Group Category: Criminal Justice & Political Prisoners

The Instituto de Defesa do Direito de Defesa (IDDD) works with criminal lawyers and human rights defenders to improve Brazil’s justice system. The…

The National Bail Fund Network is made up of over sixty community bail and bond funds across the United States. It regularly updates…

Puppies Behind Bars trains prison inmates to raise service dogs for wounded war veterans and for first responders, as well as explosive-detection canines for law enforcement. The dogs live in prison with their inmate puppy-raisers from the age of 8 weeks to 28 months. As the puppies mature into well-loved, well-behaved working dogs, their raisers learn what it means to give back to society.

The Vera Institute for Justice aims to drive change and urgently build and improve justice systems that ensure fairness, promote safety, and strengthen communities. The organization works with others who share its vision to tackle the most pressing injustices of our day—from the causes and consequences of mass incarceration, racial disparities, and the loss of public trust in law enforcement, to the unmet needs of the vulnerable, the marginalized, and those harmed by crime and violence.

Inspired by the leadership of Agnes Gund and seeded with funds from the sale of artwork in her collection, the Art for Justice Fund offers art collectors and patrons the opportunity to contribute to significant reforms in the criminal justice system. The Fund is a five-year initiative designed to make meaningful progress on key reforms in the US criminal justice system. It raises private capital, primarily through the sale of art, to support strategic investments for high impact, lasting, bipartisan criminal justice reform at the state and local level.

Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO) is a nonprofit law office that represents innocent prisoners serving life sentences in Louisiana and Mississippi at no cost to them or their loved ones. IPNO also assists them with their transition into the free world upon their release. The organization uses its cases to explain how wrongful convictions happen and what we can all do to prevent them. IPNO works with legislators, judges, lawyers, law enforcement, and policymakers to protect the innocent within the criminal justice system.

The Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) was founded in 1980 by activists, students, union organizers, and other community members in order to fill a vacuum left by the assaults on the Black Power Movement. Its vision is to contribute to the creation of a society free of all forms of exploitation and oppression. OBS aims to build a movement that fights for political empowerment, economic justice, and the cultural dignity of the African-American community, especially the Black working class.

The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) and its partner the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) work with nonviolent grassroots movements to advance con­sti­tu­tional democ­racy, jus­tice, and human rights in Haiti. Founded in 1994 and 2005, respectively, the BAI and IJDH pur­su­e legal cases, train progressive Haitian lawyers, collaborate with domestic and international solidarity groups, and dis­trib­ut­e infor­ma­tion on human rights con­di­tions in Haiti.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is a leading human rights organization in Zimbabwe whose core objectives are to foster a culture of respect for human rights, and to encourage human rights protections at all levels of society through observance of the rule of law. ZLHR aims to protect and defend human rights through strategic litigation, education, and the strengthening of participation and collaboration by key stakeholders in Zimbabwe.

Jacqueline Moudeïna, a Chadian lawyer and human rights activist, leads the effort to bring to trial the former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré and to achieve justice for his victims.

Habré, president of Chad from 1982 to 1990, is accused of eliminating anyone who threatened his authority.  The files of his dreaded political police, recovered by Human Rights Watch, reveal the names of 1,208 people who were killed or died in detention and 12,321 victims of human rights violations. After he was deposed and fled to Senegal, Habré lived in quiet luxury in Dakar for 22 years.