FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2014
CONTACT: Benny Witkovsky, West End Strategy Team
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, 202-776-7700
Interfaith organizations sponsor vigil to protest solitary confinement,
treatment of prisoners in the war on terror
NEW YORK — On Nov. 3, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) will co-sponsor a vigil outside the Metropolitan Correction Center in lower Manhattan to stand in solidarity with family members and loved ones of “war on terror” suspects currently incarcerated and detained, offer support and demand human rights rooted in human dignity. This interfaith display of solidarity is a part of the No Separate Justice campaign to expose and seek an end to the human rights abuses found in the hundreds of “war on terror” cases that have been processed through courtrooms and federal prisons across the United States since 9/11. The vigil also continues both NRCAT and T’ruah’s longstanding work for an end to the torture of solitary confinement and to the hatred and bigotry that undergird the targeting of Muslims in America.
T’ruah Director of Programs Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster highlighted the way that Muslim men and women are particularly targeted and victimized as the U.S. continues its efforts to combat terrorism at home and abroad.
“Our system of justice demands that all prisoners be treated equally, which is reinforced morally by the many faith traditions that make up the fabric of American society” Rabbi Kahn-Troster said. “But the “No Separate Justice” campaign highlights the ways in which Muslims are disproportionately singled out for unjust treatment once the spectre of national security is invoked, sometimes even without being convicted of a crime.”
NRCAT Director of U.S. Prisons Policy and Program, Rev. Laura Markle Downton emphasized that international human rights law considers solitary confinement a form of torture and that for people of faith, such denial of meaningful human contact is a moral issue. T’ruah and NRCAT will be continuing their efforts to end solitary confinement by bringing together faith leaders for a strategy session to pass the Humane Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act in coordination with the statewide Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC), an effort to end long term solitary confinement in New York, Nov. 12 at The Riverside Church.
Said Rev. Downton, “As religious leaders, we cannot abide the unjust targeting of Muslims and the criminalization of communities of color used to justify torture in our prisons, jails and detention centers. We stand together to call for an end to such profiling and the human rights abuses they sustain. Our faith traditions compel us to build community rooted in human dignity. Denial of access to all meaningful social interaction through isolated confinement is unconscionable and must be brought to an end in all circumstances.”
Who: National Religious Campaign Against Torture, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, the No Separate Justice Campaign
What: A candle-light vigil featuring the families of prisoners and faith leaders
Where: 150 Park Row – Across from the Metropolitan Correction Center
When: November 3, 2014 – 6-7pm
More Information: no-separate-justice.org
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings together rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism, together with all members of the Jewish community, to act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, T’ruah calls upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. A founding member of the NRCAT, T’ruah has been the major Jewish voice calling for moral and legal accountability for American use of torture since 9/11. It is the leading Jewish organization addressing the issue of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. sites of detention, and is a member of the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement in New York, working to end torture in New York prisons through support for the HALT (Humane Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement) Act.
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a coalition of religious organizations committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture in policy, practice and culture. Since 2006, more than 300 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox Christian, evangelical Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Quaker, Unitarian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities. Since 2010, NRCAT has focused its work on ending torture in U.S. prisons, with a focus on abolishing prolonged solitary confinement, understood to constitute torture under Constitutional and international human rights standards. The broad interfaith campaign of which NRCAT is comprised mobilizes the moral voice of faith leaders in New York and nationwide. Promoting humane alternatives rooted in restorative justice, NRCAT is a member of the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC), working to end torture in New York prisons through support for the HALT (Humane Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement) Act.
The No Separate Justice Campaign is a coalition of community groups, academics, family members, and human rights and civil liberties organizations including Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-New York, and Educators for Civil Liberties aimed at drawing attention to the violation of human and civil rights of those suspected of terrorism in prisons and courtrooms across the country. The campaign holds vigils in across from the Metropolitan Correction Center the first Monday of every month.
###
