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The Chair of Afghanistan's independent human rights commission, Sima Samar, hands Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, a document while United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, stands beside them witnessing the event. A flag stands behind them.

The Failure of Transitional Justice in Afghanistan: Impunity Turned Into Law

How the international community and domestic power brokers undermined an initiative and sowed another seed of the ultimate collapse.

Early Edition: September 16, 2021

Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. A curated guide to major national security news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news. AUKUS…
A Taliban fighter leaves a building inside an US army camp at the airport in Kabul on September 14, 2021.

Restraint and Values in American Strategy

The necessary post-Afghanistan debate is heating up, and it should be informed by history’s lessons and enduring American values.
Norng Chan Phal, who survived internment at the Tuol Sleng prison known as S-21 as a child, looks at skulls displayed at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh on September 2, 2020.

As the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Treaty Moves Forward, a View on How It Relates to the Rome Statute for the ICC

Crimes against humanity is the only international crime not governed by its own treaty. It's time to formally recognize such heinous conduct.

Early Edition: September 15, 2021

Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. A curated guide to major national security news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news. NORTH…
Side by side images of the speakers from the event “Roads Not Taken – Reflections on the 9/11 Anniversary” hosted by Just Security and the Knight First Amendment Institute. Jameel Jaffer, Elisa Massimino, Anthony D. Romero, Kenneth Roth, and Linda Sarsour.

Video: Roads Not Taken – Reflections on the 9/11 Anniversary

Assessing the Work and Impact of U.S. Human Rights Organizations Since the 9/11 Attacks
Demonstrators, including Reverend Jesse Jackson, rally in protest calling on US President Barack Obama to end the "War on Drugs." They carry a banner reading, “Day of Direct Action; President Obama and the Nations…End the War on Drugs and Mass incarceration; Invest in America’s ‘Dark Ghettos’”

With America Out of a Major Foreign War, Time to End One at Home

Many of the tragedies and sins associated with failure in the war in Afghanistan could equally apply to the "war on drugs.”
Representatives sit at long desks for the United Nations General Assembly Seventy-first session, 57th plenary meeting.

How the UN General Assembly Can Respond to Atrocity Crimes at Its 76th Session

It has played a significant role in preventing and responding to atrocities in the past - it should take five priority actions now.

Early Edition: September 14, 2021

Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. A curated guide to major national security news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news. U.S.…
Afghan residents and family members of the victims gather next to a damaged vehicle inside a house, day after a US drone airstrike in Kabul on August 30, 2021.

Questions to Investigate U.S. Drone Strike in Kabul: An Alleged Killing of 10 Civilians

We drafted dozens of specific questions for Congress, reporters, and investigators to ask.
A view of the room where the session is held at International Court Of Justice on January 23, 2020 in The Hague, Netherlands. The judges sit in a room at the front of the room. People fill the rest of the seats in the room.

Towards a New Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity: Next Steps

Such a convention could dispel the notion that only genocide deserves international sanction and attention.
Michael Ratner, a US Military Defence Lawyer and one of the counsel in the US Supreme Court, listens during a press conference concerning the situation of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in London, 24 March 2004.

The Humanity of Michael Ratner, The Fabrications of Samuel Moyn

Joseph Margulies and Baher Azmy write to set the record straight.
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