USA

Unravelling Anomaly: Detention, Discrimination and the Protection Needs of Stateless Persons

Stateless persons are those who have no nationality, or whose nationality is ineffective. This report approaches the subject through the prism of detention - a crucial issue which offers unique insight into the broader challenge of statelessness. The stateless person who cannot legally travel, reside in a country, work, study or receive health care, and whose life is a tightrope walk along the dividing line between legality and illegality is very vulnerable to detention.

700 Years of Solitude - The Human Cost Paid by Stateless Detainees at Guantanamo Bay

The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) has called on US President Barack Obama to release 103 potentially stateless detainees who have been cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay, but remain in detention solely because it is not possible to resettle them. Research undertaken by the Trust indicates that between them, the 103 detainees may have spent more than 700 years in detention

From Mariel Cubans to Guantanamo Detainees: Stateless Persons Detained under U.S. Authority

This report is one of the outputs of a global research and advocacy project of the Equal Rights Trust (ERT) on stateless persons in detention. It highlights some of the key challenges faced by the U.S. Administration pertaining to the detention of stateless persons both in the context of immigration and national security.

USA: New legislation extends hate crime law to cover gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity

Yesterday, US President Barack Obama signed new legislation which extends federal hate crime law to cover crimes motivated by actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act – named in recognition of two victims murdered on the basis of their sexual orientation – was first introduced to Congress in 2001. It was finally approved by 68 votes to 29 by the US Senate as an amendment to the 2010 Defense Authorization Act on 22 October 2009.

The Act makes three key provisions:

Section 4707 amends United States Code Title 18, section 249, to include actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity in the list of hate crimes punishable under federal law.

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