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

Keeping Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism in Focus at the UN
Egypt has for years sought to undermine UN consensus on norms for human rights in countering terrorism. It's time for UN members to take a principled stand.

Female Genital Mutilation and the Treaty Power: What Congress Can Do
Since 1996, the act of female genital mutilation (FGM) has been a federal crime. Federal circuit courts have characterized FGM as “a barbaric practice unbecoming of a civilized…

Assessing the Legal Landscape of Family Separation in the Immigration Context
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was interviewed this week as part of FORTUNE’s “Most Powerful Women Summit” in Washington. Nielsen, who seemed nonplussed…

Assessing Turkey’s “Resettlement” Plans in Syria under the Law of Occupation
Turkey's "resettlement plan" for northern Syria - involving the transfer of at least 1 million refugees to the area within Syria it intends to control - is unlawful under the international…

Suit Against Sri Lankan Presidential Candidate Rajapaksa Dismissed on Common Law Immunity Grounds
Among other deficiencies, the ruling failed to acknowledge jurisprudence from other courts indicating that jus cogens violations can never constitute “official” acts entitling…

National Security at the United Nations This Week
The Security Council fails to condemn Turkey for its operation in northern Syria, a troubled 15-year UN mission in Haiti comes to an end, Maduro's Venezuela gets a seat on the…

The Netherlands Releases a Tour de Force on International Law in Cyberspace: Analysis
The Dutch make a major contribution to interpretation and application of international law in cyberspace with careful legal analysis on topics ranging from sovereignty to the use…

Sri Lankan War Criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa May Escape Accountability Yet Again, This Time by Running for President
Recent developments in a pair of human rights cases in U.S. federal court against former Sri Lankan Defense Minister and current presidential hopeful Gotabaya (“Gota”) Rajapakse…

18 Years After 9/11, Why Is Guantánamo Still Open?
That a child born on that day the planes hit would by now have gained the right to vote, but there has yet to be a trial of the alleged attackers, serves to highlight how painfully…

On a President’s Orders: New Frontline Docs Look at Duterte and MBS
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte isn’t pulling the trigger every time a drug dealer or drug user is killed by the police. Similarly, when Saudi journalist Jamal…

New Spy Museum’s Torture Exhibit Glosses Over Depravity
If any visitor to the new International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. leaves the exhibit without a clear understanding that the CIA torture program was immoral, illegal, and counterproductive…

National Security at the United Nations This Week
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,…