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1. How to Protect LGBTI Persons around the World from Violence

Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
The United States has unique experience fighting violent hate crime and discrimination, and the protection of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people has become a signature human rights initiative of the Obama Administration. In 2009, Congress passed the Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd Hate Crime Prevention Act, with bipartisan support and the endorsement of a wide range of constituencies with differing views on LGBTI equality. The law--and the coalition that supported it--is a model of how to marshal the range of U.S. resources to improve responses to all hate crime, including acts of violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity bias.
Topic:
Crime, Human Rights, International Affairs, Governance, and Law
Political Geography:
United States

2. How to Repair the U.S. Immigration Detention System

Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
As the Obama Administration embarks on its second term and recommits itself to immigration reform, it should prioritize its commitment to transform the immigration detention system . In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) committed to overhaul the U.S. immigration detention system and shift it away from its longtime reliance on jails and jail-like facilities. Since that time, ICE has taken steps to address some of the problems in the existing system. It has, for example, hired onsite detention service managers to improve oversight, implemented new parole guidance for arriving asylum seekers, and streamlined the process for detainee health care treatment authorization. It has also taken a number of steps towards a broader transformation of the system, such as opening a “model” civil detention facility in Karnes County, Texas, that offers conditions more appropriate for immigration detainees.
Topic:
Immigration, Governance, Law Enforcement, Law, and Reform
Political Geography:
United States

3. Habeas Works: Federal Courts' Proven Capacity to Handle Guantánamo Cases

Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
Habeas is working. The judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia have ably responded to the Supreme Court's call to review the detention of individuals at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. As former federal judges, many of us expressed our confidence as amici in Boumediene v. Bush that courts are competent to resolve these cases. We write now to affirm that our confidence has been vindicated. While we take no position on particular cases, a review of the District Court's treatment of the Guantánamo litigation convinces us that the court has effectively developed a consistent, coherent, and stable jurisprudence.
Topic:
Human Rights, Terrorism, War, and Law
Political Geography:
United States and Cuba

4. Denial and Delay: The Impact of the Immigration Law's "Terrorism Bars" on Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United States

Author:
Anwen Hughes
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
IMMIGRATION LAWS that target individuals who have engaged in or supported the commission of terrorist acts serve two very legitimate goals: to exclude from the United States people who threaten our national security, and to penalize people who have engaged in or supported acts of violence that are inherently wrongful and condemned under U.S. and international law. Both of these purposes are consistent with the United States' commitment to protect refugees who have fled political, religious and other forms of persecution. Indeed, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its Protocol explicitly exclude from protection persons who have committed a range of serious crimes, including acts of terrorism. The Refugee Convention also allows a country to expel a refugee who poses a danger to its security, or who has been convicted of a particularly serious crime in that country and constitutes a danger to the community.
Topic:
Human Rights, Terrorism, Immigration, and Law
Political Geography:
United States

5. Baseless Prosecutions of Human Rights Defenders in Colombia: In the Dock and Under the Gun

Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
IN A CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM plagued by impunity, the tenacity with which Colombian prosecutors pursue human rights defenders for supposed crimes is striking. While corruption and arbitrary actions are a systemic problem throughout the judicial system, those who peacefully promote human rights are singled out for particular intimidation through baseless investigations and prosecutions. Unfounded charges are often widely publicized, undermining the credibility of defenders and marking them as targets for physical attack, often by paramilitary groups.
Topic:
Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Law
Political Geography:
Colombia and Latin America

6. In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts — 2009 Update and Recent Developments

Author:
Richard B. Zabel and James J. Benjamin
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
In May 2008, Human Rights First released In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts.1 Based on a comprehensive review of more than 120 actual prosecutions dating back to the 1980s, In Pursuit of Justice concluded that the criminal justice system is well-equipped to handle a broad variety of criminal cases arising from terrorism that is associated—organizationally, financially, or ideologically—with selfdescribed “jihadist” or Islamist extremist groups like al Qaeda. The roster of cases chronicled in In Pursuit of Justice ranges from blockbuster trials against hardened terrorists who planned or committed grievous acts around the world to complex terrorism-financing prosecutions and “alternative” prosecutions based on nonterrorism charges such as immigration fraud, financial fraud, and false statements. Many of these cases have been preemptive prosecutions focused on preventing and disrupting terrorist activities. In Pursuit of Justice acknowledged that terrorism prosecutions can present difficult challenges, and that the criminal justice system, by itself, is not “the answer” to the problem of international terrorism, but it found that the federal courts have demonstrated their ability, over and over again, to effectively and fairly convict and incapacitate terrorists in a broad variety of terrorism cases.
Topic:
Islam, Terrorism, War, and Law
Political Geography:
United States