Home : Human Rights

ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Declare Guantánamo Bay Military Commissions Illegal (03/28/2006)
NEW YORK – Describing the military commissions at Guantánamo Bay as unfair and unlawful, the American Civil Liberties Union urged the Supreme Court to halt their use in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (05-184), which is being argued today.

Advocates Urge Accountability for U.S. Abuse of Power and Hurricane Katrina’s Human Rights Crisis (03/16/2006)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Human Rights Network today urged the U.N. Human Rights Committee to hold the U.S. government accountable for flagrant and repeated violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

ACLU Calls on U.N. Human Rights Committee to Hold U.S. Government Accountable (03/13/2006)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today criticized the United States for violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a major human rights treaty the U.S. ratified in 1992. In remarks to the 86th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the ACLU called for a rigorous investigation into violations of the treaty.

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.