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
World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme Director Michael Ryan, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and WHO Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove speak at a daily press briefing on COVID-19 virus at the WHO headquaters on March 11, 2020 in Geneva.

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,…
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is joined by commission chair Harvard Professor Mary Ann Glendon while announcing the formation of the Commission on Unalienable Rights during a news conference at the Department of State, on July 8, 2019 in Washington, DC.

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.
A passenger has his temperature checked at Changsha railway station in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province on March 10, 2020. Everyone wears face masks.

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.
A pile of copper dust at Bisha Mine, Eritrea's first major international mine, 150 kilometres west of Asmara on July 17, 2013.

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…
Syrian Army defector "Caesar," (in a blue hooded jacket) who has smuggled out of Syria more than 50,000 photographs that document the torture and execution of more than 10,000 dissidents, listens to an interpreter during a briefing before House Foreign Affairs Committee July 31, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

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.
A woman pushes a child stroller while walking along the side of Israel's separation barrier in the Palestinian village of al-Ram in the occupied West Bank on February 13, 2020, while beyond the barrier a sign is seen showing the name and logo of Ramy Levy supermarkets at an outlet in the Israeli settlement of Atarot in occupied East Jerusalem.

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…
A collage of a racially diverse group of people's faces. One face has a grid laid over it to symbolize facial recognition technology.

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…
People cross a burning street in Cadjehoun on May 1, 2019. Protestors in Benin set up burning barricades on the streets on May 1, as soldiers encircled the home of ex-president Thomas Boni Yayi after he led calls for an election boycott. Hours after initial results showed a record low turnout in Sunday's controversial parliamentary polls, soldiers in tanks were posted on the main roads leading to Boni Yayi's home in the economic capital Cotonou.

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.
A laptop screen shows the Facebook page for Facebook.

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.
Relatives of missing people take part in a massive protest against violence, crime and the disappearance of people, in Guadalajara, Jalisco State, Mexico, on May 4, 2018.

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…
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