The coalition has developed the principles into draft legislation language and is working to build strong bipartisan support in Congress. The Program is also conducting a grassroots campaign of inquiry to gauge the level of congressional support for the initiative. Just Earth! Campaign activists across the country are meeting with their congressional representatives to share informaction on "international right to know" principles.

Please join our efforts by supporting an "International Right to Know" measure.

To learn more please contact Lisa Sock at lsock@aiusa.org or visit our website at www.amnestyusa.org/justearth.

To mark the celebration of Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish New Year of Trees, over 2000 people from across the country participated in AIUSA's first ever Tu B'Shvat Environmental Defender Action this past February. The project was a collaborative effort between AIUSA's Interfaith Network for Human Rights, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) and the AIUSA/Sierra Club's Human Rights and the Environment Programs. The participating organizations, many of their local members, Jewish communities and committed individuals across the country joined together to take part in a postcard action to defend the defenders of the environment in Mexico, Burma, Chad and Cameroon.

Just Earth! activists from Group 50 in Chicago partnered up with a nearby synagogue to send cards and raise awareness. Members of the Human Rights and the Environment Action Team of Group 133 from Somerville, MA spoke as part of a COEJL holiday hike and at a Tu B'Shvat Seder held at Tufts University's Hillel, tabled with the action at Harvard's Hillel, and wrote letters during one of their local meetings. The Amnesty and Hillel groups also worked together on the cases at the University of Missouri-Columbia and Colgate University. Amnesty groups at the New Jewish Day School in Waltham, MA, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD and the Beth Tefiloh Dahan High School in Baltimore, MD introduced the action to their fellow students. The Baltimore school held an all day Tu B'Shvat celebration. The Amnesty group arranged for a lobbyist from Washington, DC to speak at a school-wide assembly about the connections between pesticides and human rights. All students at the school then took part in the action during a workshop organized by members of the group.

COEJL affiliates in Southern California, Southeastern Michigan, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area included the postcard action into their Tu B'Shvat celebrations. Additional communities, synagogues, organizations and schools took part in the action in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas.