Human Rights

Monet Painting Is Latest Chapter in Fight for Ferdinand Marcos's Cash

Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda collected lots of art. They bought the works using the country's public funds. Many decorated the presidential palace in Manila. Others hung in the Philippines consulate in New York City or in Imelda's Upper East Side town house. By the time ... More >>

Psssst, Obama! Mention Something About the State of Civil Liberties Tonight

In the most non-rightblogger tone possible, Obama has been on quite a roll when it comes to his administration's assault on civil liberties lately. Not one, not two, but three different pieces of legislation and policy with the potential to drastically infringe on the civil liberties of Americans ... More >>

New Report Documents Human Rights Violations In Police Response To Occupy Wall Street

A newly released report by human rights lawyers documents widespread police abuse of the rights of Occupy Wall Street protesters. Over 195 pages, the report offers the most detailed and comprehensive accounting yet of the New York Police Department's response to the Occupy Wall Street movement, fro ... More >>

NYCLU Pushes Legislation To Curb Discrimination Against Transgender New Yorkers

New Yorkers are legally protected against discrimination based on race, sex, sexual orientation, or disability -- which means people who fall under any of those categories cannot lose access to homes, jobs, and other services because of their racial, sexual, or physical identities. Currently, howe ... More >>

Londoners See a Disaster, But Scientology Sees an Opportunity!

​Some (mostly annoying) Scientology updates today while we wait for tomorrow's big reveal in our countdown: In the suburbs of London (and in nearby Birmingham), where rioting has reached end-times proportions, Scientology's "Volunteer Ministers" have been spotted in their yellow jackets, hand ... More >>

Shahawar Matin Siraj, Newburgh 4 and the Fort Dix 5: All Lured Into Terror Plot By Overzealous FBI Informants, New Report Claims

​A new report out of the NYU Law School slams the feds and the NYPD for conduct in three recent terrorism cases, saying that the government should end the practice of sending "paid informants into Muslim communities or families without any particularized suspicion of criminal activity." The ... More >>

Ruckus in Bahrain: Activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja Beaten and Dragged From His Home

Alkhawaja: Beaten in Bahrain​Leading Bahraini human-rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja was beaten bloody and dragged out of his house by government police over the weekend in Manama, his daughter (and former Fulbright Fellow at Brown University) Maryam Alkhawaja tells the Voice. Abdulhadi Al ... More >>

Maikel Nabil, Egyptian Blogger, Sentenced to 3 Years in Jail for Criticizing Military

​Maikel Nabil, a 25-year-old Egyptian blogger, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison after criticizing the military for supporting "the corruption and anti-democratic practices" of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Nabil, who describes himself on Twitter as an "Egyptian Blogger, Activ ... More >>

Artist Ai Weiwei Arrested in Beijing

​Ai Weiwei, one of China's best-known artists and a vocal critic of the Chinese government , has been arrested at the airport in Beijing. Ai was put under house arrest last year and has been harassed by officials in the past, including a forced demolition of his Shanghai studio, but now it seems t ... More >>

Patriot Act Fail Is A Civil Liberties Win, For Now

​The House of Representatives failed on Tuesday night to extend three security measures in the post-9/11 Patriot Act, voting 277-148 to push the provisions through 2011, but failing to reach the required two-thirds majority, the Washington Post reports. For those doing math at home, that's sev ... More >>

Asylum Denied

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum.

Giving Voice to the Cause, the Rallying Cry of Human Rights Watch

Orly Taitz, Top Birther, Cites a "Suspected Assassination Attempt," Applies for U.N. Protection

​Having had no luck in U.S. courts getting President Obama thrown out of office because he was born outside the United States, alpha birther Orly Taitz is applying to the United Nations for "urgent action under the mandate for human rights defenders." Taitz, who claims to have "been the victi ... More >>

Getting Our Reputation Back

People around the world who aren’t our enemies now distrust us as allies

Congress and the Disappeared

Still waiting for our representatives—and presidential candidates—to address criminal U.S. kidnappings

How We Delight Our Enemies

A former light unto the world, We, the People, have been darkened by this administration

History Will Not Absolve Us

Leaked Red Cross report sets up Bush team for international war-crimes trial

Busting the Merchant of War

The Bush administration finally nails a notorious supplier to terrorists—after he spent 30 years hiding in plain sight

The Torture Doctors

These physicians have a strange way of preserving the American way of life

The New Americanism

Through the new Congress, we can begin to take back our country from George III's descendants

Do You Miss Our Constitution?

No previous American law has been as subversive as the Military Commissions Act of 2006

Our Human Rights Show

Countries abusing their prisoners say they are following America's practices

See You Annan

Leaving the United Nations, the Secretary General tells us why it's not working.

A Question of 'Compromise'

McCain's deal on prisoners means White House lawlessness rolls on

Stoning Women to Death

Coming soon to the United Nations: Iran's chief executioner of women

Rabbis Against Torture

Invoking centuries of Jewish law, hundreds of American rabbis confront Bush

CIA Secret Prisons Exposed

The disappeared: Are they dead? Are they alive? Ask Congress. Ask the president.

Hair Traffic

Your extensions look hot—except maybe for the roots

The CIA's 'Black Sites'

What are we going to do with the secret prisoners who cannot be tried in our courts?

Anatomy of a Murder

Not only our enemies around the world scoff when Bush speaks of human rights

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The Bush team chants, 'We do not torture,' but nobody around the world believes them

The Orange Revolution's Message

You can help free a Cuban prisoner of conscience from a windowless underground cell

Bush's Spin Doctor

Condoleezza Rice's failed European mission to reignite faith in U.S. rule of law

The Broken Constitution

More eyewitnesses to U.S. torture of detainees pierce the Bush administration's cover-up

Doctors Assisting Torture

The medical art of breaking down prisoners in our war against international terrorism

Castro's Black Prisoner

A follower of Martin Luther King and Gandhi in Fidel's custody for 22 more years

The Global Theater of Forgiveness

The late philosopher asks: if the whole world confesses, who's behind the screen?

Whitewashing Rumsfeld

Circling the wagons around the defense secretary and his commander in chief

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolfowitz

He Bungled Iraq, the Pentagon, and East Timor. Look Out, World Bank—Here He Comes

A U.S. Library vs. Fidel

A library defies Castro and the American Library Association on Freedom to Read

The Ghosts of Torture

New attorney general twists the rule of law to which he is 'deeply committed'

What Did Rumsfeld Know?

ACLU releases documents of U.S. torture of detainees by more than 'a few bad apples'

Letters

Torture as Foreign Policy

The House Republican leadership authorizes torture in our war against terrorism

Oil Fuels Genocide

The only chance for the survivors of Darfur may be a mass divestment campaign

The Ghost Prisoners

Exposing our secret interrogation centers—around and outside our laws

Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign

Confronting poverty with action

U.N. Disgraces Itself

'Never again,' said secretary general Kofi Annan after Rwanda. Corpses are back.

The Sudan Genocide

Arab Muslims Are Viciously Killing and Raping Black Muslims. So Where Is the World?

The Hidden Supreme Court

Test yourselves: How many of you can recognize the nine most powerful Americans?