Human Rights
874 Articles

Trump Administration Notches a Serious Human Rights Win. No, really.
In meetings I’ve had over the past year with the well-meaning and generally beleaguered Trump administration officials responsible for aspects of the government’s human rights…

Counter-Terrorism and Crackdowns on Civil Society
As countries around the globe contend with the threat of terrorism, the challenges to civil liberties and civil society have never been greater. Acknowledging the threat posed…

International Criminal Court Indictments of U.S. Officials Are not Impossible
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s long-expected request to open an investigation of U.S. armed forces and the CIA for crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan…

Alseran v MOD and the Legal Risks in Treating All Captives as Prisoners of War
British and American troops with Iraqi captives in March 2003. (UK MOD) Last month, the English High Court delivered its judgment in favour of the claimants in Alseran and Others…

By Weakening Arms Export Controls, Trump’s National Security Strategy Will Create National and Global Insecurity
Saudi Special Forces attend a military show January 15, 2005 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (Abid Katib/Getty Images) The Trump Administration’s newly launched National Security Strategy…

The Truth About Rendition and Torture: An Inquiry in North Carolina
A Casa 235 turboprop plane with registration number N168D at Ruzyne Airport April 8, 2005 in Prague, Czech Republic. According to airport flight records the plane was registered…

The Problem With Western Suggestions of a “Shoot-to-Kill” Policy Against Foreign Fighters
An Iraqi policeman fires a machine gun at ISIS fighters in Mosul, Iraq. Image: Carl Court/Getty As ISIS’ self-proclaimed caliphate disintegrates in Iraq and Syria, Western governments…

Episode 49 of the National Security Law Podcast: Interrogation, Detention, Prosecution, and Targeting
In this week’s episode, Bobby Chesney and I pick up the thread on a handful of familiar issues, and introduce a few new ones as well. Interrogation: The topic is a blend,…

How to Fix the US Military’s Broken Targeting System
The recent groundbreaking investigation by the New York Times into civilian casualties in Iraq uncovered a shocking truth for the many Americans who believe the United States is…

Corporate Criminal Accountability for International Crimes
Above: Flickr/The International Criminal Court Ed. note. This post is the latest in our series on the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case Jesner. v. Arab Bank, a case with implications…

The Long Arm of Justice: Ratko Mladić’s Conviction Should Keep Perpetrators of Atrocities Awake at Night
Today Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb General, was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide, crimes against humanity…

Extreme Vetting by Algorithm
Last week, a group of machine learning and data mining experts wrote to the acting secretary of DHS urging her to reconsider an automated Extreme Vetting Initiative being proposed…