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	Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice by Open Society Justice Initiative   Dec 10, 2010   This month, the Open Society Justice Initiative and more than 30 other organizations met in Johannesburg, South Africa, to further develop the at the continental level. On Human Rights Day, we join advocates across the globe in the struggle against discrimination, drawing particular attention to the multiple layers of discrimination faced by many poor and marginalized individuals who are unnecessarily and arbitrarily held in pretrial detention.   As we celebrate Human Rights Day, an estimated three million people around the world are behind bars awaiting trial. During the course of 2010, this daily cohort will likely have amounted to over nine million people—many of whom will have spent months or even years in detention, often languishing under worse conditions than those convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison.   People from the poorest and most marginalised sectors of society are most at risk: they are more likely to be arrested and detained, and then face multiple layers of discrimination at the hands of law enforcement agents.   Manfred Nowak, the outgoing United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, expressed particular concern regarding the inhuman and degrading conditions of many places of detention, noting that "victims are often already marginalized members of society who face double discrimination when they are detained."   In many countries, minorities continue to form a disproportionate part of the detained population. Where, for example, disabled or intersexual people are arrested, discrimination is compounded by a lack of appropriate conditions and frequent exposure to humiliation and abuse. Visit the related web page
	A Cold Winter Night with the Petitioners by Oiwan Lam Global Voices Online China   The suffering of Beijing''s petitioners, including one who has spent 52 years waiting for his voice to be heard, came to life when one lawyer stepped out of his office to relive their misery.   Beijing has been a hot spot for visiting petitioners, who travel across the country from different provinces to file administrative or legal appeals to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls. Since most of the petitioners'' cases are related to local corruption, the Central Petition Bureau has become their only hope.   However, their hope is usually in vain. Apart from the fact that the government bureau does not have the capacity to handle so many cases, many of the petitioners do not know how to present their cases and there is no one to help them. As a result, they are stuck in Beijing, with no money and no home. To add to their misery, the cold Beijing winter makes them even more vulnerable but not many seem to care.   In order to raise public awareness towards their cause, Zhang Kai, a human rights lawyer decided to swap the comfort of his home to spend a night with them inside a pedestrian subway, near Beijing South railway station. He live-casted what he witnessed at around midnight on December 14, when the temperatures dropped to -7°C, on his microblog.   Through photographs and tweets, Zhang puts us face to face with the misery of petitioners, who continue to call for their rights. Visit the related web page
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