International and Foreign
2,968 Articles
UK Defence Select Committee: Extensive legal scrutiny undermining willingness of commanders to take necessary risks
The UK’s House of Commons Defence Select Committee published a report on Wednesday [full text] concerning the legal framework for future operations of the armed forces. The…
States, Almost States, Non-State Actors and the Geneva Conventions: Palestinian President Abbas’s attempt to join the Club
[Editor’s Note: Be sure to see the letter to the editor from a former Deputy Legal Adviser to Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations responding to this…
Law of War Conventions that Palestinian President Abbas Intends to Join: Questions Raised
The Palestinian authorities have released the complete list of treaties that they intend to join. According to the statement, President Abbas “signed letters of accession”…
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…
A Greek Precedent for the Russian Compliance Problem with the Council of Europe
Readers will recall that an early challenge to the resilience and capacity of the Council of Europe came in 1967 when a Greek military coup ushered in the Regime of the Colonels.…
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…