Newsroom

Update

New research shows immigrants, including asylum seekers fleeing torture and long-time lawful permanent residents, are being unjustly detained in the U.S. Tens of thousands of people sit locked up in a broken and cruel system of detention with no right to even a hearing to determine if their detention is warranted. Many languish separated from their families, commingled with people serving criminal sentences, and sometimes denied access to attorneys, family members and adequate medical care. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could issue new regulations that would quickly solve many of these problems. But instead, just three weeks ago, the…

March 25, 2009

Update

< p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">Here’s what the papers are saying about the report we released today, Jailed Without Justice: Immigration Detention in the USA. USA Today: “Opposing view: We're seeing progress” By Dora Schriro, special adviser to Homeland Security Secretary "I have learned that the best way to achieve change is to work closely with partners inside and outside of government, including vital organizations such as Amnesty International, which will issue a report raising concerns about immigration detention later today. I will carefully consider this important report." San Francisco Chronicle: “New report blasts U.S. on immigrant detainees” "More than 400,000 people…

March 25, 2009

Update

The Guardian website posted three incredible videos March 23rd by Clancy Chassay, Christian Bennett, Sarah Brodbin, Maggie O'Kane and Mustafa Khalili.  The Guardian team conducted their own investigations into some of the charges that Israel committed war crimes during the Gaza offensive. The first video covers the use of precision weapons, many fired by unmanned drones, to attack civilians.  Amnesty International mentioned these drones in their report 'Fuelling conflict: Foreign arms supplies to Israel/Gaza'.  The fact that these unmanned drones are used to attack as well as surveillance is a fact usually censored by the IDF on Israeli reporters and foreign reporters based…

March 24, 2009

Update

The bad news is that the United States is still among the top executioners in the world.  The good news is that the numbers are down.  According to an Amnesty International report released today, the U.S. remains in league with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iraq as the countries responsible for the most executions in 2008.  But the 37 executions that took place in the U.S. in 2008 was the lowest total since 1994.  This is partly due to the moratorium imposed on executions while the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of lethal injection, but it is also due…

March 24, 2009

Update

(Originally posted on Daily Kos) On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder gave the first public indication that at least some of the Chinese Uighurs cleared for release from Guantanamo in September 2008, but unable to return home to China for fear of persecution, will be allowed to settle in the United States. His announcement followed the visit of the European Union’s Counterterrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove to US. De Kerchove is believed to have delivered the blunt message to the Obama administration that, unless the US demonstrated its good faith by resettling the Uighurs on American soil, it was highly…

March 20, 2009

Update

Tonight, a little after 6 PM mountain time, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed into law a bill abolishing the death penalty in his state. After weeks of publicly wrestling with the issue (he had in previous years been a supporter of capital punishment), and after several days of widely soliciting public comment - a hotline the Governor’s office set up resulted in calls coming in 3-1 in favor of abolition - the Governor agreed to strike capital punishment from the books (though the law is not retroactive, and the fate of the two men who currently occupy New Mexico’s…

March 19, 2009

Update

If you thought that the democratic situation couldn’t get worse in ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, you have been wrong. The oil-rich country has voted – according to the government – to eliminate presidential term limits. On March 18, 2009, voters approved all the 29 ballot issues, including institutionalizing unlimited presidency, reports the Russian-language Day.az. One Azerbaijani told Reuters: "We can write, we can read, we can watch. But we have no voice." Or, "We can vote, but we have no voice."

March 19, 2009

Update

In a series about the lax rules of engagement of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israeli newspaper Haaretz is currently publishing testimonies of Israeli soldiers who participated in the recent fighting in Gaza. The first story in today's edition describes an incident of an IDF sharpshooter who mistakenly shot a Palestinian mother and her two children: There was a house with a family inside .... We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that there was an order to release the family (...) The platoon commander let…

March 19, 2009

Update

When the world you live is filled with the constant threat of disappearances, torture and murder, how do friendships happen? On Monday, in a small lecture hall at Duke University, Argentine Ambassador Hector Timerman, son of famed journalist Jacobo Timerman, told about one unexpected friendship that developed during that country’s infamous Dirty War and how it helped to save his father’s life. The Duke event was a celebration of the life of Rabbi Marshall Meyer, the American who lived in Argentina in the 1970s risked his life to help the Timerman family and many others.  Hector Timerman couldn’t attend the…

March 19, 2009

Update

Israeli soldiers are telling their stories about questionable military practices during the conflict in Gaza.  They are describing attacks on unarmed civilians, using phrases like “cold blooded murder” in an effort to expose human rights violations.   But: “Neither the Israeli justice system, despite its acknowledged strengths, nor that of the Palestinian Authority has ever properly addressed violations of international law by Israeli forces or Palestinian fighters.” The UN’s Board of Inquiry is currently investigating attacks on UN facilities, but what of the civilians on both sides of the conflict? "What is needed is a comprehensive international investigation that looks at…

March 19, 2009

Update

Late on Friday afternoon, in a move apparently designed to give the media as little time to respond as possible, the Obama administration filed a new motion in the US District Court for the District of Columbia clarifying that the administration still asserted the authority to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely at the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay. The filing marked three departures from the policies of the Bush administration. First, the administration no longer asserted that this power derived from the executive office of the presidency but from the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by Congress in the…

March 18, 2009

Update

On the outset, it seemed like March was going to be a great time for women.  This month, we celebrated International Women’s Day recognizing women’s social achievements and ongoing struggles in pursuit of economic, social, and political justice.  Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton came together to recognize women’s human rights activists.  And President Obama signed an executive order establishing a White House Council for Women and Girls.  Yes, ma’am!  This is our month!  And just days later, the nation has come to focus on … Meghan McCain’s dress size.  Oh. By now, most people know about the fight that conservative…

March 18, 2009