Human Rights Commissions and Criminal Justice

HARVARD UNIVERSITY > JOHN F. KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT

PROGRAM IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY AND MANAGEMENT

Latest Paper Offers Steps to Improve Immigrant-Police Relations

Check out our latest paper, Strengthening Relations Between Local Police and Immigrant Communities: The Role for Human Rights Commissions. The paper sets out ways in which human rights organizations can work with police departments to address community tensions surrounding day laborer hiring sites, gang violence, and ethnic and racial profiling.

Welcome to the official website for the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Session on Human Rights Commissions and Criminal Justice! Here you will find descriptions of projects in which the Session is engaged, discussion of relevant issues, publications to download and more. Between now and the end of 2008, the Executive Session will post papers as research and demonstration projects testing out greater participation of human rights commissions in addressing issues in the U.S. criminal justice system are completed. Check back periodically to see what’s new, or sign up to receive notice of new publications.


	Tue, 01 Jul 2008 *Marea Beeman* > Meetings Wind Down, Work Continues Through 2008 Members of the Executive Session on Human Rights Commissions and Criminal Justice gathered for their sixth and final meeting at Harvard’s Kennedy School in Cambridge, MA in April, 2008. Our discussions were enlivened by the addition of several special guests including a director of public safety, a current and a former police chief, and representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office and the International City/County Management Association. While the formal meetings are behind us, the work of the Executive Session continues. More >


	The Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Session on Human Rights Commissions and Criminal Justice convenes human rights, civil rights and police leaders from across the United States in a series of discussions about how to expand the role of Human Rights Commissions in addressing issues of discrimination in U.S. criminal justice systems. In addition, the project aims to strengthen the ways that state and local governments respond to violations of the rights of people involved with the criminal justice system by documenting innovative work of individual commissions and conducting research on emerging practices. More >


		> Police misconduct > Bias crimes > Diversity within law enforcement > Discrimination against ex-offenders > Unequal enforcement


		> Mexico City > England > India > South Africa


		> Project description > Participant bios > Faculty and staff > Other Executive Sessions > Contact > Privacy policy > Supporters

Lonnell McGhee listens to speakers at a rally against racial profiling at the California state Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on April 27, 2000. He joined hundreds of people showing support for SB1389, the so called "DWB Bill," or "Driving While Black/Brown Bill." (AP Photo/Steve Yeater)

Police officers subdue a man near Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Oct. 8, 2005. At least one police officer repeatedly punched 64-year-old Robert Davis, accused of public intoxication, and another officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Felix Morka, left, a Maryland-based international human rights lawyer, Lahila Maher a New York attorney, center, and Ivan Foster of Philadelphia, review a videotape of a N.J. State Police motorist stop along the New Jersey Turnpike, shown during a state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on racial profiling in Trenton, N.J., April 9, 2001. Morka was one of several minority motorists to testify before the Committee in its racial profiling investigation. (AP Photo/Brian Price)

Citizens convene at the Providence, R.I., U.S. District Court on Oct. 20, 2003 to assert that a civil case brought by Leisa Young, the mother of a black police officer who was fatally shot by two white patrolmen, was a miscarriage of justice, after the judge dismissed two of Young's attorneys. (AP Photo/Victoria Arocho)

Mark Jheng, right, takes an application for the New York Police Department outside police headquarters in New York City Aug. 10, 2000, as officers, including James Rector, left, and Derrick Taylor, behind, sponsor an NYPD recruiting campaign aimed at attracting minority residents. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Tue, 01 Jul 2008