About Us

The ad hoc group Union of Concerned Students/Community Against Human Rights Abuses is a student-led committee but is comprised also of advisors from within and without the university, including UA faculty.

We are universally against all violations of human rights, no matter where they occur in the world and regardless of who commits them. Human Rights abuses are condemnable no matter the political, social or economic circumstances. We resound the words of Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan, "[C]ompanies cannot escape responsibility or be silent witnesses to widespread human rights violations. Human rights are not a luxury for good times - they must be respected and upheld at all times under all circumstances, by all actors, state or corporate."

Past Campaigns:

We were honored to support the anti-sweatshop divestment campaign on the university campus in the spring of 2009 led by students in Sweatshop-Free Coalition (SFC) who, along with the UA faculty senate's University Committee for Monitoring Labor and Human Rights Issues (UCMLHRI), and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent world monitoring group of which the UA is a university affiliate, lobbied the University of Arizona to divest its contractual relationship with the garment company Russell Athletic, owned by Fruit of the Loom, Inc., due to violations of the UA code of conduct and various international labor and human rights standards. The University terminated its contract with Russell at the beginning of July, 2009, for failing "to achieve implementation of a remediation plan" imposed on the company for its violation of the UA's Labor Code of Conduct, indicating an "interest in reconsidering the termination decision if Russell can demonstrate full compliance." (For background information of the matter as a public issue through the announcement of the Russell contract termination, see:

"Behold, the Fruit of a Bitter Loom," Wildcat, 15 April 2009;

"Factory May Violate UA Code," Wildcat, 15 April 2009;

"Shelton Keeps Contract Intact," Wildcat, 16 April 2009;

"Horror Movie Lies Behind UA Corporate Contracts," Wildcat, 21 April 2009;

"Fleecing Out the Facts," Wildcat, 28 April 2009;

"UA to Discontinue Relationship with Russell Corporation," UA News, 13 July 2009;

and "Labor Pains," Wildcat, 25 July 2009.

Members

Gabriel Matthew Schivone

Racheli Gai

Tom Wallace