Announcing Fall 2019 Edition of Human Rights Now! and New Director of Operations Lillian Phaeton

Fall 2019 Edition of Human Rights Now!

Today the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute (MCLI) releases the Fall 2019 issue of Human Rights Now!

As local cities resist immigration sweeps by the Trump administration we are seeing those same cities conduct sweeps of homeless encampments. Ironically many of these encampments provide shelter for the same immigrants municipal leaders purport to “welcome”.

In this issue of Human Rights Now! we discuss the hypocrisy of local leaders who “think globally and oppress locally”. We also discuss online privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of association of immigrants, sex-workers, and indigenous people.

In this issue of Human Rights Now! we discuss ongoing efforts of unhoused people to resist the criminalization of homelessness. We also hear from MCLI Intern Rachel Schroder as she reports back from working on the ground with MCLI Program Director Needa Bee.

On October 29, 2019, MCLI and the Golden Gate University Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild will be co‐hostng a panel on “Criminalization and Human Rights”. MCLI Board Member Therese Davis will be moderating a panel of legal experts including immigration rights leader Prerna Lal who is an attorney and author of Unsung America: Immigrant Trailblazers and Our Fight for Freedom.

With your support MCLI will continue to expand our work focused on combatting human rights abuses at the local, state, and national levels.

Please share this issue of Human Rights Now! with as many people as possible.

Lillian Phaeton Becomes Director of Operations for MCLI

On July 8, 2019, Lillian Phaeton assumed the role of Director of Operations with MCLI. Lillian has over 25 years of development and administrative experience in environmental and social justice nonprofits.

Lillian is part of the Loving Generation, being born in San Francisco not long after the landmark decision of Loving v. Virginia which ended laws against miscegenation. Lillian was raised by a white mother and black father. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1993 at UC Berkeley in Integrative Biology with a minor in Conservation Resource Sciences having fallen in love with tropical biology during an Education Abroad Program to Costa Rica, and later in Mexico as part of a Bird Population Monitoring program. After graduation, Phaeton worked in numerous roles with Rainforest Action Network, Peace Action, Forests Forever, and for 15 years with the California League of Conservation Voters.

Lillian is highly effective at fundraising, database management, donation processing, and providing logistic support. MCLI is honored to have Lillian contribute her highly needed skills to continue the work of MCLI.