Global

What the work of motherhood reveals about human rights work

To grapple with the contradictions in the human rights movement in a way that nourishes vulnerability and creativity, start by democratizing human rights institutions.

The role of artificial intelligence in predicting human rights violations

AI could be a powerful tool in safeguarding human rights, though the ethical pitfalls must be considered.

To resist populism and autocracy, expand equal access to justice and defend independent justice systems

In the face of attacks on judiciaries, justice systems must deepen their commitment to legal empowerment.

Thailand and equal marriage: An LGBTQIA+ advocacy opportunity for Southeast Asia

Grassroots efforts and international bodies have played a role in Thailand’s landmark approval of same-sex marriage, opening the door for further LGBTQIA+ advocacy ...

The missing ‘Q’ in the constitution-making of Bangladesh

To address the historical oppression of Queer communities, the process of adopting a new constitution in Bangladesh must involve the participation of people of ...

Are Rights of Nature Working? The Impact of the Los Cedros Ruling in Ecuador

The pioneering ruling in Ecuador has laid the groundwork for protecting nonhumans as legal persons. To ensure that more-than-human rights are enforced, the rights ...

In a world of calamity, are human rights still relevant?

Amid ongoing acts of genocide against Palestinians and international attacks, the rights community must examine how rights frameworks and institutions have helped ...

The objectionable pace to peace: What can human rights accountability explain about current atrocities?

At a time of global crisis, human rights supporters must insist upon an approach based on radical care and true accountability.

Community paralegals are building power amid shrinking civic spaces in Southeast Asia

Within challenging political and social contexts, community paralegals are empowering communities, exchanging stories, and building solidarity.

Creating pathways to land and environmental justice in the trickiest places

Grassroots environmental defenders are building a variety of strategic, community-based approaches to environmental justice. Global actors can do more to support ...

The human rights of human resources: Workplace justice in Lebanon

By building change from the ground up, the political economy of human rights in the workplace shows a way out of the impasse in crisis-ridden Lebanon and a possible ...

The key to defending and deepening democracy in Africa lies in combining law and organizing

Community paralegals in Africa are demonstrating how to build local democracy and empower communities.

Fighting the playbook of repression with the playbook of justice

Grassroots justice workers around the world are strategizing how to not only defend but deepen democratic governance.

A new human rights education program to promote civic engagement: Human Rights Close to Home

Human rights education and rights-based approaches to learning can help cultivate transformative agency for both teachers and students and contribute to securing ...

Can judges help save the planet? Landmark court decisions on the right to a healthy environment

A new report and database highlight 20 landmark court decisions on the right to a healthy environment, drawing upon cases from all parts of the world.

The weight of time: Accountability challenges in transitional justice settings

Rights practitioners must recognize that the transition from war to peace and democracy may involve nonlinear accountability processes that reject quick fixes.

Blind spots in climate funding: Island colonies go overlooked

While the historic UN Loss and Damage Fund aims to support countries most vulnerable to climate change, it is expected to exclude the several million people living ...

Transitional justice and gender: From narrow beginnings to positive spillover

When transitional justice addresses one kind of gender-related violence, this narrower focus tends to spill over into more gender-attentive policies across the ...

How corporate accountability is reshaping the practice of transitional justice

Victims of human rights abuses and their advocates are using innovative legal methods to hold economic actors accountable for their role in rights violations.

Teaching human rights today

A new online open-access human rights textbook is an opportunity to model true accessibility and to incorporate updated approaches in this complex field.

Human rights against war?

An emerging understanding of human rights critical of imperialist war offers a necessary shift from the role human rights has played in reinforcing militarism.

Federal Democracy: Four pitfalls for human rights

Federalism is rightly viewed as a bulwark of human rights. Yet rights advocates should be aware of its limitations in the protection of marginalized communities ...

Governing assisted reproduction

Countries across the world restrict women who are single or in relationships with other women from accessing assisted reproductive technology, a form of discrimination ...

Expanding beyond the human in public engagement

To transform public consultation practices, we must include the more-than-human world in the community of rights holders.

The burden of climate change on religion and culture

To build a comprehensive picture of climate change’s impacts, legal practitioners must address non-economic loss and damage.

With nation-states retreating, cities can take the lead on human rights

In the face of increasing attacks on human rights globally, cities allow us to reimagine rights at the local level, centering everyday lived realities and participatory ...

“A world where many worlds fit”: Centering claimants’ stories in climate litigation

Communities’ stories about the human rights impacts of climate change can play a crucial role in climate litigation, empowering claimants and providing key insight ...

Human rights live at home: A primer on remedies

Most human rights struggles take place in the domestic realm. More focus is needed on domestic pathways to addressing rights violations and upholding human dignity.

A call to action: The humanitarian crisis in the Sahel is worsening

In the face of multiple crises, civil society organizations are calling on states and the international community to invest in the long-term well-being of the people ...

Reimagining human rights for the Global South

Current human rights frameworks fail to address the problems individuals and communities face worldwide, requiring a system less tethered to a Western-dominated ...

Regenerative activism: reimagining power in the human rights field

To revitalize human rights organizations in the face of external threats, internal work must be done to transform power relations and support activist strength ...

The right to direct budgeting: Using human rights to fund Indigenous self-governance

The growing movement for direct budgeting in Mexico offers Indigenous organizations a model for financial autonomy.

Make or break for Moldova’s democracy: Collaboration needed to protect elections

In the face of the growing threat of disinformation, Moldova must invest in collaborative efforts between the government, civil society, and media to safeguard ...

The slow coup

North Carolina lawmakers have become less transparent and accountable to the public, using their growing power to erode voting rights and pass unpopular legislation.

Populists without popular support

Latin American populists come to power through elections. When they lose popular support, they transform their electoral authoritarianism into outright authoritarianism. ...

Land as a lens for future-facing human rights advocacy

To address the growing concentration of land ownership and resulting rights violations, advocates must work both to increase transparency and to reimagine land ...

Decomposing as a social process

The biological process of decomposition offers useful metaphors and mindsets for those engaged with social change and human rights.

Wildlife conservation as a human right

Animal health is central to human culture and the well-being of the environment. Wildlife conservation policies should reflect the significance of animals to human ...

The business case for human rights? Why financial risk is a dangerous argument

The business case paradigm for human rights emphasizes a profit-based incentive for companies to respect human rights. Rights practitioners should be aware of this ...

“Nothing about us without us”: People on the move interrogate border tech with the Migration and Technology Monitor

People with lived experiences of migration must be at the center of efforts to address the growing impact of border technologies.

Trans rights targeted during the rise of right-wing populism in Argentina

Queerness in check: Right-wing populism undermines LGBTQIA+ rights

Human rights and humanitarianism: The changing ICRC

Amid proliferating violent conflicts, the International Committee of the Red Cross is increasingly drawing on both international humanitarian law and human rights ...

Fighting transphobia in Malaysia: A human rights imperative

Transphobic violence and discriminatory policies toward transgender individuals are widespread in Malaysia. The Malaysian government must take concrete steps to ...

The UN Cybercrime Convention is on pause for now—but its threat to human rights remains

The pause in negotiations on the proposed convention provides an opportunity to narrow its scope and ensure a rights-respecting approach to combating cybercrime.

The role of human rights law in climate obligations

The International Court of Justice’s current deliberations on the scope of climate change obligations should draw on human rights law, including the right to a ...

The criminalization of human rights

A focus on “atrocity crimes” and criminal behavior obscures the need to develop more complex and comprehensive human rights approaches.

Online platforms and biometric surveillance: How the UK government weaponizes safety

The UK government has proposed a series of measures that would weaken legal protections for the right to privacy. Rights groups and industry experts must continue ...

Citizenship laws and transgender subjectivities in new India

Recent legislation in India has introduced new legal and bureaucratic hurdles for transgender people, particularly those facing additional discrimination based ...

The Climate Fund case: The fundamental right to a healthy environment and climate protection in Brazil

The Brazilian Federal Supreme Court has played an increasingly significant role in fighting climate change. In a recent ruling, the court decided that the Brazilian ...

The kind of human rights dialogue we need

A UN consultation on law enforcement’s role in peaceful protests brought together practitioners and human rights defenders. Human rights dialogues can find a model ...

Transforming climate advocacy: Lessons learned from COP28

Human rights language and frameworks underscore the intersectionality of the climate crisis as well as states’ accountability and should be central to climate change ...

Israel’s ecocide is contributing to the forcible displacement of Gazans

Israel’s assault on Gaza is creating widespread environmental destruction, compounding the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the displacement of Palestinians.

Ecocentrism: A refusal to compromise on ecological integrity

The human-centered approach to the climate crisis has long failed both the environment and human communities. It’s time for the international rights community to ...

The end of the beginning: General Assembly recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment

The UN Human Rights Council’s recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a political declaration that paves the way to establishing ...

Manipur atrocities and India’s failure to uphold the UN Convention on Human Rights

The Indian state’s failure to address human rights abuses during the ongoing ethnic conflict in the Manipur region constitutes a violation of protections granted ...

The failures of the UN in the Israel-Palestine conflict

Structural power imbalances in the UN system have prevented it from halting Israel’s ongoing war crimes against Gazans. Individual states and civil society must ...

A cautionary tale for climate negotiators from international child labor law

International child labor laws were largely based on political considerations, ignoring scientific evidence about harm to children. Climate negotiators must prevent ...

The right to a healthy environment joins the pantheon of human rights

The UN General Assembly has recognized the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment with near unanimity.

Three lenses on the human rights of older persons: Age, disability, and vulnerability

To protect the well-being of older persons, the international human rights community must draw on established human rights principles while addressing the unique ...

Migrant news in Chile: Stereotypes and the promotion of restrictive policies

The Chilean media’s stereotypical portrayal of migrants has contributed to their stigmatization and policies that criminalize and discriminate against them. This ...

Powering democracy and protecting rights: Community committees in three countries

To empower people to have agency in their own lives, legal organizations can take practical steps to support local committees in becoming spaces of democratic participation.

Millions of US workers live in poverty: That may be a human rights violation

The UN Special Rapporteur’s report on in-work poverty documents widespread human rights abuses in US workplaces. To address these, lawmakers must protect the economic ...

Freedom of the press during the civil war in Yemen

Yemen must protect journalistic rights and freedoms through greater transparency, stronger democratic practices, and a commitment to the press’s role in representing ...

The Turkish Republic at 100: Limited room for human rights through shifting paradigms

For democracy, secularism, and equality to prevail in Turkey over the next hundred years, civil society must advocate for human rights for all.

Climate candor: Ridding climate cases of questionable science

Just as flawed forensic evidence strips the innocent of fundamental rights, aiming for the political—rather than scientific—target of 1.5°C will deprive billions ...

Human Rights at 75: The End of Endism

With the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 75th anniversary, scholars and advocates should move past debates about the end of human rights and renew their ...

Why disability inclusion matters

Human rights advocates should embed a disability perspective in all rights issues, cultivate the leadership of people with disabilities, and address ableism, including ...

Gender justice: A prerequisite for mitigating the impacts of climate crises in Africa

To address the unique and disproportionate impact of climate change on womn, funders must prioritize gender justice and womn-led climate change work.

Should “the right to party” be a human right?

Nightlife serves a crucial social and economic function in German culture, and the government should prioritize the continued thriving of nightclubs during times ...

Transforming global aid architecture to leave no one behind

To drive urgent progress on Sustainable Development Goals, states must prioritize civil society recommendations for effective development finance.

Human rights due diligence in sovereign debt restructurings

While human rights law obligates creditors to consider human rights in debt negotiations, private lenders have failed to respect these rights in debt restructurings.

Seeing climate justice through a multispecies lens

Real climate justice must include formalized protections for non-human animals, an extension of informal practices already undertaken by people in fire-affected ...

Climate justice, health, and sexual and reproductive rights

To ensure a social justice focus in climate mitigation efforts, policy makers must recognize how structural inequality increases women and girls’ vulnerability ...

Changes in national human rights systems: The NHRI–NMIRF dynamic

With the proliferation of national government structures that report to human rights bodies, the complementary role of independent rights monitoring institutions ...

Gender matters: A plea to National Human Rights Institutions worldwide

To address social harm across institutions, National Human Rights Institutions must attend to the gendered dynamics that shape everyday violence and structural ...

Shaming campaigns as a human rights tool

Shaming human rights abusers is an effective advocacy method, but it must be used preventatively.

Neurorights: Between ethics and law

As neurotechnologies rapidly develop, scholarship on the relationship between ethics and law can help advance the debate on neurorights.

Now is the time to challenge harmful austerity in the Euro-Mediterranean region

The upcoming annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank mark a crucial opportunity to center regional civil society voices on the human rights impact of austerity ...

The neocolonial violence of the 1.5°C threshold

Temperature targets set by Global North actors would reinforce the legacy of colonial harms and vulnerability in an era of climate emergency.

Replacing the 1.5°C target with what science demands: The 350 ppm limit

To protect human rights, global leaders must heed the scientific community’s call to return atmospheric CO2 to below 350 ppm as soon as possible.

Anti-green authoritarianism: Democratic backsliding on a heating planet

To develop strategies to protect human rights, advocates must understand and target the relationship between authoritarianism and anti-environmental policies.

“Catalyzing rights”: Identifying progress in moments of crisis

Tracking human rights advancements during crises can provide a starting point for transformative rights–based change.

The Maastricht Principles: Safeguarding the human rights of future generations

The Maastricht Principles represent a crucial step in defending the environment and securing the human rights of future generations.

Digital agriculture: A new frontier for data rights

Human rights–based governance frameworks are urgently needed to prevent data-driven exploitation, which will worsen inequalities in food and agriculture.

Overturning 1.5°C: Give science a chance

With the success of efforts to secure climate-based rights internationally, now is the time to push for the most up-to-date scientific evidence to inform climate ...

Justice for animals and expanding our communities

An animal justice approach that respects all life while recognizing significant differences could transform humans’ relationship with nature.

The radical implications of justice for animals

A consensus on animal justice may already be achievable, but it should aim to include not only some but all animals.

Compliance with UN treaty body decisions: A glass one-third full or two-thirds empty?

Despite accounts of backlash against the international human rights system, research on state compliance shows cause for optimism.

Addressing climate change through the right to an adequate standard of living

Social inequalities will intensify in a climate-affected world. The right to an adequate standard of living can protect those most vulnerable to the impacts of ...

How to grapple with undue funder influence: Recommendations from a workshop (Part II)

At Rightscon 2023, practitioners provided recommendations for mitigating the negative influence of funders on nonprofits.

Unpacking funder influence over digital rights nonprofits: Reflections from a workshop (Part I)

At Rightscon 2023, practitioners discussed the complex role of autonomy, dependence, and accountability in funder–grantee relationships. In this first part, we ...

Moving forward with pragmatism, raising an ideal

Legislative and judicial developments in favor of animals in Latin America have been fragmented, but there have been notable and pragmatic advances.

Indonesia’s reparations program: Hope for justice or hollow promise?

To redress its history of human rights violations, the Indonesian government needs to hold responsible actors to account, including those still in power.

Funding truth and transparency: Ukraine's postwar media landscape

A transparent, democratic recovery effort in Ukraine will require adequate and coordinated funding for the independent media sector.

Democratizing justice in an era of populist ascent

When autocrats undermine justice systems, democratizing the courts can help build back trust.

The right to strive in a changing world

A philosopher prioritizes agency and Anthropocene concerns in a theory of animal justice.

Russia’s appropriation of human rights

Drawing on transnational far-right strategies, Russia is using the language of rights to pursue a nationalist, anti-democratic agenda.

Weaponizing internet shutdowns to evade accountability for rights violations

Internet shutdowns are used to quash dissent and conceal abuses. The rights community should combat this authoritarian tactic.

Human rights gateway or gatekeeper: Digital IDs on trial in Uganda

A legal challenge to Uganda’s national digital ID system may set an important precedent for human rights enforcement in the era of digital government.

Justice for Animals: A theory in search of moral principles

To respect all animals’ diverse ways of flourishing, we need a consistent set of moral principles that hold up across practical scenarios.

Rethinking campaigns on human rights defenders

Focusing only on defenders’ physical integrity risks undermining the very idea of supporting agents of human rights change.

Human rights are still in demand

After collecting and analyzing recent search data from 109 countries in five different language groups, we found little to no evidence that people are becoming ...

Hereditary monarchies are the antithesis of a human rights culture

Monarchs hold sway over 43 states worldwide; the UK should take the lead in dismantling this archaic system of unaccountable power.

When human rights turned into an AI-driven game of lottery

The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence is fueling a probabilistic turn that shifts the focus from past to future, from individual to group behavior, ...

Archives and the fight against impunity

Archives can be—and often are—instrumental in the fight against impunity.

Mutual aid sustains human rights movements around the world

In both Latin America and in North America mutual aid movements swelled in response to the collective trauma and collective learning of the pandemic.

Episode 3: A Brazilian judge’s bold attempts to defend democracy

Guest: Conrado Hubner

Appropriating rights: Who rewrites rights and how?

Instead of blunt rejection, the global new Right is pursuing a project of so-called rights renewal.

From LGBTQIA+ to SOGIESC: Reframing sexuality, gender, and human rights

The proposed abbreviation is more accurate, more inclusive, and ultimately more universal.

'A promise of human freedom': Synergies between the right to freedom of religion or belief and LGBTQI+ rights

The oppression of religious minorities often goes hand in hand with discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Rejecting the colonial legacy of discriminatory laws

States around the world should repeal discriminatory and archaic laws that reproduce historical inequalities and patterns of oppression.

Regulation of generative AI must protect freedom of expression

Any attempts to regulate the content produced by generative AI run the risk of restricting protected expression.

No easy answers to the ChatGPT regulatory puzzle

Any legal framework aiming to corral generative AI systems, including frameworks grounded on protecting human rights, will need to reckon with technological nuances.

Borders and AI: Human rights–enhancing legal technologies

AI does have the capacity to be used to help asylum seekers and other people on the move, despite its current uses.

Queer Eye for AI: Risks and limitations of artificial intelligence for the sexual and gender diverse community

The risks of AI-powered oppression of sexual and gender diversity are already here.

ChatGPT: What’s left of the human in human rights?

This new series examines the potential effects of AI in the human rights field.

In defense of the social right to property

It is now more urgent than ever to redefine the contours of property and its social function in light of economic and social rights.

Climate colonialism: Is it time to rethink alternatives?

The uneven effects of climate change can be traced back to colonial legacies that still linger in mitigation and adaptation actions.

Decolonizing the narrative around constitutions, personal laws, and women’s rights

Many constitutions contain what are known as “clawback clauses,” which exempt personal law from their guarantees of nondiscrimination.

Uyghurs stuck in the US asylum system have no time to lose

As of March 2023, delays in most Uyghur cases across the asylum system are due to court date scheduling.

Indigenous human rights claims outline promising new ways of life

The West ultimately needs to be more reflective about how we live our lives in a very ordinary, everyday sense.

Toward multiplanetary existence? The human rights obligations of corporations on Mars

The possibility of multiplanetary existence raises fascinating questions about the universality of the human rights framework.

Misappropriating human rights: Examining Turkey

Turkey shares important similarities with global trends with respect to human rights appropriation practices at the expense of women’s and LGBTQI+ rights.

Cuckoos, chameleons, and Indian citizenship

The Indian government uses strategies to disguise its authoritarian nationalist actions through constitutional rights.

What would a new Cold War between China and the US mean for human rights?

The Chinese government’s impact on the international human rights regime is not well documented and a recommitment from the US to human rights is not fully clear ...

Leaving the “Goldilocks Zone”: Will human rights survive climate change?

Recent years have seen backsliding on our common, global commitment to human rights, and climate change threatens to further erode that support.

Education against antisemitism within a human rights framework

An initiative to foster a campus environment in which no one, Jewish or not, has to be afraid of being different required a human rights mindset.

40,000 people arbitrarily deprived of their nationality in Colombia

Arbitrary cancellation of nationality has serious sociolegal effects that are being documented in Colombia.

A UN review shows the limits of China’s loud microphone communications strategy

As the Chinese government seeks “center stage,” its compliance with its human rights obligations should be there as well.

Human rights: Ideology, illusion, source of hope?

There is no reason whatsoever that can be derived from the theories of evolution and human psychology that undermines the case for human rights.

Episode 2: Challenges to international accountability in Ukraine

Guest: Pablo De Greiff

Racial hatred on the rise in Tunisia: What is the role of digital platforms?

Massive raids and attacks against Black migrants in Tunisia, triggered by a virulent online campaign, recall the urgent need for big tech to scrutinize the human ...

India should criminalize the use of 'virginity tests'

The Supreme Court of India could ban the so-called “virginity tests” in cases of rape and sexual assault.

Venezuela: Flourishing in the abyss

Venezuela's democratic political and social leadership needs to reflect on its strategies to confront authoritarianism, as well as its strengths and weaknesses, ...

To renew the International Criminal Court, look to the regional rights institutions

The ICC can do better by learning from regional human rights institutions.

A seat at the table: Shifting narratives on human rights defenders at the United Nations

Stories told at the UN about human rights defenders have a major impact on how they are perceived and supported on the ground.

Seizing the moment to shake up philanthropy

Five trends that are reorganizing the way funding agencies can work for philanthropic causes.

Forensic aesthetics and Aleksandar Hemon’s The Lazarus Project

New links between literature and human rights open the door to understand evidence and new ways of narrating.

The trivialization of human rights

Virtual activism makes some human rights causes visible but reduces engagement on the street.

Exploring narrative practices for broad-based movements in contexts of democratic decline

The narratives we engage & deploy shape our world. In the face of rising authoritarianism, what stories & tactics drive collaboration within & between movements?

The climate emergency at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

The Inter-American Court will likely be the first regional human rights tribunal to develop an advisory opinion on the climate emergency, prompting normative effects ...

When the Ferguson uprising came to Geneva

A shadow report presented to the Committee Against Torture brought police brutality in the US to an international human rights scenario.

Exploring the scope of ecofeminism in the biodiversity-climate nexus

The need to include ecofeminism in climate and biodiversity discussions is now more crucial than ever.

Backlash against individual access to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

Rwanda’s case illustrates the risks of withdrawing from regional human rights bodies.

Solidarity, not charity

How #LeaveNoOneBehind advocated a reconfiguration of pro-migrant solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic and what we can all learn from it as we face current and ...

Activists face police surveillance outside protest settings in Minnesota

Protesters of African descent, victims of police brutality, and their families need accountability and healing to find justice.

When human rights go backwards: four lessons

What can we learn from the setbacks suffered by human rights?

The (mis)appropriation of human rights

Some human rights discourses have been appropriated by actors who go against human rights principles.

What is true academic solidarity?

Academic freedom is being attacked around the world—how can we create solidarity networks against such attacks?

The flawed case against more-than-human rights

Steps have been taken to widen the scope of the “human” part of human rights—and to rethink the way those more-than-human entities also impact human rights.

Small Data for sustainability: AI ethics and the environment

Moving away from the currently prevalent Big Data mindset towards a Small Data approach would help improve the sustainability of AI systems and would additionally ...

Backsliding on children’s participation rights within a protection discourse

Victimhood can easily disempower children and silence their voices as well as their claims to human rights, particularly their participation rights.

Gendered juvenile detention in the Philippines

In Duterte’s war on drugs, women victims have been largely invisible.

The Human Rights Council’s failure to protect Uyghurs in China—for now

It seemed that economic and political concerns drove several countries to vote against a resolution to discuss the human rights for Uyghurs in China.

Deprivation of liberty: when is it acceptable?

A new Advisory Opinion of the IACtHR underscores the penalties that deprive pregnant women, caregivers, elderly and Indigenous persons of their liberty.

Participatory baseline water study improves scientific data and strengthens community power

An interdisciplinary research team conducted the first community-owned baseline study on water in an area included in a mining permit in northern Haiti.

Promoting women’s rights: Introducing the Women’s Rights Recommendation Compliance Explorer

A new tool helps people track recommendations and compliance about women’s rights in Europe.

Hollow rights victories? Dutch struggles against digital injustice

Algorithms calculating the probability of fraud were overwhelmingly and wrongly targeting immigrant groups.

Episode 1: A historic climate win at the UN Human Rights Committee

Guest: Hélène Tigroudja

So much about your sustainability, my people are dying

Recipe for better communication of the rights of women and girls

A hope-based communications approach to women and girls’ rights can move the narrative beyond problems and challenges and focus on solutions and inspiration.

Human rights in the post-truth era

As attacks on truth and facts multiply, can activists be falling into the traps of post-truth? Evolutions in activism, communications and politics, as well as in ...

Natural resources and the prospects for gender-just sustainable peace

To build gender-just sustainable peace, post-war states must make deep changes to address extractivism and inequality.

Land grabs in Haiti are on the rise, while mining poses another threat

Between 2006 and 2013, the Haitian government granted more than 50 mining permits to three U.S. and Canadian companies to explore land occupied by dozens of communities ...

Grassroots justice organizations are deploying research to stem the tide of injustice

Legal empowerment has the potential to improve our ability to counter threats to human rights.

Caring workspaces for human rights

Defending human rights workers’ working conditions based on an ethic of care is one of the best ways to foster resilience and well-being.

Transforming the climate crisis into opportunity: A step towards gender equality

There is a substantial need to bring marginalized voices into our climate change responses and rebuild eco-feminist archives, as that will impact not only our society ...

Biodignity: Rethinking life and respect in the Anthropocene

Human dignity, when it asserts humanity’s moral primacy in the world, or when it over-values human reason, is symptomatic of humanity’s self-destructive and dominating ...

More than human rights: What can we learn from trees, animals, and fungi?

Changing the focus from a human-centric approach to human rights will help the movement advance on environmental agendas with an inter-species recognition.

People’s participation in high-level decision-making spaces on regional migration

Despite long-standing obstacles, Latin American and Caribbean local and national migrant- and diaspora-led associations and organizations have involved themselves ...

Children’s right to climate justice

The landmark case of 2019 where sixteen children and young people from twelve different countries opened the door to think about guaranteeing rights now and in ...

Countering the impact of discrimination against pregnant women exposed to high temperatures with human rights

Poor pregnancy outcomes due to hot temperatures include stillbirth and preterm birth before the completion of 37 weeks of pregnancy.

“I had an abortion thanks to a video on TikTok”: digital activism and social change

Social networks can help social change in unexpected ways.

Fragility, climate change, and the uncertain lives of agro-pastoralist women and girls in East Africa

Alongside political and social pressures that agro-pastoralist women and girls face, they must add an urgent one: climate change.

The gold standard of the Lima Programme

What’s next for the Lima Programme, a two-year work program created during COP20 to advance gender-responsive climate policies.

Women, Climate, Insecurity

This series highlights feminist approaches to understanding climate change's impact on women, as well as women's role in addressing those impacts.

Custody laws in Jordan maintain a sexist status quo

Despite important strides made by social movements advocating for women’s rights and led by Arab women, there is still a long way to go to combat gender discrimination.

Lessons from the pandemic: Building a movement for global public investment

There is a window of opportunity to move toward a model of financing based on Global Public Investment (GPI) to advance health and other social rights.

Revitalizing the UN human rights treaty bodies through regionalization

Five reasons why the proposal to regionalize treaty body meetings would work.

The transformative potential of human rights economics

Human rights advocates could be more active in using human rights tools to transform economic thought and practice.

AI and autonomous weapons arms transfers

A lack of consensus among states regarding the regulation of AI weapons is an opportunity for rights groups to use international human rights law to push for clear ...

Can action coalitions advance the gender equality agenda?

The Kenyan government has illustrated the critical role of Action Coalitions as the co-lead of the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence.

The 1968 United Nations debate on human rights and tech

The nexus between human rights and tech is more foundational to the evolution of the international human rights legal project than we normally think.

How can international human rights law protect those who identify as non-binary?

The term “non-binary” has entered some UN reports and media, but there is still a lack of recognition of this identity in human rights law.

Funding and the digital rights nonprofit space. Experiences and recommendations (Part II)

Nonprofits have to balance securing funds and staying true to their mission. How can we foster autonomy among organizations?

National Human Rights Action Plans: setting the record straight

New research unearths comprehensive data on the global diffusion of national human rights action plans since the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights.

At the UN, states and anti-rights actors join forces to push back against gender justice

At the latest Human Rights Council session, anti-rights language started making its way into some resolutions under discussion.

Land grabs in Haiti sow climate vulnerability and violence against women

Land grabs in Haiti cause women to further suffer violations of environmental and women’s rights and exacerbate climate vulnerability.

How do funders shape the digital rights agenda? Notes from the field (Part I)

Nonprofits’ autonomy from their funders is particularly important in the digital rights space.

India’s Supreme Court rules to protect sex workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic

In a historic rule, the Supreme Court of India aimed to protect the constitutional rights of sex workers in the country.

Lessons and consequences of the failure to regulate AI for women’s human rights

The current absence of adequate regulation by states to protect human rights from the deployment of AI systems is, in itself, a violation of human rights.

Rethinking the accountability of funders

Funders must rethink their principles and practices to ensure that they operate on participation, trust, and mutual understanding instead of power and privilege.

A word of advice to the next High Commissioner for Human Rights: engage with UN human rights experts

Michelle Bachelet will not seek a second term as High Commissioner for Human Rights, kicking off a race to find a suitable replacement.

Addressing the climate crisis: how Pacific youth voices can change climate governance

The continual failure of governments to adequately address the climate crisis constitutes a violation of children’s rights and Pacific youth know this better than ...

Egalité? Not in France’s refugee policy

For a country whose founding universalist principles are imbued with humanitarian rhetoric, it’s astounding how egregiously égalité has been violated.

Lessons for the rights movement in constructing a collective reality

Respect for human rights should be founded on recognizing and honoring differences.

Putting people and the planet at the helm of transformative climate action

For many Global South activists and communities, the pledges and actions agreed upon at COP26 were too late, inadequate, and exclusive.

A tech accountability campaigner's guide to genuine change

In constructing new paradigms, our visioning should not be limited to our definition of the problem.

A collaborative and creative step to address overly broad NDAs

Michael Kleinman of Amnesty International USA reflects on the urgency of taking action against non-disclosure agreements.

Narrative practice: moving from recipes to spices

The invitation at the heart of "Narrative Spices" isn’t about specific strategies or approaches, but about cultivating habits that enable curiosity, exploration, ...

Can commercialized healthcare systems help us adapt to the climate crisis?

The Paris Agreement calls on states to consider their human rights obligations in climate adaptation.

An election successfully completed—but at what price?

While the unveiling of Somalia's president helps reduce the risk of conflict, the hosting of another ‘election’ on a discriminatory basis is far from ideal.

Work fully, playfully

If work life balance needs to be thrown out the window, what’s the sturdier, more supportive and humane alternative?

Private law is no longer working to protect communities from toxic floodwaters

Contractual arrangements, insurance, and tort law, all private law tools, fail to address the awful threat of hazardous substance leaks because they are unable ...

Rights at risk: Russia’s withdrawal from the ECtHR

The stakes of Russia’s withdrawal are exceedingly high—for past and present victims and for the Court itself.

Why we’re asking the ultra-wealthy to give billions to feminist movements

At the center of almost every social justice movement are cis- and trans- women and girls, and non-binary folks of color leading the charge.

Stealth privatization: Kenya’s approach to universal health coverage is a private sector giveaway

Exclusive new data shows skyrocketing public expenditure on private health facilities in Kenya.

What it takes to bridge the divide between the business sector and human rights

If we want to constructively engage companies, business associations or investors on human rights issues, we must recognize who our interlocutor is.

Why business might thwart the UK government’s Rwanda asylum export plan

Although the plan was initiated by the government, it seems likely that private enterprises will be asked to play a significant role at all stages of the process.

Private equity and children’s care homes: a socially responsible investment?

The operation of care facilities for vulnerable children by private-equity backed companies poses threats to human rights.

Science and pandemic: an epistemology for human rights

The prevailing approach to understanding the pandemic overlooks the fact that the pandemic is a complex phenomenon, in which the social and political play as important ...

The right to health in the Global South: between epidemiology and the pharmaceutical industry

Despite Big Pharma's decisive role in the transformation of the right to health, it continues to play a secondary role in the literature.

Addressing the threat that mines pose to civilians in Ukraine

While it is imperative that parties to the conflict must stop using landmines, we are also faced with the question of how to respond when they do not.

Child migrants are children first

As a matter of human rights, our policies must consider child migrants by their status of child before their status of migrant or litigant.

The injustice of the death penalty for drug offenses

Is justice really ‘just’ when it puts to death the vulnerable and the powerless?

Radical uncertainty and human rights

We would do better to deepen our understanding of human rights as a kind of reference narrative that can help to guide decision-making in the face of radical uncertainty.

Vaccine inequity deepens structural racial discrimination

Institutional failures enabling global COVID inequity can also deepen structural discrimination.

The (science) fiction of human rights

How a particular kind of science fiction resonates with a wide audience and can enrich human rights thinking and practice

Moving towards a new history of social rights

A deeper history of social rights can help us identify the factors that have impeded the human rights project.

How can we protect journalists in times of crisis?

This data column examines the threats to journalists worldwide.

A language of no importance: the consequences of neglecting marginalized languages in the digital world

Most major platforms and services are still only available or functional in a small number of geopolitically dominant languages.

Justice for Miskito divers: a turning point for business and human rights standards from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

For the first time in its history, the Court explicitly stipulates clear business and human rights standards to be met by states and companies.

The case for shadow boards in human rights organizations

The human rights movement needs new ways of working which may even sound a little far-fetched.

Why current events in Ukraine (should) raise questions about refugees in Greece

The current expressions of solidarity by various European countries towards refugees from Ukraine should reignite the discourse about Europe’s response to refugees ...

Has the local watchdog lost its teeth?

Across the globe, the transition to digital media is disrupting media ecosystems, creating news deserts where local communities can no longer access information ...

IMF and human rights through art

The video documentary series on "IMF and Human Rights" and the podcast "Promise is Debt" are political and cultural tools to limit the control of finance over our ...

Human rights and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: an alternative proposal

Putin’s aggression requires a human rights strategy that accounts for existing power relationships, and attempts to steer the balance in the direction of peace.

Centering gender in the housing crisis

The women’s movement is yet to center the specific concerns of poor and unhoused women.

The need for community-based ancestral technologies for socio-environmental defense work

We must seek technologies from the ancestral past of native peoples and connect them with the knowledge from the urban peripheries.

Reflections on Paul Farmer’s legacy: a clarion call for transformative human rights praxis in global health

"Paul treated each individual as if they contained the whole world within them."

The Human Rights Council takes a crucial step forward on climate change

The new Special Rapporteur on climate change should avoid the “blah, blah, blah” that has characterized far too much discussion.

Gender-based violence and the climate crisis: an obstacle to climate-resilient communities

Risk factors for GBV, such as stress and trauma, increase dramatically after natural disasters or prolonged climate stress scenarios.

Why online discrimination against women should concern us all

Defenders of women’s rights should look for solutions that address the root causes of online discrimination and work to change them at the societal level.

Plato's Cave has an exit: Using data to illuminate human rights

A data-centered approach is fundamental in understanding our institutions and designing more effective strategies.

Why the “Global South” matters in young people’s right to a healthy environment

If transformation towards global sustainability is to happen, we need to value the work of young climate advocates, and help make it visible.

Rethinking trans people’s right to self-perceived gender identity and gender expression in India

The reluctance to appreciate gender fluidity precludes people from maintaining a self-perceived identity.

A case against U.S. liberal internationalism nostalgia

A new book revisits ATS litigation, suggesting that the retreat of the U.S. judicial system from its commitment to international human rights has positive implications.

Pushing back against the normalization of COVID-19–related state of emergency restrictive measures

It is time for governments to rescind repressive measures and laws, and to ensure the inclusion of civil society actors in response to pandemic recovery efforts.

How Kazakhstan’s control of information can turn into a regime weakness

Network interference and internet shutdowns in the Central-Asian country have become a staple method of stifling the free flow of information during politically ...

Vaccinations and migrant worker lockdowns: COVID-19 and human rights in Singapore

Despite its contributions to the global vaccine effort, Singapore has failed to commit to human rights for its migrant worker population.

Is the current rights framework sufficient to protect the stateless?

Here’s how the existing human rights framework confronts statelessness and the gaps that remain.

How minority languages found an unlikely ally in translation companies

Professional translation companies are becoming an unlikely partner in protecting minority languages for future generations.

When did it become illegal to defend human rights?

In the age of the internet, online human rights activism needs to be supported—and protected—as a vital part of the cybercommunications ecosystem.

Humor and human rights: a joke with no punchline?

Humor was one of the best allies to human rights. Today, as some point to its oppressive uses, it has come under fire.

New Zealand’s failure to meet its human rights promises on health care and protection

A recently published report reveals how the New Zealand government’s performance has allowed its health system to become stagnant.

It is time to make ecocide an international crime

“The time is right to harness the power of international criminal law to protect our global environment.”

Lost in the crisis: legal accountability for SRHR in humanitarian settings

If persons in humanitarian settings are to receive the SRH services they need, governments must be accountable for human rights.

The rise of youth activism in Africa

For Africa to address challenges like climate justice, conflict transformation, and food security, the participation of youth activists will be critical.

Finding more than cynicism after COP26

Reading between the lines of the COP26 decisions, you can find small wins that are the result of the tireless efforts and dedication of the climate justice movement.

This Human Rights Day, the need to affirm the indivisibility of rights has never been greater

As the COVID-19 pandemic approaches the end of its second year, the importance of reaffirming this principle is clear.

The eight-year decade that will determine the fate of the planet and human rights

If slowing climate change is a game, how is it going and what's left to accomplish?

How new uses of conscience-based claims hinder progress on abortion rights

Making sexual and reproductive health services accessible in practice means the limits of invoking conscientious objection must be incisively interrogated.

An interview with practitioners on the front lines of datafication

A conversation with Grace Mutung’u on the growing adoption of digital ID in Kenya and how it is changing people’s relationship with the government.

Supporting the TRIPS COVID-19 waiver is an essential step to support international human rights

A waiver would be a vital step for expediting the scaling up of manufacturing and provision of COVID-19 medical products.

Creating a scenario from the future

This fictional scenario draws on real signals of change to construct a future scenario around the impacts of datafication on the human rights movement.

What a datafied worldview means for human rights

Understanding how datafication affects the rights and interests of people, and power relationships at large, is key for an effective defense of human rights.

How emotion recognition software strengthens dictatorships and threatens democracies

Given that the idea of using emotion recognition technology as a tool of governance is an entirely flawed premise, a ban makes the most sense.

The will and the way: keys for human rights improvement

Neither state capacity nor elite willingness are sufficient on their own to improve compliance with human rights norms.

New Zealand is failing to meet its human rights promises on adequate housing

Identifying where human rights violations are occurring within the right to housing shows the government where change is most urgently needed.

What Chile can learn from South Africa about social rights

The Chilean Constitutional Convention should give careful thought to how to strengthen the relationship between social rights and the right to equality and non-discrimination.

What does the right to a healthy environment mean for wildlife crime?

Understanding RTHE through the lens of wildlife crime is a reminder that tackling crime through a rights-based approach contributes to the fulfilment of human rights.

A discriminatory system killed a transgender man in Egypt

By reforming its own system, Egypt can influence positive changes in other countries in the region and lead the way for accessible legal gender recognition mechanisms.

What’s missing in climate lawsuits of the future?

A human rights-based approach should always ask who is affected and how by certain climate mitigation measures.

Solving the climate crisis together: a message to the delegates at COP26

Restrictions on civil society undermine climate mitigation efforts and impede the collaboration that is so crucial to slowing the climate crisis over the next decade.

Bilingual climate justice trajectories

In this Data Column, we explore and compare the usage of several climate-related terms in English and Spanish to track how they have evolved over time.

Lifting the veil of secrecy on rights abuses caused by Brazil’s mining industry

Mining companies must tackle human rights abuses or risk communities saying no to their operations.

Haitian migration through the Western hemisphere: a racial (in)justice analysis

A transnational racial justice lens is essential to understand recent Haitian migration through the Americas, but also to develop any future policy responses.

Timeful strategies for Indigenous self-determination: lessons from the Purhépecha

How a temporal perspective affects the struggles for Indigenous self-determination

The urgent need for policy coherence to achieve rights-respecting climate action

Legal action should not substitute a holistic approach to green transition.

History shows that UN country-specific Special Procedures are tools for positive change

History has shown that despite strong opposition to Special Procedures, they have been valuable mechanisms for catalyzing positive changes at the local level.

Pandemic Insights

OGR has asked several leaders in the human rights community to share a learning, a reflection, or an insight from these unique times. Read or listen to them here.

Moving fast on climate: the urgent need to tackle short-lived climate pollutants in Latin America and the Caribbean

The human rights framework can buttress the responses needed to address the emergency, providing tools to guarantee human dignity and the right to a healthy environment.

Embracing change for a better civic space

While civic action and space are under relentless pressure worldwide, different dimensions of a more positive future are being built and fought for across the world.

Abolition of the death penalty for drug offences is a mission possible

The death penalty for drug offenses appears to be on the rise.

Tunisian human rights activism in the 1960s: Revolutionaries, intellectuals and prisoners of conscience

One should be cautious when conflating today’s human rights understanding with that of the past when narrating human rights history.

The UN Human Rights Council dithers while Earth Burns

It is essential to translate human rights principles and standards into practicable pragmatic measures that can provide that coherence, legitimacy, and sustainability.

Reimagining civic space for hope

While civic action and civic space are under relentless pressure worldwide, different dimensions of a more positive future are being built and fought for in communities ...

The challenges of sharing the unknown history of the South African constitution

A new online archive and exhibition tells the little-known stories and behind-the-scenes challenges of the country's constitution.

The doughnut approach: how to climatize human rights

If human rights are to remain relevant in the Anthropocene, budding theoretical, doctrinal, and advocacy efforts to address the climate emergency need to be expanded.

Chile’s constitutional moment is an opportunity to enhance social rights

To do justice to such an ambitious goal, the Chilean process should not leave anyone behind. This is a historic occasion to make the case for social rights.

From the domestic to the international: Jamaica’s 1961 human rights policy

How the domestic trends of human rights policy in the Global South can provide a deeper understanding of modern international rights practice

Of time and the practice of human rights in the digital age

Reflecting on the internet as a constitutive site for rights work may allow us to usefully open the internet to a different kind of scrutiny.

Replacing monopolies with impact rewards

Impact funds would make the business of innovation more cost-effective and enable a triple win for the potential beneficiaries of innovations.

More than a united kingdom: how Botswana became a powerful example for human rights in Africa

While some economists and political scientists praise Botswana as a ‘success story’, the country provides more than just a tale of growth and stability.

Personal resources and those of family and friends, not the State, guarantee ESCR in Jalisco

The Mexican State failed in its obligation to guarantee access to human rights for millions because it did not have a sufficient social security infrastructure ...

The moral test of vaccine justice

The forces arrayed against vaccine justice—monopolies, charity, and individualism—stand in the way of a just response to other shared global problems.

Women and the UN: a new history of women’s international human rights

Critical human rights theory has problematized the dominant narrative of European, western male rights.

The vitality of human rights in turbulent times

If attention is directed towards the dynamism of social movements and human rights activism around the world, a different set of views of the cathedral emerges.

How the pandemic affects women’s rights in Uruguay

Under the guise of containing the pandemic, government-sanctioned violations of women’s rights in maternal care may quickly become the norm.

Reflections from a human rights clinic in the midst of Covid-19

Essex’s HRC Clinic had to adapt to a challenging scenario under COVID-19, with physical distancing rules and human interaction exclusively online.

The forgotten Islamic human rights document

It is important to look at the CDHR as a symbolic document rather than a human rights instrument.

Three ways to change our “digital future”

The digital world needs to be shared with and understood by the public in order to define together what our “collective digital rights” are.

Breaking binaries and intergenerational reciprocity

How can we truly value the experiences and perspectives of all generations that are so needed to forge our collective liberation?

How the global human rights community can further push drug policy reform

After a recent study revealed that drug law enforcement often targets poor people and vulnerable groups, the UN Working Group calls for the decriminalization of ...

The ban on the practice of ‘curing queer sexuality’ in India

Although the Mental Health Care Act can be invoked to provide limited protective measures to the LGBTQIA+ community, a separate law is essential to entirely eradicate ...

Who will defend the defenders in Turkey?

In today’s Turkey, lawyers themselves are being targeted—just for practicing their profession in accordance with the law.

More than lack of capacity: active impunity in Mexico

Impunity in Mexico is not accidental, random, or involuntary. Instead, impunity results from a chain of actions taken with the express purpose of undermining investigations.

Particular universals: human rights depend on identity politics

Romanticizing the universal at the expense of local, subjective truths fails to account for how we arrive at global rights in the first place.

Sustaining grassroots activism through COVID-19 and beyond

Here’s what the Fund for Global Human Rights learned from its second COVID-19 impact survey—and how the funding community can better support the crucial work that ...

New regime, new patriarchy: the İstanbul Convention at stake

The withdrawal decision is the most recent step on the part of the ruling circles in their policy practices against gender equality, mostly based on Islamic moralistic ...

The inflated cost of defending human rights

The impact of lockdowns has been costly in more ways than one.

A cautionary lesson from Italy: commercializing healthcare can kill

At the latest G20 Global Health Summit, global health leaders seemed to have forgotten one of the most costly lessons of the pandemic.

A call to the human rights movement for going broader and refining the interdisciplinary tools to push for dignity

Increasing the breadth of actors involved in the common platform of fundamental rights ideals would strengthen the human rights movement’s ability to hold its ground ...

Why the world should follow Scotland’s embrace of a human-rights based approach

The Scottish report stands out for being forward-looking, distinguishing it from piecemeal and reactive approaches found amongst “advanced” democracies and countries ...

Boycotting the Olympic Games is not enough

The history of human rights efforts around the Games is mostly a history of failure.

The urgency of combating stigmatization and criminalization of human rights defenders

We should continue to advocate for imprisoned HRDs whose rights have been most restricted, as well as focus on preventative protection to ensure that their conditions ...

Adapting tech tools for human rights monitoring: lessons from Burundi

Tech tools can provide great opportunities and challenges to document human rights violations, notably in contexts of acute crisis.

We should be teaching for human rights, not teaching about human rights: a response to Agostini

Agostini neither offers a solution to what human rights defenders are supposed to do differently nor does he offer examples of how identity-based movements undermine ...

Rethinking past and future justice

“We should certainly pursue bigger truths and more robust histories, better accounts of the reproduction of injustice, and better remedies for it.”

Risking your life for human rights during a pandemic

Limitations on fundamental freedoms have been purposely and disproportionately used against activists who have refused to put their work on pause.

Social rights constitutionalism in interwar Ireland: for a people’s history

Interwar Ireland offers a rich case-study of popular movements contesting economic and social rights ‘from below.’

What the French Revolution can tell us about the history of social rights

Achieving a consensus on the terms of social obligation in a society based on equality is both complex and extremely important.

Human rights open frontier: resistance and resilience

How much does the experience with humanitarian intervention account for the questioning of human rights, and to what extent is this experience central to cutting ...

Future’s past: in search of human rights histories

A new series explores different approaches to the temporalities of human rights history and how this relates to their past, present, and future

Why internet freedom should be at the top of the global democracy agenda

The internet freedom community is best placed to navigate the balance between cybersecurity and cyber sovereignty, but it needs support from democratic countries ...

Taking climate duties seriously for the protection of the Amazon rainforest: strategic legal choices, science, and human rights

This lawsuit not only builds on undisputed constitutional rights, but also argues for a fundamental right to climate stability.

Sexual violence against males gains interest as an international security threat

Acknowledging men and boys as victims and survivors after decades of neglect and skepticism, proves that the Council is increasingly taking the security implications ...

Memory and human rights from the voices of women in Argentina

On the 45th anniversary of the beginning of the last civic-military dictatorship in Argentina, this project aims to recover the voices of woman that had been previously ...

What do we really talk about when we talk about human rights?

The greatest value of international human rights law has been as a language for people, communities, and social movements to use to demand respect for their human ...

Secrecy, brand vaccines, and non-cooperation in the access to COVID in Latin America

If we add the usual policy of transnational pharmaceutical companies to the usual policy of how developed countries operate, we begin to see why regions like Latin ...

Mobilizing international human rights to challenge coronavirus vaccine apartheid

Beyond the looming humanitarian and moral catastrophe of COVID-19, lie opportunities for mobilizing international human rights law to compel states to take action, ...

Vaccine apartheid: global inequities in Covid-19 vaccine production and distribution

An ‘every-country-for-itself’ approach is irrational and even counterproductive, yet that is exactly what has happened.

Human rights responses against vaccine apartheid

In this OGR Up Close, a series of distinguished authors go beyond denouncing the vaccine apartheid. They advocate solutions that address the current health emergency ...

The excesses of identity-based activism undermine human rights

How an overemphasis on subjectivity and lived experience in activism leads to expanding the scope of restrictions and ultimately threatening universal rights

Against nihilism: transformative human rights praxis for the future of global health

If we recognize that global health has colonial origins, we must also acknowledge that it remains deeply embedded in, and shaped by, interlocking systems of power.

Litigating the future: climate rights before the German Constitutional Court

Human rights analysts and practitioners will recognize in the decision of the German Court an important turn in the evolution of rights.

British U-turn on torture shows how human rights advocacy can work

The UK looked set to undermine the international prohibition against torture, but relentless campaigning and shaming forced a change.

Washing off the Trump Stink: reclaiming human rights in the United States

Once immediate policies have minimized Trump Stink, what are the implications for the US’ long-term identity?

What the IMF and neoliberals can learn from human rights

Human rights have the power and mandate to challenge the orthodox economic policies that the IMF promotes.

Why foresight should be in the DNA of the social change field

An OGR and JustLabs Guide on futures thinking

Critical legal empowerment for human rights

Human rights advocates should become reliable partners to movements led by the communities experiencing grave rights deprivations.

Human rights have lost their monopoly as a framework for reform

"If human rights are in crisis, it is not because of some problem in their normative content."

The urgent need for a new agenda of change in international human rights law

Human rights law needs to evolve in order to meet the challenges and reconceptualized international law and institutions of this moment.

Inaction on ecological contamination finds a market

“We want to live safe lives, and this is how we want to live. We don’t just care for ourselves, we care for the animals.”

European plans to regulate internet will have major impacts on civic space at home and abroad

Without inbuilt protections, the European Union's new law billed as a new constitution for the internet could inadvertently empower governments set on shrinking ...

Human rights principles, treaties and mental health: a case study of Greece

How can human rights inform our understanding of mental health support services?

A step towards justice for Tamils in Sri Lanka?

The UNHRC should explore and employ a wide range of tools and mechanisms to address human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Public procurement as a tool to realize gender equality

We need to collect more and better data and explore how gender equality is engaged at different stages of the procurement cycle.

Welfare caps: how the UK and Serbia became outliers in restricting child support

The limits placed on child benefits in Serbia and the UK have a similarly destructive impact on household incomes and children’s well-being.

Protecting the many left behind: social security policies in Africa

The politicization of social protection provides opportunities to place it more firmly in the public sphere of government responsibilities, but it also poses challenges ...

The long struggle of Turkish women to survive

In the late Ottoman Empire, women organized protests and fought for equality. Now they are fighting to survive in Turkey.

From legal empowerment to citizen empowerment in Chile: advancing human rights through action research in a dynamic context

Advancing human rights via a people-centered approach requires that researchers be sensitive and responsive to inevitable, and often unpredictable, challenges.

Of crystal balls, pandemics, and resilience: why foresight should be in the DNA of the social change field

"Is it not quite odd that for a field dedicated to 'social change,' we often do not engineer change but usually just adapt to it?"

Three challenges for the human rights movement

Rethinking the human rights movement's approach to state-centrism, institutionalism, proceduralism might lead to a reinvigorated human rights project more able ...

Human rights populism

What happens to human rights when populists invoke its language?

When is human rights part of the problem?

The rule about the state of emergencies and the strategies we deploy to defend human rights

Human rights or a different register: taking seriously other emancipatory discourses

The challenge for the human rights movement is to take seriously potential conflicts with other emancipatory struggles.

When your oven breaks: new recipes from virtual workshops

Online spaces offer new opportunities to support creative experimentation in human rights work—but taking them seriously doesn’t have to mean being too serious.

The international human rights imaginary and the international human rights movement

International groups should challenge themselves to invent new practice forms that disrupt old patterns that re-instantiate North-South power binaries.

Collaborative research in the midst of crisis: an observatory on disappearance and impunity in Mexico

How The Minnesota Model helped this organization understand its own identity and role in advocating for Mexico's disappeared or missing persons.

Centering cooperation to advance freedom of religion or belief on international human rights law

Efforts to advance the rights of freedom of religion or belief must be centered on international human rights law and connected to international human rights protection ...

Finding meaning in organizational reflection

If true reflection is a process and a habit then we, human rights practitioners and funders, need to focus less on the output (a written report) and more on the ...

Syrians disagree on how to pursue justice: So what’s next?

To effectively promote lasting peace, responses to the violence in Syria must account for incompatible—and even irreconcilable—demands for justice.

Building sustainable revenue in community-based organizations: case studies from legal empowerment organizations

Here are several social enterprise models that legal empowerment organizations have experimented with and that align with the values and work of many frontline ...

Five existential challenges to human rights

A look at the key geopolitical, ecological, technological and socio-economic challenges to human rights.

Building sustainable revenue in community-based organizations: lessons from the legal empowerment field

The Open Society Foundation shares key lessons from its work supporting organizations that are experimenting with earned income models.

After Trump, self-reflection is vital for the human rights community

If the human rights community wants to maintain relevance and credibility, it needs to introspect.

Gender and war: rethinking harmful research practices in 2021

A Colombian lawyer and professor reflects on how research can serve as a complement to peacebuilding, but also as a catalyst for further conflict and trauma.

America’s re-engagement with the Human Rights Council: remember Resolution 43/1

How the USA deals with the process launched with resolution 43/1 will speak volumes about how it intends to engage with the Human Rights Council.

How NGOs in the Global South are developing strategies for protecting asylum-seekers at a time of human rights retrenchment

At a time when many refugee-receiving nations have ignored their international obligation to protect those fleeing persecution, constitutionalized human rights ...

History, art, and experiential learning as a platform for human rights education and advocacy in the United States and Hungary

The Minnesota Model calls on human rights practitioners to build community across national borders and challenge assumptions based on disciplinary knowledge.

Partnering with organizations in an international context: lessons from NGO workers in East Africa

Academic institutions must be intentional about designing collaborative projects and fostering institutional knowledge on how to find and keep partners.

Adverse possession & the right to housing: a rights based approach

The idea of dignity and security as being fundamental components of the right to housing overlaps with the doctrine of adverse possession.

Women human rights defenders lead in the collective protection to defend life and territory

"To confront attacks on women and land simultaneously, we have had to learn to tackle discrimination and dismantle unequal power relations in all spheres at once."

“We are jimcrowed:” Marcus Garvey and the 1920 Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World

The story of the 1920 Declaration can help us rebalance how we approach human rights history and make it more representative in terms of substance and agency.

How can a survivor-centered approach address sexual violence?

The evidence-based approach of listening to and centering survivors can help to address various forms of violence—from those affected by COVID-19 to those experiencing ...

To maximize donations, emphasize needs, not rights

While many NGOs emphasize human rights in their appeals to raise money, new research shows that it is much more effective to emphasize basic needs.

The Coming Good Society: Why new realities demand new rights

Rights must adapt to new realities or risk becoming irrelevant.

The Right Family: The personal is geopolitical

With the new U.S. administration, the Geneva Consensus Declaration might lose a supporter in this anti-feminist coalition that wants to preserve the traditional ...

Blasphemy laws and human rights: a match made in hell

There are few indications that blasphemy laws are effective in hindering discrimination, conflict, and violence; in fact, the opposite may very well be the case.

From hardship to hope: women migrant workers in the Indian ready-made garment industry

In order to provide women migrant workers with a life of dignity, security, and a sense of recognition at their workplaces, the three primary stakeholders of the ...

Stopping the abuse in your produce basket

Under the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and consumers have the opportunity to rethink how we look at the human costs that sustain our grocery shopping.

Tainted Stones: Sandstone produced by bonded labor and child labor makes its way into the United States

Effective efforts to combat bonded and child labor in the Indian sandstone supply chain will require a nuanced approach to establish the right incentives to enforce ...