JUDITH KIMERLING - Resume
23 Waverly Place #4F, New York, NY 10003 Tel/Fax(212) 777-2135 e-mail:jkimerling@igc.org
Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science, The City University of New York, Queens College and CUNY Law School. Extensive experience working with indigenous organizations in the Amazon and in environmental and human rights litigation (U.S. courts and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States); community and public education; consulting; field and document research and writing. Recipient of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Program on Peace and International Cooperation, Research and Writing Grant; Rainforest Action Network Special Achievement Award. Author of Amazon Crude ("the Silent Spring" of Ecuador's environmental movement - The New York Times), and numerous other publications in English and Spanish. Lecturer and panelist at national and international fora.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1997- Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science, The City University of New York, Queens College, Department of Political Science, and CUNY Law School. Courses include Environmental Law; Law, Politics & Environment; American Government & Politics; Lawyering.
1995-96 Visiting Scholar, Yale Law School
1989-97 Author-Attorney-Lecturer-Consultant. Work performed for (partial listing):
United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations
Federation of Communities Union of Natives of the Ecuadorian Amazon (FCUNAE)
Organization of the Huaorani Nationality of the Ecuadorian Amazon (ONHAE)
Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund
Natural Resources Defense Council
Women's Environment and Development Organization, Women USA Fund
Ecumenical Commission on Human Rights (CEDHU, Quito, Ecuador)
Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE)
Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples' Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA)
National Academy of Engineering
National Congress of Ecuador, Committee on the Environment
1984-89 Assistant Attorney General, New York State Department of Law, Environmental Protection Bureau, New York, NY. Represented New York State in hazardous waste cleanup and cost recovery litigation, negotiations and public meetings, including Love Canal, and other environmental litigation. On the brief, United States v. Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corp., 680 F. Supp. 546 (W.D.N.Y. 1988), granting partial summary judgment, retroactively applying CERCLA to hold defendant liable in state and federal cost recovery action at Love Canal.
1982-83 Litigation Associate, Kreindler and Kreindler, New York, NY. Represented plaintiffs in toxic tort litigation.
1980 Staff Associate, Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, Subcommittee on Energy, Washington, D.C.
Prepared report on energy production, conservation and renewable energy resources.
EDUCATION
1982 J.D., Yale Law School
Activities: New Haven Legal Aid Bureau; Co-director, Student Funded Fellowships; Student
Committee on Public Interest Placement
1978 B.A. with High Distinction, American Studies, University of Michigan
Honors and Activities: Phi Beta Kappa (Junior Year); James B. Angell Scholar (1978, 1977,
1976); Class Honors (1978, 1977, 1976, 1975); William J. Bramston Freshman Prize;
Produced and hosted weekly public affairs radio program.
Member, Board of Directors: Amanaka'a Amazon Network (New York); WATU (Madrid-based branch of International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs, IWGIA)
Admitted to Practice Before New York State Courts 1983
Fluent in Spanish; lived and worked in Latin America over a period of 8 years.
PUBLICATIONS
El Derecho del Tambor (Ediciones Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador, 1996). Spanish-language adaptation of "Rights, Responsibilities and Realities" and "Dislocation, Evangelization and Contamination".
"Oil, Lawlessness, and Indigenous Struggles in Ecuador's Oriente," in Green Guerrillas: Environmental Conflicts and Initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean (Latin America Bureau, London, 1996).
"Contaminación Ambiental: Pasos Jurídicos hacia una Solución" in Conferencias Magistrales: El petróleo y su impacto en la ecología (Camara de Diputados del H. Congreso de la Unión, Comision de Ecología y Medio Ambiente, 1996). Published conference presentation, sponsored by the House of Deputies of the Federal Congress of Mexico, Commission on Ecology and Environment; and Juárez Autonomous University at Tabasco.
"Petróleo, Corrupción y Medio Ambiente," in Petróleo y Sociedad (Asociación Sindical Petroecuador, ASPEC, Quito, 1996). Revised conference presentation, sponsored by the National Congress of Ecuador, Commission on the Environment.
"Rights, Responsibilities and Realities: Environmental Protection Law in Ecuador's Amazon Oil Fields," Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas 2(1995):293-384. Funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
"Información sobre el Plan de Remediación acordado entre la Texaco y el Gobierno Ecuatoriano," Coca, Ecuador, 1996 (co-author).
"Dislocation, Evangelization and Contamination: Amazon Crude and the Huaorani People," in Ethnic Conflict and Governance in Comparative Perspective 70-99 (Working Paper Series, No. 215, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1995). Revised conference presentation.
"The Environmental Audit of Texaco's Amazon Oil Fields: Environmental Justice or Business as Usual?" Harvard Human Rights Journal 7(1994):199-224. Spanish-language adaptation in "Preservando la desigualidad en la conservación del medio ambiente: Criterios para la auditoría ambiental de los campos petroleros de Texaco en la amazonía," Ruptura 37(Tomo 1)(1994):59-80 (law review of the Catholic University, Quito). Funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Crudo Amazónico (Ediciones Abya-Yala, Quito, 1993; Second Printing, 1998). Spanish-language adaptation of Amazon Crude. Excerpts reprinted in Oilwatch (Acción Ecológica, 1996) at 74-75; and Amazonía por la Vida (Acción Ecológica, 1994) at 57.
"La Texaco en el Oriente: Su Práctica y su Responsabilidad," in Debate Ecológico Sobre el Problema Petrolera en el Ecuador (Amazonía por la Vida, Quito, 1993). Revised conference presentation, sponsored by Ecuadorian indigenous and environmental organizations FCUNAE, CONFENIAE, CONAIE, and Observatorio Socio-Ambiental Amazonía, Coca, Ecuador, 1992.
Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE), "Informe de la Comisión Tecnica de la CONAIE: Derrame de Petróleo del Campo Sacha Norte-1," Quito, Ecuador, 1992 (co-author). Report of the CONAIE Technical Commission to Investigate the Sacha North Oil Spill.
"La Ecología y las Petroleras en la Amazonía," Derechos del Pueblo 71(1992):3-5.
"Disregarding Environmental Law: Petroleum Development in Protected Natural Areas and Indigenous Homelands in the Ecuadorian Amazon," Hastings International and Comparative Law Review 14(1991):849-903. Excerpted in law text, E. Smith, et al., Materials On International Petroleum Transactions (Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, 1993) at 581-586.
Amazon Crude (Natural Resources Defense Council, 1991). Author and photographer. Documents and analyzes the environmental and social impact of oil development in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Research involved technical data review, extensive field observations in collaboration with local indigenous organizations, interviews with residents, government officials, and oil workers and executives. Called "the Silent Spring of Ecuador by The New York Times. Reviewed in Harvard Human Rights Journal 6(1993):253-58. Research used by the U.S. State Department, U.S. Senate, Government of Ecuador, United Nations, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States; Amazon Cooperation Treaty, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, European Parliament, The New Yorker, Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples' Organizations of the Amazon Basin and other indigenous, environmental and human rights organizations. Formed the basis of a United Nations case study presented by the Centre on Transnational Corporations to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and a federal class action environmental lawsuit, Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc., 93 CIV. 7527 (S.D.N.Y.). Featured in a two-part Ecuadorian television documentary. Used regularly as required reading in university courses, in diverse disciplines.
"Texaco en el Oriente Ecuatoriano: la Necesidad de un Inventario Ambiental," Vida y Ecología 12(1991):7-8.
"Poisoning Ecuador's Oriente," Hemisphere 3(1990):6-7 (with the NRDC). Reprinted in Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 102nd Congress, 1st Session (March 21, 1991) (by Senator Cranston for himself, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Kerry, Mr. D'Amato and Mr. Wirth).
"Impactos Ambientales por el Desarrollo Petrolero," in Nucanchic Sacha: Memoria del I Encuentro Comunitario para el Uso y Manejo Racional de los Recursos Naturales Renovables en el Oriente Ecuatoriana, (FCUNAE and COMUNIDEC, 1990). Revised conference presentation, sponsored by World Wildlife Fund and World Resources Institute, Limoncocha, Ecuador, 1989.
"Petroleum Development in Amazonian Ecuador: Environmental and Socio-Cultural Impacts," 1989 (Draft Manuscript, also published in Spanish and German).
PUBLIC EDUCATION (Sample Listing)
"Hanging in the Balance: The Amazon Rain Forest." Participating photographer and writer in exhibit highlighting current issues in the Amazon through photography and cultural artifacts, Resnick Gallery, Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. Sponsored by the Media Arts Department of Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus and Amanaka'a Amazon Network, 1998.
"Five Years after Rio: Unsustainable Development in Amazon Oil Fields." Keynote speaker at Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, University of Oregon School of Law, Eugene. "Fossil Fuel Consumption and the Environment." Additional presentation at Panel on Consumption. 1997.
Seminar on Constitutional Protection of the Environment in Burma, Thammasat University, Rangsit, Phatumthani, Thailand. Formal presentations: "Ethnicity, Human Rights and Environment in Ecuador's Amazon Oil Fields" and "Environmental Law in the United States." Participant in working group on development and constitutional protection of the environment in Burma. Sponsored by Burma Lawyers Council (BLC), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia), Images Asia, and Thammasat University Institute of East Asian Studies, 1997.
"Amazon Crude." Slide presentation at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. Sponsored by Students for Unity and Rainforest Relief, 1997.
"Oil Development in the Rainforest: Indigenous Cultures and the Environment." Slide presentation, Granville, Ohio. Sponsored by Denison University Environmental Studies Department, 1996.
"Contaminación Ambiental: Pasos Jurídicos hacia una Solución." Environmental law lecture presented to the Conference on Petroleum and its Impact on the Environment, University Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, Villahermosa, Mexico. Sponsored by the Commission on Ecology and Environment of the House of Deputies of the Federal Congress of Mexico, 1996. Published by the Federal Congress of Mexico, House of Deputies.
"Oil Development in Ecuador's Oriente: Is there a Legal Basis for Protection?" Slide presentation of MacArthur Foundation-funded legal study, Stanford University Institute for International Studies, Environmental Policy Forum, 1995. Spanish-language adaptation presented at Catholic University, Facultad de Biología, Quito, Ecuador, 1996.
"Petróleo, Corrupción y Medio Ambiente," National Congress of Ecuador, Quito. Roundtable on Petroleum, Corruption and the Environment. Sponsored by the Committee on the Environment of the National Congress of Ecuador, 1996. Based on MacArthur Foundation-funded legal study. Revised version published by Asociación Sindical Petroecuador, ASPEC, Quito.
"Amazonian Residents v. Texaco: Seeking Relief in Distant U.S. Courts," presented at Amazon Week VI, Citicorp Center, New York. Sponsored by Amanaka'a Amazon Network, 1995.
"Ecuador - Development v. Environmental and Cultural Preservation," Washington, D.C. Paper presented to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Conference on Ethnic Conflict and Governance in Comparative Perspective, 1994. Revised version published by the Woodrow Wilson Center.
"Distant Voices," Puffin Room, SOHO, New York. Participating photo-journalist in group exhibit on native cultures. Slide presentation at Special "Distant Voices" Events speakers series, 1994.
"Our Rainforests, Our Heritage." Donated video footage to Smithsonian Institute rainforest education exhibition. English-language version on permanent display at the National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C.; Spanish and Portuguese-language versions on three-year tour of over seventy cities and villages in eleven Latin American countries. Produced in 1994.
Government of Ecuador, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Quito. Guest lecturer in certification course for tour guides working in protected areas in the Amazon, 1993.
"National Parks and the People Who Live in Them," Comparative Ecology program, School for International Training, Brattleboro, VT. Guest lecturer in College Semester Abroad program, Quito, 1993.
"Los impactos de las actividades de Texaco en el Ecuador," presented at Texaco Week International Seminar and Public Forum. Sponsored by the Ecuadorian environmental organization Acción Ecológica, Quito, 1993.
"Endangered Amazon." Donated 12 photographs for permanent exhibition at the Amazon Museum of the Abya-Yala Cultural Center, Quito (opened 1993).
"Oil Development in the Amazon: A Profile in Environmental Inequality," presented to the New England Environmental Law Society Conference on Environmental Inequality, Harvard University, 1992.
"De Rio en Adelante: Una Perspectiva de la Amazonía," presented to the World Congress of Scientific Youth, Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, San Juan. Sponsored by International Federation of Scientific Societies (FISS), 1992.
"Land Issues: Whose Land and for What Use?" Slide presentation to Amazon Week III, Hunter College, New York. Sponsored by the Brazilian Cultural Organization at New York University and Amanaka'a Amazon Network, 1992.
"International Environmental Law: Global Trends and Policies," San Francisco. Keynote Speaker at the Tenth Annual Symposium of the International and Comparative Law Review, University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 1991.
Jatun Sacha Biological Station, Amazonian Ecuador. Guest lecturer in graduate level field course for Ecuadorians on population ecology and conservation biology (in Spanish). Sponsored by Quito-based Fundación Jatun Sacha, 1991.
"The Politics of Conservation: Can We Save the Rainforests by the Year 2000?" Slide presentation to the World Rainforest Symposium. Sponsored by the UCLA Environmental Coalition and GSA, 1991.
"Las Petroleras en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana." Series of Spanish-language slide presentations in Queens and Bronx, NY. Sponsored by Hostos Community College Environmental Organization and Student Council, and Vida y Ecología, 1991.
European Parliament, Strasbourg, France. Member of 5-person delegation to meet with lawmakers and speak at opening ceremony for "Struggle for Life in Amazonia" photo exhibit. Hosted by Danish Parliamentarian, Ecuadorian indigenous organizations CONAIE and CONFENIAE, and Copenhagen-based NGO Natural Peoples World, 1990.
NBC News Dateline, CBS News, CNN, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Reuters Television, Channel 8 (Tabasco, Mexico), and Ecuadorian television stations TeleAmazonas, Ecuavisa, Gamavisión and Channel 13. Personal appearances as expert on the environmental and social impact of oil development in the Amazon, and environmental law; video footage also used by CBS and CBC. Photographs and findings have appeared in The New York Times, Der Spiegal, BBC Wildlife and other publications, and the Hi-Tech Curriculum for Environmental Education: Energy, a computer program developed at Iowa State University of Science and Technology. 1990-present.