• Canada: Don’t Let Bush Get Away With Torture
    Press release
    Oct 12, 2011
    The Canadian government should investigate possible criminal charges against former US President George W. Bush for his role in authorizing the torture of detainees. Bush is scheduled to visit to Surrey, British Columbia on October 20, 2011.
  • Letter to President Obama: Clarify Alleged CIA Role in Detention and Interrogation in Somalia
    Letter
    Sep 20, 2011
    We write to express serious concern about allegations made in recent articles published in The Nation magazine and The New York Times that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is involved in detention, interrogation, and transfer operations in Somalia that may violate domestic and international law.
  • Secret Intelligence Documents Discovered in Libya
    Commentary
    Sep 9, 2011
    Human Rights Watch discovered in Tripoli tens of thousands of archived documents containing evidence of crimes – such as the US and UK governments’ complicity in torture – committed during Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s rule.
  • The books aren't closed on Bush's torture policy
    Commentary
    Jul 11, 2011
    President Obama’s policy toward the Bush administration’s use of torture has been one of splitting the difference — Obama ordered an end to further torture but largely avoided investigating, let alone prosecuting, what Bush administration officials had done.
  • Letter to President Obama Seeking Recognition of Those Who Opposed Torture
    Letter
    Jun 16, 2011
    Formally commending those who rejected torture would send a necessary message that torture is -- and will always be -- inconsistent with who we are as a nation.
  • Letter to Obama on Targeted Killings and Drones
    Letter
    Dec 7, 2010
    We write to ask that your administration provide greater clarity about its legal rationale for targeted killings, including the use of Unmanned Combat Aircraft Systems (drones), and the procedural safeguards it is taking to minimize harm to civilians.
  • Time to Clean House on Torture
    Commentary
    Dec 3, 2010
    As WikiLeaks reveals how the US has covered the CIA's dirty tracks, the Obama administration must hold officials to account.
  • Denying Arar opportunity for redress undermines US justice system
    Commentary
    Feb 6, 2010
    On February 1, 2010, Maher Arar asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that he cannot sue federal officials for damages even though they allegedly conspired with Syrian officials to subject him to torture in Syria.
  • US: Obama’s First Year Record on Counterterrorism Reform Mixed
    Press release
    Jan 14, 2010
    US President Barack Obama has made significant progress in his first year in office toward ending the Bush administration’s abusive counterterrorism policies, but he has also made some serious missteps.
  • Counterterrorism and Human Rights: A Report Card on President Obama’s First Year
    Backgrounder Briefing
    Jan 14, 2010
    Within days of taking office in January 2009, President Barack Obama issued executive orders that repudiated key elements of the Bush administration's abusive approach to fighting terrorism. By changing course in such a swift and high-profile way, President Obama appeared to signal a new and reformed counterterrorism policy, one consistent with basic US values and with international law. But in the months that followed this promising start, the administration chose to retain a number of the previous administration's most problematic policies, albeit in modified form.