As Attorney General Eric Holder appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee, dozens of distinguished retired military leaders urged Congress to see past the fear-mongering, close the facility, and bring terrorist suspects to trial in federal courts.

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David Danzig, HRF's Deputy Program Director and Primetime Torture Project Director, is in Guantanamo this week to monitor a pretrial hearing in the case of Mohammed Kamin.

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In response to a newly released report on Hate Crime in the OSCE Region, Human Rights First and the Anti-Defamation League issued a reaction paper highlighting the inadequate government response to hate crime.

ODIHR Report
HRF Press Release
HRF/ADL Reaction Paper

Human Rights First hails the Obama Administration's decision to move five 9/11 defendants into federal court to face justice.

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Since 2001, U.S. immigration policy changes intended to protect the United States from terrorists are hurting thousands of legitimate refugees who pose no threat to the United States. A new Human Rights First report offers a series of recommendations to fix this serious problem.

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Read the full report / summary

Read Washington Post article on HRF report (11/12/09)

Listen to NPR/WAMU story on HRF report (11/13/09)

Christian Science Monitor Article on Agamez

Los Angeles Times Article on Agamez

Human Rights Defenders Program Manager, Andrew Hudson, gave the keynote address to an international forum on criminalization of human rights defenders in Guatemala – drawing on HRF’s successes in combating this problem in Colombia.

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A new report issued by the U.N. Panel of Experts on Sudan revealed continuing abuse in Darfur and blatant violations of the U.N. arms embargo. Human Rights First urges the Obama Administration to take immediate action.

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Read our blog on Huffington Post by Julia Fromholz (11/10/09)

Read our blog on Huffington Post by Ann-Louise Colgan (11/13/09)

Fact sheet on the United Nations arms embargo on Sudan

As the Obama Administration continues to weigh its options in Afghanistan, concerns remain surrounding whether there is a fair review of detentions at the Bagram detention facility. These concerns continue to affect local Afghan perception of the U.S. mission there.

Human Rights First published Undue Process, a report that discusses U.S. detention policies and is based on research in Afghanistan in April 2009 and firsthand interviews with former detainees held by the U.S. military at the Bagram detention facility. It was submitted to the Detention Task Force, CENTCOM, and Department of Defense in May 2009. A follow-up policy paper, Fixing Bagram, analyzes the reforms made by the Obama Administration in September 2009 and makes further recommendations.

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The largest bipartisan group of prominent Americans to propose a plan for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, coordinated by the Constitution Project and Human Rights First , has backed a single scheme for the disposition of cases of current and future detainees. Former members of Congress, diplomats, federal judges and prosecutors, high-level military and government officials, as well as national security experts (list attached) today backed a plan for the handling of detainees when the detention facility is closed.

Illian Deta Arta Sari and Emerson Yuntho, staff members of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), were named as suspects in a criminal defamation case for expressing their skepticism about the amount of money that prosecutors claimed to have saved the state through corruption prosecutions. Urge the Indonesian President to end the politically-motivated investigation of against them.  

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President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act, expanding the list of protected victim categories and enabling stronger government response to hate crime in the U.S. The new law should also enhance U.S. global leadership on combating hate violence.

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At a hearing "Human Rights Defenders in the Crosshairs: The Ongoing Crisis in Colombia," Senior Associate Andrew Hudson urged Congress to take decisive action to protect activists in Colombia.

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Article in The Christian Science Monitor
Article in The Miami Herald

At a hearing "Implications of the Promotion of 'Defamation of Religions,'" Director of Policy and Programs Tad Stahnke outlined ways for the U.S. to advance respect for freedom of expression while combating racial and religious discrimination and intolerance.

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Press Release

Read Huffington Post "Sanctions, Not Smiley Faces"

Human Rights First has chosen Colombian activist Gabriel Gonzalez as the 2009 recipient of its prestigious human rights award. After four months of delays the US government granted him a visa so he can receive the award on October 22.

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Read article in El Tiempo (in Spanish)

The Associated Press highlights the challenges facing newly arrived Iraqi refugees in this article and cites to Human Rights First's recent report "Promises to the Persecuted: The Refugee Act of 2008" – which revealed that just 20 percent of at least 20,000 Iraqis with American ties who've applied have arrived in the United States since 2003. HRF's report also urges the Obama administration to review and improve security clearance procedures so that eligible refugees do not wait for a year or more – in an almost cruel limbo - while their applications are processed.

Read more on HRF's advocacy on the Iraqi refugee crisis