This week, the U.S. government was meant to be reviewed at the United Nations as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, a peer-to-peer assessment of every country’s human rights record. In August, the Trump administration withdrew from the process and the U.S. is set to become the first country ever to avoid review . There will be more developments coming from Geneva later this week, but for now we wanted to share more about what this unprecedented moment means. The U.S. is pulling out of human rights mechanisms like the UPR so that it can get away with upending civil rights...
On May 4, 2016, CCR bestowed the Founders Award on Jules Lobel, our passionate cooperating attorney, board member since 1986, and current board president. Jules is the Bessie McKee Walthour Endowed...
Yesterday, CCR joined a coalition of over 100 groups to send a letter to members of the New York Legislature, urging lawmakers to oppose bills that would effectively create blacklists of individuals...
The Greater Los Angeles Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today announced the filing of a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of a Muslim-American woman who had her...
It’s now been nine months since the first news stories were published about a cancer cluster, possibly linked to the presence of environmental toxins, afflicting lawyers and other staff at the...
Last week , community members in San Jose, California spoke out at a forum on police body-cameras. Their number one concern: cameras being turned on or off “when police officers feel like it.” This...
Who will hold Israel accountable? The answer, so far, is no one. But on this rare trip to the U.S., I am seeing signs that suggest the dam is breaking. The cracks in the dam are coming from civil...
Yesterday morning, the New York Times editorial board took note of Obama Administration’s latest policy inconsistency: fighting in the Supreme Court this week to halt deportations of many...
Last weekend, a group of formerly incarcerated people and their family members, social scientists, neuroscientists, medical researchers, reform-minded prison officials, litigators, activists, and UN...
“Nothing is impossible in life, as long as you live and breathe,” Mohammed Al-Hamiri once said, as he sat across the table from me and his CCR lawyer Omar Farah, in Guantanamo’s Camp Echo. I wanted...
CCR's Omar Farah describes Mohammed's and Tariq's reaction on hearing the news of their imminent release, and his own. "With your hands and your help, we’ll be able to close Guantanamo.” CCR clients...
Top photo credit: Giau Truong Beauty does not typically come to mind when you think of Guantánamo, but it’s a central theme in artists Aaron Hughes and Amber Ginsburg ’s Tea Project , a collection of...
Amid a news cycle crowded with reports about Republican fearmongering and the Obama Administration’s bureaucratic paralysis on closing Guantánamo, a local news article last week from Fort Wayne,...
The 13 th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq came and went on March 19 with little public acknowledgment. Conversely, before the illegal U.S.-led invasion, under the false premise of halting a...
It was the year of the Apollo 14 moon landing. On March 1, the Weather Underground took credit for a bombing at the U.S. Capitol. Later in the year, the U.S. Supreme Court would rule unanimously that...
Out of the nearly 800 people who have been imprisoned at Guantánamo over the last fourteen years, only 8 have been convicted of a crime—that’s just 1%. Yet, Republicans, eager to keep the prison open...
By Dima Khalidi, director of Palestine Legal and cooperating counsel with CCR For us Palestinian-Americans, the height of election year means it is cringe season. The American Israel Public Affairs...
At the height of the NYPD’s unconstitutional and discriminatory stop-and-frisk program, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were being stopped every year for a “furtive movement.” Thousands more...
Many members of Congress continue to battle the structures funding our immigration detention system. Last week, a group of 56 members of the House of Representatives renewed the call for an end to...
On Tuesday, March 15, CCR Senior Staff Attorney argued before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in CCR's case challenging Communication Management Units in federal prisons. Check out her vlog...
