Senator Kennedy's prolific career spanned nearly five decades, during which he authored more than 2,500 bills in the U.S. Senate. Several hundred have become public law. This fall we hope to add yet another bill to that distinguished list - the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Ted Kennedy was one of the Senate's earliest champions in the fight against hate crime. Since the early 1990s, Senator Kennedy has called for better government response to the growing problem of violence motivated by racism, religious intolerance, sexual orientation bias or other similar factors. For example, in one of his most courageous political moments, Senator Kennedy argued in favor of legislation protecting those who face violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. He spoke out after realizing that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, as well as those who seek to protect their rights, have been threatened by a particularly aggressive wave of bias-motivated violence.

Senator Kennedy later went to on to compare hate crimes to "acts of domestic terrorism" and worked tirelessly to pass hate crimes legislation in the Senate. In 2007, he joined Sen. Gordon Smith in a bipartisan effort to pass the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill failed to advance in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but that not deter Senator Kennedy. He continued to fight, and just this year, the Senate adopted this critical measure as part of the Defense Authorization Bill.

Human Rights First is one of many U.S. rights groups supporting the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as it will help to ensure that law enforcement authorities have the tools they need to combat violent hate crime in the United States. This bill could prove to be one of the nation's strongest weapons to date to protect those who are most vulnerable to bias-motivated violence. These crimes -- including assaults on individuals, damage to homes and personal property, and attacks on places of worship, cemeteries, community centers, and schools -- undermine our shared values of equality and nondiscrimination, ideals that Senator Kennedy worked his whole life to promote.

Senator Ted Kennedy was a longtime friend of the human rights movement and a powerful supporter of social justice and democracy at home and throughout the world. He had a keen understanding of the courage and tenacity it takes to overcome adversity and to find the way forward when the odds seem insurmountable. This fall, we sincerely hope that President Obama will follow in his footsteps by signing the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law.

Watch Human Rights First's Tribute to Edward Moore Kennedy.

Paul LeGendre is the Director of the Fighting Discrimination program at Human Rights First. Join them at facebook.com/humanrightsfirst and twitter.com/humanrights1st.

On Friday, July 10, the leader of a Paris gang was sentenced to life in prison for torturing and murdering a young Jewish man, Ilan Halimi.  

In February 2006, Halimi was kidnapped, tortured and killed because he was a Jew. He was held captive for twenty-four days during which he was stabbed and burned with cigarettes and acid before being found naked and handcuffed to a tree.  
The murder of Ilan Halimi sparked outrage in the international community. Human rights and community groups urged then-President Jacques Chirac to ensure that Halimi's murderers were brought to justice. More than three years later, some level of justice and accountability was achieved with Friday's court decision.  

Although Human Rights First does not take a position on the adequacy of sentencing decisions in individual cases, there have been mixed reactions to the verdict and sentencing of the twenty-seven defendants. On the one hand, the murderer, Yousseuf Fofana, was sentenced to life imprisonment - the maximum sentence prescribed by the French criminal code. On the other hand, the Halimi family lawyer Francis Szpiner told reporters that he was "scandalized" that other suspects received relatively light sentence recommendations. Some Jewish organizations in France called for a mass gathering outside the Justice Ministry to protest against "too-lenient court sentencing" for the gang of youths. Beyond Fofana, twenty-four other members were handed sentences ranging from six months suspended to 18 years in prison. Two were acquitted. Fofana's two main accomplices were sentenced to 15 and 18 years respectively, while a young woman who lured Halimi to his place of captivity will spend nine years in jail. On July 13, in apparent response to complaints of lenient sentences, French Justice Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie called for a new trial of 14 of Fofana's accomplices in the murder of Halimi. 
A guilty verdict and appropriate sentencing cannot bring back a life senselessly lost. However, the criminal justice process can send a strong message that society will not tolerate these crimes which weaken the sense of physical security felt by victim communities and attack the fundamental values of democratic societies.  
A strong criminal justice response can also help families in their own recovery process. PBS is currently showcasing a documentary "Beyond Hatred" about a hate crime trial in France. Reviewed by Human Rights First, as well as by the mother of Matthew Shepard - a college student brutally attacked and left to die in Wyoming because he was gay - the film follows the struggle of another young man's family to seek justice in a vicious homophobic murder, highlighting the importance of criminal justice for the family's grieving process. The film's story begins in September 2002, when three skinheads were roaming a park in Rheims, France, looking to "do an Arab," when they settled for a gay man instead. Twenty-nine-year-old François Chenu was beaten unconscious and thrown into a river, where he drowned. "Beyond Hatred," which you can watch online in its entirety, tells the story of the crime's aftermath, following the Chenu family's brave and heartrending struggle to seek justice while trying to make sense of such pointless violence and unbearable loss. With remarkable dignity, they fight to transcend hatred and the inevitable desire for revenge.  

Hate crimes are a daily reality all over the European continent--in fact, around the world. People suffer violence because they are black, Jewish, Roma or Muslim or because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. As Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg stated, "hate crimes [are] the ugly face of racism, antisemitism, anti-Gypsyism, Islamophobia and homophobia." In a most recent reminder of this "ugly face," last week in a German courtroom, 32-year-old Marwa El Sherbini, a pregnant Muslim woman, was stabbed to death by a man with a history of anti-Muslim prejudice. The murder took place in front of Marwa's three-year-old son, and her husband was mistakenly shot and wounded by German police as he tried to subdue the attacker.  

Government authorities have a responsibility to vigorously respond to these shameful and serious crimes. Authorities must send a clear, consistent message condemning all forms of bias-motivated violence without reservation and reasserting their commitment to combat it. They must equip police, prosecutors and judges with the resources and training necessary to investigate these crimes, thoroughly prosecute them before a court of law, and hand down sentences that reflect their harm to society. Though there is far too little accountability in most hate crime cases, the investigations and trials into the murders of Ilan Halimi and François Chenu illustrate the important role of the criminal justice authorities in confronting this rising tide of hate violence and protecting those at risk to it.

Paul LeGendre is the Director of the Fighting Discrimination program at Human Rights First. Join them at facebook.com/humanrightsfirst and twitter.com/humanrights1st

In a week, President Obama will travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The agenda items of the summit in Moscow are of course numerous and complex, but it would be a mistake to let human rights concerns get lost in the mix. High among those concerns is the troubling rise in hate crimes in Russia, the government's inadequate response to this trend, and increased harassment - including at times murder - of human rights defenders. These and other outstanding human rights issues could make Russia a far less reliable partner in addressing economic, security, and other issues.

Watch a video explaining the problem.

During the past five years there has been a sharp increase in the number of racist and other bias-motivated attacks in Russia, a rise of about 15 percent per year. In 2008, there were nearly 100 such reported murders in Russia - by far the highest incidence of such serious violence in Europe. This problem has been compounded by a lackluster governmental response to these heinous acts. Russia's deeply-flawed antiextremism legislation has been used to silence government critics, rather than to thoroughly investigate and prosecute the cases of increasingly brutal violent hate crimes. In recent years, human rights activists have also been the targets of aggressive attacks by neo-Nazi and other groups.

In a letter to the President, Elisa Massimino, the CEO and Executive Director of Human Rights First explained:

"We believe, as you stated in April, that respect for human rights and the rule of law is the bedrock of a more constructive relationship between the United States and Russia. You also said then that 'it is time to get down to business and translate our warm words into actual achievements of benefit to Russia, the United States, and all those around the world interested in peace and prosperity.' Your attention to Russia's efforts to combat racist, xenophobic and other violent hate crimes and to strengthen and protect human rights organizations and civil society will help the move from words to deeds by making clear that the United States considers progress on these issues essential to building a strong bilateral relationship with Russia in the future."

In his upcoming meetings with President Medvedev, President Obama must:

* Express concern about the sharp rise in violent hate crimes in Russia and the so far inadequate response of the Russian authorities to this most pernicious form of discrimination, while making clear the common interest of the United States and Russia in combating violent hate crime throughout Europe and North America through developing shared solutions to the problems.

* Encourage a regular dialogue between the U.S. Department of Justice and the Russian Interior Ministry and prosecutorial officials to improve responses to hate crime.
   
* Show support for Russian human rights and other civil society groups by meeting with them in Moscow.

HRF's letter to President Obama was sent on the same day the organization submitted testimony in conjunction with a United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) hearing examining the realities of "the Medvedev thaw." In those remarks for the record, HRF called on the Commission to encourage the Obama Administration to set the tone to the new relationship with Russia by welcoming some of the positive steps taken by President Medvedev since he assumed the presidency, while consistently raising continuing human rights concerns.

My organization has put together a sign-on letter if you would like to lend your voice to this debate, urging President Obama to raise human rights concerns in his upcoming meeting with President Medvedev.

Take Action: Tell President Obama to raise human rights issues with Russian President Medvedev!

Paul LeGendre is the Director of the Fighting Discrimination program at Human Rights First. Join them at facebook.com/humanrightsfirst and twitter.com/humanrights1st

In 1998, the murder of Matthew Shepard sent shock waves through the nation. A 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming, Shepard was brutally beaten, tortured, tied to a fence, and left for dead. Eighteen hours later, a bicyclist found Matthew, initially thinking he was a scarecrow. He was rushed to the hospital and died five days later.  

Now, more than a decade later, the U.S. Senate is set to vote on a bill that would give the government additional tools to combat and prevent such heinous acts. This critical legislation, which has already passed in the House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote of 249-175, is aptly named the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909). If passed into law, it could prove to be one of the nation's strongest weapons to date to protect those who are most vulnerable to bias-motivated violence. 

Though it is widely believed and acknowledged that Matthew Shepard was targeted precisely because of his sexual orientation, his killers were not charged with a hate crime. There wasn't then and still isn't a state hate crime law in Wyoming, and the current federal civil rights law that the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act seeks to update extends to race, religion, or national origin, but not to sexual orientation. 

While all violent crimes are reprehensible, hate crimes cannot be measured solely by the harm caused to the individual victim. These acts are among the most pernicious forms of discrimination because they target all those who identify with the victim. This reality leaves many to live in fear and exclusion from the larger society. More broadly hate crimes threaten the core fabric of the diverse and pluralistic societies in which we live, undermining the shared values of equality and nondiscrimination among all individuals. Fighting hate crimes is nothing less than fighting to uphold human rights. 

While there has been progress on this front since 1998, there is still a long way to go. At the state level - where the vast majority of hate crimes are and will continue to be investigated and prosecuted - only 30 states and the District of Columbia punish hate crimes based on sexual orientation bias; 30 punish disability bias, 26 gender bias, and 12 gender identity bias.  

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the power in certain cases to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence by providing the DOJ with jurisdiction over crimes of violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. 

Importantly, the bill would also makes grants available to state and local communities to train law enforcement officers or assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias-motivated crimes. 

The family of Sean Kennedy may have appreciated this protection two years ago. A 20-year old gay man, Kennedy was leaving a bar in South Carolina when a man shouted homophobic epithets, while punching him hard enough to knock him onto the asphalt. One of Kennedy's friends later received a voicemail saying, "You tell your faggot friend when he wakes up, he owes me five hundred dollars for my broken hand." Kennedy never woke up. He died in a hospital later that evening from injuries suffered during the attack.

That critical change cannot come soon enough. According to data collected by the FBI, attacks motivated by sexual orientation bias are on the rise and are characterized by levels of physical violence that, in many cases, exceed the severity of other types of hate crime.  

We are calling on all Americans to join us in urging Senators to provide law enforcement officials with the tools they need to hold responsible those who commit these senseless acts of bias-motivated violence. To contact your Senator today and urge passage of S. 909, visit http://tr.im/oHok.

The protections this bill affords are long overdue. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act addresses hate violence against all Americans - not just some - and will allow the United States to lead by example in its efforts to ensure global leadership in combating all forms of discrimination and bias-motivated violence.  

Paul LeGendre is the Director of the Fighting Discrimination program at Human Rights First. Join them at facebook.com/humanrightsfirst and twitter.com/humanrights1st