Criminal Legal System
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Human rights attorneys urge UN to review the solitary confinement of Black Americans
Tags Share “The United States also has a very long and unfortunately active history of weaponizing solitary confinement against Black people, Black political prisoners and people exercising their constitutional rights.” Speaking with The Hill, our staff attorney Delia Addo-Yobo urges the United Nations to review abusive solitary confinement practices against Black people in the United…
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Human Rights Organizations Urge United Nations to Review Abusive Solitary Confinement Practices in California, New York, Louisiana, and Minnesota
Tags Share Washington, D.C., February 28, 2023 – Last week, a group of human rights organizations including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the California Mandela Campaign, Atlas of Blackness, Unlock the Box Campaign, and the NY #HALTsolitary campaign, filed a joint submission urging the United Nations to review abusive solitary confinement practices against Black people…
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Ending the Torture of Solitary Confinement of Afro-Descendent People
The United States wields solitary confinement against Afro-descendent people in municipal jails, state and federal prisons, immigration detention centers, and care settings for foster youth, causing devastating mental, physical, and emotional harm.
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Once again we are asking for change. When will there be progress on police brutality?
Tags Share Our message is clear: It’s time to limit police contact with the public and decrease the opportunities law enforcement has to introduce violence to non-violent situations. This means limiting police power to stop people on mere pretext, repealing laws that criminalize people who speak out against police abuses, and investing directly into communities…
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights expands U.S. advocacy and litigation efforts with appointment of Sarah Gillman
Tags Share New York, NY, October 18, 2022 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights today announced that Sarah Gillman, co-founder of the noted Rapid Defense Network (RDN), has joined the organization as its new Director of Strategic U.S. Litigation. A seasoned attorney specializing in immigrants’ rights, Gillman will work to expand RFK Human Rights’ domestic…
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RFKHR Book Club spotlights Elizabeth Hinton’s ‘America on Fire’
Tags Share Yale professor of Law Elizabeth Hinton has advocated for structural transformation as a more effective solution to violent crimes and improving America’s race-relations. “More police and more prisons doesn’t work to keep people safer,” Hinton said on Friday Sept. 29 while discussing her book, America on Fire at a live virtual event organized…
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Gov. Newsom, understand the horrors of solitary as you consider the Mandela Act
Tags Share As Gov. Gavin Newsom considers signing the Mandela Act to limit solitary confinement in California, he needs to understand its true horrors. Today I write this as a rising immigration attorney and legal fellow with national advocacy organization Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. But just four short years ago, I was an asylum…
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Book Club: America on Fire with Elizabeth Hinton
Share Join us online Thursday, September 29 from 4-5 pm ET / 1-2 pm PT for the RFKHR Board and Leadership Council Book Club featuring 2022 RFK Book Awards Laureate Elizabeth Hinton, her latest work – America on Fire and RFKHR Board Member Elisa Massimino. America on Fire presents a new framework for understanding our…
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Address at Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags Share Crime is an issue that is difficult and dangerous; easily susceptible to illusory and false programs; an issue which threatens to divert us from the road to a better nation into blind alleys of suspicion and mistrust. So let us examine not just the danger of crime but what we can do together…
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Address to the National Committee for Children and Youth Conference in Unemployed
Tags Share Many people have asked me what connection the Department of Justice has with a conference on unemployment concerning out-of-school youths in urban areas. You may be wondering too. The reason is: Today, the Department of Justice, through the Bureau of Prisons, is providing institutional care and treatment for more than five thousand juvenile…
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Statement by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights President Kerry Kennedy on the Supreme Court Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson
Tags Share New York – Ketanji Brown Jackson could be the first former public defender and Black woman to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. As a human rights organization dedicated to a more just and equal world, we welcome the expanded perspectives that greater professional and personal diversity can bring to the Court. However,…
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United Nations inquiry finds that Egyptian authorities arbitrarily detained Ahmed Samir Santawy
Tags Share The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights welcome the favorable opinion by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention finding the Egyptian government arbitrarily detained our client Ahmed Samir Santawy in violation of international human rights law. The Working Group held that the government arbitrarily…
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