From the Executive Director 
Ready or not, the campaign for president is in full swing. But the early focus has been on the horse-race — polls and fundraising — at the expense of major issues.
Human Rights First has its own campaign, “Elect to End Torture ’08.” As a first step, on April 13 and 14, we held an unprecedented gathering in Concord, N.H. at which nearly 20 retired generals and admirals met in separate sessions with candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Joe Biden, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich to discuss U.S. detention and interrogation policies. (Former Sen. John Edwards was scheduled to appear but had to cancel because of severe weather.) The group intends to meet with all presidential candidates of both parties.
The military leaders brought to the table their truly extraordinary breadth and depth of experience. They were united in their view that torture is never justified, that it produces unreliable information, and that it diminishes both the individuals who commit it and the cause they serve.
The candidates got the message.
We will report on further developments in this and other aspects of our campaign in the coming months, so please stay tuned.
Maureen Byrnes
Guantanamo – A System That Keeps on Failing
 The U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been called “a legal black hole.” And the hunger strikes that detainees there are reportedly holding “are symptomatic of a system that is failing on legal, political and ethical grounds,” Hina Shamsi, deputy director of HRF’s Law and Security program, recently said.
Earlier this month, she was at Guantanamo to observe the proceedings against Australian David Hicks, who was picked up in 2001 in Afghanistan and pled guilty to providing support to al Qaeda. After five years in detention, he was given a sentence of nine months, in a process that was widely perceived as having been driven by intense political pressure. Also in April, the Supreme Court declined review of two related cases in which Guantanamo detainees challenged the legality of their detention as "unlawful enemy combatants." The Supreme Court’s decision “increases pressure on Congress to restore habeas corpus, which is the Constitution’s safeguard against arbitrary and indefinite detention,” Hina said.
Colombian Human Rights Leader Released, but Still in Danger
 Thanks to the efforts of Human Rights First’s supporters earlier this year, Colombian human rights defender Gabriel Gonzalez was released from prison in April after a judge acquitted him of all charges.
The judge found that the rebellion charges against him were baseless and relied on witness evidence and government reports that lacked impartiality and credibility. The judgment confirms that the charges against Mr. Gonzalez should never have been initiated.
But he now faces new risks. These proceedings have unfairly stigmatized him as a rebel guerrilla, and he is now at high risk of reprisal attacks from paramilitary forces. Human rights defenders have been found innocent of rebellion charges in the past, only to be targeted upon their release. Your action helped to free him; now it can help protect him.
Click here to take action.
Child Soldiers — A Stark Case of Refugees Facing Bars to Safe Haven
 Refugees who have been targeted by armed groups like the FARC in Columbia or the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka could be denied asylum in the U.S. because of a sweeping immigration policy that treats the victims of these groups as if they were victimizers. In applying this policy, U.S. immigration authorities view any aid to these groups, even when provided under duress, as “material support” to a “terrorist organization.”
A stark case of those who are at risk are former child soldiers who were forced into service by armed groups. The term “child soldiers” itself suggests duress. HRF’s Anwen Hughes recently told a Senate hearing that “Child soldiers in need of refugee protection represent a subset of those affected by this insanity — Neither their youth, nor the involuntariness of their conscription — will protect them against the reflexive and categorical application of these bars to protection?”
Click here to read her testimony.
New Suspects in Murder of Indonesian Human Rights Lawyer
 Justice took a tentative step forward in the case of Indonesian human rights lawyer Munir, as two new suspects were named in his murder. Human Rights First has focused on the case of this leading critic of the state’s involvement in human rights violations since he died on September 7, 2004 on a flight to the Netherlands, after being poisoned with arsenic. We honored Munir and his widow, Suciwati, at our 2006 awards dinner.
The president of the state airline and an employee have now been arrested and charged in connection with false documents tied to the murder plot. But former senior intelligence officials who were tied to the crime through phone records have never been investigated. So the question remains: who planned and ordered the killing of Munir? HRF will continue to follow this case and push for answers — and for justice for Munir.
Click here to read more about the muder of Munir
U.N. Human Rights Council Fails the People of Darfur
The U.N. Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution in late March expressing concern over the situation in Darfur. But the decision was widely met with great disappointment because it failed to condemn the government of Sudan for its actions in the region. HRF Executive Director Maureen Byrnes commented: “By ignoring the Sudanese government’s role in violent attacks on civilians, the Human Rights Council is protecting human rights violators instead of protecting human rights.”
Click here to learn more about Darfur
Staff Spotlight: David Danzig
Taking Creative Approaches to Tough Issues
 David Danzig is campaign manager in HRF’s Public Programs department, where he directs the Primetime Torture Project. Last fall, David helped bring former interrogators and the dean of West Point to meetings with producers, studio executives and others in Hollywood. The topic: how torture and interrogation are portrayed on TV and the negative repercussions of those depictions.
David is working on a training film that will help teach young soldiers how to use legal and humane techniques to get the information they need from detainees. And it will illustrate how inhumane and abusive techniques yield unreliable information, while damaging the moral standing of individuals who employ them.
Prior to directing the Primetime Torture Project, David served as the campaign manager for Human Rights First’s Campaign to End Torture. In this capacity David played the lead role in building a coalition of retired generals and admirals who were outspoken in their opposition to torture. Before joining Human Rights First in 2002, he was a staffer on Capitol Hill and a newspaper reporter.
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