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| New Legal Brief Urges Supreme Court to Uphold U.S. International Legal Obligations, Advance Respect for Rule of Law On January 24, sixteen leading human rights organizations and bar associations submitted a ‘friends of the court’ brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Medellin v. Dretke, arguing that the United States has a binding obligation to comply with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which it ratified in 1969. Human Rights First coordinated the process for gaining the organizations’ support and assisted in developing and refining the brief’s legal and policy arguments. In December, the Supreme Court announced that it would review a lower federal court’s decision that runs directly counter to an earlier International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on U.S. obligations under the Convention and its Optional Protocol governing the settlement of disputes. The party seeking relief, Jose Ernesto Medellin, is one of 51 Mexican nationals who have been sentenced to death in the State of Texas and were denied access to their government’s representatives, who should have been entitled to offer them consular assistance and help arrange for legal representation. When the United States ratified the Convention and Protocol, it agreed to be bound by the treaty’s obligations, as well as that it would treat the ICJ’s interpretations of such obligations as authoritative. Nevertheless, despite an ICJ ruling in March 2004 that the United States violated the rights of Medellin and the other Mexican nationals to seek consular assistance, as guaranteed by the Convention, some U.S. courts have refused to enforce these obligations. Human Rights First signed a brief in October urging the Supreme Court to hear the case, and after the Court’s December announcement, was asked by Mr. Medellin’s counsel to coordinate support for the new amicus brief. The Court will hear arguments in the case in late March. “The case offers the Supreme Court an historic opportunity to ensure that the United States upholds its international legal obligations,” said Eric Biel, Deputy Washington Director and Senior Counsel at Human Rights First. “As our brief makes clear, disregarding U.S. treaty obligations and the holding of the International Court of Justice not only hurts foreign nationals in this country, it also threatens the rights of our own citizens when they are traveling or living abroad. Given what’s at stake, we are pleased to join other human rights groups and bar associations in urging the Court to reverse the lower court’s decision — and, in so doing, ensure that our Government adheres to the rule of law.”
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