Human Rights and UNESCAP [UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific]. A Librarian At Every Table. No.325.

The POPULATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION SECTION (PSIS)---- provides technical assistance to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific UNESCAP members and associate members in the areas of sustainable social development, population, ageing and disability. It supports existing national programmes; develops national capacities in planning, monitoring and evaluating programmes; conducts research and facilitates the exchange of information on population and social integration and the setting of regional goals. The Section is the UNESCAP focal point for human rights.

The key programmes of the Section include:

* Population
* Disability
* Social Policy
* Ageing

50 Years is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice.A Librarian at Every Table. No. 324.

50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice is a coalition of over 200 U.S. grassroots, women's, solidarity, faith-based, policy, social- and economic-justice, youth, labor and development organizations dedicated to the profound transformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Network works in solidarity with over 185 international partner organizations in more than 65 countries. Through education and action, the Network is committed to transforming the international financial institutions' policies and practices, to ending the outside imposition of neo-liberal economic programs, and to making the development process democratic and accountable. We were founded in 1994, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the World Bank and IMF. We focus on action-oriented economic literacy training, public mobilization, and policy advocacy.

---

National Center for Children in Poverty. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 323.

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health, and well-being of America’s low-income families and children. Using research to inform policy and practice, NCCP seeks to advance family-oriented solutions and the strategic use of public resources at the state and national levels to ensure positive outcomes for the next generation.
Because of NCCP’s track record in highlighting emerging challenges and offering insights about how to turn research into practice, NCCP is respected by direct service providers and advocates across the country.

Unraveling of No Child Left Behind. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 322.

The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University helps "renew the civil rights movement by bridging the worlds of ideas and action, and by becoming a preeminent source of intellectual capital and a forum for building consensus within that movement." Studies such as the Unraveling of No Child Left Behind contribute to the intellectual understanding of the effect of politics on human development.


The Unraveling of No Child Left Behind:
How Negotiated Changes Transform the Law

By Gail L. Sunderman
The intent of this report is to provide policymakers with information they can use to develop a systemic approach to correcting the flaws in NCLB by documenting the requirements that are difficult for states to implement and identifying areas where the law may not be working as intended. The report provides an easy to understand synopsis of the changes allowed by ED and state-by-state summaries of the amendments each state adopted....To improve NCLB, policymakers need to reexamine the core assumptions that underlie NCLB and reevaluate the mechanisms used by NCLB to improve schools and student achievement. To restore legitimacy to the process, policymakers need to include educators, experts, community leaders, and civil rights groups in an open and honest debate about what is needed to reform schools and improve student achievement.

Situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 321.

Five independent investigators of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights are calling on the United States to close immediately the detention centre in Guantánamo Bay and bring all detainees before an independent and competent tribunal or release them.


15 February 2006
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
Situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay
E/CN.4/2006/120

Summary
The present joint report is submitted by five holders of mandates of special
procedures of the Commission on Human Rights who have been jointly following the situation of detainees held at theUnited States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay since June 2004.
Section I provides a legal analysis common to all five mandates. Sections II toV
outline the legal framework specific to each mandate, as well as the particular allegations of human rights violations which concern them. The final section contains conclusions and recommendations.

http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/docs/62chr/E.CN.4.2006.120_.pdf

Immigrant Solidarity Network. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 320.

The National Immigrant Solidarity Network (NISN) is a coalition of immigrant rights, labor, human rights, religious, and student activist organizations from across the country. We work with leading immigrant rights, students and labor groups. In solidarity with their campaigns, and organize community immigrant rights education campaigns.

War and the Family and the Cost of Prisons: A Librarian at Every Table. No. 319.

Review of Renny Golden, War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind (Routledge: 1/1/2005).
War on the Family is a searing indictment of the booming prison industry and the hell it has unleashed on the victims of its “success”—primarily African Americans, Latinos, and Arabs. “We can’t build prisons fast enough to hold this world’s cargo of dark-skinned prisoners,” Golden writes. “The U.S. incarceration rate rose almost 300 percent between 1980 and 1998, eclipsing both South Africa and Russia’s all-time international imprisonment record.”
From this wide angle, Golden zooms in on the subject of her book—incarcerated mothers and their children—and the immense social costs of the severed bonds between them.
--from review by Tom Montgomery in Sojourners

ACORN And Progressive Politics in America: A Librarian at Every Table. No. 318

ACORN And Progressive Politics in America
Peter Dreier
E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
Occidental College

This paper takes a broad look at ACORN in terms of its role in America’s progressive movement in the post-WW2 era and in the contemporary political landscape. It will focus on its achievements, strengths and weaknesses, on how it is similar to and different from other organizations that organize low-income people, and on some of ACORN’s lessons for building a progressive movement.