Human Rights

Just Security’s expert authors offer in-depth analysis on critical human rights challenges, including those related to armed conflict, emerging technologies, abuses by authoritarian governments, repression of human rights advocates and independent media, human rights litigation, racial justice, gender equality, and more.

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3,056 Articles
The empty courtroom of the U.S. Supreme Court is seen September 30, 2016. Curtains are parted to reveal chairs, pews, and the seats for the judges at the front of the room.

Activism and Consequences

A response to Margulies and Azmy.
Syrian defendant Eyad al-Gharib, accused of crimes against humanity in the first trial of its kind to emerge from the Syrian conflict, arrives to hear his verdict in the court room on February 24, 2021 in Koblenz, western Germany. He holds up a document or folder to hide his face as two officers in bullet proof vests touch him and move him forward.

Striking the Right Balance for a Draft Convention on Crimes against Humanity

A successful treaty will prompt States to adopt stronger national laws and cooperate with each other to stop atrocities.
The White House lawn on a sunny day with the White House in the background.

The Executive Branch Needs Intelligence Oversight Reform

The PIOB and PCLOB should be combined into a single White House civil liberties and compliance office, with an expanded mission.
The Chair of Afghanistan's independent human rights commission, Sima Samar, hands Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, a document while United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, stands beside them witnessing the event. A flag stands behind them.

The Failure of Transitional Justice in Afghanistan: Impunity Turned Into Law

How the international community and domestic power brokers undermined an initiative and sowed another seed of the ultimate collapse.
Norng Chan Phal, who survived internment at the Tuol Sleng prison known as S-21 as a child, looks at skulls displayed at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh on September 2, 2020.

As the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Treaty Moves Forward, a View on How It Relates to the Rome Statute for the ICC

Crimes against humanity is the only international crime not governed by its own treaty. It's time to formally recognize such heinous conduct.
Side by side images of the speakers from the event “Roads Not Taken – Reflections on the 9/11 Anniversary” hosted by Just Security and the Knight First Amendment Institute. Jameel Jaffer, Elisa Massimino, Anthony D. Romero, Kenneth Roth, and Linda Sarsour.

Video: Roads Not Taken – Reflections on the 9/11 Anniversary

Assessing the Work and Impact of U.S. Human Rights Organizations Since the 9/11 Attacks
Demonstrators, including Reverend Jesse Jackson, rally in protest calling on US President Barack Obama to end the "War on Drugs." They carry a banner reading, “Day of Direct Action; President Obama and the Nations…End the War on Drugs and Mass incarceration; Invest in America’s ‘Dark Ghettos’”

With America Out of a Major Foreign War, Time to End One at Home

Many of the tragedies and sins associated with failure in the war in Afghanistan could equally apply to the "war on drugs.”
Representatives sit at long desks for the United Nations General Assembly Seventy-first session, 57th plenary meeting.

How the UN General Assembly Can Respond to Atrocity Crimes at Its 76th Session

It has played a significant role in preventing and responding to atrocities in the past - it should take five priority actions now.
A view of the room where the session is held at International Court Of Justice on January 23, 2020 in The Hague, Netherlands. The judges sit in a room at the front of the room. People fill the rest of the seats in the room.

Towards a New Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity: Next Steps

Such a convention could dispel the notion that only genocide deserves international sanction and attention.
Michael Ratner, a US Military Defence Lawyer and one of the counsel in the US Supreme Court, listens during a press conference concerning the situation of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in London, 24 March 2004.

The Humanity of Michael Ratner, The Fabrications of Samuel Moyn

Joseph Margulies and Baher Azmy write to set the record straight.
Two tall greyscale rectangles cast dark shadows representing the Twin Towers. Text reads, “How Perpetual War Has Changed Us: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11”

Human Rights Advocacy and the Institutionalization of U.S. “Counterterrorism” Policies Since 9/11

A critical reflection on post-9/11 human rights advocacy, and lessons learned from hindsight.
Two tall greyscale rectangles cast dark shadows representing the Twin Towers. Text reads, “How Perpetual War Has Changed Us: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11”

How to Responsibly End Three Key Rights-Abusing Post-9/11 Policies

Accountability needs to include reckoning with Guantanamo, state-sanctioned U.S. torture, and secretive and unlawful lethal strikes.
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