Latin America
We work alongside local organizations and human rights defenders to defend civic space and combat violence, repression, and discrimination in the region. Through strategic litigation and legal advocacy before the Inter-American Human Rights system and the United Nations, we work toward protecting human rights, seeking truth, justice, and redress for victims of human rights violations. From combating gender-based violence in Central America, historic racism against Dominicans of Haitian Descent, and systematic repression against critics in Venezuela and Guatemala to protecting freedom of the press in Colombia and Brazil, our mission is to create a region where justice, dignity, and equality prevail for all.
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Defending Human Rights Amid Repression: The Escalating Risks for Activists in Venezuela
Tags Share Since the disputed presidential elections on July 28, 2024, Venezuela has experienced a chilling escalation of repression, with human rights defenders (HRDs) at the center of targeted attacks by state actors. What began as a crackdown on protesters evolved into a sustained campaign to silence civil society. The post-election climate has left independent…
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Brazil’s Marco Temporal: Indigenous Land Rights at a Crossroads
Tags Share Brazil is in the midst of a high-stakes battle over Indigenous land rights, centered on the controversial concept of the Marco Temporal, or “time frame” thesis. This legal theory would limit Indigenous territorial claims to lands physically occupied – or under legal dispute – on October 5, 1988, the date Brazil’s current Constitution…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share These Civil Rights Advocates Toured Louisiana ICE Detention Centers. Here’s What They Saw. In late July, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided access to three detention centers they operate in Louisiana to a group of about 20 civil rights advocates. Their tour included the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, located on…
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100 años de Guillermo Cano Isaza: honrar la memoria, exigir justicia
Tags Share Hoy, 12 de agosto, se cumplen 100 años del natalicio de Guillermo Cano Isaza, periodista y director de El Espectador, durante más de tres décadas, hasta su asesinato el 17 de diciembre de 1986, en Bogotá. Su coraje, su ética y rigor periodístico lo hicieron un referente y ejemplo para generaciones de periodistas.…
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100 years of Guillermo Cano Isaza: honoring his memory, demanding justice
Tags Share Today, August 12, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Guillermo Cano Isaza, journalist and editor of El Espectador for more than three decades until his assassination on December 17, 1986, in Bogotá. His courage, ethics, and journalistic rigor made him a role model and example for generations of journalists. Today, we…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share ‘Horrific’: Report Reveals Abuse of Pregnant Women and Children at US ICE Facilities A new report has found hundreds of reported cases of human rights abuses in US immigration detention centers. The alleged abuses uncovered include deaths in custody, physical and sexual abuse of detainees, mistreatment of pregnant women and children, inadequate medical care, overcrowding and…
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Coalition Demands Action as New Evidence Reveals Abuses of Migrants in El Salvador’s CECOT Prison
Tags Share A coalition of organizations filed damning new evidence today in a legal action seeking an emergency order from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, pending since May 9, and originally filed on behalf of all of the at least 288 migrants transferred from the United States to CECOT, a prison in El Salvador. …
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The Washington Post: ‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants
Tags Share Deported by the U.S. under President Trump’s mass removal policy, over 250 Venezuelan migrants were secretly sent to El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison where they endured months of abuse, torture, and isolation. In a harrowing investigation by The Washington Post, detainees describe sexual assault, starvation, and beatings inside a facility built for gang members.…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share ‘It is Hell’: Migrants Returning to Venezuela Describe Life in El Salvador Prison Where U.S. Sent Them Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and other officials have said many of the immigrants were physically and psychologically tortured during their detention in El Salvador, airing on state television videos of some of the men describing the…
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Venezuela: la represión no se detiene y pone en riesgo a quienes defienden derechos humanos
Tags Share Las Américas, 25 de julio de 2025 — Organizaciones internacionales, en representación de un grupo de organizaciones nacionales venezolanas, nos presentamos a una audiencia pública ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) para exponer la agudización de la política de represión y persecución sistemática y sostenida contra personas defensoras de derechos humanos…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share “Even God Cannot Hear Us Here”: What I Witnessed Inside an ICE Women’s Prison Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk opens up for the first time about her shocking arrest and 45 days in a South Louisiana processing facility. She recalls the generous and compassionate women who helped her through this harrowing ordeal.…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share U.S. Botched a Deal to Swap Venezuelans Held in El Salvador for Americans The Trump administration’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was overseeing a deal to free several Americans and dozens of political prisoners held in Venezuela in exchange for sending home about 250 Venezuelan migrants the United States had deported…
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