Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.
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Update
Bias, Misconduct and Error: Reggie Clemons and Missouri's Tragically Flawed Death Penalty
No physical evidence. Just two (white) witnesses, one who initially confessed to the crime, the other implicated the three (black) youths in exchange for a lesser sentence. Reggie Clemons today sits on death row in Missouri.
May 11, 2010
Update
Prominent Iranian Film Director Jafar Panahi Held for Months Without Charge
One of Iran's most acclaimed film directors, Jafar Panahi, has been locked up in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, without charge, for more than two months.
May 11, 2010
Update
Gilad Shalit is not a 'Bargaining Chip'
Amnesty International was born out of the injustice of the forgotten prisoner. In 1960, a British lawyer, Peter Benenson, read a story about the imprisonment of two Portuguese students, who had raised their wine glasses in a toast to freedom, but had been overheard and imprisoned. Benenson wrote an article, ‘The Forgotten Prisoner’ for The Observer which started the worldwide movement, Amnesty International, which works on behalf of prisoners and in support of basic human rights for all. Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit is completing his fourth year of isolated captivity June 25th, 2010. Although Hamas has asserted that Gilad is alive…
May 10, 2010
Update
Long Awaited Day in Court for Gay Couple in Malawi
A court date has been set for the trial of Malawi nationals Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza. The charge? Engaging in “unnatural practices between males and gross public indecency,” punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The evidence? A traditional engagement ceremony between the two men held December 27th, 2009. After determining there was enough evidence to hold the men for trial, the date is set for May 18th. In the meantime, both Monjeza and Chimbalanga are confined in inadequate prison conditions. Mr. Monjeza is ill, and while receiving some medical treatment, his condition is no doubt made worse by…
May 10, 2010
Update
Demand Clean Air and Water for Iraq
Iraq’s historic and cultural treasures have been looted, its infrastructure destroyed, and Iraqis continue to face violence, persecution and harassment. Yet one area of damage that has been discussed very little since 2003 is the state of the environment in Iraq and its associated health risks. The location of the biblical Garden of Eden has been ravaged by large-scale pollution, some of which is caused by war, the rest by the lack of government regulations regarding where and how industrial waste is disposed of. After eucalyptus and palm trees were chopped down for war after war, by Saddam’s government and…
May 8, 2010
Update
Stop Press
The pretrial hearings in the Omar Khadr case ended last week on two particularly sour notes. First, in a profound blow to the credibility of the Military Commissions process the Department of Defense banned four journalists covering the trial from returning to GTMO. The four journalists were blackballed for revealing the identity of Interrogator #1. Three of the four are Canadian and they include Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star who has written a book about the Khadr case, “Guantanamo’s Child”. The fifth reporter is the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg who has followed the Military Commissions for years and is…
May 8, 2010
Update
Desi Spotlight Series: Drishtipat
This posting is part of our Desi Spotlight Series. It's time for another in my very irregular series featuring the amazing work of South Asians in the United States working on human rights back in South Asia. Today, I'm featuring the organization Drishtipat, made up of a group of volunteers who are active in social justice and human rights in Bangladesh. The success of Drishtipat truly lays in the passion, skills, and diligence of its volunteers, the generosity of its donors and the guidance, commitment and the network breadth of its leaders. Drishtipat is slowly but surely leaving its mark…
May 7, 2010
Update
Interrogator Admits to Using Rape Scenario as Fear Tactic
The last day of Omar Khadr’s pre-trial military commission hearing held over the past two weeks here at Guantánamo ended with a breakthrough for the defense team when they called Khadr’s principal interrogator at the Bagram detention facility to the stand.
May 7, 2010
Update
New technology demonstrates extreme lack of progress in Gulf Coast reconstruction
Technology has been a driving force as of late, to document a variety of things related to human rights from political violence in Kenya, to the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States, caused flooding and widespread damage to the Gulf Coast. More than 1,800 people from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama died in the storm. Approximately 1,000,000 people were displaced from the Gulf Coast region. Nearly five years later, in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast, there is a continued lack of access…
May 7, 2010
Update
I Would Like the Firing Squad, Please
Ronald Lee Gardner faces execution on June 18 in Utah. The media has zeroed in on the fact that he has chosen the firing squad as his method of execution - which seems kind of hard core and old school given the lengths states have gone through to try to make executions appear "humane". Gardner’s exact words to judge were: "I would like the firing squad, please." Utah's firing squad carried out the first execution of the so-called "modern" era of US capital punishment, when Gary Gilmore was shot in January 1977, six months after the US Supreme Court allowed executions to…
May 7, 2010
Update
Indecent Haste
Tom Parker is currently at Guantánamo to observe the military commissions proceedings against detainee Omar Khadr. This is his second post. Another theme has emerged at the pre-trial military commission proceedings being conducted this week here at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo in the case of Omar Khadr – an unseemly rush to complete the hearings so that those attending can get back to the US mainland by the weekend. The military judge overseeing the proceedings, Colonel Patrick Parrish, has not returned to any issue in the past few days as often as he has to reminding counsel that…
May 6, 2010
Update
Non-Traditional Interrogation
Tom Parker is currently at Guantánamo to observe the military commissions proceedings against detainee Omar Khadr. This is his first post from the ground. The military commissions currently being revived at the US Naval Base at Guantánamo have given birth to a fresh addition to the newspeak lexicon to rank alongside such classic antiseptic euphemisms as 'collateral damage' and 'friendly fire': in these proceedings torture is being rebranded "non-traditional interrogation". In any circumstances an attempt to minimize such outrageous conduct would be deeply troubling. To hear this phrase repeated time and time again by the prosecution in the pre-trial hearings…
May 5, 2010