Bio
Chandra Bhatnagar ()听is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Human Rights Program. His practice centers on the intersection of racial justice and immigration, with specific focus on the rights of low-wage immigrant workers, undocumented workers, and guestworkers. He is also involved in litigation and advocacy regarding the use of international and foreign law in U.S. courts and the domestic implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Bhatnagar serves as counsel in听David, et al. v. Signal International, LLC, et al., and听EEOC v. Signal International, LLC, lawsuits on behalf of over 500 Indian men trafficked into the U.S. as guestworkers and subjected to abuse, involuntary servitude, and racial discrimination;听Awad v. Ziriax, et al.听a legal challenge to Oklahoma鈥檚 proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting Oklahoma judges from considering 鈥渋nternational law鈥 or 鈥淪haria law鈥; and a petition filed in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of undocumented workers whose rights were violated in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in听Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB. He successfully litigated听Lama v. Rana, a听quantum meruit听lawsuit brought on behalf of a Nepali domestic worker against her abusive employer, and filed a Request for Precautionary Measures to the IACHR on behalf of residents of Villas del Sol, Puerto Rico, who were subjected to police brutality, denial of access to basic water and electrical services, and forced eviction. Bhatnagar is the principal author of听The Persistence of Racial and Ethnic Profiling in the United States听(2009), a report submitted to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
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Prior to joining the 老澳门开奖结果, Bhatnagar was a Staff Attorney and Skadden Fellow with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, where he directed the South Asian Workers' Project for Human Rights, a community-based project providing legal services to low-wage workers from South Asia. Previously, he was the Assistant Director of Columbia University's "Bringing Human Rights Home Project," where he worked to improve conditions affecting post 9-11 detainees and efforts to organize a coalition of human rights defenders in the U.S. Bhatnagar has also worked internationally, partnering with a leading NGO in India in applying human rights standards to their anti-child labor/bonded labor campaigns, and domestically with the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he did immigrants' rights and anti-police brutality organizing, and served as the interim director of the Ella Baker Summer Intern Program. He received a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and an LL.M. with a focus in international human rights from Columbia Law School.
Featured work
Aug 15, 2014
The U.S. Record on Racial Discrimination is on the Whole World's Agenda
Jul 9, 2014
U.N. to Confront United States on Persistent Racial Discrimination
Dec 18, 2013
America's Broken Guestworker Program Violates Human Rights
Aug 20, 2013
Oklahoma Can't "Save" Itself from the U.S. Constitution
Jul 16, 2013
U.S. Government Must Heed Call of Human Rights Experts Worldwide to Respect Snowden's Right to Seek Asylum
Jul 11, 2013
U.S. Actions in Snowden Case Threaten Right to Seek Asylum
Jun 21, 2013
State Dept. Report Spotlights Urgent Need to Fight Modern-Day Slavery
May 17, 2013
New Push, at Home and Abroad, to Combat Modern-Day Slavery