University of Washington Center for Human Rights

Earlier this year we sat down with Marissa Olivares Morales, recipient of UWCHR's 2024 Benjamin Linder Endowed Fund, to speak about her relationship to human rights work, from Nicaragua to Seattle, Washington. Read the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/gNVM2k6i Learn more about UWCHR student funding opportunities: https://lnkd.in/gACc5Duf

Big news from El Salvador: Last week, on August 22, a court in El Salvador ordered that the case of the 1982 execution of four Dutch journalists proceed to trial. This is a historic step, as it marks the first case of conflict-era violence in El Salvador to go to trial since the war's end. While other cases, including that of the notorious 1981 massacre of El Mozote, have been subject to judicial proceedings during the postwar period, none have yet advanced to trial. In March 1982, journalists Koos Jacobus Andries Koster, Jan Corenlius Kuiper Jop, Hans Lodewijk ter Laag, and Johannes Jan Willemsen were reporting on the war in El Salvador when they were ambushed and killed by the US-trained Atonal Battalion in rural Chalatenango. Former defense minister Guillermo García, former director of the Treasury Police Francisco Antonio Morán, and former commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, have been indicted in the crime. Reyes Mena is currently awaiting extradition from the United States. Read more: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gwNHDQee ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gZqcnsyf ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g7aRCG2S ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gG5jbJ5C Learn more about UWCHR's Unfinished Sentences project, an initiative aiming to document and share stories of survivors of crimes against humanity committed in the context of El Salvador’s armed conflict, and to support Salvadoran efforts for truth and accountability: https://lnkd.in/grMkY9fe

UWCHR research cited in today's Washington State Standard article, reporting on Senator Murray's request for a federal audit of ICE after the March, 2024 death of Charles Daniel. "Researchers at University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights have documented a range of troubling practices at the site, including allegations of medical neglect, unsanitary food and reports of sexual assault and abuse." Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/gRmXAii3

This past December, UWCHR visited the Historical Archive of the Chancellery in Argentina to shed light on human rights abuses in El Salvador. Read UWCHR student researcher Nicole Grabiel's reflections on the experience: https://lnkd.in/gKYcrdCx Why Argentina? Argentina, much like the US, supported El Salvador's government during El Salvador's armed conflict (1980-1992). Argentine cables and official documents from that period contain potentially useful information about El Salvador. UWCHR's Unfinished Sentences / Oraciones Incompletas project is an initiative to document and share stories of survivors of crimes against humanity committed in the context of El Salvador’s armed conflict, supporting Salvadoran efforts for truth and accountability. Learn more about Unfinished Sentences: https://lnkd.in/gJtKzkDZ

Congratulations to our 2024 student fund recipients! Read more about their projects: https://lnkd.in/gdeWd8ss Learn more about our growing number of funds, awards, and fellowships: https://lnkd.in/gACc5Duf

This month, we hosted a special 15th Anniversary Spring Symposium & Awards Celebration, highlighting a storytelling collaboration between UW students, La Resistencia, and Hinton Publishing. Read Lindsay Kim's recent write-up in the UW Daily covering the evening's event: https://lnkd.in/gB52FsbX

UW Center for Human Rights supports collaborations between faculty, students, and on-the-ground community partners—resulting in research that aims to make real-world change. Watch UWCHR research in action as Senator Patty Murray cites UWCHR findings on use of solitary confinement at the Northwest Detention Center during a recent Senate Appropriations Committee hearing with Department of Homeland Security's Alejandro Mayorkas. Watch the video here: https://lnkd.in/g-fQqcSm "University of Washington researchers found that over the last five years, half of the ten longest placements in administrative segregation across ICE's national population were at that facility [Northwest Detention Center]. I want to stress how concerning it is that ICE continues to use this practice so frequently for so many individuals and reportedly does so without consistent, accurate documentation of its use. What steps has ICE taken to make sure that its contractors are following ICE policy on the use of administrative segregation?"

"More than a month after a man died at an immigrant detention center in Tacoma, federal officials released a report, as required by Congress. The report lacked one key detail: a cause of death." Seattle Times covers updates about Mr. Daniel's death while held in solitary confinement at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. https://lnkd.in/g_pyH778

This #HuskyGivingDay, support human rights research! For fifteen years the UW Center for Human Rights has remained dedicated to promoting human rights education and research. Our work in partnership with frontline organizations provides the human rights community with academic research. Graduate and undergraduate students alike have hands-on opportunities to partner with leading human rights practitioners and contribute to real-world social change. Thank you for being alongside us in this work. Give today: https://lnkd.in/gY5qcTrD

New article from Naomi Ishisaka in The Seattle Times covers the ongoing monitoring of conditions at the Northwest Detention Center and the calls from community organizations for change. "Daniel’s death was just one of the latest manifestations of what activists and the University of Washington Center for Human Rights called a pattern of dangerous conditions for people in immigration detention at the private, for-profit site, such as poor medical care, spoiled food and excessive use of force." Read now: https://lnkd.in/gsUEwXBT