Navigating the Law and Misuse of Title VI

Omar Shakir is a Bertha Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he focuses on unlawful detentions at Guantánamo prison, U.S. targeted killing practices, and Palestinian rights issues. Prior to joining the Center for Constitutional Rights, Omar was a fellow at Human Rights Watch, where he investigated human rights abuses in Egypt and was lead researcher and author of "All According to Plan" a report that documents the mass killings of protesters in Egypt in July and August 2013, including the Rab’a Massacre. He is also a co-author of "Living Under Drones," a joint Stanford-NYU report documenting civilian consequences of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. Omar, a former Fulbright Scholar in Syria, obtained his J.D. from Stanford Law School, M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, and B.A. from Stanford, where he founded Students for Palestinian Equal Rights. He has been interviewed on major news outlets, including the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and NPR.

Yaman Salahi is a Staff Attorney in the National Security and Civil Rights Program at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus. He focuses on advancing the civil rights and liberties of persons affected by post-9/11 federal and local government policies and practices, particularly Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities.
Yaman was previously an Arthur Liman Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, where he worked on litigation related to post-9/11 government surveillance programs at the local and federal level, in addition to community education, public advocacy, and other non-litigation initiatives.

Yaman graduated from Yale Law School, where he worked with the Workers and Immigrants Rights Advocacy Clinic to stop racial profiling by the East Haven Police Department against Latinos through public awareness, community mobilization, and civil rights litigation.

Nadia Ben Youssef is a human rights lawyer and international advocate working to promote the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians living under Occupation.  

Since 2010, she has worked in international advocacy with Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel first in the organization's Naqab (Negev) office in southern Israel through 2013, and then as its first USA Representative.  Prior to leading Adalah's American advocacy efforts, Nadia focused primarily on challenging Israel's violations of the human rights of the indigenous Palestinian Bedouin community through targeted international advocacy, media outreach, and public activities, including the Stop Prawer campaign to end forced displacement.  She is increasingly interested in the intersection between art and advocacy in advancing human rights, and with Adalah, has initiated film and photography projects that seek to visualize and humanize human rights violations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  She obtained an AB in Sociology from Princeton University and graduated cum laude from Boston College Law School with a concentration in Human Rights and International Justice.