Staff POV
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Ending Violence Against Women and Gender Inequality: Our Work and Impact
Tags Share Claudina Isabel’s body was discovered on August 13, 2005 with signs of sexual violence. The Guatemalan government’s impunity and ineffective investigation into her murder is, unfortunately, representative of a broader failure of the government to stem the tide of femicide and violence against women in the country. Read more about our work on…
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Campaign to end solitary confinement gains national momentum
Tags Share Propelled by human rights groups and grassroots organizations, the campaign to end the torture of solitary confinement is gaining national momentum. In December, Senator Edward J. Markey introduced the End Solitary Confinement Act, historic legislation that would end solitary confinement in federal prisons, jails, and detention centers, with limited exceptions. Last summer, Congresswoman…
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Pine Prairie’s Depopulation Prompts Celebration, Demand for Eradication of Immigrant Detention in Louisiana
Tags Share After years of advocacy, reporting, and legal action by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, grassroots organizations, and detained persons, for-profit immigrant detention center Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana has been fully depopulated as of the end of 2023. The move, celebrated by those who have worked for the Pine Prairie’s closure…
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Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Tags Share The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948 as a result of the experience of the Second World War. With the end of that war, and the creation of the United Nations, the international community vowed to never again allow atrocities like those of…
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Out of sight, out of mind: How new film ‘The Zone Of Interest’ challenges all of us to be vigilant in protecting and defending human rights
Tags Share This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document outlining the basic fundamental rights we have because we are human. A document drafted soon after WWII with the hope and desire that the atrocities witnessed would happen “never again.” An aspirational document proclaiming in the first…
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RFKHR’s legal strategy to end indefinite immigration detention highlighted in habeas corpus lawsuit wins
Tags Share Every day, the United States government holds over 35,000 people in immigration detention while their immigration cases proceed. Using a nationwide network of jails and prisons located in rural communities isolated from legal assistance groups, the government cuts off immigrants’ access to lawyers and subjects thousands of people each year to prolonged detention…
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International Equal Pay Day
Tags Share From the service industry to the C-suite, women face a persistent – and startling – pay disparity compared to their male coworkers, particularly white, male co-workers. September 18 marks International Equal Pay Day, a day designed to build upon the United Nations’ commitment to human rights and against all forms of discrimination, including…
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International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances
Tags Share On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, we pause to reflect upon the countless individuals across the globe who have endured the agony inflicted by State authorities and those affiliated with them. In these cases, the uncertainty surrounding the location of a beloved family member is an intentional method of…
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Protecting Immigrants’ Constitutional Right to Freedom from Arbitrary Detention
Tags Share Immigrants have a constitutional right to be free from arbitrary detention according to a new federal court ruling secured by the RFK Human Rights U.S. Advocacy and Litigation team. Staff attorney Sarah Decker represents Mr. Yvesni Cenesca, a man from Haiti fighting deportation while locked up for the past 3 years in an…
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RFK Human Rights celebrates one-year anniversary of Rapid Defense Network
Tags Share On July 19 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR) celebrated the one-year anniversary of the integration of Rapid Defense Network (RDN) and its co-founder, Sarah Gillman, into the RFKHR family. Gillman now serves as RFKHR’s Director of Strategic U.S. Litigation. Her extensive experience in litigating for immigrants’ rights is a cornerstone of the…
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Human Rights under the Cuban Regime More than a Decade after Pro-democracy leaders’ Assassination
Tags Share 11 years ago today, on July 22, 2012, premier pro-democracy leader Oswaldo Payá and youth organizer Harold Cepero made their way across the island of Cuba on the central expressway headed to Santiago. Near Bayamo they were rammed off the road by an official government vehicle, killing both of them. Their driver, Spanish…
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Smart employers lead and hire with dignity
Tags Share Written by Jeffrey Siminoff The angst some feel around workplace diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is often built around a flawed premise. It’s that a focus on DEI means a take-away from some (say, straight white people) that subordinates merit to identity-based preferences. In fact, inclusive workplace recruiting and culture strategies are meant…
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