Human Rights

ABA initiative pulls out of Beijing amid uncertainty caused by law regulating foreign nonprofits

A new Chinese law regulating foreign nonprofits took effect on Sunday, and there is uncertainty about how it will affect an ABA initiative and other nongovernmental organizations in the country. It’s unclear how the new law will be enforced, though groups working on issues like human rights, legal reform and…

Jan 3, 2017 3:40 PM CST

Erasing the News: Should some stories be forgotten?

The media and lawyers wrestle with the question: Should some stories be forgotten? An uptick in requests has followed EU support for removing access to online info.

Jan 1, 2017 12:10 AM CST

International human rights tribunal discusses low asylum grant rates in US immigration court

The Organization of American States heard complaints this month about widely varying rates of granting asylum at different U.S. immigration courts. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of OAS, held a hearing Dec. 9 (PDF) entitled “Human Rights Situation of Asylum Seekers in the United States,” focused on the…

Dec 20, 2016 5:00 PM CST

Jailhouse Warehouse: The nation’s jails are housing more mentally ill people than hospitals

Across the nation, about 383,000 inmates with serious mental illness sit in jails and state prisons. That’s 10 times as many people as in state hospitals, according to the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center. Read this ABA Journal feature recently honored by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

Dec 1, 2016 4:30 AM CST

A seismic shift in how the US wages war, and what it means for the American public (podcast)

What is war? Is it a state that is entirely distinct from peace? Has it changed over the years to become something else? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Georgetown law professor Rosa Books shares the experiences she had in the U.S. government which led her to write her new book, “How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon.”

Sep 21, 2016 8:04 AM CDT

States not reporting deaths in police custody are still getting DOJ funds

Several law enforcement agencies are not reporting deaths in custody to a Justice Department program, despite the risk of losing federal funding. The Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 requires that states submit the name, age, race, sex, along with the circumstance of the death for each decedent, the…

Sep 14, 2016 10:45 AM CDT

Lawyer in El Salvador says clients were charged with abortion crimes after suffering miscarriages

Dennis Muñoz grew up in a conservative El Salvadorian family, and while the birth of his daughter inspired him to become an attorney, he never anticipated that he’d become known as the county’s “abortion lawyer,” the New York Times reports. The title seems somewhat misleading. Muñoz represents women in El…

Sep 13, 2016 3:31 PM CDT

ABA expresses concern about assassination of bar president in Pakistan, suicide attack on lawyers

ABA President Linda Klein has sent a letter to the prime minister of Pakistan expressing concern about the assassination of a local bar president and a suicide attack at a hospital that killed at least 70 people, most of them lawyers. Klein urges authorities to commit appropriate resources to the…

Aug 23, 2016 8:56 AM CDT

ABA urges 11th Circuit to strike down bail schedules as unconstitutional

For the second time this year, the American Bar Association has urged a federal appeals court to strike down a bail schedule that it says unnecessarily jails indigent defendants. The ABA’s most recent amicus brief (PDF) was filed in Walker v. City of Calhoun, Georgia, in which a group of…

Aug 18, 2016 4:00 PM CDT

ABA condemns mass detentions and arrests of Turkish legal community

In the wake of a failed coup attempt by the Turkish military, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrested about 3,000 lawyers, judges and journalists in the country without charges or access to counsel. On Tuesday morning, the ABA’s House of Delegates condemned any state’s detention of people without charge or…

Aug 9, 2016 3:32 PM CDT

Chinese lawyer Wang Yu given ABA International Human Rights Award in absentia

ABA leaders and members of China’s community of dissidents-in-exile living in the United States packed a meeting room at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco on Saturday morning for the presentation of the ABA’s inaugural International Human Rights Award. But one key figure was conspicuously absent from the…

Aug 6, 2016 4:36 PM CDT

How should the United States balance border security and human rights?

Concerns about national security have driven much of our recent immigration policy—and many of the discussions taking place in the current U.S. presidential election. But how do policymakers balance those concerns with the rights of American citizens and the human rights of people seeking refuge from violence overseas? Two panels…

Aug 6, 2016 4:25 PM CDT

Chinese human rights lawyer is sentenced to prison

A Chinese human rights lawyer will go to prison on a charge of subverting state power. The lawyer, Zhou Shifeng, was sentenced to seven years in prison Thursday, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) report. He was the…

Aug 4, 2016 3:40 PM CDT

Detained Chinese human rights lawyer who is due to receive ABA award issues ‘confession’

A jailed Chinese human rights lawyer who is due to receive the ABA’s first International Human Rights Award in absentia has reportedly been released on bail after delivering a videotaped “confession.” In the video released by Chinese media, Wang Yu said “foreign forces” were using her law firm, Fengrui, to…

Aug 1, 2016 11:35 AM CDT

ABA calls on Turkey to follow rule of law; about 3,000 judges and prosecutors are targeted

ABA President Paulette Brown has issued a statement asking Turkey to ensure respect for the rule of law as it restores order after the thwarted coup attempt. Brown’s statement expresses support for Turkey’s right to defend its democratically elected government, but it calls on the government to act with fairness…

Jul 19, 2016 2:26 PM CDT