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.
3,051 Articles
The SSCI Report and the Right to the Truth about the CIA’s Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition Program
Today’s vote to declassify and ultimately release portions of the exhaustive Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report on the CIA’s rendition, detention, and interrogation…
SSCI Votes to Declassify Portions of CIA Interrogation Report [Updated with Statement from Sen. Feinstein]
Breaking news this afternoon: the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has voted to declassify portions of its report on the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation and detention…
The Difficulty of Relative Judgments about the Utility of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: The SSCI Report in Context
Transparency is critically important to the legitimacy and effectiveness of democratic governments. Transparency facilitates both the responsiveness of government to the needs…
John Bellinger’s Testimony before the PCLOB (and implications for Senate approval of the Persons with Disabilities Convention) [Updated on April 2]
My friend and former legal adviser to the State Department John Bellinger recently testified before the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board (PCLOB) on the question whether international…
The Human Rights Committee’s Draft Comment 35 on Detention and Security of Persons: A long, long time coming yet still falls short
On June 30, 1982 the Human Rights Committee adopted General Comment No. 8 on Article 9 (the right to liberty and security of the person). It has taken a mere 32 years – a significant…
United Nations Human Rights Council Adopts Resolution Calling for Drone Transparency and Accountability
This morning, the UN Human Rights Council voted to approve a Pakistan-sponsored resolution (A/HRC/25/L.32) entitled, “Ensuring use of remotely piloted aircraft or armed drones…
Breaking News: The High Commissioner for Human Rights to Investigate the Situation in Sri Lanka
The Human Rights Council on Thursday issued a resolution (with a vote of 23 for, 12 against, and 12 abstentions) asking the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to “investigate,…
The Extraterritorial Right to Privacy: An Opportunity to Impact the Debate
A codicil to our ongoing discussion of the human rights implications of foreign and mass surveillance (see prior posts by Ryan Goodman (here and here), Philip Alston, Jennifer…
UN Human Rights Committee’s Report on US Compliance with the ICCPR: National Security Highlights
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has issued its Concluding Observations (full text) assessing US compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights…
UN Human Rights Committee Says ICCPR Applies to Extraterritorial Surveillance: But is that so novel?
[Editor’s Note: John Bellinger over at Lawfare replied to the following post. And Ryan has a new post, partly in response to John.] A major development in today’s UN Human…
International Law on Mass Foreign Surveillance: A Response to Ben Wittes and Ashley Deeks
On Monday, I joined the debate between Glenn Greenwald and Ben Wittes by arguing that the issue of mass surveillance of foreign populations is regulated by international human…
International Proscriptions on Mass Surveillance (or What’s Missing in the Greenwald vs. Wittes Debate)
[Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, Ben Wittes and Ashley Deeks over at Lawfare replied to the following post. And Ryan has since posted a rejoinder to Ben and Ashley.] This weekend’s…