On September 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet led a coup that deposed the democratically elected President Salvador Allende and established a military government that tortured, murdered, and disappeared thousands of individuals.
In 2002, UNROW brought suit against Henry Kissinger, the United States government, and Michael Townley for crimes against humanity, forced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention, and wrongful death.
The Clinic also engages in advocacy and education efforts to promote justice for crimes committed during the Pinochet era and to provide redress to the victims and their families.
[8] Forty years ago, the indigenous people of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean were removed from their homeland to make way for construction of a U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the 1960s.
In 2008 and 2009, UNROW members traveled to London to attend the launch of the “Let Them Return” U.K. advocacy campaign and at the Law Lords hearing in Britain's highest court.
On March 5, 2012, UNROW and SPEAK Human Rights & Environmental Initiative launched a petition[dead link] to the White House, calling upon the Obama administration to provide long-overdue redress to the Chagossians.
UNROW continues advocating to bring light to the plight of the Chagossian people, including writing an article published in The Human Rights Brief in Spring 2013.
[15][16] The Department of State, on behalf of itself and the Defense Intelligence Agency, confirmed their possession of an identical document, but refused to disclose it and denied the FOIA request.
On October 17, 2013, UNROW filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act against the U.S. Department of State and the Defense Intelligence Agency for their unlawful withholding of the cable.
[17][18] In 1970, Henry Alfred Kissinger, former National Security Advisor, and the U.S. Government sought to instigate a coup to prevent President Salvador Allende from taking office after he won a plurality in the presidential election.
Schneider died three days later as a result of his gunshot wounds, and the CIA awarded US$35,000 to individuals implicated in the murder “[i]n an effort to keep prior contact secret, maintain good will of the group, and for humanitarian reasons.”[19] In 2001, Michael Tigar and UNROW filed an initial complaint on behalf of General Schneider's family members before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and named defendants Henry Alfred Kissinger, Richard McGarrah Helms, and the U.S. Government.
In December 2010, UNROW submitted evidence of human rights violations committed during the armed conflict to the United Nations Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka, which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appointed in 2010.
[24] Government agencies, particularly Departments of State and Defense, employ private contractors to perform many functions in both Iraq and Afghanistan, including translators, interrogators and security for diplomats and other important personnel.
[25] In June 2009, Amnesty International Senior Deputy Executive Director Curt Goering sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder regarding UNROW's FOIA request project.
In September 2009, UNROW secured the release of 137 case investigation files from the U.S. Army Crime Records Center, and has since received more documents from the Office of Information and Privacy in the U.S. Department of Justice.