Fairness and Justice

The average person can turn on the nightly news any day and see stories of terrifying acts—and clear crimes—ranging from the bombing of children in Syria to the massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka. But if one were to refer only to the cases brought by the International Criminal Court (ICC), they would be left […]

The withdrawal of Burundi, Gambia and South Africa from the International Criminal Court (ICC) has reignited an old discussion: whether the Court unfairly targets African states and citizens for prosecutions. The ‘African bias’ critique adopts different forms, ranging from neo-colonialist (“the Court seeks to control African politics through ICC investigations and prosecutions”) to realist (“the […]

This article is being published in collaboration with Pangyrus. BY SEBASTIAN JOHNSON “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” — Milan Kundera I. Invention One of the first documentations of African people in British North America dates to 1619, when approximately 20 captives from present-day Angola disembarked at Jamestown. Slavery […]

BY ALEXANDER SMITH Gone are the days of American criminals like Al Capone, John Gotti, and Bonnie and Clyde. Recent prosecutorial practices of US regulatory agencies suggest that modern America now confronts an entirely new class of “criminal.” They are listed on national stock exchanges, occupy flashy corporate headquarters, and are run by individuals adorned […]

Last Monday, October 10th, will be remembered as the day the electronic judicial process was formally introduced within the Paraguayan legal system, which unquestionably constituted an unprecedented breakthrough for the judiciary in this country. Alberto Martínez Simón Judge of the Civil and Commercial Upper Chamber of Asunción, Paraguay. Source: ABC Color, Paraguay The HKS Latin American Policy […]

BY SUNAINA RAJANI Introduction Imagine an impulse to sneeze. Now imagine if it were illegal. While we don’t intend to sneeze and can’t suppress a sneeze, most of us can suppress other urges. One fundamental principle of jurisprudence is that humans have some ability to control their impulses and make decisions derived from an innate […]

BY SHANOOR SEERVAI The resounding victory of Hindu nationalists at India’s federal polls in May 2014 is attributed to one man: Narendra Modi. Fed up with the corruption and complacency of the Congress—the party that led India’s anti-colonial struggle and governed for much of its independent history—the world’s largest democracy voted for a leader who […]

International media and human rights groups place much focus on Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank and its accompanied detrimental effects. However, outside the confines of this well-reported conflict is the lesser-known and lesser-regarded condition of Israel’s own Arab population.  While Israeli Arabs are offered equal citizenship, freedoms, and voting rights as Israeli Jewish […]

BY TANIA DEL RIO The war on drugs is fueling conflict and destroying families. It is time for the global community to recognize that after 50 years of failure, the only practical and humane policy is to end the punitive approach by decriminalizing mild substances and controlling toxic ones. This week’s UN Special Session on […]

Problem Thirty-five percent of women worldwide have experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes[1]. In Nigeria, domestic violence is pervasive across socioeconomic and cultural contexts. Forty-five percent of affected women suffer abuse from their current husband or partner[2]. According to a US Department of State Human Rights Report, the practice of domestic violence has “remained widespread […]

BY MARINA ZHAVORONKOVA AND JONATHAN HUI If you are born poor in America, the way up is through a good job. Low-income workers are disproportionately minorities or women, and both groups are historically underrepresented in the middle-income workforce. More than 54 percent of African American and almost 60 percent of Latino workers make less than […]

BY TOM TRAILL Nobody has ever catcalled me.  God knows I’ve tried: short shorts, no top, the whole caboodle.  But however much I’m “asking for it,” it never happens. I can’t experience it.  I have to believe the reported accounts I’m given that it does happen to women. *** Another thing I haven’t experienced and […]