Miami

August 27, 2018

Making History: A Public Discussion on Restoring Voting Rights in Florida

(Miami, Florida) – Florida should make history by voting “Yes” on Florida’s Amendment 4 to restore voting rights to people with prior felony convictions who have served their time, Human Rights Watch said today.

“Voting bans have no place in a democracy. Depriving someone of the right to vote should not be part of criminal punishment,” said Nicole Austin-Hillery, executive director of the US program at Human Rights Watch. “If someone has served their time, they deserve a voice and a vote in this country.”

Austin-Hillery will be in Miami speaking at a non-partisan community conversation to raise awareness of Amendment 4 taking place on August 27th at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. The event is open to the public and features a discussion moderated by David Lawrence Jr., former publisher of the Miami Herald and current chair of The Children’s Movement of Florida, with Austin-Hillery and Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Executive Director Desmond Meade, who will discuss the human rights impact and national significance of restoring voting rights. The event is co-presented by Human Rights Watch and the Green Family Foundation.

“The issue is about fairness, justice, and simply what is decent and wise in our state and country. We ought to talk about all this, and then do something about this – and that is voting ourselves,” David Lawrence Jr., former publisher for the Miami Herald said.

Currently 1.4 million Floridians are permanently excluded from the right to vote. If Amendment 4 passes, it would restore the right to vote to people with prior felony convictions who have fully completed their sentences, re-enfranchising the largest number of Americans since the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Amendment 4 specifically excludes people who have committed murder or a felony sexual offense.

Advocates in favor of Amendment 4 argue that restoring the right to vote gives a second chance to people who have already paid their debt to society, giving them the opportunity to be full members of their communities and engage meaningfully in the democratic process.

“There is no greater indicator of citizenship than having the ability to vote, and nothing speaks more to the founding of our country than second chances,” said Desmond Meade, who leads statewide efforts to restore the civil rights of returning citizens like himself. “That’s why this grassroots movement has strong support across the board. When a debt is paid, it is paid.”

The impact of felony disenfranchisement laws was exacerbated during the 20th century’s mass incarceration phenomenon as more people were convicted of felonies, more people were sent to prison, and prison sentences have grown longer and increasingly disproportionate. For example, people in Florida can now lose their voting rights for one single drug conviction. In a 2016 investigative reportreleased by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, the groups found that every 25 seconds in the United States someone is arrested for the simple act of possessing drugs for their personal use. That is 1.25 million arrests per year. Around the country, police make more arrests for drug possession than for any other crime, including violent crimes. As the report reveals, those impacted are disproportionately from communities of color and the poor.

Human Rights Watch’s work to overturn voting bans started 20 years ago, with the report “Losing the Vote.” Over the past two decades, there have been successes in the fight to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people, including Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s 2016 decision to overturn a similar lifetime voting ban in that state. Florida is one of three states that still maintain lifetime voting bans, along with Kentucky and Iowa.

April 9, 2018

Governments Should Press Maduro to Tackle Crisis

(Miami) – Latin Americans and their governments should speak out and urge President Nicolás Maduro’s government to recognize and tackle the devastating human rights and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, Latin music star Ricardo Montaner and Human Rights Watch said in a campaign launched today.

Montaner, the iconic Argentinian singer-songwriter who grew up in Venezuela, joined forces with Human Rights Watch to launch #TodosConVenezuela (Everyone With Venezuela). The campaign, which urges ordinary citizens, especially in Latin America, to speak up for their neighbors, starts on April 9, 2018, ahead of the regional Summit of the Americas. Through the campaign portal people are asked to tweet at several Latin American presidents, asking them to confront Maduro and join other governments in speaking out about his abuses.

“Venezuela needs help to tackle an overwhelming crisis,” said Montaner, who has sold more than 30 million records and won numerous awards, including a Latin Grammy for Lifetime Achievement. “Join me. It’s not just my job or yours, it’s something we should all do. Tell your friends – let’s do this together.”

The situation in Venezuela will be on the agenda at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, where leaders of the region’s governments will meet on April 13 and 14. #TodosConVenezuela launches on April 9, 10 days before the first anniversary of a massive anti-government protest in 2017 that was met with a brutal police crackdown.

In Venezuela, government critics and opponents are arbitrarily detained and prosecuted, and in some cases tortured. Security forces and armed pro-government groups have killed and injured demonstrators and bystanders. The rates of infant and maternal mortality have skyrocketed, people are going hungry, and sick Venezuelans lack access to the most basic medicines. The Venezuelan government is responsible for the repression and crackdown on dissent, and for denying the existence of a humanitarian crisis that it has failed to tackle, Human Rights Watch said.

To join the #TodosConVenezuela campaign and share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp, please visit:
www.hrw.org/todosconvenezuela

April 4, 2018

Congress Should Create Path to Legal Status for Deeply Rooted Immigrants 

(Miami) – US law should be changed to offer a path to permanent legal status for people who have lived in this country for many years with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Human Rights Watch said today. Hundreds of thousands of people have built lives in the United States while living here legally under that program.

In March 2018, Human Rights Watch interviewed Haitian families in Miami whose lives, built in the US, hang in the balance as they risk losing their protected status. In December 2017, Human Rights Watch documented the harm caused by deporting authorized and unauthorized immigrants without adequate consideration of their rights to home and family.

“The average Haitian TPS holder has been in the US for 13 years, and the average Salvadoran for 21 years,” said Clara Long, senior US researcher at Human Rights Watch, citing figures calculated by Center for Migration Studies. “Congress should not leave them at the mercy of a broken immigration system that pays little heed to the family and community ties they have built in the US.”

In 2017, the Trump administration said that it would not renew TPS protections for citizens of Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador after granting them a final 18-month extension. Nearly 1,000 Sudanese, 5,000 Nicaraguans, 60,000 Haitians, and 260,000 Salvadorans are scheduled to lose TPS by September 2019. The government will decide by May 2018 whether 86,000 Hondurans will be able to renew their status.

International human rights law requires a fair, individualized hearing for anyone facing deportation. The law should also weigh a person’s ties to US families and communities against the government’s interest in deporting the person. A humane and rational system should not wait until the point of deportation to consider these issues, Human Rights Watch said. Instead, Congress should create a fair and inclusive legalization program that accords due weight to immigrants’ ties to the US.

Human Rights Watch has long called on the US government to respect and protect families in its immigration policies, protect immigrants from workplace violations and crimes, provide a legalization process that effectively protects the basic rights of the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants, and focus enforcement efforts on genuine threats and protect due process rights for all.

Haitian families told Human Rights Watch about their lives in the US and their concerns about their future:

Rony Ponthieux, 49, has been in the US since 1999 and obtained Temporary Protected Status in 2010. He became a registered nurse in 2013, taking care of patients with respiratory problems like pneumonia and tuberculosis at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. If he loses TPS next year, he said, he doesn’t know what he will do about his 10-year-old US citizen daughter, Ronyde Ponthieux. “Who is going to take care of me if I stay here?” Ronyde said. “And if we go to Haiti it’s going to be really hard for my parents. I don’t speak French and if I want to go to American school that will cost a lot of money.”

“Erick F.,” 47, came to the US nearly 10 years ago. He has been driving for Uber because, he said, employers are leery of hiring people with temporary status. He previously had a job with a major US delivery company. “We can’t make any plans,” he said. “We don’t know how we would go to Haiti because my family lost everything in the earthquake.” Erick’s 6-year-old US citizen daughter doesn’t speak French or Creole, he said. “When you are living in a country for so many years this place becomes your country. We followed the law. We followed the rules. We didn’t expect that the government was going to say, ‘you have to go.’”

“Leomar P.” has been in the US for 12 years and has two US-born children. He said he bought a house after working as a dishwasher in the Miami area for years, but if he were deported he would have to leave all of that behind. “I pay taxes; I pay bills,” he said. “If I’m deported I’m going to be deported without anything.

“Danielle J.” has photos of two children in the back of her cell phone case: her daughter and the little boy with autism she takes care of as a home health aide. “I’ve been with the family for three years,” she said. “He’s my baby. His mom says I need you to be with him, how can they deport you?” Danielle’s 4-year-old US citizen daughter has asthma, she said, and she worries that if she is sent back to Haiti she wouldn’t be able to get the medicine her daughter needs.

These concerns are reflective of broad anxiety in the Haitian community, said Marleine Bastien, director of the Miami-based Family Action Network Movement. “It’s really a tragedy if these people are deported.”

The Family Action Network Movement was among the plaintiffs in a suit filed this month seeking to reverse the Trump administration’s decision not to renew TPS for Haitians. As a result of the fears now plaguing South Florida’s Haitian community, the suit alleges, the group has also seen an increase in the number of child referrals to its mental health program for treatment of anxiety and situational depression.

Last month, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund alleged in a federal lawsuit that the government’s decision on TPS was “irrational and discriminatory” and influenced by President Donald Trump’s “public hostility toward immigrants of color.”

Congress should urgently get to work on ensuring that long-term deeply settled immigrants, including TPS recipients, can continue giving back to their communities, contributing the US economy and supporting their families.

Another lawsuit filed in California on behalf of the US citizen children of TPS holders says that the government’s cancellation of protected status for long-term residents from Haiti and El Salvador “violates the constitutional rights of school-age United States citizen children of TPS holders, by presenting them with an impossible choice: they must either leave their country or live without their parents.”

“Congress should urgently get to work on ensuring that long-term deeply settled immigrants, including TPS recipients, can continue giving back to their communities, contributing the US economy and supporting their families,” Long said. “Putting hundreds of thousands more deeply rooted immigrants under the constant threat of deportation is a recipe for rights abuse.”

March 19, 2018

When you are forced to flee your country, all you have is what you carry. I’m not talking about your luggage or your savings, but what you carry in your mind and your heart. Many Venezuelan journalists feel this is probably the most important thing they took with them.

Fleeing always comes at a price. Interviewing Venezuelans escaping repression and food and medicine shortages, I’ve witnessed the longing of parents who left children behind, the grit of professionals working odd jobs to put bread on the table, and the sadness of political exiles struggling to re-set their lives.

Some put Venezuela out of mind temporarily. But many send medicine or food, swap information from the old neighborhoods, and educate their new neighbors about what is happening back home.

Venezuelan journalists are no different. They drive Ubers and clean houses, and they are upset and exhausted by having their country pulled out from under their feet. But they also thirst to exercise their journalistic muscles, and many offer their sources and skills, sometimes free, to tell the world about the crisis.

For many, the first stop is Miami, where friends or old colleagues may help ease the adjustment—a place with weather that feels like home, a culture of newcomers, and Spanish speakers with all kinds of accents.

Rayma Suprani produces daily cartoons on social media about Venezuela’s crisis. She left in 2014 after she lost her job at El Universal after nearly 20 years. It had been sold to people thought to be close to the government. Suprani was fired for a cartoon showing an electrocardiogram of a healthy heartbeat, juxtaposed with President Hugo Chavez’s signature morphing into a flatlined EKG—representing the death of the Venezuelan health system.

Tamoa Calzadilla and her husband, David Maris, both journalists, left a year later when their professional lives were similarly thwarted. Calzadilla, who headed the investigative team at Últimas Noticias, quit after she was pressed to publish unfounded official information about protesters. Later, members of the Bolivarian National Guard confiscated Maris’ camera equipment as he was interviewing the wife of opposition leader Leopoldo López. There was also a break in at their home in which Calzadilla’s computer was taken. They both now work in Miami for Univision News.

Alberto Ravell, one of the founders of the Venezuela-focused news website La Patilla, fled in 2016, hours before a court order tried to keep him and more than 20 others there to face a criminal defamation lawsuit for republishing information from a Spanish newspaper implicating one of the most powerful pro-government politicians, Diosdado Cabello, in drug trafficking. Ravell is also a founder of the originally independent TV station Globovisión, which now toes the government line, since it was sold in 2013 after repeated government fines. Ravell continues to direct La Patilla from abroad.

While some brave journalists continue to report independently from Venezuela, fear of reprisals has made self-censorship common. For more than a decade, the government has expanded and abused its power to regulate the media. It has aggressively reduced the number of dissenting outlets, banned some foreign correspondents from entering the country, and expelled others. During the crackdown on dissent last year, security forces detained, interrogated, and confiscated the equipment of several journalists. In November, the pro-government Constituent Assembly approved prison sentences as long as 20 years for those who “encourage, promote, or incite” activities vaguely defined as “hatred.” 

Journalists have developed a tag-team response, sharing stories, contacts, images, and footage with their colleagues outside. The exiles conduct sensitive interviews, and develop or publish the accounts, sometimes anonymously, through social media, news websites, or broadcast outlets with a wider reach.

Threats and fears of harsh reprisals have not yet silenced Venezuelan journalists. Many keep witnessing, investigating, and doing the work of a free press, at home or in exile. They keep shining a light on a country where checks and balances are all but gone—and that’s good news from Venezuela, for a change.

For Tamara Taraciuk Broner, HRW’s Senior Americas Researcher, the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela hits home. Venezuela provided her Argentinian parents refuge when their homeland was controlled by a brutal military junta. Tamara was born in Venezuela but was able to return to Argentina as a young child after the repressive government there was toppled.

Today she views her job as helping Venezuelans who have fled their own repressive regime return home one day. “That is a very important part of what we do,” she told a roomful of academics, students and members of the community at a luncheon on March 8th at the University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas (U-MIA).

In welcoming the group, Dr. Felicia Marie Knaul, director of U-MIA and a member of HRW Miami Circle of Friends, said the center was “extremely pleased to partner with Human Rights Watch” and their researchers who work throughout the world to promote social justice and human rights. “I am the child of a concentration camp survivor,” Knaul said. “It breaks my heart to hear about these abuses, injustices, but we have to bear witness. There is no excuse for our silence, for not doing something.”

Tamara worked undercover in Venezuela for Human Rights Watch for eight years, while the late President Hugo Chavez was still in power, and continued her work, contacting victims of abuse, lawyers and others affected by the repressive regime of his successor, Nicolas Maduro. Those observations culminated in reports and videos that, she said, document the enormous concentration of power that allowed the Chavez and Maduro governments to commit all kinds of abuses.

“We don’t do things for the sake of it, we do so to provoke change,” said Tamara, “When we say things happen it’s because we can corroborate every assertion we make.”

Human Rights Watch has spread knowledge of the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis worldwide. However, Tamara stated, we face the daunting task not only of maintaining interest in the country but also generating sufficient pressure for change.

HRW recommends countries impose targeted sanctions against high-ranking Maduro government officials who are implicated in abuses. Such sanctions could include freezing their assets and blocking their entrance to specific counties. Only the United States, Canada, and European Union have implemented sanctions. But HRW will continue pressuring other countries to follow suit.

The special briefing was covered by WLRN; click here to listen to highlights.

WHAT: Tamara Taraciuk Broner on “The Current Human Rights Crisis in Venezuela”

WHEN: Thursday, March 8th, 2018

WHERE: The University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas

Human Rights Watch Miami hosted its second Voices for Justice Annual Dinner at the New World Symphony. Each year the Voices for Justice Annual Dinners celebrate human rights defenders from around the world who put their lives at risk to protect the rights and dignity of others. The dinners gather over 6,800 supporters in more than 20 cities worldwide.

This year was a huge success—the dinner attracted over 200 guests and raised close to $390,000, including approximately $40,000 pledged in the room.

The dinner program was jam-packed and included: A hard-hitting speech by Jose Miguel Vivanco, Director of HRW’s Americas Division; four emotive and deeply personal pop-ups by HRW researchers; Tamara Taraciuk Broner on Venezuela; Clara Long on Immigration and “The Deported” project; Megan McLemore on advocating for harm reduction in the opioids crisis; and Jasmine Tyler on impact in juvenile justice. After dinner, guests heard a human rights-inspired performance by New World Symphony musicians; an ever-inspiring and emotional speech by Deputy Executive Director Iain Levine; and a speech by our brave and eloquent defender and recipient of the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, Hala Al-Dosari, framed beautifully by HRW researcher Kristine Beckerle.

We are deeply grateful for our donors’ invaluable support, whose generosity will enable our researchers and advocates to continue their meticulous investigations and to expose the world’s most pressing human rights violations. A special thank you to our Dinner Co-Chairs, Shelley Rubin, Alicia Miñana, and Cindy Goldberg who helped make this evening such a success.

WHAT: Voices for Justice Annual Miami Dinner

WHEN: Wednesday, March 7th, 2018

WHERE: New World Symphony 

(Miami, December 6, 2017) – Miami Dade College (MDC) will illuminate its historic Freedom Tower bright blue at sunset, Sunday, December 10, in support of Human Rights Day 2017. It’s the first time the Freedom Tower, a National Historical Landmark, joins other iconic buildings around the world in a display of support for human rights, including the Empire State Building in New York; the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada; the Sydney Opera House; the John Hancock Tower in Chicago; and Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

The movement to turn global landmarks blue was initiated in 2012 by Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the world’s leading human rights organizations. In lighting the Freedom Tower blue, MDC, a long-time proponent of immigrant rights and equal education opportunities, joins forces with Human Rights Watch to honor Human Rights Day and support its mission to promote rights and justice around the world.

Human Rights Day celebrates the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly – a document that established, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. The declaration has since been translated into over 500 languages.

“We share a common set of principles and values with MDC and are grateful for their partnership here in Miami and in the global fight for human rights,” said Carine Chehab, associate director of Human Rights Watch’s Miami office. “We see the lighting of the Freedom Tower as a symbol of our unity as a community in the face of the increased divisiveness and negative rhetoric that surrounds us today and we call on all our friends to stand with us against injustice and in support of universal human rights.”

Human Rights Watch, an independent, international organization founded in 1978, has recently established its first permanent office in Miami. The organization is known for its accurate fact-finding and impartial reporting in more than 90 countries, effective use of media, and targeted advocacy, often in partnership with local groups. Its 420 staff members based around the world work tirelessly to end human rights violations by investigating and exposing abuses, pressing for policy changes to improve human rights, and seeking to bring abusers to justice. Human Rights Watch does not accept government funding. For more information, please visit HRW.org.

MDC awards more associate degrees to minority students than any other institution in the United States under the leadership of President Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, who has become the most recognized and effective national voice for access and inclusion in higher education during his 40-year career at the college. Dr. Padròn, a Cuban immigrant, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016 and is a member of the Miami Circle of Friends of Human Rights Watch.

The Freedom Tower is a long-standing symbol of immigration and freedom in Miami, having served as a newspaper headquarters and a Cuban refugee center before becoming a museum under the management of MDC.

“Miami, with our diverse communities and rich history of welcoming immigrants from all over the world, is an important symbol for inclusion, integration and hope, said President Padrón. “We honor that spirit at MDC and believe in the absolute necessity of human rights for all.”

WHAT:          Freedom Tower Goes Blue for Human Rights Day

WHEN:          Sunday, Dec. 10, at sunset  

WHERE:    Freedom Tower

                     600 Biscayne Blvd. 

Urgent Measures Needed to Address Shortages of Medicine, Food
October 24, 2016

The 78-page report, “Venezuela’s Humanitarian Crisis: Severe Medical and Food Shortages, Inadequate and Repressive Government Response,” documents how the shortages have made it extremely difficult for many Venezuelans to obtain essential medical care or meet their families’ basic needs. The Venezuelan government has downplayed the severity of the crisis. Although its own efforts to alleviate the shortages have not succeeded, it has made only limited efforts to obtain international humanitarian assistance that might be readily available. Meanwhile, it has intimidated and punished critics, including health professionals, human rights defenders, and ordinary Venezuelans who have spoken out about the shortages.

Thursday May 5, 2016 from 6:00-8:30pm
National YoungArts Foundation

Event begins with a cocktail reception at the first floor gallery, followed by the official program at 7:00pm upstairs at Ted’s.

Human Rights Watch invites you to a cocktail reception and special program on crisis reporting and the impact of digital storytelling with Marcus Bleasdale, Peter Bouckaert, and Shazna Nessa. The event is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

In 2013, Peter Bouckaert, Emergencies Director, Human Rights Watch, and Marcus Bleasdale, one of the world’s leading photojournalists, began a journey to draw global attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic, a country that few people in the world even knew existed. Their images and investigations have become the most important source of information on a crisis that continues today.

Guests will see original documentary footage and hear how Peter and Marcus used every tool available to put the story on the map and the methods they used to capture photographs, videos and satellite imagery. Peter and Marcus discuss the essentials of international crisis reporting and reveal how powerful imagery and storytelling, combined with new and social media, allowed them to successfully advocate for an international response to the violence. Guests will also hear insights from Shazna Nessa, Director of Journalism, Knight Foundation, on trends and tools in digital storytelling and journalism and learn about the various ways that Knight Foundation is advancing excellence in journalism. Welcome remarks will be delivered by Matt Haggman, Miami Program Director, Knight Foundation. Moderating the conversation will be Andrea Holley, Strategic Director, Human Rights Watch Film Festival. 

Florida’s Prosecution of Children as Adults under its “Direct File” Statute

April 10, 2014 

The 110-page report, “Branded for Life: Florida’s Prosecution of Children as Adults under its 'Direct File' Statute,” details the harm that results from the state’s practice of giving prosecutors full discretion to decide which children to prosecute in adult courts. More than 98 percent of the 1,500 cases of children charged as adults between 2012 and 2013 were brought by prosecutors under the direct file statute. The law offers no opportunity for a judge to review or reverse the prosecutor’s decision, no matter how unsuitable the case is for criminal court.

What Florida should do: Prosecutors in Florida are using unfettered power to send children to adult court unfairly and arbitrarily. The state should give that power to independent juvenile court judges.

Human Rights Watch Opens Office In Miami – But Not Just For Latin America