Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration can end the Migrant Protection Protocols, a cruel, Trump-era policy that forced migrants applying for asylum to wait in Mexico for their asylum hearings. Over 70,000 migrants, mostly from Central America, have been sent back to Mexico to live in dangerous conditions in that country.

But there is another cruel Trump-era policy, instituted in 2018, that President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas refuse to end. This administration continues to punish survivors of torture who entered the U.S. legally and applied for asylum five, six or seven years ago. These torture survivors are part of the “affirmative asylum” backlog over 430,000 cases stuck in the asylum division of USCIS, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of Homeland Security.

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In Rwanda and Uganda, voices critical of the government are systematically silenced - including by the violent disappearance of the critics. In other cases, their family members disappear without a trace. For this article, the author spoke to those affected in both countries.

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The world was awakened to the issue of police brutality in Nigeria when it saw peaceful protesters being gunned down at Lekki toll gate by Nigerian security officers. Police brutality in Nigeria has been an issue long before the Lekki toll gate massacre, and it continues to be an issue long after. The use of torture and ill-treatment by Nigerian law enforcement officials is widespread and is common practice in criminal investigations. Illegal detention centers run by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) employed torturous acts such as hangings, beatings, and simulated executions. Law enforcement officers and armed forces members enjoy impunity for their actions, and the authorities regularly ignore judicial instructions. The secessionists are often on the receiving end of violence and brutality from Nigerian security forces.

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Joint NGO Statement Statement Calling for Cessation of Hostilities, Unrestricted Humanitarian Access and Respect for Human Rights in Ethiopia

November 17, 2021

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Recently, the Afghanistan security and humanitarian situation came to the attention of many Americans and other people. The media and many other people failed to mention that Afghanistan is one of the countries where torture and other human rights abuses have been committed for a long time, and many Afghans have directly and indirectly suffered from it.

TASSC has been following the situation consistently, and everyone should work toward peace and healing of Afghans in and outside Afghanistan. Now that a significant number of Afghans are going to be resettled in the US, how could the community, including TASSC, help the healing process?

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On August 30, 2021, TASSC will hold a webinar to call attention to individuals who have been disappeared and the suffering of their relatives who seek answers for what happened to their relatives, and accountability for the perpetrators.

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The Institute for Policy Studies' 45th annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards will honor Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC) and the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) as domestic and international awardees, respectively.

Each year, IPS honors individuals and organizations who embody the spirit and the legacy of late colleagues and human rights champions Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, who were assassinated by a car bomb in 1976 on the orders of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The annual commemoration of the assassination of Letelier and Moffitt will take place on Sunday, September 19 at 10:00 AM ET in person in a ceremony featuring this year's awardees at Sheridan Circle in D.C. The Letelier-Moffitt Awards will be held virtually on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 at 7:00 PM ET. Both events are open to the press.

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A 46-page draft blueprint obtained by The New York Times maps out the Biden administration’s plans to significantly expand the legal immigration system, including methodically reversing the efforts to dismantle it by former President Donald J. Trump, who reduced the flow of foreign workers, families and refugees, erecting procedural barriers tougher to cross than his “big, beautiful wall.”

Because of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies, the average time it takes to approve employer-sponsored green cards has doubled. The backlog for citizenship applications is up 80 percent since 2014, to more than 900,000 cases. Approval for the U-visa program, which grants legal status for immigrants willing to help the police, has gone from five months to roughly five years.

In almost every case over the last four years, immigrating to the United States has become harder, more expensive and takes longer.

And while Mr. Biden made clear during his presidential campaign that he intended to undo much of his predecessor’s immigration legacy, the blueprint offers new details about how far-reaching the effort will be — not only rolling back Mr. Trump’s policies, but addressing backlogs and delays that plagued prior presidents.

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Uganda’s increase in arms import during the COVID-19 pandemic and the road to grave human rights abuses during 2021 elections

Introduction

In TASSC’s recent report, Torture in Uganda-The Tragic History, Impact, and Current Reality under the Museveni Regime, we have demonstrated that the Ugandan government’s cooperation in multinational initiatives has allowed the Museveni regime considerable support from the U.S. and other nations. But it is increasingly obvious that the cost of that cooperation is the regime’s confidence that it can, without meaningful consequences, torture, kill, and repress citizens who dare to challenge its inhumanity. Museveni’s brutality has been ignored for decades, and the regime’s current, brazen violence against its citizens as they seek simply to participate in democratic processes demands a strong international response. And in that report, we have demonstrated the role of the Ugandan Army and its branches, in citizens’ torture, killings, and other human rights abuses. According to a recent report from SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), titled: World Military Spending Rises to almost $2 trillion in 2020, “Military expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 3.4 percent in 2020 to reach $18.5 billion. The biggest increases in spending were made by Chad (+31 percent), Mali (+22 percent), M

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