If the love of your life had major surgery or a serious illness, you would want to be by their side. You'd want to take some time off work without losing your job, and give them the care they need. But if you're gay in America, you have no such right under federal law.
Andrea Prasow writes on Huffington Post regarding the significance of the military commission arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
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.
As I sat in the Guantánamo courtroom this weekend for the arraignment of the five leading suspects, the alleged masterminds of the September 11th attacks, I couldn’t help but feel cheated.
The Obama administration has displayed a lack of interest in changing Justice Department rules on religious profiling or in supporting legislation like the End Racial Profiling Act, which would impede the government’s ability to monitor Muslim communities without cause.
The bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) faces a likely vote in the Senate next week, but its provisions that would assist immigrant women who are victims of violence have drawn some inexplicable opposition. The country’s single most important law for addressing domestic abuse, sexual violence, and stalking has offered life-saving protections to immigrant women since it first passed in 1994.
If elderly prisoners can be safely released from prison to finish the rest of their lives under parole supervision — at much lower cost to taxpayers — it is hard to see what society gains from keeping them behind bars.
Human rights are unmatched as guideposts toward a truly just criminal justice system. Advocates can look to them for a dignity-affirming template for progress.
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch says that one of the reasons Majid Khan was not tried in civilian court and was offered a plea deal by Guantanamo prosecutors was to prevent him from testifying on his mistreatment while in CIA custody.
Andrea Prasow writes on Huffington Post regarding the significance of the military commission arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch says that one of the reasons Majid Khan was not tried in civilian court and was offered a plea deal by Guantanamo prosecutors was to prevent him from testifying on his mistreatment while in CIA custody.