Michael Ratner

Michael Ratner in front of the US Supreme Court

Michael Ratner (born 1943, Cleveland, Ohio) is an attorney, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a non-profit human rights litigation organization based in New York City and president of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) based in Berlin.

Ratner is known for his human rights activism.

Ratner and CCR are currently the attorneys in the United States for publishers Julian Assange and Wikileaks. He was co-counsel in representing the Guantanamo Bay detainees in the United States Supreme Court, where, in June 2004, the court decided his clients have the right to test the legality of their detentions in court. Ratner is also a past president of the National Lawyers Guild and the author of numerous books and articles, including the books The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book, Against War with Iraq and Guantanamo: What the World Should Know, as well as a textbook on international human rights. Ratner is also the co-host of the radio program, Law and Disorder. He and three other attorneys host the Pacifica Radio show that reports legal developments related to civil liberties, civil rights and human rights.

Ratner is the brother of radio talk show host and Fox News contributor Ellen Ratner and New Jersey Nets owner, Bruce Ratner. He is a 1966 graduate of Brandeis University. He received his law degree from Columbia Law School.

Academic, activist, attorney and author

Press conference with Amnesty International and CCR in front of the US Supreme Court, 2006

Teaching posts

Ratner began teaching law in the early 1970s but no longer does so. He has taught at Columbia Law School and at Yale Law School.

Activism

Of late he has been active defending Julian Assange and Wikileaks as well as speaking out on behalf of Jermy Hammond and Chelsea Manning, alleged Wikileaks sources.

Ratner opposes Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse and the Iraq War. In January 2006, he served as an expert witness at a mock tribunal staged by the Bush Crimes Commission at Columbia University.

In June 2013, Ratner and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning.[1][2]

In May 2014, Michael Ratner submitted his resignation from the advisory board of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis, due to the university's president cutting ties with Al Quds, a Palestinian University, after a student demonstration there. Rattner declared his support for Al Quds' President, Dr Nusseibeh, and his promotion of "mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and the exchange of ideas" with Israelis.[3]

Civil liberties and human rights counsel

In 2006 he filed a criminal complaint in the courts of Germany requesting the criminal prosecution of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other US officials for the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib prison.

Ratner served as a special counsel to Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, assisting in the prosecution of human rights crimes. Ratner sued the George H. W. Bush administration to try to stop the Gulf War, the Clinton administration to try to stop the strategic bombing during the Kosovo War, and he won a case on behalf of victims of the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadžić, for war crimes.

The Center for Constitutional Rights

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which Ratner leads, states that its mission is to defend civil liberties in the US. The group's efforts have included a legal challenge to the USA PATRIOT Act and a lawsuit on behalf of post-9/11 immigration detainees in the US. The Center also represented Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was sent, or "rendered", to Syria, where he was tortured. Ratner and his office have also sued two private military companies working as part of the occupation of Iraq, alleging their employees were involved in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse.

Writings

Ratner has published books and written newspaper articles about the Patriot Act, military tribunals, and the restriction of civil liberties since the 2001 US attacks. These writings include chapters in the books Disappeared in America, Freedom at Risk, It’s a Free Country, Lost Liberties. He authored a textbook on the case of Joel Filártiga, a Paraguayan who won a 1984 judgment in a US court against the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner for his son's murder. That case established a legal precedent now used frequently] by foreigners filing suit for human rights abuses, under the Alien Tort Claims Act, in US courts.

Recognition and board appointments

Ratner is the President of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin and serves on the boards of non-profits including The Culture Project and The Brandeis Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, and The Real News (TRNN).

Quotes related to human rights

Publications

Books

Book chapters

Articles

Footnotes

  1. ↑ http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/celebrity-bradley-manning-video-93041.html#ixzz2WgfpNmys
  2. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UFFkcCh-pCc
  3. ↑ http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/198991/brandeis-shouldn-t-cut-ties-to-palestinian-unive/#ixzz339HcmTta
  4. ↑ Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, official website.
  5. ↑ Democracy Now! | Michael Ratner: Gonzales "Has His Hand Deep in the Blood of the Conspiracy Of Torture"
  6. ↑ washingtonpost.com: Statutes of Liberty
  7. ↑ http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/16041046.htm

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael Ratner.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 12, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.