human rights
July 18, 2014 -
The Central American children pouring across the U.S. border are fleeing shocking levels of violence at home -- violence that the U.S. government helped enable. The United Nations believes many of the children merit international protection, but will U.S. politics derail the appropriate humanitarian response?
March 28, 2014 -
This week Amnesty International released its annual report on the death penalty worldwide, finding that the United States executes more people than just four other countries -- China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It also shows that when it comes to state-sanctioned killing, the U.S. South is an outlier among outliers.
March 13, 2014 -
This week Glenn Ford, a black man wrongfully convicted of murder by an all-white jury in Louisiana, was freed after spending 30 years on death row at the state's notorious Angola penitentiary. What did he endure in a place where a federal judge has ruled conditions amount to "cruel and unusual punishment"?
October 4, 2013 -
Held in solitary confinement at Louisiana's notorious Angola prison for 41 years for a murder he did not commit, Herman Wallace passed away today -- just three days after his conviction was overturned and he was set free.
July 22, 2013 -
Once accused of being a spy and held in solitary confinement by the Iranian government, Sarah Shourd is now a playwright who is using her work to shine a light on the notorious case of Herman Wallace of Louisiana's Angola 3 and the broader human rights issue of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. prisons.
July 3, 2013 -
Wal-Mart is disciplining and firing employees who are demanding improved working conditions -- a sign the Arkansas-based retail giant is worried about historic job actions spreading through its U.S. operations.
June 11, 2013 -
Georgia and South Carolina are among the states with the highest rates of sexual assault of juvenile detainees, and most of the abuse involves the very staff members charged with supervising and counseling the troubled youngsters.