• Give child offenders chance at rehabilitation
    Commentary
    Feb 2, 2012
    Virginia should not move in the direction of treating child sex offenders the same as adult offenders. Instead, the state should stand by its commitment to offer young offenders a chance at rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
  • US: Harsh Conditions for Young Lifers
    Press release
    Jan 2, 2012
    The approximately 2,570 youth offenders serving life without parole sentences in adult US prisons experience conditions that violate fundamental human rights. The United States is the only country in the world with youth offenders (below the age of 18 at the time of offense) serving life without parole sentences. The US Supreme Court will consider arguments about the constitutionality of the practice in March 2012.
  • US: Comments Submitted to Department of Justice on Proposed Standards to End Prison Rape
    Commentary
    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.
  • US: Human Rights Council Adopts Universal Periodic Review
    Oral statement
    Mar 18, 2011

    The Universal Periodic Review of the United States addressed a large number of important issues, such as the death penalty, mistreatment of migrants, racial disparities in education, access to health care and accountability for torture.

  • Fighting Extreme Sentencing for Child Offenders
    Impact
    Feb 14, 2011
    During his last day in office, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger commuted the prison sentence of one of the state’s most egregiously sentenced victims of child sex trafficking. Sara Kruzan, sentenced to life in prison without parole at the age of 16, will now have the opportunity to present her case before a parole board.
  • Pakistan: Drop Blasphemy Charges Against 17-Year-Old
    Press release
    Feb 2, 2011
    The Pakistani government should immediately drop blasphemy charges against a 17-year-old student and ensure his safe release from detention.
  • The Trial That Wasn’t: The Sentencing of Omar Khadr
    Commentary
    Nov 4, 2010
    As I left the isolated military base Monday afternoon after the sentencing of Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen who was only 15 when he was captured by US forces in Afghanistan, it was hard not to see decay everywhere I turned.
  • The Child Soldier on Trial at Guantanamo
    Commentary
    Oct 27, 2010
    As I sat watching the sentencing hearing at Guantanamo Bay of Omar Khadr, a former child soldier, I wondered how his being detained here for eight years without trial could actually be used against him. But that was the thrust of the testimony on Tuesday before the military commission of the prosecution’s expert witness on Khadr’s future dangerousness.
  • US: Khadr Sentencing Should Reflect Juvenile Status
    Press release
    Oct 25, 2010
    The military commission sentencing jury at Guantanamo should fully take into account Omar Khadr’s status as a former child soldier captured when he was 15. According to media reports, Khadr accepted a plea deal on October 25, 2010, to purported war crimes and other charges, making the US the first Western nation since World War II to convict someone for acts committed as a child in a war crimes tribunal.
  • Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan: End Juvenile Death Penalty
    Press release
    Oct 8, 2010
    Only three countries - Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan - are known to have executed an individual since the beginning of 2009 for a crime committed before age 18. In advance of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, October 10, Human Rights Watch called on the three countries to immediately end the practice.