Obituary: 

Thomas Buergenthal, Human Rights Lawyer, 89

Buergenthal was an international law jurist and human rights defender who was as a boy one of the youngest survivors of the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, as well as a three-day Nazi death march to Sachsenhausen, Germany. He had a major role in establishing international jurisprudence's framework, stemming from U.N. declarations since the 1960s often called the “International Bill of Human Rights.” In 1992, the U. S. ratified the core document, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

As a justice of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (1979-1991), Buergenthal judged cases about allegations of rights abuses by U.S.-allied governments in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras against leftist guerrillas and their supporters. One case, the disappearance of suspected government opponents in Honduras, led to new interpretations of the burden of proof. Buergenthal and the other judges decided that it could consider the overall pattern of disappearances, setting a “rebuttable presumption” of government involvement. Authorities would now have to prove they had no role in a specific incident, rather than relying on a lack of evidence to exonerate them. In 1993, Buergenthal was part of a U.N. commission that found Salvadoran military officers responsible for so-called “dirty war” crimes, including the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980. 

Buergenthal was vice chairman of the Claims Resolution Tribunal, which examined requests made by the families of Holocaust victims seeking assets deposited in Swiss banks until 1945. Tens of millions of dollars were estimated to be in accounts hidden from heirs by Swiss banking laws. He also wrote a memoir A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy (See Interesting Books in this issue). He also served as a judge at the International Court of Justice, honorary president of the American Society of International Law (2001-2009), and as a law professor. 

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Sources:

Read an article about Buergenthal in the Holocaust Encyclopedia.

Read the June 3, 2023 Washington Post obituary.

Read the June 2, 2023 New York Times obituary.

Photo courtesy of the Holocaust Encyclopedia of the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

 Free Immigrant & Refugee Resource Fair

About the Fair MIMA and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) are teaming up to bring you this one-day event bringing together resources targeted for Baltimore City's immigrant and refugee communities. Join us to find resources like healthcare services, immigration legal services, food access, public benefit navigation, health insurance, community organizing, schools, ESOL classes and more. There is limited parking available and bus lines run nearby (see flyer attached for list of bus lines). WHAT: LIRS and MIMA Immigrant and Refugee Resource Fair WHEN: Saturday, June 17th from 11am-2pm WHERE: Christ Lutheran Inner Harbor Church (701 S. Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21230) Check out our Facebook event for continuing updates and to let us know you're attending! We need volunteers! We are also looking for volunteers to provide language support/interpretation at the event. We are particularly looking for volunteers who speak Spanish, French, Swahili, Lingala, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Amharic, Tigrinya, Arabic, Dari, Pashto, Nepalese or Ukrainian. Please sign up here if you are interested in volunteering to provide language support for fair attendees.

If you would like access to high-quality copies of these flyers, please check our MIMA Facebook page or check the MIMA website. Did you enjoy reading this message? Follow us to receive more! To sign up to receive our monthly update via email or suggest announcements to include, please contact mima@baltimorecity.gov. Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs 100 N. Holliday Street, Room 250 Baltimore, MD 21202 410-396-8056

 Free Maryland Seminar on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, & Expression Law

To register, click HERE   For reasonable accommodation requests, please contact: mccr.admin@maryland.gov no later than one week prior to the event.   Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

Stay Connected with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights

 Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition

The Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition (BTEC) is engaged in a petition campaign to adopt an amendment to the Baltimore City Charter that will allow for the creation of a Baltimore Regional Transportation Authority. Similar to the U. S. constitution, a City Charter lays out the form and structure of the government, and establishes protocols for its operation. To amend the Baltimore City Charter, a majority vote must approve the change by voting “Yes” on their ballot in the upcoming election.  In order for the Baltimore Board of Elections to include amendment questions on the next ballot, the campaign is required to submit 10,000 signatures from registered city voters by August 1 before Election Day. This is to demonstrate that there is sufficient public interest in the question.   CLICK HERE for more details on how you can sign the petition! In 2022, BTEC organized a ballot petition campaign which resulted in submitting approximately 15,000 petitions to the Baltimore City Board of Elections for ballot access. Only 10,000 petitions were required, and despite evidence in our favor, the Board of Elections rejected our application. BTEC is now conducting another petition campaign for ballot access and our goal this time is to secure 20,000 petitions!! BTEC urges you to stand with them in advocating for better transportation in the Baltimore region. HOW YOU CAN HELP - A CALL TO ACTION  Gather petitions from family, friends and neighbors. Gather petitions from faith group, community association, sports team, etc.  Volunteer for a petition tabling event. Help coordinate a BTEC presentation to a group. Follow BTEC on Facebook and/or Twitter and share their social media posts on your social pages. ***** Sources: BE/CDN Weekly Update, June 6, 2023. https://moretransitequity.com/petition-campaign/

 Insurance Discrimination in Maryland

Maryland Finds Erie Insurance Illegally Rejected Baltimore Auto Customers in Minority Neighborhoods

On May 24th, the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) has ruled that Pennsylvania-based Erie Insurance racially discriminated by engaging in insurance “redlining” of predominantly Black neighborhoods in Baltimore. Through the Baltimore Insurance Network, four Baltimore-area insurance brokers had accused Erie in separate complaints filed in 2021: Baltimore Insurance Network LLC of Bowie, Ross Insurance Agency of Windsor Mill, and Welsch Insurance Group of Baltimore. All contracted or had contracted with Erie as agents to sell auto insurance policies. A fourth brokerage, Baltimore-based Burley Insurance, filed a similar complaint. The state’s ruling also said Erie penalized brokerage firms that failed to engage in discriminatory practices by reducing commissions or terminating contracts.

Kobi Little, NAACP Baltimore president, said the policies and practices exposed in the case are “prima facie evidence of institutional racism and structural inequity. This is corporate policy violence and it is a root cause of the physical violence and economic decay that we see in urban centers with significant Black populations. The impact is devastating in terms of the economic loss suffered by the firms serving urban markets and those in urban markets who are denied coverage. This is modern-day redlining and this case is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The MIA found that Erie unlawfully canceled or rejected business from brokers based on race or for other discriminatory or arbitrary reasons. It also found Erie unlawfully canceled or changed agreements for qualified applicants based on “adverse loss ratio,” a measure of an insurer’s profitability. The spokesman for Erie - with nationally has over 6 million home, auto, life, and business policies - disagrees with the findings. Erie has requested a hearing with the agency and expects to “defend our company against these claims.”

The state’s investigation discovered that because Erie’s auto insurance business in Maryland was not profitable, it kept its broad guidelines and set a secondary layer of eligibility standards that agents should use to reject qualified applicants (“front line underwriting”). The state is continuing a broader investigation of Erie’s market practices to determine they are part of a larger pattern of discrimination. 

The original complaints said Erie refused to underwrite policies based on a potential client’s race, ethnic origin, neighborhood and/or socioeconomic status. Baltimore Insurance and Welsch said that Erie urged them to not sell policies to people in Baltimore with “city sounding names.” Baltimore Insurance Network said it was told by an Erie branch manager to “place those people elsewhere, I don’t care where, just not with Erie. They don’t fit Erie’s appetite. Find better people.” That branch manager also told Baltimore Insurance that it was “devaluing the brand” by writing insurance policies for people in predominantly African American neighborhoods, and that the brokerage had to “understand Erie’s appetite.” Likewise, Welsch Insurance Group’s Thomas A. Welsch was told to get his business “from somewhere else.” Welsch’s contract with Erie was terminated in August 2019, citing poor underwriting practices and unacceptable policyholder service.

Baltimore Insurance said in the complaint it was told to reduce its sales by 30% by rejecting applicants who qualified for coverage and were mostly Black and living in inner-city neighborhoods. Erie required the brokerage to include criminal record checks for applicants, most living in low-income neighborhoods, though such checks were not part of Erie’s underwriting standards or the broker’s training. The attorney for Baltimore Insurance said in his client’s case alone, “these are hundreds if not thousands likely affected members of the public who Erie rejected based on discriminatory practices that the insurance administration has found to be unlawful.”

The MIA ordered Erie to calculate and pay the agencies all amounts in commission that had been withheld between December 2019 and May 2023 when Erie had notified the insurance administration it would restore commissions. Erie works with 13,500 licensed agents who serve customers across the company’s territory, Cummings said.

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Sources

Read the June 6, 2023 Baltimore Sun article.

Read the June 1, 2023 Baltimore Banner article.

 Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition Event 

The 2023 Commemoration of the Red Line will be on June 24th

Saturday, June 24, 2023. 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Location Disclosed after RSVP•*, Baltimore, MD 21230

The Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition (BTEC) will hold a Downtown Walk at the Harbor to celebrate and mark the 8th anniversary of the cancellation of the Red Line Light Rail Project. There will be complementary music, buffet, non-alcoholic drinks, and alcoholic drinks. You must be aged 21 or older to drink alcoholic drinks in Maryland.

RSVPs are accepted until June 20, 2023. 

For more information and/or questions, contact btec.moretransitequity@gmail.com.

Please note that the Harbor venue and its bathrooms are wheelchair accessible. 

"The Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition is a resolute, community-led organization advocating for equitable, reliable transit that improves quality of life and the environment. Our anti-racist work was born out of Governor Hogan’s decision to cancel the Red Line project in 2015. That decision – a quintessential example of structural racism in the region – spurred many of the original Red Line planning committee members to action. Shortly after the governor canceled the project, these members gathered with others in the community to form our coalition. BTEC’s first major initiative was to submit a Title VI administrative complaint to the US Department of Transportation on the grounds that the decision violated the federal government’s anti-discrimination laws established by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. When that complaint was summarily dismissed by the Trump administration in 2016 (without comment), we continued to seek other avenues to develop equitable transit in the region."

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Sources:

Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, Newsletter, June 3, 2023.

https://moretransitequity.com/.

 Mortgage Lending Discrimination

 KeyBank & Capital One Lose Their Access To New York City’s Business

The NYC Banking Commission has voted to freeze deposits at the two megabanks over their refusal to tackle racial discrimination. KeyBank and Capital One will not receive further deposits from the City of New York after the unprecedented public vote by the Commission, which took the punitive action because the banks have refused to share information on their internal efforts to combat discrimination by failing to submit anti-discrimination plans. The New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, one of three members of the commission, also voted against allowing Wells Fargo, PNC, and International Finance Bank to hold public funds after they also failed to submit anti-discrimination plans.

In a public hearing, the Commission designated 26 banks to receive deposits from city agencies for the next two years. Despite the suspensions of Capital One and KeyBank, the two banks can service existing contracts for one year.

These actions come after the Commission in February strengthened its rules to make designated banks more accountable to the public by asking banks to provide detailed plans and specific steps to combat lending and employment discrimination. Banks are expected to provide approved banking products and services for city entities and must provide total collateralization for any money held.

“Good cities shouldn’t do business with bad banks, so it’s great to see the New York commissioners take action here,” the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) commented. “KeyBank and Capital One have atrocious track records of not just under-serving but actively harming the interests of low-wealth communities and people of color. New York City moves a lot of money around in the course of everyday business, so some bank is going to make money by providing that service. But that profit opportunity shouldn’t go to banks like these that abuse the privileges of a federal bank charter while flouting the responsibilities that come with it.”

KeyBank’s refusal to provide the required documents to the Commission comes months after an NCRC report exposed the Cleveland-based lender’s worst-in-class performance on lending to non-White, non-wealthy borrowers. The bank in May agreed to a third-party racial equity audit after fair-lending groups and 80 community organizations asked federal regulators for an investigation into alleged redlining in the its mortgage lending practices. It claims that the current problem is a misunderstanding.

NCRC said that "Capital One, meanwhile, has repeatedly harmed the public, violated consumers’ rights, and rejected legal obligations not to discriminate." A Capital One spokesperson told Ameican Banker it does not encourage discrimination against employees and clients, and that what it submitted to city officials was “consistent” with past materials.

In April 2022, after City officials agreed to not to open any new depository accounts with Wells Fargo Bank after a Bloomberg report found the bank approved less than 50% of refinance applications from Black homeowners in 2020 but 72% from white borrowers. A Wells Fargo spokesperson told American Banker in an email at the time that “We are ready to continue serving [the city’s] needs today and well into the future.” 

*****

Sources: 

"NYC Regulator Halts City Deposits at Key Bank, Capital One," Banking Dive, May 26, 2023.

NCRC  Just News/ May 25, 2023 Press Release.