Human Rights Violations In The United States

Human Rights Violations In

The United States

A report on U.S. compliance with

The International Covenant on Civil

and Political Rights

American Civil Liberties Union

Human Rights Watch

Copyright 8 December 1993 by Human Rights Watch, American Civil Liberties Union

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 93-81081

ISBN: 1-56432-122-3

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Human Rights Watch conducts regular, systematic investigations of human rights abuses in some

seventy countries around the world. It addresses the human rights practices of governments of all

political stripes, of all geopolitical alignments, and of all ethnic and religious persuasions. In internal

wars it documents violations by both governments and rebel groups. Human Rights Watch defends

freedom of thought and expression, due process and equal protection of the law; it documents and

denounces murders, disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment, exile, censorship and other abuses

of internationally recognized human rights.

Human Rights Watch began in 1978 with the founding of Helsinki Watch. Today, it

includes Africa Watch, Americas Watch, Asia Watch, Helsinki Watch, Middle East Watch, and four

collaborative projects, the Arms Project, Prison Project, Womens Rights' Project, and the Fund for Free

Expression. It now maintains offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, London, Moscow,

Belgrade, Zagreb and Hong Kong. Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental

organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations. It accepts no

government funds, directly or indirectly.

The executive committee includes Robert L. Bernstein, chair; Adrian W. DeWind, vice

chair; Roland Algrant, Lisa Anderson, Peter D. Bell, Alice L. Brown, William Carmichael, Dorothy

Cullman, Irene Diamond, Jonathan Fanton, Alan Finberg, Jack Greenberg, Alice H. Henkin, Stephen L.

Kass, Marina Pinto Kaufman, Alexander MacGregor, Peter Osnos, Kathleen Peratis, Bruce Rabb,

Orville Schell, Gary G. Sick, and Malcolm Smith.

The staff includes Kenneth Roth, executive director; Holly J. Burkhalter, Washington

director; Gara LaMarche, associate director; Susan Osnos, press director; Ellen Lutz, California director;

Jemera Rone, counsel; Stephanie Steele, operations director; Michal Longfelder, development director;

Rachel Weintraub, special events director; Allyson Collins, research associate; Joanna Weschler, Prison

Project director; Kenneth Anderson, Arms Project director; Dorothy Q. Thomas, Women's Rights

Project director; and Gara LaMarche, the Fund for Free Expression director.

The executive directors of the divisions of Human Rights Watch are Abdullahi An-Na'im,

Africa Watch; Juan E. M¨¦ndez, Americas Watch; Sidney Jones, Asia Watch; Jeri Laber, Helsinki

Watch; and Andrew Whitley, Middle East Watch.

Addresses for Human Rights Watch

485 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10017-6104

1522 K Street, N.W., #910

Washington, DC 20005

Tel: (212) 972-8400

Fax: (212) 972-0905

email: hrwatchnyc@igc.

Tel: (202) 371-6592

Fax: (202) 371-0124

email: hrwatchdc@igc.

10951 West Pico Blvd., #203

Los Angeles, CA 90064

Tel: (310) 475-3070

Fax: (310) 475-5613

email: hrwatchla@igc.

90 Borough High Street

London, UK SE1 1LL

Tel: (071) 378-8008

Fax: (071) 378-8029

email: hrwatchuk@

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION

The American Civil Liberties Union is a nationwide, nonpartisan organization of nearly 300,000

members dedicated to preserving and defending the principles set forth in the Bill of Rights. Since its

founding in 1920, the ACLU has championed civil liberties for all people in the United States: freedom

of expression, equality, due process of law, the right to privacy, and liberty and justice for all.

Today the ACLU has staffed affiliate offices in most major cities and more than 300

chapters in smaller towns and cities. The organization supports more than a dozen national projects,

each dedicated to a particular area of need: children's rights, prisoners' rights, lesbian and gay rights,

women's rights, reproductive freedom, immigrants' rights, voting rights, AIDS, capital punishment, arts

censorship, workplace rights, education reform, national security and privacy and technology. The

ACLU advances its work through litigation, legislative lobbying and public education.

ACLU Executive Staff: Ira Glasser, Executive Director; Laura Murphy Lee, Director, Washington

Office; Alma Montclair, Director, Administration and Finance; Sandra Sedacca, Director,

Development; Steven Shapiro, Legal Director; Loren Siegel, Director, Public Education; Barry

Steinhardt, Associate Director.

ACLU Executive Committee: Nadine Strossen, President; Alice Bendheim, Gwen Thomas, Richard

Zacks, Frank Askin, Vivian O. Berger, James E. Ferguson, Judith Bendich, Mary Ellen Gale, Susan N.

Herman, Gara LaMarche, Micki Levin, Robert B. Remar and Philippa Strum.

Addresses for the ACLU:

132 West 43rd Street

New York, New York 10036

(212) 944-9800

122 Maryland Avenue, NE

Washington, DC 20002

(202) 544-1681

Acknowledgments

This report reflects the work of many individuals. It was conceived and

edited by a joint American Civil Liberties Union/Human Rights Watch team

comprised of Steven R. Shapiro, ACLU National Legal Director; Paul Hoffman,

Legal Director of the ACLU of Southern California; Kenneth Roth, Executive

Director of Human Rights Watch; Gara LaMarche, Associate Director of Human

Rights Watch and Executive Director of its Fund for Free Expression; and Lee

Tucker, the W. Bradford Wiley Fellow at Human Rights Watch, who played a vital

coordinating and editing role in the final stages of the process without which the

report would not have been possible.

The authors of the individual chapters include:

o

Death Penalty: Diann Y. Rust-Tierney, Chief Legislative Counsel of the

ACLU, with assistance from Julio Martinez for initial research and

drafting and Travia Cole, Administrator of the ACLU Capital Punishment

Project;

o

Immigrants' Rights: Lucas Guttentag, Director of the Immigrants'

Rights Project of the ACLU, with assistance from Ann Parrent, volunteer

staff attorney and Jinsoo Kim, Harvard Law School intern;

o

Race Discrimination: Alice Brown, counsel with the NAACP Legal

Defense and Education Fund, was the principal author, assisted by LDF

staff members Elgin Clemmons, Charles Ralston, Gailon McGowen,

Dennis Parker, Nina Pillard, Maya Wiley, Catherine Hinton, Olatunda

Johnson, and Kim Field.

o

Sex Discrimination: Isabelle Katz Pinzler, Director of the ACLU

Women's Rights Project, and Deborah Blatt, NYU Law Fellow with the

Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Project;

o

Prison Conditions: Edward Koren, staff counsel with the ACLU

National Prison Project, and Joanna Weschler, director of the Human

Rights Watch Prisoners' Rights Project;

o

Police Brutality: Paul Hoffman;

i

o

Language Rights: Edward M. Chen, staff counsel with the ACLU of

Northern California, and Antonio Califa, formerly Chief Legislative

Counsel of the ACLU and now Director of the Office of Civil Rights of

the U.S. Department of Transportation;

o

Freedom of Expression: Jeanne M. Woods, formerly legislative counsel

with the ACLU and now Professor of Law at Loyola University School of

Law; and Gara LaMarche;

o

Religious Liberty: Robert S. Peck, Legislative Counsel with the ACLU.

Scott M.X. Turner, Christina Derry, Robert Kimzey and Barbara Baker of

the Human Rights Watch staff provided invaluable production assistance.

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