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.
3,056 Articles

National Security at the United Nations This Week (Mar. 7 to Mar. 13)
Editor’s Note: This is the latest in Just Security’s weekly series keeping readers up to date on developments at the United Nations at the intersection of national security,…

Pompeo’s “Rights Commission” is Worse Than Feared: Part I
Human rights groups have sued to shut it down. A study of its hearings shows its anti-rights leanings are even worse than feared.

Pandemics and Human Rights
Some governments use a crisis as a pretext to infringe rights. Others retain over-broad emergency powers after the crisis subsides.

Crossing the Rubicon: Major Developments on the Human Rights Obligations of Corporations
Two significant legal developments in the Americas — a Canadian Supreme Court judgment issued last week, and a report of the Inter-American human rights system — will…

Balancing Syria Advocacy and Witness Safety: Have We Lost Sight?
Groups documenting war crimes and other violations must revisit their methods of evidence collection and improve compliance with “do no harm” principles.

The Benefits (and Drawbacks) of the UN Database on Businesses Contributing to Israeli Settlements
The United Nations Human Rights Council released a controversial database of 112 businesses engaged in activities associated with Israeli settlements on February 12. Although the…

Law Enforcement’s Facial Recognition Law-lessness: Comparing European and US Approaches
"There’s a grave threat to individual liberty, privacy, and racial justice. A balance needs to be struck. But it will not be struck by continuing to act lawlessly, which is to…

West Africa’s Democratic Progress is Slipping Away, Even as Region’s Significance Grows
Democratic norms may erode further in 2020, says Freedom House. The fundamental rights of West Africa’s nearly 400 million people are in jeopardy.

An Ambitious Reading of Facebook’s Content Regulation White Paper
How might we move toward accountability in the face of irreconcilable clashes between Rights-era and Public Health-era values, particularly given the serious practical and civil…

Int’l Criminal Court’s Afghanistan Decision Expands Prosecutor’s Power: What to Expect Next
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized a formal investigation into alleged crimes committed during the war in Afghanistan on Thursday, overturning…

Facebook Bylaws for Takedown Oversight Board: Questions of Independence
The board should select and decide cases without interference. But trustees and the company retain authority on issues underpinning its independence.

Mexico’s Amnesty Proposal: An Instrument of Transitional Justice?
As violence in Mexico reaches record highs, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has proposed an amnesty law aimed at benefiting individuals accused of involvement in the country’s…