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

The “Leahy Law” Prohibiting US Assistance to Human Rights Abusers: Pulling Back the Curtain
With almost weekly news reports of US support for foreign governments with track records of gross human rights abuse—think torture in Yemen by Emirati security forces, violations…

Did the Supreme Court Tip Its Hand on How It Will Rule on the Travel Ban?
Today, the Supreme Court partially stayed and partially upheld the lower court injunctions in the travel ban litigation. The way in which the Court split the baby is perhaps the…

Not the Time for the Sounds of Silence
My father was on a death march through Yugoslavia when liberated by Tito’s partisans in November 1944. My mother was in a courtyard in Budapest waiting to be executed by a firing…

Reported Emirati Abuse of Detainees and the Perils of U.S. Partnerships
[Editor’s note: for an analysis of the legal issues raised by this news, see Steve Vladeck’s post, “The Potential Legal Implications for the U.S. in the AP’s…

The Potential Legal Implications for the U.S. in the AP’s Disturbing UAE Torture Scoop
[Editor’s note: for an analysis of the policy issues raised by this news, see Luke Hartig’s post “Reported Emirati Abuse of Detainees and the Perils of U.S. Partnerships.”]…

Donald Trump’s Say-So is Not a Presidential “National Security Judgment”
The government just filed its final pleading before the Justices’ consideration of the entry-ban cases tomorrow. This follows final briefs that the IRAP and Hawaii plaintiffs…

Regional Leaders Must Prioritize Accountability in South Sudan
East African heads of state and foreign ministers gathered in Ethiopia on June 12 to address the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis in South Sudan. While the discussion centered…

Freedom of Expression and the Digital Access Industry: Five Key Takeaways
The Internet, a historically unparalleled source of information and expression, has also become a playground for censorship, punishment and propaganda. Not a day goes by where…

Fatally Flawed Anti-Torture Assurances
An man detained by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2005 After September 11, the United States and other countries heavily relied on diplomatic assurances as counterterrorism tools to legally…

Neither Facially Legitimate Nor Bona Fide–Why the Very Text of the Travel Ban Shows It’s Unconstitutional
As the litigation over the travel ban moves to the Supreme Court, the most important passage in the Fourth Circuit’s en banc opinion may be a tangential footnote finding “yet…

An Urgent Need for International Action on Australia’s Refugees
News that U.S. officials have been fingerprinting refugees on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island ahead of their possible resettlement in the United States is a hopeful signal to…

Trump Admits: ‘Extreme Vetting’ Already Happening Without the Travel Ban
Lots of people have been commenting on the self-sabotaging aspect of Donald Trump’s early morning Twitter-storm, which undermines a central argument in his Supreme Court challenge…