Criminal Legal System
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share Americas: On World Refugee Day, states must prioritize the human rights of those seeking protection in the Americas On the occasion of World Refugee Day, Amnesty International has issued an open letter to the States parties to the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, who are currently meeting in Bogotá, urging them to put human…
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Statement on Increased Border Prosecutions
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is profoundly disappointed by the Biden administration’s plans to increase federal criminal prosecutions of migrants accused of nothing more than crossing a border. Decades of data on prosecutions for border crossing make it clear: mass incarceration does not deter people fleeing persecution. Already immigration-related prosecutions account for over one-fourth of the federal criminal…
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Breaking Green: International Petition Filed on Behalf of COP City Protester Killed by Police with Anthony Enriquez
Tags Share On January 18th of last year, Manuel Esteban Páez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, a land defender protesting the construction of the police training complex “COP City” in Atlanta, Georgia, was killed by police gunfire. Authorities claim Tortuguita fired at officers, but forensic evidence suggests they were seated with their hands raised and…
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Does the perception of crime match reality?
Tags Share Speaking with Louisiana’s NBC Local 33, our VP of U.S. Advocacy & Litigation Anthony Enriquez analyzes the perception and politicization of “rising crime” – and advocates for alternatives to pro-prison policies.
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Behind The Headlines: Proposed Rollbacks Of Criminal Legal Reforms Disconnected From Reality
Tags Share In California, the nation’s most populous state, opponents of criminal legal reforms are supporting a ballot initiative that aims to overturn a decade’s worth of previous ballot initiatives that reduced jail time for a number of property and drug crimes. The proposed rollback is the latest pro-prison initiative to gain steam in recent…
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Truthout: Groups Bring Tortuguita’s Killing to International Human Rights Commission
Tags Share This month, several nonprofit organizations, including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the University of Dayton Human Rights Center, filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), requesting an investigation into the police killing of Manuel Terán, an activist known as “Tortuguita.” According to…
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Exclusive: groups call for US inquiry into police killing of ‘Cop City’ protester
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the University of Dayton Human Rights Center have filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, urging a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the police killing of “Cop City” protester Manuel Paez Terán. The petition demands the release…
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Manuel Esteban Paez Teran v. United States: Justice for murder of environmental activist
This case seeks reparative justice for the extrajudicial killing of Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Terán, the first environmental activist in modern U.S. history to have been shot and killed by police during a protest.
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Guards at Louisiana ICE facility accused of illegally pepper-spraying protestors
Tags Share In January 2024, ICE officers at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana pepper-sprayed hundreds of detainees who were participating in a peaceful demonstration and hunger strike. Guards retaliated by indiscriminately deploying pepper spray – an attack that blatantly violated individuals’ rights under the U.S. constitution, federal and state law, and ICE’s own legal standards…
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Cornell Law School: Immigration Clinic Visits Batavia Detention Center
Tags Share In March 2024, Cornell Law students and faculty from the 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic visited the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY, to provide legal assistance to detained immigrants. Partnering with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the NYCLU, and Prisoners’ Legal Services of NY, the team met with detainees to…
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Solitary Confinement: VP Anthony Enriquez on Alarming Trends, Misconceptions, and Why the Practice Should be Banned
Tags Share In a brief video, Anthony Enriquez, Vice President of U.S. Advocacy and Litigation, urges an end to solitary confinement in United States prisons and detention centers. The United States locks up over 122,000 people in solitary on any given day, at odds with international legal guidance like the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules…
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Campaign to end solitary confinement gains national momentum
Tags Share Propelled by human rights groups and grassroots organizations, the campaign to end the torture of solitary confinement is gaining national momentum. In December, Senator Edward J. Markey introduced the End Solitary Confinement Act, historic legislation that would end solitary confinement in federal prisons, jails, and detention centers, with limited exceptions. Last summer, Congresswoman…
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