Blog of Rights
Jamil
Dakwar

Jamil Dakwar is the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program (HRP) which is dedicated to holding the U.S. government accountable to its international human rights obligations and commitments.  He leads a team of lawyers and advocates who use a human rights framework to complement existing ACLU legal and legislative advocacy primarily in the areas of counter-terrorism, racial justice, immigrants’ rights, women’s rights, and criminal and juvenile justice. HRP conducts human rights research, documentation and public education, as well as engages in litigation and advocacy before U.S. courts and international human rights bodies.

HRP’s docket includes both domestic lawsuits and petitions before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of individuals sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for crimes committed when they were children; victims and survivors of torture, forced disappearance, trafficking and domestic violence; disenfranchised felons; domestic workers and low-wage undocumented immigrants; as well as a challenge to the Oklahoma constitutional amendment banning the use of Sharia and international law. Jamil also serves as the ACLU Main Representative to the United Nations, and has testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, United Nations human rights bodies, and the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE), about human rights violations in the U.S.

Prior to joining the ACLU in 2004, Jamil worked at Human Rights Watch, where he conducted research, advocated, and published reports on issues of torture and detention in Egypt, Morocco, Israel, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Before coming to the United States, he was a senior attorney with Adalah, a leading human rights group in Israel, where he filed and argued human rights cases before Israeli courts and advocated before international forums. He is a graduate of Tel Aviv University and NYU School of Law.

04/21/2013
U.S. Death Penalty

­Executing Human Dignity: U.S. Death Penalty System Dominates IACHR Report

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 4:09pm

According to a recent Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on the death penalty in the Americas, the United States stands out as an outlier in a region that has come close to abolishing the death penalty. This report will be officially launched at a public event next Monday at the American Bar Association, moderated by the ACLU.

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04/11/2013
Guantánamo Hunger Strike

Urgent White House Action Needed to Avert Guantánamo Human Rights Crisis

By Hina Shamsi, Director, ACLU National Security Project & Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 10:37am

There is a serious human rights crisis brewing at the prison at Guantánamo Bay. A hunger strike that began in early February has spread...

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05/15/2012
Khaled El-Masri

Victim of Torture and CIA Rendition Gets His First Day in Court — in Europe

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 11:54am

Tomorrow, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Europe's top human rights court based in Strasbourg, France, will hear arguments in El-Masri v. "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." Tomorrow's hearing marks the first case to come before the court against a European nation for complicity in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.

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06/20/2008

Guantánamo's Frequent Flyer Program

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 4:45pm

Last week's Supreme Court rebuke of the Bush administration's attempt to preserve Guantánamo as a lawless place, a place where human beings are less worthy of protection under U.S. law than iguanas, brought newfound hope that this travesty of justice would finally come to an end. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as this week the military commission hearings resumed in what appears to be a signal from the Pentagon that it is business as usual at Guantánamo. It was during these hearings that we learned more about Guantánamo's frequent flyer program.

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09/19/2011
Detention

Remembering 9/11 and Reclaiming Accountability for Human Rights

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 3:01pm

Many people in the United States and around the world remember the horrific events of September 11th, 2001 as some of the worst crimes against humanity of the last decade. These attacks savagely flouted the fundamental values of international human rights.

While the international community was united behind the U.S. call to bring those responsible to justice, the struggle against terrorism — hardly a new enterprise — took a wrong turn towards undermining the international legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms that were developed after World War II.

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06/23/2008

Unlawful Command Influence

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 8:47pm

Mohammad Jawad's military commission hearing last week was unusual for many reasons. Jawad was a minor when he was captured in Afghanistan and now faces life in prison if convicted for allegedly throwing a hand grenade that wounded two U.S. soldiers and their Afghan interpreter in December 2002. Not only did the pre-trial hearing last 14 hours, but there were several "firsts:" a prisoner (Jawad) testified about the mental torture and abuse he suffered under the frequent flyer sleep deprivation program; a civilian sleep deprivation expert, Harvard Professor Dr. Janet Mullington, testified via video conference from Hanscom Air Force Base about the short- and long-term mental effects of sleep deprivation; and, finally Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the Legal Advisor to the Convening Authority, testified before the commission.

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12/09/2009

Keeping Our Promise to Human Rights

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 11:58am

Seven months ago, the United States issued a list of human rights commitments and pledges in support of U.S. candidacy for membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council. The decision to join the Human Rights Council was the right thing to do. It was as an important step in breaking with the Bush administration’s unilateral and disastrous policies on human rights. While we welcomed this move, we noted that the Obama administration had “missed an opportunity to detail exactly how it will reaffirm its commitment to ending human rights violations at home beyond vague rhetoric.” We warned the Obama administration to “move beyond ambiguous commitments which are similar to the ones heard from the Bush administration over the past eight years.”

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02/24/2009
Guantánamo

Pentagon Report Whitewashes Gitmo Abuses

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 9:04pm

Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of Naval Operations, presented his review of conditions of confinement at Guantánamo Bay (PDF) at a briefing at detention facilities at Guantánamo Naval Base yesterday afternoon. The review team interviewed the military leaders in charge of the detention facility as well as staff, interrogators and guards, and spoke with “about a dozen” detainees. The team also observed “enteral” feedings of hunger-striking prisoners, which entails inserting a tube down the detainee’s nose to his stomach to pump in a protein shake twice a day as the detainee is shackled to a chair and his head attached to a metal restraint with Velcro. Adm. Walsh concluded that the detainees at the prison are being held “in conformity with all applicable laws governing the conditions of confinement, including Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.” Secretary Gates endorsed the report and sent it to President Obama over the weekend.

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12/10/2008

The UDHR at 60

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 10:54am

(Originally posted on AlterNet.)

Born of a need to recognize "the inherent dignity and...the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family," the Universal Declaration of Human Rights came into being 60 years ago today. Its passage brought a worldwide awareness of the basic rights and protections to be enjoyed by all human beings everywhere and established the modern human rights system that provides the legal and moral authority for governments, advocates and attorneys to take action anywhere human rights are threatened. Sadly, as a result of eight years of disastrous policies by the Bush administration, one place where those rights are in jeopardy is right here at home.

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09/17/2008

Protecting the Constitution, At Home and Abroad

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 6:18pm

Constitution Day serves as a reminder of the importance of this historical document, a document which embodies the concept of the rule of law and acts as the blueprint for the American people. Part of this blueprint includes the Framers' desire that the United States government respect international commitments made under treaties signed by the President and approved by the Senate. Indeed, the Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. treaties "the supreme law of the land."

When the incoming President takes or reaffirms the oath of office, they are committing themselves to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." In doing so, they are obliged to recognize and respect U.S. ratified treaties, at home and abroad. While this commitment is made to the American people at the inauguration ceremony, it echoes and resonates around the world, as the U.S. commitment to the family of nations to respect the rule of law and U.S. international and treaty obligations is vital to the preservation of international peace and security. The erosion of this commitment over the past seven years cannot be over exaggerated, especially in the area of protection and promotion of human rights at home and around the world.

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