American Civil Liberties Union

The ACLU Human Rights Program works to ensure that the U.S. government complies with universal human rights principles in addition to the U.S. Constitution. The Program uses human rights strategies to complement existing ACLU advocacy on national security, immigrants' rights, women's rights and racial justice. Learn more about the Human Rights Program.


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Human Rights : General : Press Releases

Closing Abu Ghraib Won’t End Abuse, ACLU Chief Says (03/09/2006)
NEW YORK -- Saying that abuse of detainees by U.S. forces stems from policy decisions made by senior military and civilian officials, the American Civil Liberties Union today said the closure of Abu Ghraib prison will not end widespread and systemic abuse.

New Documents Provide Further Evidence That Senior Officials Approved Abuse of Prisoners at Guantánamo (02/23/2006)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today released newly obtained documents showing that senior Defense Department officials approved aggressive interrogation techniques that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents deemed abusive, ineffective and unlawful.

ACLU Calls for Immediate Government Action at Guantánamo Bay (02/17/2006)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today lauded the United Nations report on the detainees at Guantánamo Bay as a significant step toward urging U.S. compliance with international law. The ACLU called for the administration to heed the recommendations in the UN report and immediately charge and try the detainees or release them.

New Abu Ghraib Photos Confirm Need for Independent Counsel, ACLU Says (02/15/2006)
NEW YORK - In response to newly released images of abuse at Abu Ghraib, the American Civil Liberties Union today renewed its call for an independent investigation into widespread and systemic abuse in U.S. detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.

New Army Documents Confirm Black Ops "Special Access Program" Unit Covered Up Detainee Abuse (01/12/2006)
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today released new documents obtained from the Defense Department detailing abuse at U.S. facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Included in the release is the first publicly available government document confirming the existence of a secret “Special Access Program” involving a special ops unit, Task Force 6-26, which has been implicated in numerous detainee abuse incidents in Iraq, and whose operatives used fake names to thwart an Army investigation.

Mother of Slain Children Takes Case to International Tribunal (12/27/2005)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of Jessica Gonzales, the mother of three girls killed by her estranged husband whose domestic violence protection claims were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. The petition, the first of its kind, asserts that domestic violence victims have the right to be protected by the state from the violent acts of their abusers.

ACLU Challenges CIA Refusal to Admit Existence of Presidential Order on Detention Facilities Abroad (12/12/2005)
NEW YORK -- In the wake of controversy over CIA “extraordinary rendition” policies and secret prisons, the American Civil Liberties Union has asked a federal court to reconsider its previous decision to uphold the CIA’s refusal to even admit the existence of two key documents on interrogation techniques and detention facilities abroad.

U.S. Operatives Killed Detainees During Interrogations in Afghanistan and Iraq (10/24/2005)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today made public an analysis of new and previously released autopsy and death reports of detainees held in U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom died while being interrogated. The documents show that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation and to hot and cold environmental conditions.

Court Orders Release of Images of Detainee Abuse at Abu Ghraib (09/29/2005)
NEW YORK - A federal judge has ordered the release of photos and videos of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, saying that the photos may answer important questions about government accountability. In seeking the release of the images, the American Civil Liberties Union and its allies said the images are a critical component in the quest for public accountability.

New Documents Contradict Army Report Denying Systemic Failures in Treatment of Detainees (09/15/2005)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today made public more than 1,800 pages documenting the investigation into at least three military units' detainee operations in Iraq. Among the documents were reports of untrained soldiers using interrogation techniques they "remembered from the movies," as well as reports of deaths that could have been prevented with proper training.

ACLU Responds to Court Ruling Upholding Detention of Jose Padilla (09/09/2005)
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union expressed disappointment at today's ruling upholding the military detention of Jose Padilla, and reversing a trial court decision that had ordered the government either to criminally charge him or to release him.

Innocent Civilian Held in Iraq Released Days After ACLU Files Lawsuit (09/06/2005)
LOS ANGELES -- The American Civil Liberties Union today celebrated the release of a long-time U.S. resident who was being held in Iraq by the U.S. military. The release came less than a week after the ACLU filed a lawsuit against top U.S. officials, almost two months after a military court declared Numan Adnan Al Kaby innocent and just two days before a judge was to hear his case in Washington.

ACLU Calls On U.S. Government to Release Innocent Civilian Held in Iraq (08/31/2005)
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today against top U.S. officials demanding the release of a legal permanent resident of the United States who is in custody in a U.S. military jail in Iraq after being declared innocent by a military court eight weeks ago.

At Public Hearing Today, ACLU to Argue for Release of Photographs and Videos Depicting Detainee Abuse (08/30/2005)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union will again appear before a federal judge Tuesday, August 30, to seek the release of Defense Department photographs and videotapes depicting the abuse of prisoners held by the United States at Abu Ghraib.

Update in ACLU Torture FOIA Lawsuit (08/19/2005)
Following a two-hour closed hearing in New York on August 15, a federal judge ordered the government to reveal blacked-out portions of its legal papers arguing against the release of images depicting abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib.

Diplomats Should Keep their Own Houses in Order, Advocates for Domestic Workers Say (04/07/2005)
GENEVA -- Andolan, Global Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union are convening a panel in Geneva today to address specific concerns about migrant domestic workers employed by international organizations, including the United Nations and the broader diplomatic community.

Global Lens Focused on U.S. Torture and Detention Policies (04/04/2005)
GENEVA - The American Civil Liberties Union today called for immediate action by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to address the abuse and torture of prisoners by the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq, and at other U.S.-controlled detention centers.

ACLU Calls for United States to Respect Universal Human Rights at Home and Abroad (04/01/2005)
GENEVA -- A delegation of attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union arrived in Geneva this morning to attend the 61st meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The delegation seeks to bring issues of torture and detention, racial profiling and the exploitation of migrant domestic workers in the U.S. to the Commission's attention.

Citing Growing Abuses, ACLU Intensifies International Human Rights Advocacy in the United States (12/06/2004)
NEW YORK - Intensifying its efforts to hold the United States government accountable under universally recognized human rights principles, the American Civil Liberties Union today announced that it has hired three full-time advocates to apply human rights strategies to the ACLU's work on national security issues, immigrants' rights, women's rights, and criminal justice.

Federal Government Turns Over Thousands of Torture Documents to ACLU (10/21/2004)
NEW YORK-The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union today said that they have received from the federal government nearly 6,000 pages of documents related to the abuse of prisoners at overseas detention facilities, including almost all of the annexes to the Taguba report concerning abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

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