Convention on the Rights of the Child

The Seattle Chapter of the NLG has endorsed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In support of a WSBA Would Peace Through Law Section initiative, the Seattle NLG chapter wrote to the WSBA's Board of Governors which, on July 24, 2010, voted to adopt the resolution to support U.S. ratification of the Convention. The Washington State Bar Association is the first state bar association in the U.S. to adopt a resolution endorsing ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In doing so, it joins other prominent legal organizations already supporting ratification such as the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the American Bar Association, and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, as well as hundreds of other groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Boycott of Israeli Products

The Seattle Chapter of the NLG has approved and endorsed a resolution of support for a boycott of Israeli products and Israeli products manufactured in the occupied Palestinian West Bank of the Jordan River. The national office of the NLG has called for a complete boycott of Israel in light of its 2010 unjustified assault on peaceful humanitarian assistance to the residents of Gaza in which ten human rights workers were killed. The NLG has supported the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel based on Israel's ongoing violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.

Military Law Taskforce
The National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force assists those working on military law issues as well as military law counselors working directly with GIs. It trains and mentors counselors and beginning military law attorneys in all aspects of military law through training materials and direct communication. It updates changes in military law and policy.

Northwest Detention Center CourtWatch Project
The Northwest Dentention Center CourtWatch Project monitors the activities of ICE and the processing of those swept up in immigrant sweeps.

BioSafety Laboratory Project
Together with tens of thousands of activists in Seattle, the NLG is helping citizens craft a set of local regulations that would provide oversight and zoning regulations for the many biosafety laboratories that are springing up around the country.  Before 9/11 there were four so-called BSL4 laboratories in the United States; now there are fifteen.  Each of these laboratories conduct “research” on some of the deadliest, least treatable pathogens known to humankind.  The number of BSL 3 containment laboratories in the United States is now only a guess, many of them located in or around major urban centers.

Legal Observing
Legal Observers trained by the Chapter are dispatched to political events in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area to prevent and, where necessary, document police abuse. Requests for legal observers should be made to Peggy Herman.

Divestment From Israel
NLG attorney Neil Fox is counsel of record for the Coalition to Divest from Israel, etc.