Results: Landmark cases include:
• Kpadeh, et al. v. Charles McArthur Emmanuel, a.k.a. “Chuckie” Taylor (2010) – After his conviction of torture and related crimes in criminal court, Human Rights USA pursued civil action against Chuckie Taylor - son of the former President of Liberia Charles Taylor and head of his father’s security unit. The suit was filed on behalf of five of his victims, seeking reparations and damages. In May 2009, Human Rights USA secured a major victory, winning a default judgment, and in February 2010 U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan awarded Human Rights USA’s clients an incredible $22.4 million in damages. This amount recognizes the grave violations Human Rights USA’s clients suffered, and will allow them to address the financial burdens they face, including past and ongoing medical expenses, physical and psychological harms, lost wages, destroyed property, and other damages inflicted by Chuckie Taylor and his forces. The next step is to enforce this judgment, to ensure Human Rights USA’s clients receive the reparations they are owed.
• USA v. Roy Belfast, a.k.a. “Chuckie” Taylor (2008) – Human Rights USA submitted three amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs in the first-ever U.S. criminal prosecution brought under a 1994 law holding that anyone on U.S. soil, citizen or not, can be charged and tried for torture committed anywhere in the world. Human Rights USA’s briefs helped government prosecutors convince a Miami jury to convict Chuckie Taylor of torture and related crimes and to sentence him to 97 years in prison.
• M.L.C. v. Gonzales (2008) – A young woman named M.L.C. was forced into marriage and sexual slavery in China in order to pay a debt her abusive father owed a powerful local administrator. After being beaten violently and locked in a room for three days with no food or water, M.L.C. was forced into a betrothal ceremony, assaulted by her new “husband,” and imprisoned once more. She escaped and fled to the United States where she filed for asylum. Her claim was initially rejected by an Immigration Judge, but after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals remanded her case to the immigration courts, Human Rights USA represented M.L.C. in a new hearing before the Immigration Judge, and she was granted asylum in August 2008. Her case was an important affirmation that victims of forced marriages deserve asylum protection in the United States.
• Xiaoning v. Yahoo! Inc. (2007) – Human Rights USA was the first group to file a lawsuit against a major Internet service provider for human rights violations, holding the U.S.-based Yahoo! Inc. liable for its role in providing the government of China with Internet user identification that resulted in the arrest, jailing and torture of two prominent journalists and human rights and democracy activists. After several high profile Congressional hearings focused on the company’s complicity in human rights abuses, Human Rights USA won a settlement on behalf of the victims’ families. In the wake of Human Rights USA’s successful lawsuit, Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft signed onto a voluntary Code of Conduct developed with human rights groups and corporate responsibility experts – the “Global Network Initiative” – in which each company pledged to uphold the fundamental human right to freedom of expression and to conduct their international operations accordingly. Recently, Google has moved to put its words into action by shutting down its search service in the Chinese mainland due to reports of hacking and censorship.
Other firsts:
• Human Rights USA was the first group to successfully sue a sitting head of state (Hun Sen of Cambodia) in U.S. courts for human rights abuses committed abroad.
• Human Rights USA represented a woman and her young daughter from Nigeria fleeing the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). In a groundbreaking decision, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals held that FGM is a form of torture under the Convention Against Torture, which justifies relief from deportation to mothers who seek to protect their children from this practice. Other courts have since followed suit in recognizing FGM as a form of torture and grounds for protection.
• Human Rights USA was the first U.S.-based human rights group to report regularly to the United Nations on U.S. compliance with the major international human rights treaties.
Programs: Human rights usas legal action has an immediate impact on our clients lives, and a broad impact on u. S. Law and policy. As a result of our direct services, amicus briefs, mentoring, and counseling, more people now have asylum in the united states from forced marriage and human trafficking. This work on behalf of refugees has established asylum as a viable form of protection from forced marriage and trafficking; our new handbook for lawyers representing asylum seekers aims to make this protection more widely accessible. In 2010, the federal courts upheld domestic human rights enforcement, setting a binding precedent that human rights violators can be prosecuted, tried, and convicted in the united states for the crime of torture. Survivors of torture from liberia now have confidence to rebuild their lives because the u. S. Citizen responsible for the horrors they endured will be in prison for the rest of his life. In 2010, we worked with 20 survivors of human trafficking, taking legal action so they can see the persons responsible for coercing them into modern-day slavery held accountable. We choose these cases because they provide important assistance for these individuals, but also because they make a lasting impact on u. S. Laws and policies that assist many more people than our clients.
