U.S. Advocacy and Litigation
-
The #HALTsolitary Campaign
The New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (NYCAIC), the coalition behind the #HALTsolitary Campaign, works to end solitary confinement for all people, promote alternatives proven to better protect people’s health and safety, and build on these changes to dismantle the racial injustices and punishment paradigm that underpin the entire incarceration system.
-
California Mandela Campaign
Solitary confinement is one of the most severe and destructive practices used in detention facilities. The World Health Organization, United Nations, and other international bodies have recognized solitary confinement as greatly harmful and potentially fatal. People with disabilities, pregnant people, youth, and the elderly are all at heightened risk from the harm caused by solitary…
-
Prisoners’ Legal Services v. Department of Homeland Security: Protecting the First Amendment and attorney-client privilege in immigration detention
Officials at New York’s Buffalo Federal Detention Facility regularly open, copy, and retain privileged legal documents transmitted to detained people, including documents given in-person by attorneys meeting with clients. This practice chills detained people’ speech, encouraging impunity for ongoing abuses at the detention center.
-
Civil Rights Groups and Advocates Call on Vermont to Implement Raise the Age Law
Tags Share MONTPELIER, Vt, March 19- A new coalition of Vermont and national civil rights and criminal justice reform organizations, advocates, and public officials called Treat Youth Like Youth is urging lawmakers to support the implementation of Vermont’s Raise the Age law. Passed in 2018, Raise the Age legislation made Vermont the first state in…
-
USA Today: You say you’re American? You’d better be ready to prove it to police, ICE
Tags Share “President Donald Trump, an avowed fan of stop-and-frisk policing, now aims to take those practices national. His executive order requires federal law enforcement to treat a non-citizen’s failure to register or to carry proof of registration as a civil and criminal enforcement priority, punishable anywhere from one to six months in federal prison.” In…
-
Human rights organizations urge United Nations to denounce abuse of LGBTQ+ people in immigration detention facilities
Tags Share Washington, D.C., February 18, 2025 – Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Black Diaspora Liberty Initiative, Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project, Immigration Equality, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, Sanctuary New Orleans Abolition Project, and the Transgender Law Center filed a joint submission urging the United Nations to denounce widespread abuse of LGBTQ+ people…
-
US abuses forcibly displaced LGBTQ+ people in immigration detention: report to UN Independent Expert on Protection against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Inside for-profit immigration detention centers, the U.S. government wields solitary confinement, sexual abuse and harassment, and denial of medical care against forcibly displaced LGBTQ+ people—sometimes with deadly consequences.
-
RFK Human Rights Joins Demand to Trump Administration to Provide Information, Access to Immigrants Transferred to Guantánamo Bay
Tags Share Immigrants’ rights advocates, including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, signed a letter today urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DOD), and State Department to provide immediate access to the noncitizens transferred from immigration detention facilities in the United States and currently detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Their letter comes ahead of…
-
Newsweek: Will Trump’s Executive Order Require Americans to Carry ID or Face Arrest?
Tags Share “The real question is, well, are police going to believe that you actually are a U.S. citizen when they stop you and they say: ‘Where’s your document?’” President Donald Trump’s immigration-related executive orders include the revival of an 80-year-old law requiring immigrants to carry proof of their status—raising concerns among civil rights groups.…
-
Capitol Weekly: The struggle of incarcerated workers
Tags Share In Capitol Weekly, Fanta NGom, RFK Human Right’s Director of Business and Human Rights, critiques California’s refusal to pay fair wages to incarcerated firefighters battling recent wildfires. Ngom highlights how this practice exposes systemic inequality and the inhumane treatment inherent in prison labor systems across the country. Read the full article here.
-
Supporting Community During Trump 2.0: Advocacy and Emergency Litigation on Behalf of Community Members Who are Subject to Check-Ins with ICE
Interested in advocacy and emergency litigation? Subscribe to the Justice Roundup newsletter to get more of the latest on human rights advocacy and litigation, delivered straight to your inbox. Tags Share On Wednesday, January 22, 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Justice for Migrant Families and Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York hosted a webinar…
Share