Overview 

The Midwest Coalition for Human Rights calls for eliminating the use of torture, and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment by U.S. officials at home or abroad. The Coalition promotes laws, policies and practices that respect human dignity and prevent ill-treatment toward persons by any U.S. official, or person acting in an official capacity.

Project Goals

• • Drive the regional debate about U.S. policies and practices regarding the treatment of detainees and indefinite detention.
• • Mobilize constituent pressure for U.S. legislative reform to ensure the prevention of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
• • Pressure the United States government to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture to ensure independent oversight of U.S. detention facilities.
• • Support local organization efforts to use international human rights mechanisms to demand accountability for police torture cases.
• • Promote limits on the use of restraints, tasers, and other disciplinary tools by law enforcement to ensure human rights and human dignity.
• • Call for an end to the excessively harsh treatment that is inherent to long-term isolation, a practice which is used in "Supermax" and other detention facilities throughout the U.S.

Actions

• • The Midwest Coalition’s testimony resulted in recommendations by the U.N. Committee Against Torture calling on the U.S. government to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the torture of 200 African-Americans in the 1980s and 1990s by the Chicago police.  
• • The Midwest Coalition worked to bring the Chicago Police torture cases to the attention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), resulting in a public hearing, further investigation into police abuse, and the conviction of Jon Burge.  
• • The Coalition engaged in the “Campaign to Ban Torture,” which culminated in a Presidential Executive Order, signed into effect on January 22, 2009, which ended U.S. use of harsh interrogation techniques. The campaign succeeded in building new leadership for the anti-torture movement in faith communities, military communities and professional organizations.  
• • The Coalition targeted presidential and congressional candidate forums to raise questions about preventing torture and restoring due process. 
• • Coalition members developed curriculum, using a human rights framework, to educate students about the use of tasers.
• • The Midwest Coalition engages university students in its campaign pressuring the U.S. government to sign and ratify the Optional Protocal to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT).
• • In February of 2011 the Coalition hosted a strategic convening on Ending Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment by US Officials. The convening brought together a diverse group of over 120 advocates to strategize on human rights violations perpetuated by state and federal officials. 

For more information visit our Torture Resources Page.