RESTORING RIGHTS: THE WAY FORWARD

Serious violations of basic human rights have taken place in the United States and in foreign facilities under U.S. control since 9/11. Restoring these rights and ending abuses will require broad and decisive action on the part of Congress and the new administration as well as a reckoning with where we have been. This page presents PEN’s agenda for taking action, what you can do to help bring about these changes, and the works and words of PEN members uncovering an ever-growing body of evidence of misconduct and abuses.

Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror”
October 13, 2009 | The Great Hall at Cooper Union | NYC

Writers and artists take the stage with lawyers, a former military interrogator, and a former CIA agent to read from texts that have brought government abuses to light.

>> Video, audio, and manuscripts from the event

Voices Against Torture:
Writers and Lawyers on the Way Forward
December 16, 2008 | Judson Memorial Church | NYC

Jane Mayer, Anouar Benmalek, Elisa Massimino, Scott Horton, and Dahlia Lithwick discuss their work and its relationship to combating the use of torture.

>> Video, audio, and writings from the event

Please write to Attorney General Eric Holder urging him to ensure that his investigation into the use of torture and other due process violations is complete.

>> Sample letter

The U.S. Senate has acknowledged that the U.S. has engaged in torture. These links point toward the mounting body of evidence.

>> First-Hand Accounts

>> Official Documents

>> Investigations

>> Hearings

>> Laws

October 22, 2009: Book Groups Praise Reader Privacy Protections in House Patriot Act Bill

October 15, 2009: Book Groups Seek Meaningful Reader Privacy Protection in Patriot Act Reauthorization

October 14, 2009: Writers Press for Accountability on Torture

>> Recent news

Nikki Giovanni reads Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again"

Administration of Torture
an audio slideshow by the ACLU and PEN

Russell Banks reads from Mark Twain's "The Person Sitting in Darkness"

James Risen & Philip Gourevitch
in conversation

PEN’s Campaign for Core Freedoms works to: protect personal privacy; preserve public access to information and a full range of voices from the United States and around the world; and promote policies that reflect a core commitment to human rights.

In line with these goals, PEN is calling for:

• the restoration of protections for bookstore and library records

• restrictions on the use of National Security Letters

• an end to illegal telephone and Internet surveillance programs

• federal “shield” protection for the press

• an end to ideological exclusion

• an end to torture, extraordinary rendition, and arbitrary detention

• policies promoting press freedom and freedom of expression in Iraq and Afghanistan