This Act protects against numerous sorts of housing discrimination, including rentals, sales, real estate transactions, and brokerage services. The Act "prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of dwellings based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. These Acts, in essence, expanded upon the scope of the Civil Rights Act of Congress also expanded housing protection to the elderly in the Housing for Older Persons Act of In addition to federal guarantees, some states provide further protection of civil rights.

New York's New York State Human Rights Law is one such example. Numerous international agreements and declarations recognize human rights. The United States has signed some of these agreements, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Disenfranchisement refers to the removal of civil rights, primarily the right to vote. States are able to place certain restrictions on who can vote, including restrictions based upon someone's criminal record. The Supreme Court affirmed in Richardson v. Ramirez, U. Vermont and Maine do not practice felon disenfranchisement; Virginia and Kentucky do not allow felons to vote; and the other 46 states have some sort of criminal disenfranchisement law.

For more information, see this ACLU article on felony disenfranchisement. As an example, Florida has its felon disenfranchisement law included in its state Constitution. As such, in order to change the policy, the state would need to pass a state constitutional amendment.

For more on the Voting Rights Act, see this Columbia Law Review article. For more on the Civil Rights Act of , see these articles from a Boston University Law Review Symposium.

For more on the Civil Rights Act of , see this Villanova Law Review article. Code of Federal Regulations:. Search Statutes of State in Question.

Please help us improve our site! No thank you. LII Wex civil rights. civil rights Primary tabs Overview A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury.

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties People often confuse civil rights and civil liberties. Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction Era was the monumental period in U.

Reconstruction Amendments The Thirteenth , Fourteenth , and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution constituted the largest expansion of civil rights in the history of the United States. Some Reconstruction Laws During the Reconstruction Era, Congress enacted numerous civil rights statutes.

Civil Rights Act of The most prominent civil rights legislation since Reconstruction is the Civil Rights Act of Twenty-Fourth Amendment The Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.

Voting Rights Act of The Voting Rights Act of is codified in 52 U. State Civil Rights Efforts In addition to federal guarantees, some states provide further protection of civil rights. Disenfranchisement Disenfranchisement refers to the removal of civil rights, primarily the right to vote.

Further Reading For more on the Voting Rights Act, see this Columbia Law Review article For more on the Civil Rights Act of , see these articles from a Boston University Law Review Symposium.

Federal Material U. Constitution and Federal Statutes The United States Constitution Chapter 21 Civil Rights of Title 42 of The United States Code CRS Annotated Constitution Federal Agency Regulations Code of Federal Regulations: 28 C.

XIV - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 34 C. I - Office for Civil Rights, Department of Education 45 C. VII - Civil Rights Commission Federal Judicial Decisions U.

Supreme Court: Recent Civil Rights Decisions Historic Constitutional Law Decisions liibulletin Oral Argument Previews U. Circuit Courts of Appeals: Recent Decisions on Civil Rights State Material State Statutes Search Statutes of State in Question State Judicial Decisions N.

Under the MPP, asylum seekers were forced to navigate the asylum system while remaining in Mexico. US authorities subjected Haitian asylum seekers to arbitrary detention and discriminatory and humiliating ill-treatment that amounted to race- and migration-related torture, rooted in systemic anti-Black discrimination.

The US administration designated Temporary Protected Status for Cameroonian, Ethiopian, South Sudanese, Sudanese and Ukrainian nationals, providing protection from removal from the USA. The US administration implemented a pilot private sponsorship programme, enabling communities to directly resettle refugees through the US Refugee Admissions Program.

Congress failed to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, leaving Afghan evacuees in a precarious situation, as they were admitted under only a temporary status conferred by humanitarian parole.

Authorities continued a system of arbitrary, mass immigration detention, with funding to detain 34, people daily in The multi-billion dollar industry of using private prisons to detain people seeking safety continued, while the use of surveillance-based alternatives to detention, such as electronic monitoring, were utilized on nearly , families and individuals.

More than 75 protesters were arrested in connection with protests following the death in June of Jayland Walker, a Black man who was fatally shot by police 46 times in Akron, Ohio. Local community organizers and activists organized protests and held events demanding police accountability.

Lawmakers in Congress and at least 11 states introduced at least 16 bills limiting freedom of assembly, with two states enacting such bills into law in Proposed legal restrictions on freedom of assembly included creating a new federal offence for blocking an interstate highway during a protest and, at state level, introducing increased penalties for acts of civil disobedience relating to infrastructure projects such as pipelines, obstructing roads, and defacing monuments or public property.

At least 1, people were killed by police using firearms in The limited public data available suggested that Black people were disproportionately impacted by police use of lethal force.

The US Department of Justice failed to accurately document the number of people who died in custody, as required by the Death in Custody Reporting Act, announcing that it had undercounted the number of deaths in prisons, jails and during arrests by people in fiscal year The US Senate failed to introduce the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which was passed by the House in The bill would address a wide range of policies and issues regarding policing practices and law enforcement accountability, which were demanded during widespread protests in Following its review of the USA, the CERD Committee expressed concern over the use of excessive or deadly force by law enforcement officials against racial and ethnic minorities, and the continued impunity for abuses by police officers.

It recommended a review of federal and state laws regulating the use of lethal force to ensure alignment with international law and standards and to create or strengthen independent oversight bodies to ensure accountability. While abolition bills were introduced in multiple states and at the federal level during the legislative session, no bill was passed in any of these jurisdictions.

However, the Governor of California signed the Racial Justice for All Act which applies the Racial Justice Act retroactively. The law allows for a person charged or convicted of a crime to challenge racial bias in their case.

Alabama and South Carolina continued to attempt to restore methods of executing people that would be cruel under international standards, such as gas chambers or firing squads, respectively. Thirty-five Muslim men remained arbitrarily and indefinitely detained in the detention facility at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in violation of international law.

The Biden administration made little progress in closing the facility, despite its intention to do so. In , nine detainees held in Guantánamo Bay were approved for transfer by the Periodic Review Board, bringing to 20 the number of detainees remaining at the facility without charge after being cleared for transfer, some for over a decade.

Another detainee who had pleaded guilty to the charges against him and served his sentence also remained detained. Three detainees were transferred from the facility in The remaining detainees did not have access to adequate medical treatment, and survivors of torture and other ill-treatment by US agents were not given adequate rehabilitative services.

Ten detainees continued to face charges in the military commission system, in breach of international law and standards relating to fair trials, and could face the death penalty if convicted. The use of capital punishment in these cases, after proceedings that did not meet international standards, would constitute arbitrary deprivation of life.

The trials of those accused of crimes related to the 11 September attacks remained stalled, after repeated suspensions in recent years.

Military commission prosecutors attempted to negotiate guilty plea agreements with some of those charged. More than a decade after dozens of detainees were held in a CIA-operated secret detention system — authorized from to — no one had been brought to justice for the crimes under international law and systematic human rights violations committed under that programme, including enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment.

Gun violence remained widespread throughout the country and authorities released figures showing that nearly 49, people were killed in , based on early official estimates, continuing a sharp increase in firearm-related deaths during the Covid pandemic.

Gun violence became the leading cause of death among children and teenagers for the first time in the 40 years that such data has been collected. Increased unregulated gun acquisition and possession combined with rising political extremism, xenophobia and racism led to a number of mass killings.

In May, an year-old targeted a Black neighbourhood grocery store in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people. Weeks later, another year-old killed 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; 19 of the victims were children. In July, a year-old man opened fire on a crowd celebrating Independence Day in Highland Park, Illinois, killing seven people.

In June, the US Supreme Court issued an opinion on its first case regarding gun rights in over a decade. Congress passed the first law regulating elements of firearm acquisition, possession and use in nearly 30 years.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act includes provisions for funding for state crisis intervention protection orders and community-based gun violence intervention programmes, protections for victims of domestic violence and an enhanced review process for gun purchasers under 21 years old.

It also establishes straw purchasing acquiring a firearm on behalf of someone who cannot legally do so or for someone who does not want their name associated with the purchase and gun trafficking as federal criminal offences. The law represented progress but failed to enhance basic critical firearm safeguards like universal background checks on all gun purchases or bans on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, among others.

The US government continued to use lethal force in countries around the world, including with armed drones. The government continued to withhold information regarding the legal and policy standards and criteria applied by US forces when using lethal force.

Authorities also failed to provide justice, truth and reparation for past civilian killings. The Biden administration commenced a review of lethal force policies and, in September, released a new Civilian Harm Mitigation Response and Action Plan, which set forth a plan for the Department of Defense to develop practices and procedures to better protect civilians and improve investigations of civilian harm in the future.

Legal rights are some of law's most basic and pervasive building blocks. This entry elucidates “legal right” as a general concept, covering Equal protection forces a state to govern impartially—not draw distinctions between individuals solely on differences that are irrelevant to a legitimate Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive

There are 16 basic rights protected by the Human Rights Act. As you would expect, they concern issues such as life, liberty and freedom from Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive The Supreme Court upheld the law, finding that protecting privacy in residential homes outweighs any rights that protestors have to target a: Legal rights protection

ISBN proteftion March 10, and the ICC". August 26, May 24,	On the Ground From signing petitions to organizing on the ground, millions of ACLU activists are helping defend our rights. The trials of those accused of crimes related to the 11 September attacks remained stalled, after repeated suspensions in recent years. Tribal Regalia. Navigating the new reproductive laws as a health care provider can be tricky. It prohibits arbitrary deprivation of life; torture, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment; slavery and forced labour; arbitrary arrest or detention; arbitrary interference with privacy; war propaganda; discrimination; and advocacy of racial or religious hatred. News and Media News Press Releases Briefings Spokesperson Photos UNIfeed UN Web TV UN Video Social Media The Essential UN Awake at Night podcast.	Legal rights are some of law's most basic and pervasive building blocks. This entry elucidates “legal right” as a general concept, covering Equal protection forces a state to govern impartially—not draw distinctions between individuals solely on differences that are irrelevant to a legitimate Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive	In the s, Americans who knew only the potential of "equal protection of the laws" expected the president, the Congress, and the courts to fulfill the 1 History · 2 Legal framework. Domestic legal protection structure; Effect of international treaties · 3 Equality. Racial; Sex · 4 Freedoms. Legal rights are laws that protect people. There are many different types of laws. Laws that apply to everyone in the United States are called	in a variety of settings like housing, the workplace, school, voting, business, healthcare, public spaces, and more Everyone has basic rights under the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws. But federal disability rights laws provide protection. Immigrants' Rights States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Protevtion often confuse civil protectikn and civil liberties. Please help by editing the article to make improvements to the overall structure. Federal government. September 10, If you believe your detention is not legal, the Charter protects your right to challenge it.	There has also been criticism over qualified immunity , a judicial precedent that grants government officials—including police officers— certain immunity from civil suits. Learn more about how to exercise your voting rights, including how to resist voter intimidation efforts, and access disability-related accommodations or language assistance at the polls. Anyone who is a witness in a trial has the right to not have incriminating evidence used against them in later proceedings. Also, sentences of imprisonment must match the seriousness of the crime committed. Archived from the original on April 2, The page has spelling or grammar mistakes.	Legal rights are some of law's most basic and pervasive building blocks. This entry elucidates “legal right” as a general concept, covering Equal protection forces a state to govern impartially—not draw distinctions between individuals solely on differences that are irrelevant to a legitimate Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive	Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive Human rights defender” is a term used to describe people who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights in a peaceful manner Overview. A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury	Legal rights are some of law's most basic and pervasive building blocks. This entry elucidates “legal right” as a general concept, covering Equal protection forces a state to govern impartially—not draw distinctions between individuals solely on differences that are irrelevant to a legitimate Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive
The United States Protechion U. Of the 56 Rihts states of the Legal rights protection for Security and Cooperation in Paperless personal lendingthe United States and Belarus proyection the only two that carried out riyhts in Lrgal Rights Commission rkghts the City and County of San Francisco. Retrieved July 11, Through the doctrine of coverturemany states also denied married women the right to own property in their own name, although most allowed single women widowed, divorced or never married the "Person" status of men, sometimes pursuant to the common law concept of a femme sole. Retrieved June 13, Forced displacement is doubly catastrophic for indigenous communities closely linked to the land.	During the Reconstruction Era, Congress enacted numerous civil rights statutes. Goes Unchecked". Prior to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , slavery was legal in some states of the United States until The Voting Rights Act of is codified in 52 U. Further Reading For more on equal protection, see this Harvard Law Review article , this University of Pennsylvania Law Review article , and this Columbia University Law Review article.	Legal rights are some of law's most basic and pervasive building blocks. This entry elucidates “legal right” as a general concept, covering Equal protection forces a state to govern impartially—not draw distinctions between individuals solely on differences that are irrelevant to a legitimate Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive	Human rights defender” is a term used to describe people who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights in a peaceful manner Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive Several state legislatures passed laws to protect the right to abortion and increase access to abortion. President Biden signed executive orders in July and	Legal rights are laws that protect people. There are many different types of laws. Laws that apply to everyone in the United States are called Rights () was the first legal document protecting universal human rights. It is generally agreed to be the foundation of international human rights law The Office of Human Rights (OHR) enforces several laws that protect individuals from unlawful discrimination. View Federal Human Rights Laws here

Legal rights protection - States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and Legal rights are some of law's most basic and pervasive building blocks. This entry elucidates “legal right” as a general concept, covering Equal protection forces a state to govern impartially—not draw distinctions between individuals solely on differences that are irrelevant to a legitimate Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination. Article V. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against abusive

Help us in our fight to ensure all people have equal access to housing, voting rights, education, and more by learning more , pledging your support, or donating. When we have full and equal access to education, jobs, housing, voting rights and more, better futures are possible. A member of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of Florida explains their fear and anxiety when Florida officials ordered the deactivation of SJP chapters at public universities in the state.

This plan would significantly and permanently restrict the ability of families and individuals to seek safety in the U. Companies and legislators are using misleading test scores to justify the expansion of facial recognition into our communities.

That flawed approach understates the threat this dangerous technology poses to civil rights. For more than one hundred years, ACLU lawyers have been at the center of one history-making court case after another, participating in more Supreme Court cases than any other private organization.

With attorneys nationwide, we handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated. Four families of transgender youth and two doctors have challenged an Arkansas law that would prohibit healthcare professionals from providing or even referring transgender young people for medically necessary health care.

During the Trump administration, we filed over lawsuits. Fighting Back Against Voter Suppression in Georgia Following record turnout in recent elections, Georgia legislators passed a voter suppression law designed to make it harder for voters, especially voters of color, to cast a ballot.

Defending Student Free Speech Brandi Levy was just blowing off steam off campus when she posted an expletive message on Snapchat critical of her school and cheer team. She was suspended from her cheer team, but alongside the ACLU she sued to defend student free speech.

We took the case all the way to the Supreme Court — and won. In its first year, the ACLU challenged the Palmer Raids, protecting immigrants and trade union members.

The ACLU represented an interracial couple in the landmark Supreme Court case, Loving v. The court ruled that state bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional. The ACLU took a controversial stand for free speech by defending a Nazi group that wanted to march through the Chicago suburb of Skokie—where many Holocaust survivors lived.

The ACLU won a landmark Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, affirming the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry. In a victory for privacy, the Supreme Court ruled in an ACLU case, Carpenter v.

We have over 1, staffers in every state, Washington, D. From signing petitions to organizing on the ground, millions of ACLU activists are helping defend our rights.

People Power is the ACLU's platform for grassroots action. We work with volunteers and supporters in every corner of the country to defend civil liberties and civil rights. See, e. In the s, after decades of conflict over southern states' continued practice of slavery, and northern states' outlawing it, the Civil War was fought, and in its aftermath the Constitution was amended to prohibit slavery and to prohibit states' denying rights granted in the Constitution.

Among these amendments was the Fourteenth Amendment , which included an Equal Protection Clause which seemed to clarify that courts and states were prohibited in narrowing the meaning of "Persons". After the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted, Susan B.

Anthony , buttressed by the equal protection language, voted. She was prosecuted for this, however, and ran into an all-male court ruling that women were not "Persons"; the court levied a fine but it was never collected. Fifty years later, in , the Constitution was amended again, with the Nineteenth Amendment to definitively prohibit discrimination against women's suffrage.

In the s, the Burger Court made a series of rulings clarifying that discrimination against women in the status of being Persons violated the Constitution and acknowledged that previous court rulings to the contrary had been Sui generis and an abuse of power. The most often cited of these is Reed v.

Reed , which held that any discrimination against either sex in the rights associated with Person status must meet a strict scrutiny standard. The s also saw the adoption of the Twenty-sixth Amendment , which prohibited discrimination on the basis of age, for Persons 18 years old and over, in voting.

Other attempts to address the developmental distinction between children and adults in Person status and rights have been addressed mostly by the Supreme Court, with the Court recognizing in , in Miller v. Alabama a political and biological principle that children are different from adults.

In , the members of the United Nations organization completed the drafting of its founding text — the United Nations charter : The USA played a significant role in this process. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Drafting Committee was chaired by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt , who was known for her human rights advocacy.

Similarly, for the United States government and its citizens, much remained uncertain about the future impact, force, and reach of international human rights.

Eventually the United States had not yet developed a policy approach regarding whether or not it would recognize international human rights within a domestic context.

Certainly there were already some domestic political attempts, as for example President Truman's Committee on Civil rights , which authored a report in initializing the possibility to apply the UN charter in order to combat racial discrimination in the US.

Now that the United States had successfully adopted the UDHR, obviously it seemed like human rights would play a leading part in domestic law within the US. Still there was harsh controversy over the question whether to apply international law on the inner-land-basis.

William H. Fitzpatrick won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in for his editorials that repeatedly warned against international human rights overthrowing the supreme law of the land.

Indeed, Fitzpatrick's concerns and motivations — as well as those of his readers — stood for the longstanding, bitter social and political struggles that divided much of the United States at the time, keeping in mind that in the s and s racial divisions, political exclusion, and gender inequalities were basic facts of American social life.

However, today there is little worry in the United States about the effect that human rights might have on its domestic law. Over the past few decades, the United States government has often held itself up as a strong supporter of human rights in the international arena.

Nonetheless, in the view of the government human rights are still an international rather than a domestic phenomenon — representing more of choice than obligation. Having today overcome many of the inequalities from more than half a dozen decades before, still the United States is in violation of the Declaration, in as much that "everyone has the right to leave any country" because the government may prevent the entry and exit of anyone from the United States for foreign policy, national security, or child support rearage reasons by revoking their passport.

Conflict between the human rights of the child and those of a mother or father who wishes to leave the country without paying child support or doing the personal work of child care for his child can be considered to be a question of negative and positive rights.

According to Human Rights: The Essential Reference , "the American Declaration of Independence was the first civic document that met a modern definition of human rights.

Constitutional amendments have been enacted as the needs of the society evolved. The Ninth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment recognized that not all human rights were enumerated in the original United States Constitution.

The Civil Rights Act of and the Americans with Disabilities Act of are examples of human rights that were enumerated by Congress well after the Constitution's writing. The scope of the legal protections of human rights afforded by the US government is defined by case law, particularly by the precedent of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Within the federal government, the debate about what may or may not be an emerging human right is held in two forums: the United States Congress, which may enumerate these; and the Supreme Court, which may articulate rights that the law does not spell out. Additionally, individual states, through court action or legislation, have often protected human rights not recognized at federal level.

For example, Massachusetts was the first of several states to recognize same sex marriage. In the context of human rights and treaties that recognize or create individual rights, U. constitutional law makes a distinction between self-executing and non-self-executing treaties.

Non-self-executing treaties, which ascribe rights that under the constitution may be assigned by law, require legislative action to execute the contract treaty before it becomes a part of domestic law.

to declare war or appropriate funds. Treaties regarding human rights, which create a duty to refrain from acting in a particular manner or confer specific rights, are generally held to be self-executing, requiring no further legislative action. In cases where legislative bodies refuse to recognize otherwise self-executing treaties by declaring them to be non-self-executing in an act of legislative non-recognition, constitutional scholars argue that such acts violate the separation of powers—in cases of controversy, the judiciary, not Congress, has the authority under Article III to apply treaty law to cases before the court.

This is a key provision in cases where Congress declares a human rights treaty to be non-self-executing, for example, by contending it does not add anything to human rights under U. domestic law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is one such case, which, while ratified after more than two decades of inaction, was done so with reservations, understandings, and declarations.

Under the principle of pacta sunt servanda , a country may not invoke provisions of its domestic laws or constitution as justification for failure to comply with its international law obligations. Therefore, if a human rights treaty has been ratified by the U.

but is not considered self-executing, or has not yet been implemented by legislation, it is nonetheless binding on the U. government as a matter of international law. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

No State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" [34] In addition, Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the denial of a citizen of the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".

The United States has enacted comprehensive legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race and national origin in the workplace in the Civil Rights Act of CRA. Beginning in , the United States also began a program of affirmative action that not only obliges employers not to discriminate, but requires them to provide preferences for groups protected under the Civil Rights Act to increase their numbers where they are judged to be underrepresented.

The United States also prohibits the imposition of any " voting qualification or prerequisite to voting , or standard, practice, or procedure to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color," which prevents the use of grandfather clauses , literacy tests , poll taxes and white primaries.

Prior to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , slavery was legal in some states of the United States until Benezet extended the recognition of human rights to Native Americans and argued for a peaceful solution to the violence between Native and European Americans.

Benjamin Franklin became the president of Benezet's abolition society in the late 18th century. In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment was interpreted to permit what was termed Separate but equal treatment of minorities until the United States Supreme Court overturned this interpretation in , which consequently overturned Jim Crow laws.

Following the presidential election, Barack Obama was sworn in as the first African-American president of the United States on January 20, So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled". The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex.

The CRA prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender. The U. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, known as CEDAW has been signed by the United States, but it has not been ratified by the Senate. According to the report of HRW, The patchwork of healthcare coverage in the Trump administration caused the loss of insurance for many women and girls who are at risk of deadly diseases such as gynecological cancer.

In June , the U. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion , allowing states to criminalize the procedure. As of March , 12 states have outlawed abortion after 6 weeks before most women know they are pregnant , with several other state bans currently tied up in litigation.

As of , 1 in 3 American women live in states without abortion access. The decision received international condemnation.

The United States is the one of only six countries in the world that does not guarantee paid maternity leave to new mothers. A study of the 40 OECD countries ranked the United States the worst for paid maternity leave.

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, with a rate of nearly 33 maternal deaths per , live births. The United States has the highest female incarceration rate in the world, housing nearly one-third of the world's female prisoners.

The United States has adopted antidiscrimination legislation for people with disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act of ADA. Federal benefits such as Social Security Disability Insurance SSDI and Supplemental Security Income SSI are often administratively viewed in the United States as being primarily or near-exclusively the entitlement only of impoverished U.

people with disabilities , and not applicable to those with disabilities who make significantly above- poverty level income. This is proven in practice by the general fact that in the U.

However, the Stephen Beck, Jr. However, each state must put regulations in place so that financial institutions can make the ABLE accounts available, and there is no guarantee a particular state will do so.

According to the Human Rights Commission of the City and County of San Francisco, as of , Intersex people in the United States have gaps in protections for physical integrity and bodily autonomy, particularly in protection from non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and violence, and protection from discrimination.

In recent years, intersex activists have also secured some forms of legal recognition. Privacy is not explicitly stated in the United States Constitution. In the Griswold v. Connecticut case, the Supreme Court ruled that it is implied in the Constitution.

In Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health case, the Supreme Court held that the patient had a right of privacy to terminate medical treatment. In Gonzales v. Oregon , the Supreme Court held that the Federal Controlled Substances Act can not prohibit physician-assisted suicide allowed by the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.

The Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas U. The US does not restrict the use of encryption among its citizens, Global Partners Digital ranks the US in the top category Minimal Restrictions for respecting the rights of individuals to use encryption.

The United States maintains a presumption of innocence in legal procedures. The Fourth , Fifth , Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution deals with the rights of criminal suspects.

Later the protection was extended to civil cases as well [76] In the Gideon v. Wainwright case, the Supreme Court requires that indigent criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own attorney be provided counsel at trial. Since the Miranda v. Arizona case, the United States requires police departments to inform arrested persons of their rights, which is called a Miranda warning and typically begins with "You have the right to remain silent.

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another. The clause was used to limit school praying , beginning with Engel v.

Vitale , which ruled government-led prayer unconstitutional. Wallace v. Jaffree banned moments of silence allocated for praying. The Supreme Court also ruled clergy-led prayer at public high school graduations unconstitutional with Lee v. The free exercise clause guarantees the free exercise of religion.

The Supreme Court's Lemon v. Kurtzman decision established the "Lemon test" exception, which details the requirements for legislation concerning religion. In the Employment Division v. Smith decision, the Supreme Court maintained a "neutral law of general applicability" can be used to limit religion exercises.

In the City of Boerne v. Flores decision, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was struck down as exceeding congressional power; however, the decision's effect is limited by the Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal decision, which requires states to express compelling interest in prohibiting illegal drug use in religious practices.

The United States is a constitutional republic based on founding documents that restrict the power of government and preserve the liberty of the people.

The freedom of expression including speech, media , and public assembly is an important right and is given special protection, as declared by the First Amendment of the constitution.

Protections on freedom of speech within the United States are considered to be broad, even when compared with other liberal democracies. For example, in the United States, hate speech is constitutionally protected.

According to Supreme Court precedent, the federal and lower governments may not apply prior restraint to expression, with certain exceptions, such as national security and obscenity. Legal limits on expression include:.

Some laws remain controversial due to concerns that they infringe on freedom of expression. These include the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [78] and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. In two high-profile cases, grand juries have decided that Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller must reveal their sources in cases involving CIA leaks.

Time magazine exhausted its legal appeals, and Mr. Cooper eventually agreed to testify. Miller was jailed for 85 days before cooperating. District Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that the First Amendment does not insulate Time magazine reporters from a requirement to testify before a criminal grand jury that's conducting the investigation into the possible illegal disclosure of classified information.

Protesters have been arrested for protesting outside of designated "free speech zones". On July 24, , the United Nations human rights office urged U.

security forces to limit their use of force against peaceful protesters and journalists, as clashes between federal agents and demonstrators continued in Portland, Oregon.

As per § b of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year , [83] United States passports are required to enter and exit the country, and as per the Passport Act of and Haig v. Agee , the Presidential administration may deny or revoke passports for foreign policy or national security reasons at any time.

Perhaps the most notable example of enforcement of this ability was the denial of a passport to U. Representative Leo Isacson , who sought to go to Paris to attend a conference as an observer for the American Council for a Democratic Greece, a Communist front organization, because of the group's role in opposing the Greek government in the Greek Civil War.

The United States prevents U. citizens to travel to Cuba , citing national security reasons, as part of an embargo against Cuba that has been condemned as an illegal act by the United Nations General Assembly. Restrictions continue to remain in place for the rest of the American populace. On June 30, , the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of ten people who are either U.

citizens or legal residents of the U. The plaintiffs have not been told why they are on the list. Five of the plaintiffs have been stranded abroad.

It is estimated that the "no-fly" list contained about 8, names at the time of the lawsuit. The right to vote , also known as the right to suffrage, is implicitly guaranteed through a combination of constitutional especially the Fifteenth , Nineteenth and Twenty-fourth amendments , statutory and judicial guarantees.

Unlike the United States Constitution, the right to vote is affirmatively guaranteed in 49 state constitutions, while the Arizona state constitution negatively affirms the right to vote. However, voting rights are impacted by the variety of state laws regarding voting and voter registration.

Freedom of association is the right of individuals to come together in groups for political action or to pursue common interests. In , the Maryland State Police admitted that they had added the names of Iraq War protesters and death penalty opponents to a terrorist database.

They also admitted that other "protest groups" were added to the terrorist database, but did not specify which groups. It was also discovered that undercover troopers used aliases to infiltrate organizational meetings, rallies and group e-mail lists. Police admitted there was "no evidence whatsoever of any involvement in violent crime" by those classified as terrorists.

The right of revolution is the right or duty of the people of a nation to overthrow a government that acts against their common interests, and is a traditional assumption in American political thought.

The political tract Common Sense used the concept as an argument for rejection of the British Monarchy and separation from the British Empire , as opposed to merely self-government within it. It was also cited in the Declaration of Independence of the United States, when a group of representatives from the various states signed a declaration of independence citing charges against King George III.

As the American Declaration of Independence in expressed it, natural law taught that the people were "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" and could alter or abolish government "destructive" of those rights.

The United States government has declared martial law , [92] suspended or claimed exceptions to some rights on national security grounds, typically in wartime and conflicts such as the United States Civil War , [92] [93] Cold War or the War against Terror.

In some instances the federal courts have allowed these exceptions, while in others the courts have decided that the national security interest was insufficient.

Presidents Lincoln, Wilson, and F. Roosevelt ignored such judicial decisions. Sedition laws have sometimes placed restrictions on freedom of expression. The Alien and Sedition Acts , passed by President John Adams during an undeclared naval conflict with France , allowed the government to punish "false" statements about the government and to deport "dangerous" immigrants.

The Federalist Party used these acts to harass many supporters of the Democratic-Republican Party. While Woodrow Wilson was president, broad legislation called the Espionage Act of and Sedition Act of were passed during World War I. Thousands were jailed for violations of these laws, which prohibited criticizing conscription and the government, or sending literature through the US Mail doing the same.

Most prominently it led to the conviction of Socialist Party of America Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs for speaking out against US participation in World War I and conscription.

Debs received ten years in prison, and ran for president a third time while in prison on December 25, , his sentence was commuted by President Warren G. Harding , releasing Debs early. Numerous conscientious objectors to conscription were also jailed, with a few dying due to mistreatment.

In the post-war Palmer Raids , foreign-born dissidents were arrested in the thousands without legal warrants, and deported for their political beliefs. Presidents have claimed the power to imprison summarily, under military jurisdiction, those suspected of being combatants for states or groups at war against the United States.

Abraham Lincoln invoked this power in the American Civil War to imprison Maryland secessionists. In that case, the Supreme Court concluded that only Congress could suspend the writ of habeas corpus , and the government released the detainees.

During World War II , the United States interned thousands of Japanese-Americans on alleged fears that Japan might use them as saboteurs-the US Supreme Court upheld this policy. The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution forbids unreasonable search and seizure without a warrant , but some administrations have claimed exceptions to this rule to investigate alleged conspiracies against the government.

National security, as well as other concerns like unemployment , has sometimes led the United States to toughen its generally liberal immigration policy. The Chinese Exclusion Act of all but banned Chinese immigrants, who were accused of crowding out American workers.

The federal government has set up a data collection and storage network that keeps a wide variety of data on tens of thousands of Americans who have not been accused of committing a crime. Operated primarily under the direction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the program is known as the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative or SAR.

Reports of suspicious behavior noticed by local law enforcement or by private citizens are forwarded to the program, and profiles are constructed of the persons under suspicion.

Labor rights in the United States have been linked to basic constitutional rights. During the 19th and 20th centuries, safer conditions and workers' rights were gradually mandated by law, but this trend has reversed to some extent towards pro-business policies since the s. In , the National Labor Relations Act recognized and protected "the rights of most workers in the private sector to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands.

In , As of [update] , U. workers worked longer hours on average than any other industrialized country, having surpassed Japan. workers rank high in terms of production. As of [update] , the United States' maternity leave policy is distinct from other industrialized countries for its relative scarcity of benefits.

The length of protected maternity leave ranks 20th out of the 21 high-income countries. Moreover, most foreign wealthy nations provide some form of wage compensation for the leave of absence; the United States is the only one of these 21 countries that does not offer such paid leave.

In , the United States received a poor grade of "4" on the ITUC's Global Rights Index, which ranks the worst places in the world for workers' rights, with "1" being the best and "5" the worst.

In , the United States was considered a "medium risk" country for child labor according to Maplecroft 's Child Labor Index. In , the United States and Papua New Guinea were reported to be the only countries in the world that did not guarantee paid maternal leave by law. Reports by the ITUC in and Oxfam in stated that the United States ranks among the worst among developed countries for labor protections.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights , adopted by the United Nations in , states that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care.

Unlike most other industrialized nations, the United States does not offer most of its citizens subsidized health care. The United States Medicaid program provides subsidized coverage to some categories of individuals and families with low incomes and resources, including children, pregnant women, and very low-income people with disabilities higher-earning people with disabilities do not qualify for Medicaid, although they do qualify for Medicare.

However, according to Medicaid's own documents, "the Medicaid program does not provide health care services, even for very poor people, unless they are in one of the designated eligibility groups. Nonetheless, some states offer subsidized health insurance to broader populations. Coverage is subsidized for persons age 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria through Medicare.

Every person with a permanent disability, both young and old, is inherently entitled to Medicare health benefits — a fact not all disabled US citizens are aware of. Therefore, even the Medicare program is not truly national health insurance or universal health care the way most of the rest of the industrialized world understands it.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of , an unfunded mandate , mandates that no person may ever be denied emergency services regardless of ability to pay, citizenship, or immigration status.

The Fourth , Fifth , Sixth , and Eighth amendments to the United States Constitution each part of the Bill of Rights , as well as the Fourteenth amendment , ensure that criminal defendants have significant procedural rights.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the United States , currently used by 23 states, the federal government, and the military.

Among the world's most economically and politically powerful countries, it is one of the few who utilize capital punishment. In , for instance, it was the only country in the G8 that carried out executions, and was among only three countries in the G20 along with China and Saudi Arabia that carried out executions.

Of the 56 members states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , the United States and Belarus were the only two that carried out executions in The vast majority of executions are carried out by state governments, [] largely as a result of the federal political structure of the United States, in which most crimes are prosecuted by state governments rather than the federal government.

The death penalty has a complex legal history. While modern critics have challenged capital punishment on grounds that it violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on the use of "cruel and unusual punishment", [] the United States Supreme Court has held that it does not.

However, the death penalty was temporarily halted by the Supreme Court on Eighth Amendment grounds from to In , the United States Supreme Court ruled in Trop v. Dulles that the Eighth Amendment "must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency".

Georgia U. Anderson 64 Cal. However, the death penalty was ultimately reinstated nationally in after the US Supreme Court rulings Gregg v. Georgia , U.

Texas , U. Florida , U. Simmons prohibiting the execution of people who committed their crimes when they were under the age of 18 [] between and , Amnesty International recorded 19 executions in the United States for crimes committed by juveniles [].

In international law , it has been argued that the United States may be in violation of international human rights treaties in its use of the death penalty. In , the UN special rapporteur recommended to a committee of the UN General Assembly that the United States be found to be in violation of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with regards to the death penalty, and called for an immediate capital punishment moratorium.

Capital punishment within the United States is controversial. Death penalty opponents consider it "inhumane", [] criticize it for its irreversibility, [] and assert that it is ineffective as a deterrent against crime, [] pointing to several studies which show it has little deterring effect on crime [] though this point is controversial as studies have conflicted in their conclusions on the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent [].

Human rights organizations have been particularly critical of it, with Amnesty International , for example, stating that "the death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights. Some opponents criticize the over-representation of black people on death row as evidence of the unequal racial application of the death penalty.

In McCleskey v. Kemp , for example, it was alleged the capital sentencing process was administered in a racially discriminatory manner in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The United Nations estimates that as of , there were 80, prisoners in solitary confinement in the U. Méndez, has requested that the United States stop holding prisoners in solitary confinement, as "it often causes mental and physical suffering or humiliation, amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and if the resulting pain or sufferings are severe, solitary confinement even amounts to torture.

The NGO Human Rights Watch has stated that there are human rights issues created by the current sex offender registration laws, and that they believe that the burden of being publicly listed as a sex offender , combined with the restrictions placed on former offenders and their family members, are human rights violations.

They have criticized the breadth of the registration requirements, which often treats all offenders the same regardless of the nature of the offense and without accounting the risk of future re-offending, as well as the application of such laws to juvenile offenders , and to crimes such as prostitution and exposing oneself as prank.

Both organizations have challenged elements of the registration laws in court. Human rights groups, civil rights organizations, and social critics have criticized the United States for violating fundamental human rights through the use of disproportionately heavy penalties compared to many other countries, overly long prison sentences, over-reliance on police control, excessive control of individual behavior, and societal control of disadvantaged groups.

The United States has been criticized for its large prison population , [] which as of is the largest in the world at 1,, Anderson and Reuben J. Miller, the "explosive growth" of the incarcerated poor can be seen as part of the "punitive regulation" of poverty in the post-Keynesian era in order to mitigate the social fallout from economic deregulation, increasing inequality, and precarious employment , with corporations exploiting "carceral labor" for pennies an hour.

The United States also has a high rate of youth imprisonment, with many held in the same prisons as adults. This is seen as a contributor to prison overcrowding , especially in California, Arizona, and Texas.

This goes hand-in-hand with the US immigration policies, which have also been criticized by human rights groups. Tolerance of sexual abuse and rape in United States prisons is also an area of concern to human rights watchers. Human Rights Watch , for instance, raised concerns with prisoner rape and medical care for inmates.

In a report, Amnesty International said it had "documented patterns of ill-treatment across the U. Justice Department for prosecution by investigative agencies were declined. government is unable or unwilling to collect statistics showing the precise number of people killed by the police or the prevalence of the use of excessive force.

On June 2, , George Floyd 's official post-mortem report declared the cause of death as asphyxia lack of oxygen due to a compression on his neck and back. It also found that the death was a homicide, a statement from the family's legal team said.

The use of strip searches and cavity searches by law enforcement agencies and in the prison system has raised human rights concerns. The practice of taking an arrested person on a perp walk , often handcuffed, through a public place at some point after the arrest, creating an opportunity for the media to take photographs and video of the event has raised civil and human rights concerns.

Human rights organizations , civil rights groups, academics, journalists, and other critics have argued that the US justice system exhibits racial biases that harm minority groups, particularly African Americans. African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences.

The cause of this is disputed. There is a widespread belief among the American public that racial discrimination by the police is a persistent problem, [] and many academics and journalists assert that systemic racism , as well as a number of factors like concentrated poverty and higher rates of substandard housing which has also led to greater rates of lead poisoning among African Americans that they argue arise out of past racial segregation or other forms of historical oppression, [] contribute to the racial disparities.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Human Rights Watch have argued that there exists a " trial penalty "—a penalty for electing to go to trial that arises from the discrepancy between the punishment a defendant would receive by waiving the right to trial and accepting a plea bargain compared to the punishment they might receive at trial—which they argue abridges the right to trial guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

There has also been criticism over qualified immunity , a judicial precedent that grants government officials—including police officers— certain immunity from civil suits.

Department of State publishes a yearly report "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U. Record" in compliance with a law that requires the department to report on actions taken by the U.

Government to encourage respect for human rights. According to the Canadian historian Michael Ignatieff , both during and after the Cold War , the US emphasized human rights more than other nations emphasized it as a part of its foreign policy , awarded foreign aid to facilitate progress on human rights, and annually assessed the human rights records of other national governments.

The US has also faced criticism over its human rights foreign policy. For example, numerous academics and journalists, among them J. Patrice McSherry and Vincent Bevins , have documented significant US support for right-wing dictatorships , state terrorism , and mass killings during the Cold War.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICCPR and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ICESCR are the legal treaties that enshrine the rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Together, and along with the first and second optional protocols of the ICCPR they constitute the International bill of rights [] [] The US has not ratified the ICESCR or either of the optional protocols of the ICCPR.

The US's ratification of the ICCPR was done with five reservations — or limits — on the treaty, 5 understandings and 4 declarations. Among these is the rejection of sections of the treaty that prohibit capital punishment. As a reservation that is "incompatible with the object and purpose" of a treaty is void as a matter of international law, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, art.

At any rate, the United States is but a signatory in name only. The United States has not ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ICC , which was drafted for prosecuting individuals above the authority of national courts in the event of accusations of genocide , crimes against humanity , war crimes , and crime of aggression.

Nations that have accepted the Rome Statute can defer to the jurisdiction of the ICC or must surrender their jurisdiction when ordered.

rejected the Rome Statute after its attempts to include the nation of origin as a party in international proceedings failed, and after certain requests were not met, including recognition of gender issues, "rigorous" qualifications for judges, viable definitions of crimes, protection of national security information that might be sought by the court, and jurisdiction of the UN Security Council to halt court proceedings in special cases.

has actively encouraged nations around the world to sign "bilateral immunity agreements" prohibiting the surrender of U. personnel before the ICC [] and actively attempted to undermine the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Congress also passed a law, American Service-Members' Protection Act ASPA , authorizing the use of military force to free any U. personnel that are brought before the court rather than its own court system.

Judge Richard Goldstone , the first chief prosecutor at The Hague war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia , echoed these sentiments saying:.

I think it is a very backwards step. It is unprecedented which I think to an extent smacks of pettiness in the sense that it is not going to affect in any way the establishment of the international criminal court The US have really isolated themselves and are putting themselves into bed with the likes of China, the Yemen and other undemocratic countries.

The United States' objections to the Rome Statute have revolved around the issues of jurisdiction and process. ambassador for War Crimes Issues to the UN Security Council said to the U.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee that because the Rome Statute requires only one nation to submit to the ICC, and that this nation can be the country in which an alleged crime was committed rather than defendant's country of origin, U.

military personnel and U. foreign peaceworkers in more than countries could be tried in international court without the consent of the US.

The ambassador states that "most atrocities are committed internally and most internal conflicts are between warring parties of the same nationality, the worst offenders of international humanitarian law can choose never to join the treaty and be fully insulated from its reach absent a Security Council referral.

Yet multinational peacekeeping forces operating in a country that has joined the treaty can be exposed to the court's jurisdiction even if the country of the individual peacekeeper has not joined the treaty.

Where the signature is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval, the signature does not establish the consent to be bound. However, it is a means of authentication and expresses the willingness of the signatory state to continue the treaty-making process.

The signature qualifies the signatory state to proceed to ratification, acceptance or approval. It also creates an obligation to refrain, in good faith, from acts that would defeat the object and the purpose of the treaty.

has not ratified the following international human rights treaties: []. The US is a signatory to the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and has signed but not ratified the American Convention on Human Rights.

It is a member of Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Political Rights to Women It does not accept the adjudicatory jurisdiction of the Costa Rica -based Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The US has not ratified any of the other regional human rights treaties of the Organization of American States , [] which include:.

Studies have found that The New York Times coverage of worldwide human rights violations predominately focuses on human rights violations in nations where there is clear U. involvement, while having relatively little coverage of the human rights violations in other nations.

it's because we believe that the U. is a country whose enormous influence and power has to be used constructively When countries like the U. are seen to undermine or ignore human rights, it sends a very powerful message to others.

International and U. law prohibits torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of any person in custody in all circumstances, especially in a state of armed conflict. Certain practices of the United States military and Central Intelligence Agency have been widely condemned domestically and internationally as torture.

civilian and military intelligence community, with no general consensus as to what practices under what conditions are acceptable.

Abuse of prisoners is considered a crime in the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice. According to a January Human Rights First report, there were 45 suspected or confirmed homicides while in U.

custody in Iraq and Afghanistan; "Certainly 8, as many as 12, people were tortured to death. In , photos showing humiliation and abuse of prisoners were leaked from Abu Ghraib prison , causing a political and media scandal in the US. Forced humiliation of the detainees included, but was not limited to: forced nudity; rape; human piling of nude detainees; masturbation; eating food out of toilets; crawling on hands and knees while American soldiers sat on their backs, sometimes requiring them to bark like dogs; and hooking up electrical wires to fingers, toes, and penises.

In addition to the acts of humiliation, there were more violent claims, such as American soldiers sodomizing detainees including an event involving an underage boy , an incident in which a phosphoric light was broken and the chemicals poured on a detainee, repeated beatings, and threats of death.

The harshest sentence was handed out to Charles Graner , who received a year sentence to be served in a military prison and a demotion to private; the other offenders received lesser sentences.

In their report The Road to Abu Ghraib , Human Rights Watch states: []. The [Bush] administration effectively sought to re-write the Geneva Conventions of to eviscerate many of their most important protections.

These include the rights of all detainees in an armed conflict to be free from humiliating and degrading treatment, as well as from torture and other forms of coercive interrogation Concern for the basic rights of persons taken into custody in Afghanistan and Iraq did not factor into the Bush administration's agenda.

The administration largely dismissed expressions of concern for their treatment, from both within the government and without. On February 6, , the CIA director General Michael Hayden stated that the CIA had used waterboarding on three prisoners during and , namely Khalid Shaikh Mohammed , Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

The June 21, , issue of Newsweek stated that the Bybee memo , a legal memorandum drafted by former OLC lawyer John Yoo that described what sort of interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists or terrorist affiliates the Bush administration would consider legal, was " prompted by CIA questions about what to do with a top Qaeda captive, Abu Zubaydah , who had turned uncooperative and was drafted after White House meetings convened by George W.

Bush's chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales , along with Defense Department general counsel William Haynes and David Addington , Vice President Dick Cheney 's counsel, who discussed specific interrogation techniques," citing "a source familiar with the discussions.

In November , ABC News reported that former CIA agents claimed that the CIA engaged in a modern form of waterboarding, along with five other " enhanced interrogation techniques ", against suspected members of al Qaeda. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , Louise Arbour , stated on the subject of waterboarding "I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition of torture," and that violators of the UN Convention Against Torture should be prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Bent Sørensen, Senior Medical Consultant to the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims and former member of the United Nations Committee Against Torture has said:. It's a clear-cut case: Waterboarding can without any reservation be labeled as torture.

It fulfils all of the four central criteria that according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture UNCAT defines an act of torture. First, when water is forced into your lungs in this fashion, in addition to the pain you are likely to experience an immediate and extreme fear of death.

You may even suffer a heart attack from the stress or damage to the lungs and brain from inhalation of water and oxygen deprivation. In addition the CIA's waterboarding clearly fulfills the three additional definition criteria stated in the Convention for a deed to be labeled torture, since it is 1 done intentionally, 2 for a specific purpose and 3 by a representative of a state — in this case the US.

Coerced into working through threats of harm or deportation, psychological manipulation, debt manipulation, document confiscation, or confinement. Forced into sex work for profit through physical abuse or assault, sexual abuse or assault, other threats of harm, or confinement.

These are the most common characteristics that are legally protected. If you believe that you or someone else experienced unlawful discrimination, you can report a civil rights violation. By completing the online form, you can provide the details we need to understand what happened.

You will receive a confirmation number and your report is immediately sent to our staff for review. Teams that specialize in handling your type of issue will review it.

If it needs to be forwarded to another team or agency, we will try to connect your complaint to the right group. Possible outcomes include: following up for more information, starting a mediation or investigation, directing you to another organization for further help, or informing you that we cannot help.

If you cannot access the online form, you can call to report a violation or report a violation by mail. Thank you for your report.

We carefully read each one to determine if we have the authority to help. We do our best to let you know about the outcome of our review. However, we may not always be able to provide you with updates because:. If we are able to respond, we will contact you using the contact information you provided in this report.

Depending on the type of report, response times can vary. If you need to reach us about your report, please refer to your report number when contacting us.

This is how we keep track of your submission. Due to the amount of reports we receive, it can take several weeks for us to respond to your issue. Local legal aid offices or lawyers in your area may be able to quickly respond to or help with your concern. Contact Legal Services Corporation to help you find a legal aid lawyer in your area at lsc.

Or visit www. Have you been a victim of a hate crime or human trafficking? Get help NOW! We uphold the civil rights of all people in the United States. About the Civil Rights Division. Understanding your rights. Choose from this list to see example civil rights violations:.

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