successfully stemmed the transmission of Ebola this week, illustrating an example of this united healthcare initiative that analysts say is “worth following.”
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the nation’s largest union of nurses, National Nurses United, writes, “In the U.S., long experience with the privately-run corporate hospital chains that dominate care delivery have made the sober reality abundantly clear—unless the healthcare industry is mandated to put the safety of patients, nurses, and other caregivers above their profit motive, the Ebola threat will only get worse.”
Over the weekend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it is revising their Ebola safety protocols, including a measure directing healthcare workers to use protective gear “with no skin showing.” The changes come days after it was revealed that the nurses who treated U.S. Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, two of whom contracted the virus, were not given proper protective equipment nor any mandatory training.
“Unless the healthcare industry is mandated to put the safety of patients, nurses, and other caregivers above their profit motive, the Ebola threat will only get worse.” —Rose Ann DeMoro, National Nurses United
Despite such advisories, the guidelines are unenforceable in U.S. hospitals. As DeMoro notes, “the CDC still does not have the authority to compel hospitals, which have repeatedly shown they will pick and choose whatever protocols they like, usually based on their budget goals and profit margins.”
This week, NNU is holding a National Week of Action and has started a petition calling on President Obama to issue an executive order mandating uniform, national standards and protocols that all hospitals must follow with the threat of revoking federal funding should the healthcare facility not comply.
Analysts charge that the exportation of neoliberal economic models, which have shaped the for-profit healthcare model in the U.S., has similarly dismantled public infrastructure around the world and paved the way for the Ebola crisis which is currently sweeping countries in West Africa today.
On Monday, the World Health Organization announced that Nigeria and Senegal are now “free” of Ebola virus transmission. The successes, WHO says, can be attributed largely to a united national response, during which federal and state governments “provided ample financial and material resources, as well as well-trained and experienced national staff.”
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“Is it possible, for example, that Nigeria, of all places, might have some wisdom to convey to the United States?” writes Foreign Policy in Focus columnist Kwei Quartey.
Quartey continues:
Referencing the recent statement by Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner David Lakey that Dallas is “not West Africa,” Quartet concludes: “David Lakey is right: Texas is not West Africa. But every once in a while, the West African example is worth following.”
According to the latest transmission numbers, as of October 14 there have been a total of 9216 confirmed and suspected cases of Ebola worldwide, 9191 of which were documented in the countries where it is most widespread: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
On Saturday, international aid organization Oxfam issued a call for more funding, health care personnel, as well as military staff for logistical support, to be sent to those countries in order to prevent the “definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation.”
“We are in the eye of a storm. We cannot allow Ebola to immobilize us in fear, but instead we must move toward a common mission to stop it from getting worse,” said executive director Winnie Byanyima. “Countries that have failed to commit troops, doctors and enough funding are in danger of costing lives. The speed and scale of the intervention needed is unprecedented. Only a concerted and co-ordinated global effort will stop the spread.”
Oxfam estimates that the window of time to stem “unprecedented outbreak” is less than two months.
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UNITED NATIONS – The widespread outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, which has resulted in over 4,500 deaths so far, is also threatening to trigger a food crisis in the three countries already plagued by poverty and hunger.
Dr. Shenggen Fen, director-general of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), told IPS the crisis is expected to be confined mostly to the countries directly affected by the spreading disease: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Asked whether the food shortages will also reach countries outside West Africa, he said Ebola is triggering a food crisis through a series of interrelated factors, including farmer deaths, labour shortages, rising transportation costs, and rising food prices.
“Within these countries, where undernourishment has long been a problem, the food crisis may persist for decades,” he warned.
And because Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia are all net food-importing countries, the Ebola-triggered food crisis is unlikely to spread to other countries in the region or beyond, Dr. Fan added.
Global food prices tend to have transmission effects on regional or national food prices, but for small markets (on a global scale) such as these three countries, the transmission effect of food prices is unlikely to pass beyond their own boundaries – so long as the disease itself is not transmitted, he said.
According to the latest figures released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are over 9,000 cases of Ebola, including 4,262 cases in Liberia, 3,410 in Sierra Leone and 1,519 in Guinea.
The death toll is highest in Liberia (2,484), followed by Sierra Leone (1,200) and Guinea (862).
U.N. Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Monday the WHO has officially declared Nigeria free of Ebola virus transmission, after 42 days without a single case.
WHO called it “a spectacular success story that shows that Ebola can be contained”.
“Such a story can help the many other developing countries that are deeply worried by the prospect of an imported Ebola case and are eager to improve their preparedness plans,” he said.
Dujarric said the announcement comes only a few days after Senegal was also declared Ebola-free.
He said the trust fund set up by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to battle the deadly disease now has about 8.8 million dollars in deposits and 5.0 million dollars in commitments.
In total, 43.5 million dollars have been pledged and the secretary-general continues to urge countries to turn these pledges into action as soon as possible.
He expressed regrets over the Ebola-related death of a UN-Women staff member in Sierra Leone. His spouse is currently receiving treatment.
“All measures to protect staff at the duty station in Sierra Leone are being taken as best as possible under the current circumstances,” Dujarric said.
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This includes decontamination of the U.N. clinic, disposal of the isolation facility and contact tracing, he added.
In a statement released Tuesday, IFPRI painted a grim picture of the situation facing all three countries.
Schools in Sierra Leone have closed, shutting down critical feeding programmes for children. And restrictions on the consumption of bush meat, the suspected source of Ebola, have eliminated a traditional source of protein and nutrition from local diets.
“In addition, the costs of staple foods including rice and cassava are rising precipitously in the affected areas as crops are abandoned and as labor shortages grow,” the statement added.
Food that would be imported from these areas is not making its way to other regions, either.
“So, as we weigh the dangers of this dreaded disease, we must not forget the very real threats it poses to food security,” the group warned.
“The global community must come together to ensure that there are safety nets to protect not only those infected with the disease, but also those whose access to food is severely affected,” IFPRI added.
Asked to identify these safety nets, Dr. Fan told IPS social safety nets are needed to protect not only those infected with Ebola, but also those whose access to food is severely affected.
These safety nets, which could be in the form of cash or in-kind transfers (context-specificity is important here), should be accompanied with nutrition and health interventions.
For example, a conditional cash transfer programme linked to health can help improve access to nutritious foods, particularly when prices are high, while promoting health service use, he added. “This is important, because investing in the nutrition and health of vulnerable populations could lower the mortality rate of diseases like Ebola, as nutritional status and infection are intricately linked.”
In the post-Ebola era, Dr. Fan said, combined social protection and agricultural support interventions will be crucial to build resilience to future livelihood shocks.
Asked how many people will be affected by this impending food crisis, he said with Ebola claiming lives of thousands of people in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, the mounting food crisis is impacting thousands more still.
Recent efforts by the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide food assistance to around 1.3 million people in these three countries indicate an idea of the scope of the current crisis.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is also providing food assistance to nearly 90,000 farming households to abate the food security crisis, he pointed out.
As the harvest season is beginning, labour shortages are putting the food security of tens of thousands of people at risk in particularly affected areas, he declared.
Edward Brooke, the Massachusetts Republican who was the first African-American U.S. Senator ever to be elected by the popular vote, died on Saturday at the age of 95.
Ralph Neas, a former aide, confirmed that Brooke died of natural causes at his home in Coral Gables, Florida, with his family by his side.
Brooke was serving as Attorney General of Massachusetts when he was elected to the Senate in 1966, winning as a Republican in a Democratic state—and as a black man in a country consumed by racial unrest.
He was one of only nine black Senators in the history of the United States, including President Barack Obama.
The Guardian reports:
Brooke became known for standing by his convictions, even when they deviated from those of his party or his peers.
The New York Times writes:
Despite troubles late in his political career and a messy divorce that became public, Brooke nonetheless held the respect of his peers throughout his life. The Times continues:
Brooke’s achievements broke critical barriers in the U.S., but he never presented himself as a black politician, the Times said. Still, he was aware of the obstacles that remained.
The Times continues:
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Jason Kander, the Missouri Democrat who narrowly lost a Senate bid last year, is jumping back into national politics with a new organization aimed at protecting voting rights. The former Missouri secretary of state’s new group, “Let America Vote,” aims to win “the public debate over voter suppression” as Democrats continue to coalesce around voting rights in the wake of calls by President Trump for an investigation into his claim, presented without evidence, that millions of illegal votes were cast in 2016. “Voting in our country has never been easy, and unfortunately it’s never been guaranteed for everyone,” Kander said Tuesday in a statement pointing to the progress made by “brave civil rights leaders.” “Today, that progress is in danger as laws targeting low-income and minority voters continue popping up across the country. Let America Vote will make the case for voting rights by exposing the real motivations of those who favor voter suppression laws.” Kander, one of the Democratic Party’s top recruits in the 2016 cycle, ran a close race in red-state Missouri but ultimately lost to Republican Sen. Roy BluntRoy Dean BluntSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Hillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Senate headed for late night vote amid standoff over lands bill | Trump administration seeks to use global aid for nuclear projects | EPA faces lawsuit alleging failure to update flaring requirements MORE. One of his campaign ads, which featured the former Army captain assembling a rifle blindfolded while talking about his belief in finding a common ground on gun control, became one of the most popular ads of the election cycle. ADVERTISEMENTKander styles his new nonprofit as a way to keep up political pressure on the issue, warning that “politicians intent on denying certain Americans the right to vote will first have to consider the political consequences.” Democrats have long decried Republican efforts to enact voter ID laws, restrictions on early voting and other tactics as attempts to suppress Democratic voters. Republicans counter that pushing issues like voter ID is necessary to ensure accountability and protect from voter fraud, although multiple studies have found that actual voter fraud is incredibly rare. Democratic efforts against what they see as voter suppression laws were complicated by a 2013 Supreme Court ruling invalidating much of the Voting Rights Act, freeing up nine states to change their voting laws without federal approval. Recent efforts by Kander and other groups like Priorities USA, the super PAC that supported Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE’s presidential bid, show progressives reshuffling their artillery toward the issue of voting rights after an election where Clinton lost the Electoral College despite winning the popular vote. The nonprofit’s advisory board reads like a who’s who of progressive politics. EMILY’s List’s Stephanie Schriock, Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s Cecile Richards, campaign finance activist Zephyr Teachout, human rights activist Martin Luther King III and Campaign Legal Center Director of Voting Rights and Redistricting Gerry Hebert all are part of the board. Three Obama administration officials are also on board: Josh Earnest, Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer. Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias and Priorities USA super PAC chairman Guy Cecil are part of the board as well — the two men joined forces last month when Priorities launched an effort to fund voting-rights lawsuits across the country. Kander announced he will join Priorities’ board to support the group’s efforts and will also partner with fellow board member Ellen Kurz and her organization, iVote. Click Here: Fjallraven Kanken Art Spring Landscape Backpacks
Food safety advocates are welcoming the launch of what is being touted as the biggest ever global study on the safety of genetically modified food and its associated herbicide.
The 2- to 3-year, international “Factor GMO” study was formally announced Tuesday and is set to begin in 2015.
It aims to provide governments and regulators with the data needed to be able to say whether herbicide-tolerant genetically modified (GMO) corn and “realistic levels” of the herbicide Roundup and its main ingredient, glyphosate, for which the GMO corn is engineered to withstand, are safe.
Study organizers describe it as landmark, as it will have “full multi-generational, toxicology and carcinogenicity arms.”
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The study was initiated by the Russian NGO National Association for Genetic Safety (NAGS), though Factor GMO states that it will not have involvement in the study itself. The scientists involved with the study, according to the Factor GMO explanation, have no affiliation to either the anti-GMO movement or the biotechnology industry. Organizers say they will accept donations from anywhere for the $25 million study, though they will not accept them from the GMO industry or associated pesticide makers.
Among those cheering the study are members of the Global GMO Free Coalition (GGFC).
“For years, consumers have been exposed to Monsanto’s Roundup through multiple channels, including the pollution of groundwater that results from the planting of millions of acres of Roundup-resistant corn and soy crops,” stated Ronnie Cummins, international director of the Organic Consumers Association and its Mexico affiliate, Via Organica and member of the GGFC steering committee.
“Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency again ruled in favor of Monsanto when the agency approved the allowance of higher levels of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, on fruits and vegetables sold for human consumption. We fully support this unprecedented study which we believe will provide, once and for all, irrefutable scientific evidence that Roundup should be banned,” Cummins stated.
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According to reporting by CNN on Monday, it appears that during this year’s mid-term elections shadowy outside Conservative campaign groups and official Republican Party campaigns may have used public, though “hidden in plain sight,” Twitter accounts and secret codes to communicate with one another in a clandestine scheme designed to get around campaign finance laws that make direct communication and coordination between the two illegal.
If accurate, the report bolsters arguments made by critics of the enormous role that outside money has played in recent elections. In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision, which has flooded the electoral landscape with hundreds of millions of unaccountable dollars, independent groups—including SuperPACs or independent 501(c)4 groups like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads—are not allowed to coordinate with the political parties running candidates. Experts have said the courts have been niave to believe that such coordination is not going on.
In this case, according to CNN’s Chris Moody, it appeared that the Twitter accounts of at least two Conservative groups—American Crossroads and the American Action Network—were among a small group of users accessing an account that was also being monitored by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). In the course of its investigation, CNN reached out to the NRCC for comment about the account. Minutes later, the outlet reported, the Twitter account in questions, as well as others under suspicion, were all deleted.
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Moody reports:
Watch the report:
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On Monday St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch announced the grand jury had found “that no probable cause exists” to charge Officer Darren Wilson with any crime in the death of Michael Brown. The jury deliberated for three months and heard dozens of hours of testimony, including from Wilson himself. But did they hear the full story?
McCulloch himself had faced public scrutiny throughout the grand jury investigation, with calls for him to resign over allegations of a pro-police bias and questions raised about an unusual grand jury process that resembled a trial. Democracy Now! spoke to Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is just back from Ferguson. “I don’t think we can take away anything from this decision not to indict other than that it is now officially open season on black folks when it comes to police violence,” Warren said.
Some people say inequality doesn’t matter. They are wrong. All we have to do to see its effects is to realize that all across America millions of people of ordinary means can’t afford decent housing.
As wealthy investors and buyers drive up real estate values, the middle class is being squeezed further and the working poor are being shoved deeper into squalor — in places as disparate as Silicon Valley and New York City.
On the latest episode of Moyers & Company this week, host Bill Moyers points to the changing skyline of Manhattan as the physical embodiment of how money and power impact the lives and neighborhoods of every day people. Soaring towers being built at the south end of Central Park, climbing higher than ever with apartments selling from $30 million to $90 million, are beginning to block the light on the park below. Many of the apartments are being sold at those sky high prices to the international super rich, many of whom will only live in Manhattan part-time – if at all — and often pay little or no city income or property taxes, thanks to the political clout of real estate developers.
“The real estate industry here in New York City is like the oil industry in Texas,” affordable housing advocate Jaron Benjamin says, “They outspend everybody… They often have a much better relationship with elected officials than everyday New Yorkers do.” Meanwhile, fewer and fewer middle and working class people can afford to live in New York City. As Benjamin puts it, “Forget about the Statue of Liberty. Forget about Ellis Island. Forget about the idea of everybody being welcome here in New York City. This will be a city only for rich people.”
At the end of the show Bill says: “Tell us if you’ve seen some of these forces eroding the common ground where you live. Perhaps, like some of the people in our story, you’re making your own voice heard. Share these experiences at the BillMoyers.com or in the comments section here.
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With the nation’s streets still filled with protesters and a plan for thousands to march on Washington brewing, the call for justice for Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and other black victims of police violence has only grown stronger. In the days and weeks since two grand juries failed to indict the police officers who killed the two men, expressions of solidarity have poured in from all corners—from professional athletes to fast food workers, education leaders and environmental groups, with the message that an injustice against one is an injustice against us all.
On Monday evening, several NBA players took the court wearing t-shirts that read, “I can’t breathe,” a reference to the final utterance issued by Eric Garner, who was forced into a chokehold by New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17. “It’s not a Cavs thing,” said Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James, who was one of the players to don the shirt, before the game. “It’s a worldly thing.”
The symbolic action was not the first expression of support by a professional sports team. Members of the Ferguson community’s hometown football team, the St. Louis Rams, also signaled their solidarity with the movement when they walked on the field on November 30 holding their hands in the air in what has become the signature “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture of the Ferguson protests.
The idea that the demonstrations—sparked by incidents of police violence against black individuals in the communities of Ferguson, Missouri; Staten Island, New York; and elsewhere—have “worldly” resonance is a connection that the environmental movement has also been quick to make.
The argument that environmental issues are inherently intertwined with social justice issues is one that has been voiced repeatedly. But in the wake of the recent grand jury decisions, leading environmental groups have come out strong in support of those in the streets, arguing that a world that breeds such inequalities is fundamentally opposed to the idea of a sustainable society.
“We cannot lead a meaningful fight for the environment without first taking steps to address the unequal valuation of life within it.” —Erich Pica, Friends of the Earth
“We cannot lead a meaningful fight for the environment without first taking steps to address the unequal valuation of life within it,” Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica wrote in a statement this weekend. “The preventable deaths of Mike Brown, Darrien Hunt, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Aiyana Jones, Oscar Grant and dozens of others bespeak not just a systematic injustice, but of a cancer in our national consciousness that seems to place little value on the lives of black and brown people.”
“Our mission is to create a healthier and more just world, but we have little hope of success if our nation cannot agree on the definitions of chokehold, unarmed and murder; let alone clean air and water,” Pica concluded.
Following the Ferguson grand jury decision last month, 350.org Executive Director May Boeve issued a call to the climate movement to stand in solidarity with the protesters there, saying, “their fight is fundamentally linked with ours for a healthy and livable future for all. It’s past time to replace the broken system that continually devastates communities of color, and reform the bankrupt laws that put over-reactive self-defense above the dignity of life.”
And Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune agreed, saying: “These issues are not separate.”
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“The Sierra Club’s mission is to ‘enlist humanity’ to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet. That mission, which applies to everyone, cannot be achieved when people’s rights are being violated and their safety and dignity are being threatened on a routine basis,” Brune wrote this weekend. “This must stop.”
Low wage workers protesting for a higher minimum wage also threw their support behind the protests against racial profiling and police brutality, staging solidarity “die-ins” and chanting “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” during last week’s national day of action.
Journalist Sarah Jaffe, who wrote about the converging demonstrations for Salon, spoke with St. Louis Burger King worker Carlos Robinson who said that the actions last week “felt different because we were doing it for the Mike Brown situation and trying to show people the significance between injustice in our workplaces and injustice in our communities.” Robinson, who had been organizing for $15 an hour and a union for about seven months, said the demonstrators “know just as well as we do that there’s injustice in our communities and there’s injustice in our fast food places and we need to do something about it.”
And labor leader Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, was arrested along with her partner Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and several other prominent rabbis while protesting in New York City following the Eric Garner grand jury announcement last week.
“Today, the alarm bells are ringing in town squares and city streets everywhere, urging everyone still holding out hope for a more just world to rise up and get busy making it.” —Randall Amster, Georgetown University
Meanwhile, the demonstrations have yet to cease. For the third night in a row, protesters on Monday night rallied in the streets of Berkeley, California and organizers have called for a mass mobilization in New York City on Saturday, December 13. Further, Reverend Al Sharpton and his National Action Network is organizing a march on Washington, D.C. on Saturday to demand congressional action on police brutality.
Onlookers believe that this moment, the growing call for racial justice which continues to sweep the nation, has the potential to make significant change if enough people join that cry.
“Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke of the perils of ‘sleeping through a revolution,'” writes Randall Amster, Director of the Program on Justice and Peace at Georgetown University. “Today, the alarm bells are ringing in town squares and city streets everywhere, urging everyone still holding out hope for a more just world to rise up and get busy making it.”
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A 2013 Supreme Court decision that makes it much harder to sue foreign companies for human rights abuses is now being used by U.S. corporations to dodge culpability, a new Reuters analysis reveals.
Last year’s ruling in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum tossed out a lawsuit levied by Nigerian citizens against oil giant Shell for its role in pervasive human rights abuses—including torture, rape, and extrajudicial killings—against the Ogani people in the 1990s.
The plaintiffs invoked the Alien Tort Statute—a law that dates to the 18th century and “gives federal courts the power to hear suits by aliens for torts ‘committed in violation of the law of nations,'” according to a synopsis by the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The court acquiesced to Shell’s argument, ruling that in such a case, where a foreign corporation is accused of acts abroad, the court does not have jurisdiction.
The ruling was a blow to human rights litigation, because for over three decades, the Tort Statute had been a key tool for levying charges against multinational corporations, as well as military and civilian individuals, for a host of abuses—from police torture in Paraguay to the oil company Unocal’s oppression of Burmese villagers.
Now, as Reuters journalist Lawrence Hurley explains in his new analysis, the ruling is having a chilling effect that goes far beyond limiting lawsuits against foreign corporations. Hurley explains:
However, human rights lawsuits under the Tort Statute are not completely dead.
Center for Constitutional Rights lawyers are currently invoking the statute in a federal suit brought by four Iraqi victims of torture against the U.S. company CACI for its role in war crimes and torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
CCR lawyers are also invoking the statute in a federal suit on behalf of Sexual Minorities in Uganda against Abiding Truth Ministries President Scott Lively—a U.S. citizen—for his attack LGBTQ rights in Uganda.
In the immediate wake of the Kiobel ruling last year, Pamela Merchant, Executive Director of the Center for Justice and Accountability, declared, “In spite of the Court’s decision, the human rights community will continue our work to ensure that U.S. courts give victims what they were denied abroad: a chance to seek truth, healing, and a measure of redress.”
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