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Prominent human rights attorney and long-time CJA partner Mario Joseph is facing an escalating series of threats and harassment against his person and the offices of the Haitian human rights NGO, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI). The threats come as possible retaliation for BAI’s human rights claims against former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and the current government of Michel Martelly. Learn how you can take action to defend Mario Joseph and BAI’s important work.

We have arrived in Hargeisa.

In the history of state-sponsored torture, a rarely acknowledged truth is that accountability only takes place in countries where the torturing government has fallen from power. Victors tend neither to acknowledge nor to hold themselves accountable for torture.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) dismissed Ieng Thirith from the second Khmer Rouge trial on grounds of mental unfitness. Ieng Thirith has been widely believed to have Alzheimer’s disease, affecting her memory and ability to confront evidence against her at trial.

Inocente Orlando Montano pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to immigration authorities so that he could stay in the United States, a development that could aid Spanish authorities who are seeking to have him extradited to that country, to face charges that amount to war crimes.

A former El Salvadoran military official accused of colluding in the 1989 slayings of six Jesuit priests admitted that he lied to U.S. immigration officials, a guilty plea that could allow him to be extradited to Spain for prosecution in the killings.

CJA Staff Attorney Kathy Roberts discusses the $21 million dollar judgment in Yousuf v. Samantar with KCBS radio.

Radio France Internationale interview with CJA Staff Attorney Kathy Roberts about the historic judgment in the Yousuf v. Samantar case. This judgment marks the first time that any Somali government official has been held accountable for the atrocities perpetrated under the Siad Barre regime.

A U.S. court has ordered a former Somali prime minister to pay $21 million to victims of torture and human rights abuses while he was in office.

A US court has ordered former Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar to pay $21m (£13m) to seven Somalis who accused him of torture and killings.