The Obama Administration is considering exemptions for people who have been mislabeled “terrorists” under U.S. immigration laws.  This is Julie’s story.

Arben is from Kosovo. When I married him, he was applying for asylum in the United States.  When he was told he had to leave the country, we had just bought a house.  Because I’m a U.S. citizen, our attorney recommended that Arben leave the U.S. and apply for an immigrant visa, so he did.

That was nearly four and a half years ago.

At his final interview at the U.S. embassy in Macedonia, in November 2010, Arben was told his visa had been denied.  The embassy wouldn’t explain why. The denial notice referred to “section 212(a)(3)(B).”  Neither of us knew what that was.  It wasn’t until I spoke to a lawyer in New York who had represented many Albanians that I understood the problem.

The State Department was saying Arben was a terrorist because for two months in the summer of 1998, he had been in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), or the UCK as they call it there.  I was shocked the U.S was treating my husband as a terrorist. The United States supported Kosovo’s independence.  I contacted the Kosovo embassy in Washington, and a rep told me that this was not possible, that the KLA was not listed as a terrorist organization.  It’s not.  But that doesn’t matter because the definition of an “undesignated” terrorist organization in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is so broad it captures hundreds of organizations, including the KLA, that the U.S. doesn’t consider “terrorist” in any other context.

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Sign: Alexei Voevodin in custody. © Kommersant

Russia’s antiracism campaigners welcome today’s verdict—an important victory in their struggle against a horrific problem. Racist violence has claimed 470 lives in Russia since 2004. The most reliable data on hate crimes comes not from state authorities but from the Moscow-based NGO SOVA Center, which is due to release its report for 2011 next month.

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Yesterday a South African court set an important precedent by sentencing four men to 18 years in prison for the brutal slaying of an openly lesbian woman, Zoliswa Nkonyana. The verdict sends a clear message that hate crimes will not be tolerated.

Local and international human rights groups have documented high levels of violence, including so-called “corrective” rapes, targeting lesbians in South Africa’s urban townships. Over the past year alone, other lesbians have been violently attacked:

• In September 2011, the body of Nontsikelelo Tyatyeka was found in a dustbin in Nyanga, Cape Town.
• On May 3, 2011, Nqobile Khumalo was attacked and murdered in KwaMashu township in Durban. Her ex-boyfriend confessed, saying he’d killed her because she’d left him for a woman. Khumalo was reportedly raped prior to her death.
• In March 2011, Nokuthula Radebe’s body was discovered in a playground in Soweto. Plastic covered the 20 year-old’s head; she’d been strangled with shoelaces. Nongovernmental groups believe she’d also been a victim of “corrective” rape.

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The government of Kazakhstan announced yesterday that leading human rights defender Yevgeniy Zhovtis has been granted amnesty after serving over two years in prison. Human Rights First and other international observers have called his conviction politically motivated and unlawful.  One of the most prominent activists in Central Asia, Zhovtis was convicted in 2009 in a trial that was illegitimate by both international and Kazakhstani standards.

We are delighted that Zhovtis will soon be reunited with his family and friends.  Secretary of State Clinton should be commended for discussing Zhovtis’s case during a visit to Kazakhstan in 2010, as should the U.S. mission that continued to follow his case.  However, the U.S. government should develop a consistent policy to guide Embassy engagement with human rights defenders around the globe.

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Twenty Bahraini medics tortured into making false confessions faced court on Monday to find out that the charges against them still haven’t been dropped.

The Bahrain government continues to pursue this baseless prosecution and others against people who are being targeted for exercising their freedom of expression. It’s time to stop.

Tell King Hamad of Bahrain: end the sham trials and drop baseless charges against the medics and other Bahrainis!

The Bahraini dictatorship targeted medics last year for treating wounded protestors and for telling the international media the truth about the regime’s violent crackdown. They joined other Bahrainis who were detained, tortured into false confessions, and subjected to sham trials for practicing their right to free expression and calling for democratic reforms. Military courts have sentenced many of them to between five and fifteen years in prison each.

Months after the Commission appointed by King Hamad issued its recommendations for reform, the monarchy continues its violent crackdown and sham trials. The anniversary of the start of Bahrain’s Arab Spring falls on February 14. If the Bahrain monarchy is truly serious about human rights reforms, it must stop the baseless prosecutions and drop charges against medics and peaceful protestors!

Tell King Al Khalifa to end the sham trials and show that his government is serious about human rights reforms.

The U.S. relationship with Indonesia has gotten extremely cozy. On January 24, attending a breakfast roundtable at the Indonesian Ambassador’s residence, I had an insight into this love-fest.

The Obama Administration has made it clear that it wants to increase the U.S. government’s influence in South East Asia.  A key part of this strategy is Indonesia, and the Indonesian government has been smart about leveraging U.S. interests for its own gain.  This relationship could be a good thing so long as human rights get their share of the attention.  The Obama administration should take advantage of this strengthened relationship by pushing for human rights progress.

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In anticipation of an upcoming diplomatic visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, Human Rights First calls on the U.S. government to make clear that China’s record on human rights remains a serious obstacle to US-China relations.  Xi, likely to succeed President Hu Jintao, is slated to visit Washington, D.C. in the coming months.

As the human rights situation in China continues to deteriorate, the U.S. decision to host the visit seems like a reward for bad behavior.  Liu Anjun, a Beijing-based rights lawyer, reported this week that Chinese authorities are ramping up the crackdown so far in 2012.  This week, capital defenders were detained in Beijing for petitioning for the release of fellow activists locked up in unofficial detention centers at Tiananmen Square. The use of these facilities, known locally as “black jails,” is becoming de rigeur as government repression continues unabated.

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One year ago, in a failed attempt to cling to power, Hosni Mubarak’s doomed government activated his country’s kill switch and shut down the internet and phone system. It was an unprecedented and desperate move, and it backfired. Egyptians flocked to Tahrir Square to raise their collective voices against the regime. But the image of the internet going dark was like the failing heartbeat of a dying patient.  It pointed to a government losing its grip, and it raised all kinds of uncomfortable questions: about governmental authority over Egypt’s ICT sector; the responsibilities of private telecommunications and internet companies operating in Egypt and in similar authoritarian countries; and the expectations of customers who rely on ICT services. We at Human Rights First have been examining these questions for the past year and offer these observations about what happened and some suggestions for a way forward.

All governments have “kill switch” authority, that is, the authority to commandeer or suspend private communications networks, typically for reasons of national security or natural disaster. Some are more democratic, and have more independent judiciaries than others. But the temptation to use this authority can overwhelm even the most democratic societies. Reports that rioters in London used RIM messaging service to organize last August prompted the Prime Minister to threaten a clampdown on social media sites.   Shortly thereafter, the   Bay Area Rapid Transit system shut off cellphone service to one of its stations in an attempt to thwart a planned protest there.

In the case of Egypt, the government owns enough of the infrastructure to shut down the network with or without private cooperation. For the last year, we’ve had an ongoing dialogue with Vodafone, the largest telecommunications service provider in Egypt, about their reaction to the shutdown. Based on the information they’ve provided us, we’ve reached the following conclusions.

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Today, the U.S. government exercised moral leadership when it argued before a full panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that private military contractors who commit torture should not be immune from civil suits.

The companion cases—Al Shimari v.CACI and Al-Quraishi v. Nakhla—were brought by 76 Iraqis who allege they were tortured and abused by U.S. private military contractors at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.  Among the alleged heinous acts: electric shocks, repeated brutal beatings, sleep and sensory deprivation, forced nudity, stress positions, sexual assault, mock executions, humiliation, hooding, isolated detention, and prolonged hanging by the limbs. Read More»

Find out more about the incidents of violence and harassment against LGBTI in Uganda

Though prosecutors eventually convicted David’s murderer, the initial government reaction, investigation, and trial did nothing to shed light on the possible homophobic motive. Nor did those actions in any way suggest that the government would finally pay attention to the serious rights abuses daily confronting Uganda’s LGBTI community. The murder occurred amid a rise of homophobic sentiment fostered in large part by religious and political leaders.  Homosexuality is a crime punishable by life in prison, and an anti-homosexuality bill that the Parliament has still not fully rejected would drastically increase sanctions for consensual homosexual acts. LGBTI Ugandans continue to suffer widespread discrimination, arbitrary arrests and detention, “correctional” rape and other forms of violence. Media outlets have publicized their names and pictures, causing them to lose their jobs, homes, and family support.

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