CCR BOARD MEMBER RHONDA COPELON DIES: BROKE NEW GROUND TO OPEN U.S. COURTS TO VICTIMS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE

New York, NY – On May 6, 2010, Rhonda Copelon, a CUNY School of Law professor and human rights attorney with and Vice-President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) who broke new ground opening U.S. federal courts and international tribunals to gender-based violence and international human rights violations, died at age 65. The cause was ovarian cancer.

Copelon was noted for her key role in the landmark human rights case, Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, which established that victims of gross human rights abuses committed abroad had recourse to U.S. Courts.  Additionally, she was a champion of women’s reproductive health and argued before the Supreme Court inHarris v. McRae, in which the Court narrowly upheld the Hyde Amendment which prohibited Medicaid reimbursement for almost all abortions. Remarkably both the Filartiga and McRae decisions came down on June 30, 1980.


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