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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3,153 Articles
A Honduran family walks back to Piedras Negras, Coahuila state, Mexico at the international bridge, after being rejected by US authorities in their attempt to enter Eagle Pass, Texas on February 6, 2019. The path ahead of the family is completely obscured by a thick grey haze.

Salvaging US Refugee Law in 2021: The Case for Tackling the Problem of Discretionary Asylum

Our statutes improperly give U.S. government officials broad discretion to deny asylum even to those who are determined by the government to face persecution in their home countries.
President Biden speaks into a microphone in front of an American flag.

On Biden’s Planned Summit: Humility, Not Hubris, Can Save Democracy

The voices of those who have suffered most from democracy’s ills are crucial to understanding – and addressing -- the impact of backsliding laws, policies, and institutions…
Pro-democracy protesters hold up a sign showing a meme of U.S. President Elect Joe Biden and "No 112" on them during a rally at the Nonthaburi Police Station on December 08, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand.

US Human Rights Policy: How to Really Build Back Better

The Biden administration must create a system in which human rights and democracy policymaking is embedded and integrated in its decision-making machinery.
Demonstrators in Washington, DC, on June 4, 2020, raise signs as they gather at The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial to protest the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis. One sign reads, “Black Lives Matter,” and another sign reads, “I am no longer accepting the things I can not change. I am changing the things I can not accept.”

MLK Believed “No Justice, No Peace”

Arguments that the protests over the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless others betray King’s legacy are not only in bad faith, but plainly wrong.
Insurgents on January 6, 2021 push against police forces. One insurgent seems to have a riot shield, while the police officer does not.

Incitement to Violence Ain’t Free Speech

The First Amendment protects abstract appeals for illegal actions. But there can and should be criminal liability for speech that incites the likely and imminent risk of violence.…
Istanbul University's students hold posters of Bogazici University rector Mesut Balu and Istanbul University rector Mahmut Ak and placards reading "Istanbul University students in solidarity with Bogazici" during a solidarity protest against the appointment of the new rector to Bogazici University by Turkish President, on January 11, 2021 in Istanbul. The protestors wear face masks in compliance with COVID-19 safety measures.

A New Assault on a Democratic Citadel in Turkey, Too

A week before the Jan. 6 US Capitol attack, Turkey's president waged another kind of assault on one of his country’s last bastions of democratic thought.
The dome of the US Capitol Building against a blue sky.

Impeachment Defense, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights

The question at the moment isn’t whether the president could be charged with incitement to violence in criminal court.
US Vice President Joe Biden holds a file folder and talks with US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, August 4, 2015.

How Samantha Power Can Restore USAID’s Crucial Role in US Foreign Policy

The nomination signals that international cooperation is back in the toolbox for America's pursuit of an equitable, prosperous, and just world.
US National Guard soldiers guard the grounds of the US Capitol from across a security fence in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2021.

Responding to the Capitol Attack: Accountability Without Overreaction

There are many indisputable facts about last week’s violent and deadly incursion into the Capitol building. It is beyond debate that the fiasco included multiple criminal acts.…
The ICC seal on a window at the International Criminal Court Building in The Hague. The windows act as mirrors, reflecting more of the ICC complex across from it.

Nestlé & Cargill v. Doe Series: Remedying the Corporate Accountability Gap at the ICC

[Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the consolidated cases of Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe I and Cargill Inc. v. Doe I, which was argued before…
An asylum seeker staying at the Juventud 2000 migrant shelter in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, sprays disinfectant on tents on April 3, 2020 as stronger cleaning measures are being implemented to fight the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic.

Father-Son Separation at US Border Illustrates Lasting Harm That Demands Redress

The abuses they faced under the Trump administration's immigration policy echo those revealed in a new Human Rights Watch investigation.
Face masks with two most popular candidates for Uganda's Presidential election, incumbent President Yoweri Museveni and Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, the pop star-turned-opposition leader, printed on them are sold in Kampala, Uganda, on January 4, 2021.

Ugandan Human Rights Lawyer Fights Charges on Eve of Presidential Election

Following a now-predictable pattern in the leadup to the polls, authorities have hastened arrests of political opponents and critics of President Museveni.
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