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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Two students and a teacher work together in classroom with USA flags

Plyler’s Promise

"Plyler and its protections have allowed generations to make claim to an alternate vision of America: one more diverse, inclusive, and equal."
Woman looking at cell phone with information on Abortion Pill (RU-486) for unintended pregnancy.

With Roe v. Wade at Risk, Digital Surveillance Threatens Reproductive Freedom

If Roe is overturned, states will likely use sweeping digital surveillance tools to enforce abortion bans.
A stack of the book “Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions” by Boyd van Dijk. One book stands upright showing the full cover, which includes an image of an empty hall with raised seating in the back. At the top reads, “The history and Theory of International Law.” The bottom shows the publisher as Oxford.

Review of Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions

Reviewing Boyd van Dijk, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).  Boyd van Dijk has written a superb political and legal…
Members of Lebanon's election monitoring association survey the voting process through screens at the foreign ministry in Beirut on May 6, 2022. - Lebanese expatriates cast their votes for parliamentary elections, two years into an unprecedented economic crisis that spurred a mass exodus. It is the second time in the country's history that citizens residing abroad are able to vote for their 128 representatives, in elections set to be held at home on May 15. Expatriates began voting at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) Beirut time on Friday in nine Arab countries and in Iran, while the rest will vote in 48 other countries on Sunday. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

In Lebanon, Elections Bring Cautious Hope – and an Uphill Battle for Reforms

Weakened incumbents and diaspora voting could allow the country to change direction after years of graft, mismanagement, and democratic decline.
Five migrant children look through a barbed wire border fence at Polish border guards. The migrants are camped near the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing on the Belarusian-Polish border on November 17, 2021. (Photo by MAXIM GUCHEK/BELTA/AFP via Getty Images)

In Alliance with Poland, U.S. Must Emphasize Refugee Protection

First-hand reporting from Poland highlights the need for refugee policies consistent with international and domestic law.

US, EU Face Higher Hurdles Now for Action Against Orbán’s Tightening Grip in Hungary

His landslide re-election and Russia's war on Ukraine makes pushback on the region's autocratization harder -- and more needed -- than ever.
US President Joe Biden provides updates on the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 21, 2022. - President Biden on Thursday vowed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would never take control of Ukraine, as the United States announced new military aid for Kyiv.

The “Leahy Laws” and U.S. Assistance to Ukraine

For practical and principled reasons, human rights compliance will continue to be paramount for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression.
A man carries a banner during a demonstration at Ojota in Lagos on June 12, 2021, as Nigerian activists called for nationwide protests over what they criticise as bad governance and insecurity, as well as the recent ban of US social media platform Twitter by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. - Hundreds of protesters gathered on June 12, 2021 in Lagos, a sprawling megapolis of over 20 million people, and police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP) (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images)

What Elon Musk Does Not Get about Twitter and Democracy in Africa

Deferring to local laws to determine the bounds of free speech on Twitter - and Musk has suggested doing - would jeopardize hard-won democratic freedoms in Africa.

How Cambodia’s Human Rights Crackdown Undermines Regional Security

The upcoming White House summit with ASEAN offers a chance for the US to press on human rights abuses and costly alliances with China.
Workers of El Universo newspaper march carrying a mock coffin in protest towards the government palace in Quito on February 17, 2012, after Ecuador's National Court of Justice (CNJ) confirmed a lower court ruling that sentenced three top El Universo executives and a former opinion page editor Emilio Palacio Urrutia to three years in prison. The lower court awarded President Rafael Correa $40 million in damages. (Photo by CAMILO PAREJA/AFP via Getty Images)

The Beginning of the End for Criminal Defamation in the Americas? The El Universo Case

The judgment strengthens media freedom by repudiating a historic legal tool to stifle dissent and flagging the need for legislative measures.
Workers of El Universo newspaper march carrying a mock coffin in protest towards the government palace in Quito on February 17, 2012, after Ecuador's National Court of Justice (CNJ) confirmed a lower court ruling that sentenced three top El Universo executives and a former opinion page editor Emilio Palacio Urrutia to three years in prison. The lower court awarded President Rafael Correa $40 million in damages. (Photo by CAMILO PAREJA/AFP via Getty Images)

¿El principio del fin de la difamación penal en las Américas? El caso de El Universo

El fallo del Tribunal es verdaderamente importante para la libertad de los medios de comunicación de la región.

Remarks at UN Security Council Arria-Formula Meeting on Ensuring Accountability for Atrocities Committed by Russia in Ukraine

Note from co-editors-in-chief Tess Bridgeman and Ryan Goodman: On Wednesday, April 27, the U.N. Security Council held an Arria-formula meeting entitled, “Ensuring accountability…
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