• The Breastfeeding Brouhaha
    May 15, 2012
    Love it or hate it, people are entitled to their opinions about the photo. They're also entitled to make their own choices about whether they can and want to breastfeed, and for how long. But what's truly disturbing are the US government policy failings ─ especially the lack of paid family leave ─ that drive many women who would like to continue breastfeeding to stop earlier than they wish, often after just a few weeks or months. The issue we should worry about is not women who breastfeed their 3-years-olds, it's that many women find it impossible to breastfeed their 3-month-olds.
  • Labor Department abandons child farmworkers
    May 7, 2012
    In a few weeks, children as young as 12 will start leaving schools in south Texas to work in the summer harvest, taking on the difficult and sometimes even dangerous work of picking fruits and vegetables. Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of kids this year will cut the roots off onions, hoe cotton, climb tall ladders to pick oranges and apples, and drive tractors. If the past is a guide, some will be injured, some will be maimed, and some will die.
  • Getting children off the battlefield
    Feb 13, 2012
    The experience of the last decade, shows that the governments and groups still using child soldiers are increasingly considered pariahs, and that strategic pressure and the new consensus of international law can protect children from war. The challenge now is to build on the momentum that exists, and to make better use of the existing tools — including sanctions, prosecutions, and UN negotiations — to persuade the remaining outliers that children have no place in war.
  • US: Respect Rights of Protesters
    Oct 28, 2011
    State and local officials in the United States should respect protesters’ rights to free speech and assembly, and prevent and investigate the use of excessive force against them.
  • US: Immigrant Injustice
    Oct 7, 2011
    As years go by without any action in Congress to propose realistic and comprehensive legislation to address illegal immigration, the US is creating a large underclass of people who are extremely vulnerable to crime and abuse.
  • A step backward for Puerto Rican women
    Aug 4, 2011
    When it comes to ending violence against women, Puerto Rico has taken a giant step backward. To be sure, the islands have had a comprehensive law to protect women and girls against domestic violence since 1989. But the Puerto Rican Supreme Court has blocked a lot of women from its protection.
  • US: Giving Juveniles Who Kill a Chance at Redemption
    May 3, 2011
    The Equal Justice Initiative’s effort to extend a Supreme Court ruling barring life sentences without parole to those convicted for killings committed at age 13 or 14 is a step in the right direction.
  • US: Comments Submitted to Department of Justice on Proposed Standards to End Prison Rape
    Apr 4, 2011
    The standards authorized by the Prison Rape Elimination Act must provide clear and effective national guidelines to keep adults and juveniles in confinement safe from sexual abuse. That prison rape has been as prevalent as it is reflects the failure of correctional agencies to take such abuse seriously and to adopt and enforce the policies necessary to end it.
  • For Child Farmworkers, Lives of Poverty and Danger
    Jul 26, 2010
    Because of an exception in the federal child labor law, children can work for hire in agriculture at far younger ages, for far longer hours, and in far more hazardous conditions than other working children. In the last year, I've interviewed dozens of children who worked on farms in 14 states across the country. For too many, farmwork means an early end to childhood, long hours at exploitative wages, and risks to their health and sometimes their lives.
  • Cutting off HIV Care is a Bad Idea
    Jun 25, 2010
    It's a safe bet that more people know Feb. 14 is Valentine's Day than have heard that June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. That's too bad. I'm all in favor of flowers, chocolate and a fancy dinner, but knowing your HIV status is important - for yourself and for others. Unfortunately, there is no designated "National HIV Treatment Day" and in South Carolina, if you test positive for HIV, you might find that your treatment day is years from now - if you survive the waiting list.