United Nations (UN)

Children workers who come from Burkina Faso carry sacks of cocoa to a truck June 28, 2001 in Petit Tieme, Ivory Coast.

Nestlé & Cargill v. Doe Series: The Prohibitions on Slavery, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking Meet the Sosa Test

[Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the consolidated cases of Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe I and Cargill Inc. v. Doe I, which was argued before…

Nov. 23, 2020 Oona A. Hathaway, Christopher Ewell and 3 more

A young boy walks in front of a grafittied wall spelling out the symptoms of and ways to avoid Coronavirus in Mathare informal settlement on July 10, 2020 in Nairobi, Kenya.

COVID-19 and International Law Series: Human Rights Law – Right to Life

[Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series, COVID and International Law. All articles in the series can be found here.] COVID-19 continues to grow at…

Nov. 18, 2020 Oona A. Hathaway, Preston Lim and 1 more

A RIM-7 NATO Sea Sparrow Missile (NSSM) is fired from the forward launcher aboard Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) during a live-fire exercise.

Revisiting the Office of Legal Counsel’s Override Opinion

A critical analysis of 1989 OLC Opinion that would allow President to use force in violation of UN Charter and without Congressional support.

Nov. 17, 2020 Brian Finucane

Staff in masks wearing PPE prepare food aid rations to be henceforth delivered to refugee family homes rather than distributed at a UN a center, in Gaza City.

National Security This Week at the United Nations (Nov 6-Nov 13)

U.N. congratulates President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris Top United Nations (U.N.) officials sent their congratulations to President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect…

Nov. 13, 2020 Tim Hirschel-Burns

A picture taken on October 16, 2020 shows a destroyed tank in the city of Jabrayil, where Azeri forces regained control during the fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict and the Exercise of “Self-Defense” to Recover Occupied Land

The fighting raised a fundamental but surprisingly overlooked question of international law on the use of force.

Nov. 10, 2020 Tom Ruys and Felipe Rodríguez Silvestre

Suzan Aref, founder and director of Women Empowerment Organization in Iraq discusses a national report on implementation of the country’s first national action plan on women, peace and security, pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325, at the United Nations in January 2019.

UN Resolution on Women, Peace, and Security Stumbles in Iraq When It’s Needed Most

Civil society fights hard to be heard above the din of war, displacement, political dysfunction and the ebbs and flows of international aid.

Oct. 31, 2020 Viola Gienger

Veronika Tsepkalo, the wife of opposition figure Valery Tsepkalo, who was barred from running for presidency, presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Maria Kolesnikova, Viktor Babaryko's campaign chief, pose during a press conference in Minsk on July 17, 2020.

The Women, Peace and Security Agenda at 20: Setbacks, Progress, and the Way Forward

Two decades after the landmark UN resolution, the rise of authoritarianism and extreme rightist ideologies have generated backlash against gender equality and the idea of involving…

Oct. 30, 2020 Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Kathleen Kuehnast

Members of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces stand guard as Iraqis flee the Old City of Mosul on July 3, 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters.

The Necessity of Enforcing Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in the Context of Counterterrorism

International legal norms risk marginalization in the rush to embrace ill-defined counterterrorism standards in multiple settings.

Oct. 29, 2020 Fionnuala Ní Aoláin KC (Hons)

Argentinean Activist Chiarra Sacchi speaks during a press conference where 16 children from across the world, present their official human rights complaint on the climate crisis to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child at the UNICEF Building on September 23, 2019 in New York City.

Intergenerational Co-Leadership for Global Governance Innovation

This generation is ready to move beyond street protests and play an active role in politics and governance. Thinking about youth only as the future has hindered us from recognizing…

Oct. 24, 2020 Aya Chebbi

Secretary-General António Guterres and Volkan Bozkir, President of the seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly, attends the screening of a pre-recorded concert. 22 October 2020. New York, United States of America.

National Security at the United Nations This Week (Oct. 16 – 23)

UNSMIL hails ceasefire in Libya On Friday, the parties to the nine-year Libyan war agreed to a ceasefire in Geneva. The head of the U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Stephanie…

Oct. 23, 2020 Lyes Jalali

A Myanmar soldier guards an area at the Sittwe airport as British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt arrives in Sittwe, Rakhine state, on September 20, 2018.

We Cannot Condone the Myanmar Government’s Lies with Silence

The façade that the Myanmar government is trying to keep up is finally starting to erode, as two Myanmar Army soldiers confess to their involvement in massacres, rape, and other…

Oct. 21, 2020 Kerry Kennedy and Angelita Baeyens

A delegate wears her mask as she casts her vote during the General Assembly election of members to the Human Rights Council. The 16th plenary meeting October 13, 2020

National Security at the United Nations This Week (Oct. 9 – 16)

Russia and China elected to UN Human Rights Council; Saudi Arabia loses out The United Nations (U.N.) Human Rights Council held secret ballot elections to fill 15 vacant seats…

Oct. 16, 2020 Tim Hirschel-Burns