OP-ED: Political Prisoners a Strong Voice in Iranian Politics

In a historic letter to President Barack Obama, 52 Iranian political prisoners describe the effect of the crippling sanctions regime on the Iranian people and plead for a new approach to the nuclear issue. They write:

For First Time Since 2009, U.S. Senate Talks Closing Guantanamo

Momentum appears to be building in the push to close down the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, where 166 inmates, 86 of whom have been cleared for release, remain held without charges.

California Prisons Violating Hunger-Strikers’ Rights, Groups Warn

As a mass hunger strike in the California prison system enters its third week, advocacy groups are warning that prison officials attempting to break the strike are breaching international human rights standards.

Report Gives Graphic Details of Guantanamo Force-Feeding

“Bleeding”, “vomiting”, “a quarter or even a third” of bodyweight lost, “torture”. These are characteristic descriptions from testimony by hunger strikers at the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay of their experience being force-fed at the hands of U.S. officials, published in a report released Thursday.

Judge Urges Obama to Halt “Degrading” Guantanamo Force-Feeding

A federal judge here has taken the unusual step of formally calling on President Barack Obama to halt the forcible feeding of dozens of hunger-striking detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, warning that the practice appears to contravene international law.

Q&A: Guantanamo ‘Has No Right to Exist’

For more than 100 days, detainees at American detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been on hunger strike, drawing international attention back to the prison that U.S. President Barack Obama vowed during his first presidential campaign to close down.

Q&A: “To Propel Change, You Have to Be in Their Faces”

Eighteen days ago, Diane Wilson, a 65-year-old fisherwoman from Texas, decided to go on a hunger strike.

Five Hungry Men Feed Palestinian Resolve

A few stoic lines from Palestinian political prisoner Samer Issawi, 33, transmitted to his sister Shireen have given new strength to Palestinian resolve to fight Israeli occupation and its prison policies. As has the hunger strike of four others in Israeli prisons along with Issawi.

Environmentalist Ends Hunger Strike Over Trinidad Highway

For 21 days Wayne Kublalsingh sat in the scorching sun outside the office of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar. He sat in support of his belief that constructing a highway in southern Trinidad would damage the environment and affect hundreds of lives in the surrounding area.

Kurdish Prisoners Hungry for Freedom

Five MPs from Turkey’s main Kurdish political party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), and the Mayor of Diyarbakır have gone on hunger strike to support a protest by more than 700 Kurdish prison inmates. The prisoners’ hunger strike has now lasted 63 days, and spans dozens of prisons across Turkey.

Placing Dignity Above Food

JERUSALEM, Feb. 19, 2012 (IPS) – On the day Israel released some 550 Palestinian prisoners in the second half of a swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who had been held for five-and-a-half years by Hamas in Gaza, an Islamic Jihad activist started an agonising hunger strike.