Guantanamo: 20 Years Later, Closure of Prison Still Pending 

The Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for Justice and International Law - CEJIL addressed the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) today in a public hearing held to monitor the current state of the precautionary measures granted to protect detainees held at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. 

Guantánamo Bay detention camp opened in January 2002. Since then, it has held nearly 800 prisoners, all Muslim men and boys from around the world. In March 2002, the Inter-American Commission issued precautionary measures to protect the men detained at Guantánamo Bay. Since 2013, the IACHR has called for the immediate closure of Guantánamo due to the indefinite detention of the prisoners and allegations of abuse and mistreatment.  

At the hearing, the Center for Constitutional Rights and CEJIL emphasized that the United States’ non-compliance with these precautionary measures for more than 20 years is unacceptable. Today, 36 men remain at Guantánamo.

Learn more on our website.

A Splendid Body of Tigerish People! 

“Magical!” “Powerful!” “Glorious!” “It was so nice to be together again!”

These are the words of guests who attended the return of our annual donor thank you event, A Splendid Body of Tigerish People. On Tuesday, the Center for Constitutional Rights family gathered in solidarity and gratitude for our generous supporters and in celebration of the activists, lawyers, and storytellers who are fiercely committed to the fight for a just world. Our 2022 Tigerish honorees: Joy and Jo Banner, Co-Founders of the The Descendants Project, Marbre Stahly-Butts, Executive Director of Law for Black Lives, and Jeffery Robinson, Founder/CEO of The Who We Are Project. Our client Ashley Diamond was the very first recipient of our Justice Takes A Fight Award.

“The Activist Files” Podcast: Movement Building in the South: At 90, Legendary Highlander Center Looks Back & Forward 

This year marks the 90th anniversary of our longtime ally and current partner, the Highlander Research and Education Center, the storied school that’s helped nurture the Black freedom struggle and other social movements across the South. 

For this month’s episode of the Activist Files, co-executive directors Ash-Lee Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele chat with Emily Early and Jess Vossburgh from our Southern Regional Office about Highlander’s singular role as a training ground and meeting spot – the place where Rosa Parks took a workshop, Martin Luther King spoke, and John Lewis had his first integrated meal. Ash-Lee and Allyn discuss the centrality of the Black freedom movement to other liberation movements, stress the importance of joy, storytelling, and cross-racial solidarity in movement-building, and celebrate the resilience and love that have enabled them to withstand repeated attacks from white supremacists. 

Highlander’s 90th year, they say, is an occasion for looking ahead, for envisioning and planning to build a new world, one grounded in sharing and interdependence. The dire state of the country – “for some of us, fascism is already here” – makes this task all the more urgent, they say. 

Listen to the episode on our website.

The case against ALEC lawmakers continues in Arizona Supreme Court 

On November 15, the Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance (APSA), Black Lives Matter (BLM) Phoenix Metro, Mijente, and Puente will continue their fight against the corporate-led American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the Arizona Supreme Court. 

ALEC provides a ‘pay-to-play’ membership system in which its corporate members pay high fees in return for closed-door meetings with lawmakers to deliberate, draft, and vote on “model bills,” which are later introduced by ALEC-affiliated state lawmakers across the country. ALEC boasts that approximately one third of all state lawmakers are members. They are required to sign “loyalty oaths” to “put the interests of [ALEC] first.” Between 2010 and 2018, ALEC’s “model bills” were introduced nearly 2,900 times, and more than 600 became law.

The groups will join the Center for Constitutional Rights and the People's Law Firm for oral argument in court from 10 a.m., and will hold a press conference outside the courthouse at 1:30 p.m. 

Visit our website for more information.