Discussions at William & Mary and Yale to Create Awareness about Sikh Religion and Post-9/11 Challenges to Sikh Americans
Washington DC; February 11, 2009 – The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the oldest Sikh American civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, will introduce its work to students, faculty, and legal practitioners at William & Mary Law School and Yale Law School this month.
The presentation at William & Mary Law School—the oldest law school in the United States—will be delivered on February 12, 2009 under the auspices of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law and will focus on contemporary challenges facing Sikh Americans (particularly hate crimes and discrimination) and strategies that lawyers and policy advocates can use to address these issues. The presentation will include a screening of On Common Ground, the law enforcement training video on Sikh cultural awareness co-produced by SALDEF and the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, SALDEF will discuss its scholarship on the non-accommodation of Sikh Americans in the U.S. Armed Forces.
The presentation at Yale—the top-ranked law school in the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report—will be delivered on February 21, 2009 in the context of a panel discussion at the 15 Annual Rebellious Lawyering Conference, one of the largest student-run public interest conferences in the nation. The discussion will focus on the causes of hate crimes against East Asian, South Asian and Middle Eastern Americans in recent decades.
“Most people in the United States know nothing about Sikhs, and the legal community is largely unfamiliar with the Sikh religion and the unique legal challenges that we face,” said Rajdeep Singh Jolly, Legal Director of SALDEF. “By introducing ourselves to future lawyers and judges and legislators at these conferences, SALDEF is taking a proactive step toward building alliances in the cause of ending hate crimes and discrimination against Sikh Americans.”
If you would like SALDEF to make a presentation about the Sikh religion and Sikh American civil rights issues to your college, law school, or graduate school, please contact Rajdeep Singh Jolly via email at legal@saldef.org or by phone at (202) 393-2700 Ext 131.