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Update:  the letter was sent to Secretary Clinton on Dec. 10, with 17 signatories!  Here's who signed:  Sherrod Brown, Burr, Murray, Hutchison, Casey, Gillibrand, Hagan, Cornyn, Mikulski, Cardin, Lieberman, Lautenberg, Boxer, Feingold, Coons, Manchin and Menendez.  Thanks to everyone who lobbied your Senator! A Congressional sign-on letter is circulating in the Senate now, sponsored by Senators Sherrod Brown and Richard Burr.  The letter asks Secretary Clinton to publicly call for an independent international investigation into war crimes and other abuses committed during the war in Sri Lanka.  Amnesty International has been campaigning for such an international investigation for the past…

December 2, 2010

Update

A new report released by Amnesty International shows the widespread sexual violence against girls in Nicaragua. More than two thirds of all rapes reported between 1998 and 2008 were committed against girls under the age of 17, and nearly half of victims were under age 14.

December 2, 2010

Update

Houston District Judge Kevin Fine will be deciding whether the Texas death penalty is unconstitutional because it risks executing the innocent. A hearing that begins on Dec. 6 will consider evidence that Texas has put innocent men to death in the past, and will look at the egregiously flawed way capital punishment is administered in the Lone Star State.

December 2, 2010

Update

Walid Yunis Ahmad is quite possibly the longest serving detainee in Iraq. He is a member of the marginalized Turkoman minority and has been imprisoned in Irbil, Northern Iraq, without charge or trial for more than ten years.

December 2, 2010

Update

As beautiful as the country is, Brazil has suffered for decades from the creation and development of shantytowns, known to locals as favelas, where poverty, violence and anarchy frequently dictate a ruthless way of life. The absence of state presence in the communities has made of favelas perfect centers for drug trafficking and violence. Major cities throughout the country, especially in the state of Rio de Janeiro, have fallen victims of this troubling situation. In a desperate attempt to establish some form of security, a couple of years ago, Rio de Janeiro’s authorities created the state’s Pacifying Police Units (UPP),…

December 1, 2010

Update

Five years ago this month an ancient cemetery in Azerbaijan was wiped off the face of the earth.

December 1, 2010

Update

This post is part of our Write for Rights series. Former civil servant Filep Karma was among approximately 200 people who took part in a peaceful ceremony in Abepura, Papua Province, Indonesia on 1 December 2004. In commemoration of the declaration of Papaun independence in 1962, the Morning Star Flag was raised. Police then advanced on the crowd, firing warning shots and beating people with batons. Filep Karma was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason. In a country like the United States, the jailing of a peaceful political activist for raising a flag may sound mind-boggling.…

December 1, 2010

Update

Seventy percent of Americans believe we should commit crimes against humanity. Not that they would put it that way. They would say something like, in the words of a Pew poll from some months ago, that torturing suspected terrorists is “often justified” (19 percent), “sometimes justified” (35 percent), or “rarely justified” (16 percent). That such beliefs persist, in such numbers, after years of talk about torture, signifies a moral chasm almost too depressing to contemplate.

December 1, 2010

Update

This week Congress has the chance to take action to move the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), a Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote is scheduled to take place on Thursday, December 2nd.

November 30, 2010

Update

With efforts to fix their flawed capital punishment system proven to be a failure, state lawmakers in a committee of the Illinois House have voted to abolish the death penalty once and for all. The full House and Senate should do the same. If you live in Illinois, or know someone who does, now is the time for all state legislators to hear from their constituents – by phone, by fax, by email ... Spread the word and make the call TODAY!

November 30, 2010

Update

To raise awareness of December’s Write for Rights former prisoner of conscience Musaad Abu Fagr tells how letters lifted his spirits while in detention.

November 30, 2010

Update

Shahla Jahed, the “temporary” wife of a prominent Iranian football player, could be executed as early as Wednesday morning.

November 30, 2010