FILMS EVERY MONDAY - APRIL 8 - MAY 6 AT SISKEL CENTER!
March 20, 2013
Annotations: 
On consecutive Mondays from April 8 through May 6, the Gene Siskel Film Center collaborates with Human Rights Watch to present the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Through the eyes of committed and courageous filmmakers, the festival showcases the heroic stories of activists and survivors from all over the world facing human rights issues. The featured works put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the power of the human spirit and will to prevail. Discussion with filmmakers, Human Rights Watch researchers, and local leaders follow each screening.
Cities - links for feature content: 
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
  • Image from LAST WHITE KNIGHT, screening in Chicago April 15.
    Filmmaker, 2013
PUTIN'S KISS
Special Screening of the Human Rights Watch Chicago Film Festival
TICKETS You can purchase tickets via phone by calling Renee Mechanic at (312)828-9100. PUTIN'S KISS Director: Lise Birk Pedersen, 85 min Meet Masha, a 19-year-old who grew up in the Putin era, on her journey through the Kremlin-created Nashi youth movement.
California Passes Bill to Allow Review of Juvenile Life Without Parole Sentences: Illinois Should Follow Suit
June 28, 2012
Referenced content (HRW): 
US/California: Chance for Justice for Youth
Annotations: 
Only weeks after the Supreme Court of the United States struck down statutes in 29 states, including Illinois, that provided for mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children, the California State Assembly and California State Senate have passed a bill that allows the review of life without parole sentences for youth offenders. Illinois should recognize children's capacity for change and follow suit.
Cities - links for feature content: 
Read the bill here
  • The Ryan Correctional Facility in Detroit. Michigan is among the states that sentence offenders under age 18 to life without the possibility of parole.
    © 2007 Associated Press
Update: Governor Quinn Announces Closure of Tamms Correctional Facility
April 19, 2012
Referenced content (HRW): 
Illinois: Proposed Closure of Tamms Supermax a Step in the Right Direction
Annotations: 
Tamms Correctional Facility, Illinois' only supermaximum security prison, is slated to be closed as part of an effort by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to reduce the state's spending. The facility's closure also represents an advance for human rights. Long term solitary confinement is tantamount to torture and fails to meet international human rights standards. Tamms is scheduled to close by August 31, 2012.
Cities - links for feature content: 
SUPPORT TAMMS' CLOSURE
  • Tamms Year Ten is a coalition of prisoners, ex-prisoners, families, attorneys and other concerned citizens who came together, after ten years of misguided and inhumane policies, to call for legislative oversight at Tamms. They organized this rally in Chicago in 2012.
    ( William DeShazer, Chicago Tribune / April 4, 2012 )
NATO Summit in Chicago: "Dereliction of Duty"
April 19, 2012
Referenced content (HRW): 
“I Had To Run Away”
Annotations: 
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held meetings in Chicago from May 20-21. As the announced departure of US and NATO forces in 2014 draws closer, many Afghan women look to the future with fear. They worry that the troop pullout signals the end of interest in Afghanistan, and with it the international commitment to push the Afghan government to promote and protect women's rights. Stay informed about the situation in Afghanistan and help us keep women's rights at the top of the agenda.
Cities - links for feature content: 
READ MORE
  • A prisoner covers her face while sitting outside a room that she shares with 15 other women prisoners in March 2010. Women in Afghanistan face serious barriers to obtaining custody of their children in the event of a divorce. Several women told Human Rights Watch that when they left prison they would have to choose between returning to an abusive husband with custody of their children or never seeing their children again. Most planned to return to their husbands.
    © 2010 Farzana Wahidy
Fair Sentencing for Illinois Youth?
August 23, 2010
Referenced content (HRW): 
US: The Young Are Different, Justices Rule
Annotations: 
The Chicago Committee of Human Rights Watch is a member of the Illinois Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Children, a project of the Northwestern Children and Family Justice Clinic. Learn more about how you can get involved to address mandatory life sentences for youth. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the young are indeed different, but what needs to be done at the state level to address the issue?
Cities - links for feature content: 
JOIN THE FAIR SENTENCING COALITION

  • These photos are of youth who were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Each photo was taken within one year of the time of the crime. In the majority of the United States and under federal law, people are serving sentences of life without parole for crimes committed before their eighteenth birthday.

    © 2005 Private
Voices for Justice
Human Rights Watch Annual Dinner SAVE THE DATE

Please join us.
For more information contact Renee Mechanic at (312) 828-9100 or by email

» Contact Us

Jobi Petersen Cates, Director
Renée Mechanic, Senior Coordinator
Claire Gaiefsky, Associate

The Chicago Committee, formed in 2004, is part of a network of support committees composed of opinion leaders from a variety of backgrounds in North America and Europe.

Youth Producing Change: Call for Submissions:
Human Rights Watch and Adobe Youth Voices Seek Films Made by Young People
October 29, 2009
Human Rights Watch and Adobe Youth Voices Seek Films Made by Young People
Author(s): 
Deadline: December 10, 2009

The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in partnership with Adobe Youth Voices seeks youth-produced film, video and animated works on human rights issues made by youth ages 19 and under for its third annual YOUTH PRODUCING CHANGE program.

More reporting on: