What we’re reading: Week of March 16
What some of AFSC’s staff have been reading this week:
- [web] Why This Woman Can’t Vote via ThinkProgress
Layne Mullet, Media Relations Fellow, says:
“Iowa is one of three U.S. states that permanently disenfranchise people convicted of felonies. This article tells the story of a woman in Iowa and is an example of how our current flawed criminal justice policies inhibit peoples’ voting rights.” - [web] Reducing Illicit Arms Flows and the New Development Agenda
Alice Anukur, Associate Regional Director, Africa Region, says:
“A significant reduction in the trafficking of illicit arms is one of the targets being proposed as part of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the new development framework to come into effect after the Millennium Development Goals. “
- [web] U.N. torture investigator accuses U.S. of delaying prison visits
Lia Lindsay, Policy Impact Coordinator, says:
“The US government has been denying the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture access to isolation units in domestic prisons at at Gitmo. It’s created several media pieces about the situation and opens a window of opportunity to spotlight the use of solitary confinement and call for the end of this form of torture.”
National Day of Action To End Torture: 5 resources to educate and take action
Here are 5 resources to learn more about torture in the US and how you can help end these human rights abuses:
- Participate in the National Day of Action to End Torture on October 22nd, 2014;
- Read Survivors Speak: Torture in US Prisons, a shadow report to the Committee authored by AFSC;
- Download and share Torture in US Prisons: Evidence of Human Rights Violations, created by the AFSC Northeast Region Healing Justice Program;
- Check out Race and the Politics of Isolation in US Prisons, a journal article written by AFSC’s Bonnie Kerness and Jamie Bissonette Lewey;
- View AFSC’s blog post discussing the California Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing on isolation in state prisons and testimony given by AFSC’s Laura Magnani.
