Bio
Chandra Bhatnagar ()is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Human Rights Program. His practice centers on the intersection of racial justice and immigration, with specific focus on the rights of low-wage immigrant workers, undocumented workers, and guestworkers. He is also involved in litigation and advocacy regarding the use of international and foreign law in U.S. courts and the domestic implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Bhatnagar serves as counsel inDavid, et al. v. Signal International, LLC, et al., andEEOC v. Signal International, LLC, lawsuits on behalf of over 500 Indian men trafficked into the U.S. as guestworkers and subjected to abuse, involuntary servitude, and racial discrimination;Awad v. Ziriax, et al.a legal challenge to Oklahoma’s proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting Oklahoma judges from considering “international law” or “Sharia law”; and a petition filed in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of undocumented workers whose rights were violated in the wake of the Supreme Court decision inHoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB. He successfully litigatedLama v. Rana, aquantum meruitlawsuit brought on behalf of a Nepali domestic worker against her abusive employer, and filed a Request for Precautionary Measures to the IACHR on behalf of residents of Villas del Sol, Puerto Rico, who were subjected to police brutality, denial of access to basic water and electrical services, and forced eviction. Bhatnagar is the principal author ofThe Persistence of Racial and Ethnic Profiling in the United States(2009), a report submitted to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Prior to joining the ACLU, Bhatnagar was a Staff Attorney and Skadden Fellow with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, where he directed the South Asian Workers' Project for Human Rights, a community-based project providing legal services to low-wage workers from South Asia. Previously, he was the Assistant Director of Columbia University's "Bringing Human Rights Home Project," where he worked to improve conditions affecting post 9-11 detainees and efforts to organize a coalition of human rights defenders in the U.S. Bhatnagar has also worked internationally, partnering with a leading NGO in India in applying human rights standards to their anti-child labor/bonded labor campaigns, and domestically with the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he did immigrants' rights and anti-police brutality organizing, and served as the interim director of the Ella Baker Summer Intern Program. He received a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and an LL.M. with a focus in international human rights from Columbia Law School.
Featured work
Mar 21, 2012
How the Obama Administration Can Turn its Human Rights Promises into Concrete Action Against Racism
Jan 23, 2012
The Long Path Ahead: People of African Descent and the Realization of Human Rights
Dec 8, 2011
"Occupy for Human Rights": The U.S. Government Should Protect the Human Rights of All People
Sep 15, 2011
Oklahoma Seeks to "Save" Itself from the Requirements of the U.S. Constitution
Apr 27, 2011
U.S. Government Lawsuit Supports Indian Guestworkers' Claims of Discrimination and Abuse
May 21, 2010
Arizona Violating Treaty Ratified by U.S.
Mar 22, 2010
From Sharpeville to Selma: Ongoing Struggles for Equality
Dec 18, 2009
Human Rights Abuse In Plain Sight: Migrant Workers in the U.S.
Dec 18, 2008
International Migrants Day - "Best Kept Secret" in the USA