Posts Tagged ‘Criminal justice’
December 14, 2016
A bit belatedly here is the ‘news’ that on 17 November 2016, Andrea James and Glenn E. Martin, leading human rights defenders working to reform the criminal justice system in the United States, received the 2016 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. “Andrea and Glenn are precisely the moral leaders our country needs to solve one of our most pressing human rights problems here at home: a broken criminal justice system that unjustly targets communities of color and the poor,” said Kerry Kennedy, President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “This is the civil and human rights issue of our time. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is proud to recognize Andrea’s and Glenn’s remarkable achievements with this award, and to partner with them moving forward on this important work.”
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Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Andrea James, Criminal justice, Glenn E. Martin, human rights award, human rights lawyers, incarcerations, law reform, prison, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, USA
November 7, 2016
The University of Michigan’s 2016/17 Wallenberg Medal has been awarded to civil rights lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson. He is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization he founded in 1989 that focuses on social justice and human rights in the context of criminal justice reform in the United States. EJI litigates on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged, poor people denied effective representation, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct. Under Stevenson’s direction, EJI has handled hundreds of cases and spared the lives of 125 death row prisoners. Stevenson’s arguments have convinced the U.S. Supreme Court that juveniles in non-homicide cases may not be sentenced to life without parole. He is creating a memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, to commemorate the more than 4,000 persons who were lynched in 12 southern states between 1871 and 1950.
Stevenson is a professor of law at New York University, where he prepares students to consider the legal needs of those in resource-deprived regions. He has been a visiting professor of law at the U-M Law School. He wrote the prize-winning book “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” and has won numerous awards and honors, including Reebok Award (1989), the Gleitsman Award (2000). the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award Prize, the ACLU National Medal of Liberty, the Olaf Palme Prize for international human rights (2000), the Gruber Prize for International Justice (2009) and the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award.
Raoul Wallenberg was a 1935 graduate of U-M’s College of Architecture. As a Swedish diplomat Wallenberg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews near the end of World War II.
NOTE: There are at least two other awards with Wallenberg in the title:
- Raoul Wallenberg Prize (Council of Europe )
- Raoul Wallenberg and Civic Courage Awards (USA), and there is
- the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (Lund, Sweden)
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: academic, anti-racism, awards, Bryan Stevenson, Criminal justice, death penalty, Equal Justice Initiative, human rights award, human rights lawyer, Michigan, profiles, USA, Wallenberg Medal
May 1, 2014
Human Rights Defenders do not only suffer repression but campaign to get things improved. Success is not always as widely reported as drama, so I draw your attention to the AP story (as it appeared in the Washington Post of 1 May 2014) that Mexico’s parliamentarians have unanimously agreed to change Mexico’s military justice code that will allow members of the armed forces who commit crimes against civilians to be tried in civilian courts. This is a historic change that human rights defenders have been demanding for years.
[The changes come after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in five cases filed by Mexicans who suffered abuse at the hands of soldiers. It ordered that those cases be tried in civilian courts and told Mexico to change its military code of justice.]
Mario Patron, deputy director of Mexico’s Human Rights Centre Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez, said the military code “was subjecting civilian victims to a jurisdiction that is neither independent nor impartial.” He said the reform is a clear step forward, but suggested that cases of soldiers whose human rights have been violated by other soldiers should also go to civilian court
Mexico lawmakers OK civilian courts for soldiers – The Washington Post.
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Tags: civilian courts, Criminal justice, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, Law, Mexico, military courts, military justice code, Parliament, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
November 23, 2013
A report issued on 18 November 18, 2013 by the American Bar Association, Georgetown Human Rights Institute, and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, entitled “Tilted Scales: Social Conflict and Criminal Justice in Guatemala” describes how human rights defenders, civil society organizations, and indigenous community groups in Guatemala operate in a dangerous environment where they live under constant threat. “The Guatemalan judicial system is being utilized to harass and intimidate human rights defenders, especially in the context of disputes between businesses and indigenous communities over property rights and land use” said Santiago A. Canton, Director of Partners for Human Rights at the RFK Center. “Human rights defenders and indigenous leaders are targeted with threats and violence, and find themselves faced with false criminal charges, while their perpetrators go unpunished.”
Attorneys and civil society leaders reported that disputes between indigenous communities and extractive companies resulted from the governments failure to hold culturally appropriate, prior consultations in good faith as required under international law. The report also questions the compliance of multilateral banks and multinational corporations with international standards. RFK Center President Kerry Kennedy added that “Many defenders report that ex-military officers who committed abuses during the internal armed conflict are now intimidating locals and committing crimes with impunity in the communities where they work.” The authors explain that defenders must contend with widely published derogatory and inflammatory statements against them, in addition to the possibility of being physically attacked or falsely accused of a crime. “Peaceful human rights activists have been labeled as terrorists by prominent commentators, including leaders affiliated with business interests” said Katharine Valencia co-author of the report. The report emphasizes the Guatemalan governments obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights to protect the physical integrity of citizens; guarantee the independence of judicial authorities; thoroughly and impartially investigate allegations of criminal activity; and protect against arbitrary detention and prolonged, unjustified pretrial detention. The report also stresses that prior to the development of projects in indigenous territories, the state must engage in good-faith, culturally appropriate, and fully informed consultations with affected communities. Finally, the report calls upon extractive industries and financial institutions to justly compensate communities that have been displaced or otherwise adversely impacted by business activity, and urges compliance with reparations agreements related to the internal armed conflict.
via New Report: Guatemala Must Immediately Protect Human Rights Defenders – The Paramus Post – Greater Paramus News and Lifestyle Webzine.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: American Bar Association, Civil society, corporate accountability, Criminal justice, environmental issues, Georgetown Human Rights Institute, Guatemala, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, independence of the judiciary, Indigenous People, Kerry Kennedy, local communities, resource extraction, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Santiago Canton
April 27, 2013
I am re-publishing this excellent editorial that appeared in the Bangkok Post of 25 Apr 2013 about the lack of protection for environmental human rights defenders in Thailand. If only more newspapers carried such succinct and clear opinions:
“The rally in front of the Appeal Court on Tuesday by 300 residents from Prachuap Khiri Khan to demand transparency in the murder case of environment defender Charoen Wat-aksorn attracted scant media attention.That is not surprising at all as most mainstream media have lost interest in the case, which has dragged on for almost a decade since the victim’s murder on June 21, 2004, regrettably with justice yet to be served _ at least in the mind of Charoen’s widow, his friends and supporters. It is understandable why these rural residents had to travel from their hometown more than 200 kilometres away to gather in front of the court, albeit in a peaceful and civilised manner, to demonstrate their “reaction” against the courts recent acquittal of the last suspect in Charoen’s murder case, 51-year-old Thanu Hinkaew. Their presence in Bangkok was not meant to protest against the Appeal Courts acquittal but merely to seek an explanation from the court and to ensure the case would be treated with transparency when prosecutors appeal against the verdict to the Supreme Court. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: Appeal Court, Appellate court, Bangkok, Bangkok Post, Charoen Wat-aksorn, Chiang Mai, Criminal justice, disappearances, environmental issues, Human right, Human Rights Defenders, illegal logging, murder, Prachuap Khiri Khan, protection
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 