Blog of Rights

20 Years of Neglecting Children's Rights

By Nahal Zamani, Human Rights Program at 5:40pm

This coming Friday marks the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most comprehensive treaty on children’s rights. The convention has been ratified by nearly every country in the world, except for the United States. The convention would fill current gaps in U.S. laws, and provide all children in America with the same robust protections that children in 193 countries are already entitled to.

A Roadmap for Fighting Racism

By Chandra Bhatnagar, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program at 10:34am

On this day in 1960, white police officers in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a peaceful anti-apartheid demonstration killing 69 black South African protestors...

Torture: America's Export

By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 12:07pm

Yesterday, the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) issued a comprehensive report laying out the scope of the CIA's extraordinary rendition, secret prison and torture program. The report, following up on the ACLU's 2012 Torture Report, traces the evolution of the program, through which the CIA kidnapped terrorism suspects from around the world, flew them secretly to "black sites" – where they were held incommunicado without charge or trial – and tortured them. The OSJI report reveals that 54 nations, more than a quarter of the world, directly participated in the torture program, including through housing CIA prisoners on their soil, where they were often tortured; helping kidnap terrorism suspects and ship them overseas without any legal process; and allowing CIA planes to use their airspace and airports for those kidnapping missions. (Check out the report to learn which countries participated, and what types of assistance they offered). And it compiles the largest, most detailed list yet of the men and women thrown into these horrific black holes, naming 136 victims, many of whose whereabouts remain unknown today.

Groundbreaking Senate Hearing Shines a Light on the School-to-Prison Pipeline

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Kimberly Humphrey, Washington Legislative Office at 10:23am

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights will hold a landmark hearing entitled, Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline. It is the first time a congressional panel will look at this disturbing national trend where children are pushed out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems because of an overreliance on punitive school discipline policies.

ACLU Lens: Supreme Court Rules Against Mandatory Life Without Parole for Children

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 1:56pm

A message for Alabama, Arkansas, and the entire United States: a sentencing scheme of mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole for juvenile homicide offenders (JLWOP) is cruel and unusual punishment. That’s what the Supreme Court said today when it ruled in Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs that such sentencing schemes violate the Eight Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

A Question for America About Torture

By Ben Wizner, Director, ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project at 10:58am

Today the Supreme Court was asked if federal officials responsible for the torture of an American citizen on American soil may be sued for damages under the Constitution.

Counting On Us: Release of New Civil Rights Data Is the First Step in Helping Our Kids

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:21pm

Every day, students in public schools across the country are facing harsh disciplinary measures that may have dire consequences for the rest of their lives.

That was confirmed this week when the Department of Education released Part Two of its 2009-2010 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which showed minority students face much harsher punishments and penalties in our nation’s public schools than others.

African-American students are 3 1/2 times more likely than their white peers to be suspended. Though African-American students made up only 18 percent of enrolled students, they accounted for 39 percent of those expelled, and were subject to zero tolerance policies at disproportionate rates. A shocking 70 percent of students arrested or referred to law enforcement were Latino or African-American.

Video of Haitian Deportees Brings Home the Reality of Disgraceful ICE Removal Policy

By Georgeanne M. Usova, Washington Legislative Office & Georgeanne M. Usova, Washington Legislative Office at 4:54pm

A new video from the New York Times is helping shed light on the plight of those recently deported from the U.S. to Haiti. In the piece, "Strangers in a Strange Land," deportees lead cameras on a tour of the hardship they face daily. The conditions they expose range from appalling to life-threatening — dangerously overcrowded prisons, housing crawling with roaches, and camps lacking even the most basic necessities. The footage paints a picture of a nation without a functioning infrastructure, which is certainly in no position to receive deportees. The devastation Haiti suffered in a massive 2010 earthquake has only been compounded by a recent cholera epidemic that has already killed thousands and is projected to affect between 400,000 and 800,000 more.

Blue Ribbon Task Force: U.S. Tortured Detainees—Leaders Responsible

By Alexander Abdo, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 2:39pm

Nearly two years ago, a non-partisan, constitutional think tank called the Constitution Project assembled its blue-ribbon Task Force on Detainee Treatment to examine the treatment of detainees in the years following 9/11. Today, the Task Force released its report—a 550-page, comprehensive condemnation of the role of senior Bush administration officials in the torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody.

"Did You Kiss the Dead Body?"

By Mitra Ebadolahi, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project at 10:47am

Artist's Work Keeps Human Realities of Torture Alive

Last autumn, Rajkamal Kahlon, a Berlin-based American artist, joined the ACLU as an artist-in-residence. Working out of our New York headquarters, Kahlon furthered an on-going project of hers called Did You Kiss the Dead Body? Visualizing Absence in the Archive of War. This week, she launched a new website compiling her stunning original images as well as texts and interviews with ACLU staff: DidYouKissTheDeadBody.com.