International Law
International Human Rights Law
264 Articles

European Human Rights Court Deals a Heavy Blow to the Lawfulness of Bulk Surveillance
In a seminal decision updating and consolidating its previous jurisprudence on surveillance, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights took a sideways swing at mass…

The Special Rapporteur on Torture’s Report on Extraterritoriality Speaks to Migrant Crisis
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E. Méndez, has issued a new expert’s report (his 17th)—this one on extraterritoriality. (JustSecurity’s extensive…

Amb. Stephen Rapp on Sri Lanka’s War Crimes Investigation
At the end of August, the United States announced that it would support Sri Lanka’s plan for investigating alleged war crimes that occurred during the final years of the country’s…

Uncomfortable Conversations in Geneva
The United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) is currently holding its annual session in Geneva to consider the reports submitted by states setting out their adherence to the…

The US Must Ensure Umm Sayyaf Is Not Subjected to Human Rights Abuses
Umm Sayyaf, the wife of a suspected high-ranking ISIL member, is back in the news at The Daily Beast. US special operations forces captured Sayyaf in Syria in May and brought her…

10 Questions about the UK Spying on Amnesty International
Yesterday, the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal informed Amnesty International that British intelligence agency GCHQ had spied on the human rights organization by intercepting…

Britain’s Al-Saadoon Case: A Matter of Human Rights Law and the use of Military Force Overseas
In March, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales found that the United Kingdom’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) can be activated extraterritorially…

Polish Outrage to Paying Victims of CIA Black Sites—and What the Eur Court Said
Poland will be paying a quarter of a million dollars to two Guantánamo detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The payment arises in the context of the torture of…

Top 10 Year in Review: International Criminal Justice
As part of our “year in review” series, I suggest below some of the top developments in international criminal justice with links to our prior coverage, and the thoughts of…

The Torture Convention & Appendix M of the Army Field Manual on Interrogations
We are on the eve of the release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation program. Although this report will…

U.N. Committee Criticizes U.S. Record on Torture, Praises U.S. on Extraterritorial Reach of Treaty
On Friday, the United Nations Committee against Torture released its report (full text) on U.S. compliance with the Convention Against Torture. The Committee’s review included…

What is the Remedy for American Torture?
Asst. Sec. of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Tom Malinowski stated to the UN Committee on Torture two weeks ago that: A little more than ten years ago, our government…