The Human Rights Committee focuses on the protection of civil rights and liberties both here and abroad when the ability of attorneys and judges to perform their roles is threatened.  The Committee has been especially active in the aftermath of September 11th and the Bush administration’s “war on terror.”

With the Obama administration, SALT continues to press for appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate and prosecute, if appropriate, those Bush administration officials responsible for authorizing and implementing practices in violation of the Constitution, domestic and international law, and treaties.   

Read the declassified Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility Report, July 29, 2009, declining to sanction Jay Bybee and John Yoo for their roles in issuing Office of Legal Counsel memoranda permitting torture and enhanced interrogation techniques. 

Physicians for Human Rights issued its report documenting experimentation by CIA interrogators as part of the "war on terror.  Download a pdf of the Report. 

A coalition of human and civil rights groups has filed a formal complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services based upon the allegations contained in this report.  Read the press release about this complaint. 

Library of SALT Human Rights Committee Statements

2010 Updates

July 19, 2010: Jennifer Harbury, SALT's 2008 M. Shanara Gilbert Human Rights Awardee, responds to SALT's letter to end harassment of Harbury and other human rights defenders.  Read the text of her July 19, 2010 email. 

July 13, 2010: SALT urges protection for Jennifer Harbury, SALT's 2008 M. Shanara Gilbert Human Rights Awardee, and other human rights defenders from harassment in Guatemala.  Read the July 13, 2010 letter sent to Guatemalan and American officials. 

May 5, 2010: SALT urges federal intervention to prevent enforcement of Arizona SB 1070, a draconian attempt to legalize racial profiling and usurp exclusive federal power to regulate immigration. May 5, 2010 letter to President Obama.

June 21, 2010: SALT joins thrity-seven other public interest organizations in challenging the constitutionality of Arizona SB 1070 in amicus filing in Friendly House v. Whiting.  Read the amicus brief.  

Review the list of amici organizations. 

July 13, 2010: In 2008 SALT honored Jennifer Harbury and Sister Dianna Ortiz with the M. Shanara Gilbert Human Rights Award for their courageous work in Guatemala to end the human rights abuses that had taken the life of Jennifer's husband, Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, and had subjected Sister Ortiz to kidnap and torture.  On July 13, 2010, at the request of Jennifer Harbury, SALT sent a letter to various Guatemalan and American government officials to end the campaign of harassment and intimidation being waged against Jennifer Harbury, Alejandro Rodriguez Barillas, Jose Rodolfo Lopez Barillas, and Manuel Giovanni Vasquez Vicente.  Read the SALT letter. 
2009 Updates

November 24, 2009: SALT and LatCrit co-sign letters of protest to the American Bar Association, members of Congress, and to Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno expressing dismay at recent events in Puerto Rico that seriously threaten the integrity of the rule of law: the closure of the University of Puerto Rico from October 12-16, 2009, and the legislature's abrupt move to make the Puerto Rican Bar Association non-compulsory. 

Read the letter addressed to ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm.

Read the letter addressed to Senator Patrick Leahy.

Read the letter addressed to Governor Luis Fortuno.

November 9, 2009: SALT signs amicus brief in FADI AL MAQALEH V. GATES, drafted by
Daniel Kanstroom, Professor, Law School Fund Scholar, and Director, Human Rights Program. The brief challenges the seizure, isolation, rendition without process, and detention without access to judicial review of non-combatant civilians by the executive branch of the U.S. government.  Such actions present the most basic and profound challenges to human rights.  Along with many individual law faculty, SALT joined the amicus brief as an institutional signatory.  Click here to read the amicus brief.  SALT thanks Daniel Kanstroom, Professor of Law and Director, International Human Rights Program, Boston College Law School, for preparation of the brief and Boston College Law School students Esther Adetunji, Alissa Dolan, Robert Hatfield, Kathryn Kargman, Benjamin Manchak, Erin Morley, Ian Read, Kate Voigt, and Jennifer Yeung.

August 31, 2009: SALT issued a press release commending Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to release the 2004 CIA Inspector General’s Report and to follow the Office of Professional Responsibility’s recommendations to reconsider any previous decisions limiting the scope of investigation and prosecution of those accused of torturing detainees during the “war on terror.”  Read the press release. 

July 22, 2009: SALT sent Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano a letter applauding the revision of 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which appears to place limits on local law enforcement of immigration law, and to allow victims of severe domestic and sexual abuse to seek asylum in the United States.  Both of these reforms were contained in SALT’s Recommendations to the Administration for Immigration Agency Reforms, dated June 17, 2009.  However, SALT urged the Administration to release the full details of the revised 287(g) program and to formalize the guidelines for granting asylum to victims of domestic abuse.  Click here for a copy of the July 22, 2009 letter.

June 17, 2009: SALT sent President Obama SALT Recommendations to the Administration for Immigration Agency Reforms, requesting reform through executive orders and administrative directives to nine categories of immigration law enforcement.  Click here for a copy of the June 17, 2009 Recommendations.

April 20, 2009:  SALT wrote to President Obama asking him to continue investigation and prosecution, if appropriate, for torture committed by CIA agents and others on detainees held under U.S. control.  Click here for a copy of the April 220, 2009 letter. 

February 24, 2009:  SALT joined in signing a letter urging Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, the attorneys then employed by the Department of Justice who authored memos seeking to justify torture.  Click here for a copy of the February 24, 2009 letter.

January 30, 2009: SALT sent President Obama a letter applauding his decisions early in his administration to close Guantánamo Bay Prison, limit interrogations to the procedures of the U.S. Army Field Manual, and suspend military commissions, yet asking for the appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate the abuses of the Bush administration.  Click here for a copy of the January 30, 2009 letter.

January 21, 2009: On August 5, 2008, SALT issued a statement requesting then Attorney General Michael Mukasey to initiate an investigation and prosecution of those government officials responsible for authorizing and implementing torture and enhanced interrogation techniques against suspects in the "war on terror."  Click here for a copy of the August 5, 2008 letter. 

SALT received a letter dated January 14, 2009, from Jennifer Korn, Director of the US Department of Justice Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison, which denied the use of torture and assured that actions taken were in compliance with American law and the Geneva Conventions. In addition, she referred to the special prosecutor investigation into the destruction of videotapes of detainee interrogations by the CIA as evidence of good faith.  Click here for a copy of the January 14, 2009 letter.

2008 Updates

December 2, 2008:  In a December 2, 2008, letter to President-Elect Barack Obama, SALT joined World Organization for Human Rights USA, and TASSC International, along with other human rights organizations, urging the in-coming President to keep his promise for change and:
•    to immediately put an end to torture; 
•    to put “justice” back in the Justice Department; and 
•    to keep the option of criminal investigations and prosecutions of those US officials responsible for authorizing torture on the table.

November 27, 2008: SALT and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) issued a joint statement opposing the Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, which passed the House without much notice and with overwhelming support, and was going before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Click here for a copy of the November 27, 2008 statement. 

August 5, 2008: SALT issued a statement entitled U.S. Officials Should Be Held Accountable for Torture, Using Domestic Criminal Prosecution, which called for criminal investigations and prosecutions, not preemptive pardons, investigations without accountability, and immunity from prosecution, to end the abuses in the "war on terror."

June 10, 2008: SALT issued Statement Condemning Harassment, Intimidation, and Disbarment of Chinese Human Rights Lawyers, in which SALT called on the government of China to restore the law licenses of Mr. Teng Biao and Mr. Jiang Tanyong, and to desist from intimidating, harassing, and sanctioning lawyers who represent clients or causes disfavored by the government or threatening action against the law firms who employ them.  

May 5, 2008:  SALT issued Society of American Law Teachers Statement on Investigation and Prosecution of Promoters of the Use of Torture, in which we asked for investigation and prosecution of both the National Security Principals who authorized and implemented and the attorneys who wrote the justifications for torture of detainees held in the “war on terror.”  

Past Updates

In response to the imposition of a state of emergency in Pakistan, on November 6, 2007, SALT issued a statement demanding immediate elections and a return to the rule of law. SALT has joined other progressive organizations from around the country and the world in demonstrations at consultates and court houses, in solidarity with attorneys and judges in Pakistan. 

On June 25, 2007, SALT issued a Statement on the Full Restoration of Constitutional Rights, Including Habeas Corpus, urging passage of the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act and full restoration of all constitutional rights. 

As hostile language continues directed at Iran, in February 2007, SALT issued Open Letter to Congress, Bush Administration and the Armed Forces. 

Also in 2007, SALT issued Statement on Post 9/11 Anti-Immigrant Measures that emphasizes the importance of creating viable paths to legalization and family unification, and urging Congress to eliminate the long waiting periods and high fees currently faced by immigrants. 

In July 2005, SALT submitted a statement to Judge John H. Koehltl, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, regarding the sentencing of Attorney Lynne Stewart after she was convicted of violating her oath to abide by the Special Administrative Measures in representing her client sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.