Home : Human Rights

New Government Report Reveals 2,500 Youths Held In Military Custody Abroad (05/14/2008)
NEW YORK - In a supplemental report to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) made public today, the U.S. government revealed that it has no comprehensive policy in place for dealing with youth detained by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, including nearly 2,500 youths under the age of 18 that have been held in U.S.-run facilities overseas to date. In a separate report, the American Civil Liberties Union charged that the lack of safeguards in place for the treatment of youth under the age of 18 in U.S. military custody violates internationally accepted standards.

Military Recruitment Practices Violate International Standards, Says ACLU (05/13/2008)
NEW YORK – The United States has failed to uphold its commitments to safeguard the rights of youth under 18 from military recruitment and to guarantee basic protections to foreign former child soldiers, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released today. The report, "Soldiers of Misfortune," charges that U.S. military recruiting practices that target children as young as 11, the lack of protections for alleged foreign child soldiers in U.S. military custody, and the denial of protection to former child soldiers from other countries seeking asylum violate the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict that the U.S. ratified in 2002.

Fourth Annual ACLU Congress On Civil Liberties In Puerto Rico Begins Today (05/01/2008)
MIRAMAR, PR – Victims of some of the worst cases of police brutality in United States history will join the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Puerto Rico to address issues of police brutality and racial discrimination at the Fourth Annual Congress on Civil Liberties in Puerto Rico beginning today.

International Human Rights Experts Denounce U.S. Record On Racial And Ethnic Discrimination (03/07/2008)
GENEVA -- A United Nations committee today issued a strongly worded critique of the United States' record on racial discrimination and urged the government to make sweeping reforms to policies affecting racial and ethnic minorities, women, and immigrants in this country. The American Civil Liberties Union called on the U.S. government to take vigorous steps to implement the committee's recommendations and fulfill its human rights treaty obligations.

Glaring Omissions In U.S. Testimony On Racial And Ethnic Discrimination, Says ACLU (02/22/2008)
NEW YORK - The U.S. government failed to adequately address problems of widespread racial and ethnic discrimination in America at hearings before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva that ended today, despite testimony from the American Civil Liberties Union and dozens of human rights groups highlighting the existence of pervasive racism in this country. While the government delegation pointed to existing laws designed to protect civil rights, the committee noted that the U.S. often adopts narrow legal interpretations that prevent their enforcement.

ACLU In Geneva To Testify On Ongoing Racial And Ethnic Injustice (02/18/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union will be in Geneva this week to testify before the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on the contents of a flawed U.S. government report that underreported the state of racial discrimination in the United States. In December 2007, the ACLU released a responsive independent shadow report highlighting the pervasive institutional, systemic and structural racism in America. The U.N. committee reviewed the ACLU and other NGOs’ reports before determining what questions it will ask the U.S. government at this week’s hearings.

Special U.N. Rapporteur on Human Rights Calls for Granting of Habeas Corpus Rights to Prisoners and an End to Indefinite Detentions (12/12/2007)
GENEVA – The United Nation's independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism today urged the United States to release all people detained as "enemy combatants," close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and abolish military commissions.

New ACLU Report Details Pervasive Racial Discrimination in America (12/10/2007)
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today released a comprehensive analysis of the pervasive institutionalized, systemic and structural racism in America. The report, Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice, is a response to the U.S. report to the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) released earlier this year. The U.S. report, which the ACLU called a "whitewash," swept under the rug the dramatic effects of widespread racial and ethnic discrimination in this country.

Abused Domestic Workers of Diplomats Seek Justice From International Commission (11/15/2007)
NEW YORK –Domestic workers who were exploited and abused in the U.S. by foreign diplomats petitioned an international commission today because U.S. domestic law denies them their rights and a way to seek justice.

Government Defies Recommendations of U.N. Committee on Torture (11/07/2007)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today blasted the government's one year follow-up report to the U.N. Committee Against Torture. The report was recently submitted to the committee in Geneva and was made public Tuesday. Following a 2006 committee review that found widespread evidence of U.S sponsored policies involving torture and abuse, the committee gave the U.S. one year to report on its progress in ending these practices. But the new report proves the U.S. is still not in compliance with the treaty, said the ACLU.

ACLU Releases Scathing Analysis of Government’s Report to UN Committee on Racial Discrimination (06/13/2007)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today released a scathing preliminary analysis of a recent government report to a United Nations committee about the state of racial discrimination in the United States. The report was submitted to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva.