[Ppnews] US Political Prisoners and UN Human Ruights

[Political Prisoner News]

From:<mailto:swillis818 at aol.com> <mailto:swillis818 at aol.com>swillis818 at aol.com


Subject: UNITED STATES POLITICAL PRISONERS

We Must Put Political-Prisoner/Prisoner of War Issue back on the 
International Human Rights Agenda
Attached for sign-on is a 10 page cluster report on Political 
Prisoners/Prisoners of War, which will be submitted to the Office of 
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as part of the Universal 
Periodic Review of the United States.



The U.S. Senate "Church Committee" made factual findings that massive 
human rights violations had been committed against US citizens based 
on race, political ideas, and political affiliations. In the final 
reports of the Committee, a permanent means of congressional review 
was recommended, but there were no recommendations that addressed the 
human rights violations suffered by dozens of political prisoners who 
had been victimized by the U.S. government's political repression 
against African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Native American 
communities. Such repression resulted in murders, injuries, false 
arrests, malicious prosecutions and lengthy imprisonments of scores 
of political activists. Many of these political prisoners and 
prisoners of war still languish in prisons throughout the United 
States.  U.S. political prisoners have languished in U.S. prisons for 
decades under cruel and inhumane conditions.  Several have died in 
prisons; others have endured years of solitary confinement, poor 
medical health care, and perfunctory parole hearings resulting in 
routine denial of release.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a new human rights mechanism 
established in 2006, which allows the United Nations Human Rights 
Council to periodically review all the Member States (countries) of 
the United Nations on their fulfillment of human rights obligations 
and commitments. The U.N.'s first Universal Periodic Review of the 
U.S., scheduled to take place on November 26, 2010, offers an 
important opportunity both to measure how the U.S. is meeting its 
human rights obligations and to continue pressuring the government to 
live up to those obligations.

Every four years, the UPR assesses each country's adherence to its 
human rights obligations under the U.N. Charter, the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), human rights treaties ratified by 
the country, its voluntary commitments, and applicable international 
law.  Reviews are conducted by the URP Working Group, which consists 
of 47 members of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

During the review, in addition to the "national report" provided by 
the country under review and the reports of U.N. bodies, the Working 
Group considers reports from other "stakeholders" such as civil 
society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and national human 
rights institutions. Stakeholders' reports are limited to 5 pages for 
individual organizations and 10 pages for coalitions of 
organizations(also called "cluster reports").

We have drafted a stakeholders'cluster report on Political 
Prisoners/Prisoners of War.  Stakeholders' submissions must be sent 
to the UN by April 19, 2010 at 6:00am (EST)- 12:00pm Geneva time 
(CET). The official United States Government report for the UPR is 
due by August 2010.

As this is the first UPR review if the U.S., it is crucial for us to 
become engaged in the process, providing our perspective on how the 
U.S. is meeting its human rights obligations.

In hopes of maximizing the impact of this report, we are soliciting 
sign-ons from additional organizations and individuals. IF YOU AND/OR 
YOUR ORGANIZATION ARE INTERESTED IN SIGNING ON TO THIS REPORT, PLEASE 
REPLY TO THIS EMAIL BY APRIL 7, 2010. Please indicate your full name 
and /organizational affiliation as you would like it to appear. 
Please note that there is no limit to the number of cluster reports 
that an organization can sign onto.

If you have any questions, you can contact me directly.

In Struggle,

Stan Kwame Willis

(312) 750-1950





Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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