At the UW Center for Human Rights, student researchers use the Freedom of Information Act (also known as FOIA) and state public records laws to investigate local and international human rights issues, in partnership with human rights organizations working for justice and accountability. Meet recent members of our research team in our new video.

In early 2018, videos of Customs and Border Protection agents questioning and arresting passengers on Greyhound buses went viral on social media. Border Patrol forms obtained by the UWCHR via a Freedom of Information Act request document the detention of 9 people in bus searches in Washington state during the five month period from January through May, 2017.

All of us at the Center for Human Rights are saddened to learn of Helen Jackson’s recent passing on February 24, 2018. Helen was known for her kindness, generosity, and commitment to public service, and her dedication to human rights helped give lead to the founding of our Center. In 2008, the Henry M. Jackson

The ACLU of Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project have written a letter warning local law enforcement agencies that they could be exposing themselves to liability if they continue to use immigration enforcement policies provided by Lexipol, a for-profit company which provides policy language to public safety agencies. The letter cites research by the UW Center for Human Rights, which filed public records requests to obtain local law enforcement agencies’ policies relevant to collaboration with immigration enforcement activities.

On December 6, 2017, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of El Salvador ordered the Salvadoran Public Prosecutor’s office and Ministry of Defense to carry out a new investigation of the disappearance of the Rivas Clímaco siblings, five children who were forcibly disappeared during a 1982 military operation. The Chamber’s ruling cites as evidence a

Update: On February 15, the Mijente network published the results of a public records request submitted by Maru Mora-Villalpando’s legal team revealing that the Washington State Department of Licensing provided her personal information to ICE. UWCHR later received similar copies of the same documents in response to its request. On February 26, Maru’s supporters published

On January 10, 2018, the ACLU of Washington and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) announced the settlement of a lawsuit filed in September of 2017 against the Spokane Police Department, regarding the detention of an immigrant resident who was involved in a motor vehicle accident in August. The UWCHR highlighted this case in our report,

In November 2017, UWCHR director Angelina Godoy, accompanied by UW students Emily Willard, Angie Tamayo, and Clare Morrison, traveled to El Salvador to attend the National Assembly of Armed Conflict Victims. The assembly was the first to be held following the 2016 repeal of an amnesty law which had blocked efforts to investigate crime against

Decades after the infamous massacre of El Mozote, the fight for accountability continues. The massacre of El Mozote was committed during “Operation Rescue,” a counterinsurgency operation spearheaded by the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion in December of 1981 in the department of Morazán in northeastern El Salvador. Over several days, the Salvadoran military killed at least 978

Español On Monday, December 11, the University of Washington Center for Human Rights filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the U.S. Department of Defense and two of its subagencies – the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) – under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The UWCHR is seeking