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Vice News discusses CJA’s letter to US officials calling on them to break away from the previous administration’s “intellectually dishonest” reading of the torture treaty.

A Haiti investigative judge assigned to look into allegations of corruption and crimes against humanity by former President-for-Life Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier is continuing to pursue the case despite Duvalier’s death.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with CJA Legal Director Kathy Roberts, who discusses her concern about a current debate on torture within the Obama administration that could revive the Bush administration interpretation that the U.S. government had the option of engaging in cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners it holds abroad.

After The New York Times released a report indicating that lawyers in President Obama’s administration were considering taking a position that the Convention Against Torture applies only to acts of torture committed within the United States, CJA sent U.S. officials a letter strongly urging them to maintain that torture is illegal everywhere. Click here to read the letter.

The second trial against former Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan began on October 17, 2014. The trial will address a wider scope of charges against the two leaders, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and forced marriage. This will be the final trial against the two senior leaders. To learn more about the trial, click here.

A profile on Pamela Merchant and her work with CJA over the past nine years. From the landmark Supreme Court case Samantar v. Yousuf to CJA’s current case against one of the alleged perpetrators of Víctor Jara’s death, writer Mary Jo McConahay traces Merchant’s impact on the organization and her dogged pursuit of justice for victims of human rights abuses.

The Criminal Chambers of the Spanish National Court decided unanimously Monday that Spain has jurisdiction to investigate the November 16, 1989, massacre of the Jesuits at the Central American University and their two employees as a crime against humanity after a reversal of legislation that had prevented Spanish jurisdiction over international crimes.

Human rights leader Dixon Osburn has been named the new Executive Director of CJA. We are excited to welcome Dixon, an experienced, visionary leader with a long-life passion for, and commitment to, human rights. Dixon has more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, leader, manager, political strategist, and fundraiser. Click here to read more.

Notorious Haiti dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier died on October 4, 2014. His death cuts short a long overdue trial for crimes against humanity that held a glimmer of hope for his victims. Under Duvalier’s command, an estimated 300 to 4,000 political prisoners were held incommunicado in a network of prisons. Many died from torture, starvation, denial of medical care, or summary execution. With Duvalier’s death, his prosecution in Haiti will no doubt be closed, but Haiti’s reckoning with its troubled past must not end. Click here to read more.

When Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier made a surprising return to Haiti in 2011 after a quarter-century in exile, some hoped the aging dictator would finally have to answer for the abuses of his regime. Instead, as one human rights activist said after news of Duvalier’s death on Saturday, he “cheated justice.”