Human Rights Law

Death is Preferable to Life at Obama?s Guantanamo

Posted on May 09, 2013
More than 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo are starving themselves to death. Twenty-three of them are being force-fed. ?They strap you to a chair, tie up your wrists, your legs, your forehead and tightly around the waist,? Fayiz Al-Kandari told his lawyer, Lt...

A War of Aggression, From "Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law" (2007)

Posted on March 19, 2013
According to sources inside the administration, George W. Bush was planning to invade Iraq and remove its government well before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Such an invasion violates the UN Charter, which the United States signed in 1945 after the bloodiest conflict in history...

The Uncommon Courage of Bradley Manning

Posted on March 01, 2013
Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty to 10 charges including possessing and willfully communicating to an unauthorized person all the main elements of the WikiLeaks disclosure. The charges carry a total of 20 years in prison. For the first time, Bradley spoke publicly about what he did and why...

An Interview with Marjorie Cohn about Targeted Killings

Posted on February 18, 2013
By Dennis Bernstein, Flashpoints, Pacifica Radio DB:  We continue our discussion of the revelations around a memo coming out of the Justice Department that the administration plans to keep up these assassinations and expand the program.  Joining us to take a legal look at this is Marjorie Cohn, Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former President of the National Lawyers Guild...

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Zero Dark Thirty: Torturing the Facts

Posted on January 10, 2013
On January 11, eleven years to the day after George W. Bush sent the first detainees to Guantanamo, the Oscar-nominated film Zero Dark Thirty is making its national debut.  Zero Dark Thirty is disturbing for two reasons. First and foremost, it leaves the viewer with the erroneous impression that torture helped the CIA find bin Laden?s hiding place in Pakistan...

Make Obama Do It

Posted on November 13, 2012
By Marjorie Cohn and Jeanne MirerPresident Obama declared in his victory address on election night, ?Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated . . . We want our children to live in an America that isn?t burdened by debt, that isn?t weakened by inequality, that isn?t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet...

No Accountability for Torturers

Posted on September 03, 2012
The Obama administration has closed the books on prosecutions of those who violated our laws by authorizing and conducting the torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody. Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder decided that his office would investigate only two incidents, in which CIA interrogations ended in deaths...

AUGUST 10, 2012, AT NOON: 51 YEARS AFTER THE CHEMICAL WAR BEGAN IN VIETNAM, WE SHOULD BE SILENT IN MEMORY, THEN TAKE ACTION TO REMEDY

Posted on August 02, 2012
By Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie CohnTo take action go to http://www.vn-agentorange.org/There are images from the U.S. War against Vietnam that have been indelibly imprinted on the minds of Americans who lived through it. One is the naked napalm-burned girl running from her village with flesh hanging off her body...

Immigration, Racism, and the Supreme Court

Posted on July 18, 2012
The issue of immigration has been tossed about like a political football for some time. Democrats argue that migrants who have spent many years in the United States should be permitted to apply for lawful status. Republicans criticize these proposals as ?amnesty...

Killer Drone Attacks Illegal, Counter-Productive

Posted on June 26, 2012
By Marjorie Cohn and Jeanne Mirer The Bush administration detained and tortured suspected militants; the Obama administration assassinates them. Both practices not only visit more hatred upon the United States; they are also illegal. Our laws and treaties prohibit torture...

Hope Dies at Guantánamo

Posted on June 25, 2012
The tragic case of Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif hit a dead end when the US Supreme Court issued an order refusing to hear his case last week. Latif, a Yemeni man, has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay since January 2002, after being detained while traveling to seek medical treatment...

Romney the Bully

Posted on May 21, 2012
Last week, I was invited to speak to 40 high school freshman abouthuman rights. When we discussed the right to be free from torture, Iasked the students if they could think of an example of torture. Theysaid, ?bullying.? A major problem among teens, bullying can lead todepression, and even suicide...

International Association of Democratic Lawyers Opposes Military Force Against Syria and Iran

Posted on March 24, 2012
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), a non-governmental organization having consultative status with the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is dedicated to uphold international law, particularly the peaceful resolution of disputes as set forth in the UN Charter and basic human rights instruments...

The Haditha Massacre: No Justice for Iraqis

Posted on January 30, 2012
"They ranged from little babies to adult males and females. I'll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood.This left something in my head and heart." -Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones Last week, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich was sentenced to a reduction in rank but no jail time for leading his squad in a rampage known as ?The Haditha Massacre...

Pressure Israel, Not Iran

Posted on January 17, 2012
Neocons in Israel and the United States are escalating their rhetoric to prepare us for war with Iran. Even the infamous John Yoo, architect of George W. Bush?s illegal torture and spying programs, is calling on the Republican presidential candidates to ?begin preparing the case for a military strike to destroy Iran?s nuclear program...

Close the Guantánamo Gulag

Posted on January 15, 2012
Travelers to Cuba and music lovers are familiar with the song ?Guantanamera?? literally, the girl from Guantánamo. With lyrics by José Martí, the father of Cuban independence, Guantanamera is probably the most widely known Cuban song. But Guantánamo is even more famous now for its U...

Bradley Manning: Traitor or Hero?

Posted on December 24, 2011
The end of U.S. military involvement in Iraq coincided with Bradley Manning?s military hearing to determine whether he will face court-martial for exposing U.S. war crimes by leaking hundreds of thousands of pages of classified documents to Wikileaks...

GOP Candidates Advocate Torture

Posted on November 18, 2011
At last week?s debate, Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain and Michelle Bachman defended waterboarding. Cain said, ?I don't see it as torture. I see it as an enhanced interrogation technique,? which is what the Bush administration used to call its policy of torture and abuse...

Explaining Why 'They Hate Us'

Posted on August 22, 2011
Review of Deepak Tripathi, "Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism" (Potomoc Books, Inc., 2011) After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Bush administration rolled out its ?Global War on Terror.? Although the Obama White House doesn?t use that moniker, many of its policies are indistinguishable from those of its predecessor...

Lost in the Debt Ceiling Debate: The Legal Duty to Create Jobs

Posted on August 11, 2011
By Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn The debate about the debt ceiling should have been a conversation about how to create jobs. It is time for progressives to remind the government that it has a legal duty to create jobs, and must act immediately ? if not through Congress, then through the Federal Reserve...

Compensate Victims of U.S. Chemical Warfare in Vietnam

Posted on August 10, 2011
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the chemical warfare program in Vietnam without sufficient remedial action by the U.S. government. One of the most shameful legacies of the Vietnam War, Agent Orange continues to poison Vietnam and the people exposed to the chemicals, as well as their offspring...

Prisoners Strike against Torture in California Prisons

Posted on July 18, 2011
The torture of prisoners in U.S. custody isn?t confined to foreign countries. Since July 1, inmates at California?s Pelican Bay State Prison have been on a hunger strike to protest torturous conditions in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) there. Prisoners have been held for years in solitary confinement, which can amount to torture...

A Free Pass for Torturers

Posted on July 08, 2011
"Nobody's above the law," President Barack Obama declared in 2009, as Congress contemplated an investigation of torture authorized by the Bush administration. But Mr. Obama has failed to honor those words. His Justice Department proclaimed its intention to grant a free pass to Bush officials and their lawyers who constructed a regime of torture and abuse...

The Responsibility to Protect ? The Cases of Libya and Ivory Coast

Posted on May 15, 2011
The United States, France and Britain invaded Libya with cruise missiles, stealth bombers, fighter jets and attack jets. Although NATO has taken over the military operation, U.S. President Barack Obama has been bombing Libya with Hellfire missiles from unmanned Predator drones...

Torture Is Never Legal and Didn?t Lead Us to Bin Laden

Posted on May 14, 2011
The assassination of Osama bin Laden has rekindled the discourse about the efficacy and legality of using torture in the ?war on terror.? Torture is illegal under all circumstances, even in wartime. Moreover, the United States located Bin Laden with traditional interrogation methods over several years, not by the use of torture...

The Targeted Assassination of Osama Bin Laden

Posted on May 09, 2011
When he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan, President Barack Obama said, ?Justice has been done.? Mr. Obama misused the word, "justice" when he made that statement. He should have said, "Retaliation has been accomplished...

Bradley Manning Treatment Reveals Continued Government Complicity in Torture

Posted on March 26, 2011
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is facing court-martial for leaking military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico brig in Virginia. Each night, he is forced to strip naked and sleep in a gown made of coarse material...

Stop Bombing Libya

Posted on March 22, 2011
Since Saturday night, the United States, France, and Britain have been bombing Libya with cruise missiles, B-2 stealth bombers, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets, and Harrier attack jets. There is no reliable estimate of the number of civilians killed. The U...

Assault on Collective Bargaining Illegal, Says International Labor Rights Group

Posted on March 12, 2011
By Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie CohnThe International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal.Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their ?rights...

Law professor says Egypt was a common destination for torture of detainees sent by U.S.

Posted on February 16, 2011
National Law Journal interview of Marjorie Cohn by Amanda Bronstad: On Feb. 11, outgoing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned, leaving the country's government under military rule and its hopes for democracy uncertain. Also unclear is whether the country's history of human rights abuses and torture will continue in Egypt, according to Marjorie Cohn, editor and co-author of The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse...

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