WATCH: New video on our landmark Abu Ghraib torture case, as we await a verdict 

Two weeks ago, our landmark case Al Shimari v. CACI, a federal lawsuit filed in 2008 and brought on behalf of three Iraqi torture victims, finally went to trial.

The case was brought against U.S.-based government contractor CACI Premier Technology, Inc. on behalf of Suhail Najim Abdullah Al Shimari, Salah Hasan Nusaif Al-Ejaili, and Asa’ad Hamza Hanfoosh Zuba’e.

The last remaining lawsuit of its kind, Al Shimari v. CACI overcame more than 20 attempts by CACI to have it dismissed and five trips to the court of appeals to make it to trial. This was the first time that victims of the United States’ post-9/11 torture testified in a U.S. courtroom.

We’re currently awaiting the verdict. The jury will resume deliberations today. 

“Every fair person, every person who seeks truth, every person who calls for peace, must push toward giving justice to those people and enacting laws that would limit the subjection of people to torture, whether in Iraq or anywhere else in the world.”
– Plaintiff Salah Al-Ejaili

Check out the The New York Times piece, 20 Years Later, a Jury Weighs Claims of Abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Watch the new video on our Instagram or Youtube channel.

In solidarity with students calling for an end to complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza 

We stand in solidarity with the student activists facing repression for demanding that their universities end their complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. In a futile attempt to appease politicians and donors, college presidents like Columbia’s Minouche Shafik have suspended students and called in police to clear their encampments. Such repression is not new. Months ago, Columbia suspended Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, and universities started suppressing speech by Palestinian rights advocates years ago.

The furor over campus protests hit the news cycle just as Palestinians uncovered another mass grave in a hospital recently evacuated by Israeli forces, and families are searching for signs of their loved ones among mutilated and decomposing bodies. Those condemning the students aim to draw attention away from the cause of student’s outrage: Israel’s genocide in Gaza and U.S. institutions’ unconditional support for it. 

In response to the lawsuit we brought against President Biden, a U.S. federal judge stated: “It is every individual's obligation to confront the current siege in Gaza.”

Students are doing just that.

Read the full statement on our website. 

TUESDAY: Vince Warren lecture, “Lessons in movement lawyering from local to global” 

On Tuesday, our Executive Director Vince Warren will deliver his final lecture in his role as CUNY Law 2023-24 W. Haywood Burns Chair. 

Date: Tuesday, April 30, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Location: 2 Court Square, CUNY School of Law, Long Island City, NY 11101

Vince will explore the local and global impact of two cases from our advocacy around environmental justice and mass incarceration and discuss leveraging spheres of influence despite obstacles. 

Vince will share lessons from decarceration efforts led by formerly incarcerated advocates in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, New York, and California and presented to the United Nations. He will also detail our experience amplifying grassroots environmental activism from the area of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley.”

RSVP on the CUNY Law School website. This event is in person only.

SATURDAY: “REP-A-THON,” a live-streamed legal defense fundraiser 

Join us and partners, Southern Center for Human Rights and Color of Change, for “Rep-A-Thon,” a live-streamed legal defense fundraiser. Join for an afternoon of history, education, music, and wellness, and support the fight against state repression! Our Executive Director Vince Warren will join other speakers.

Date: Saturday, May 4, 2024 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET
Location: Online

Legal representation is important. This is especially true in Atlanta, as dozens of individuals are being prosecuted as a result of exercising their First Amendment Rights. This “Rep-a-Thon” will raise funds to support the Southern Center for Human Rights' First Amendment Lawyer Bridge, a joint effort with Community Justice Exchange. This effort will coordinate legal representation for individuals facing prosecution for exercising their right to protest and dissent, and provide training to the attorneys representing them.

As prosecutions against protesters grow in complexity and frequency, First Amendment protections are being eroded. The Bridge is an innovative, permanent response to efforts to quell dissent—a permanent mass defense infrastructure! 

Register on the Southern Center for Human Rights' event page.