Human Rights

The atrocities in Rwanda, we are often told, were an ethnic conflict: a genocide that not only fell along racial lines, but one fueled by intractable differences separating two distinct peoples. Indeed, much coverage from 1994 onward implied a degree of inevitability to the world’s fastest genocide. After all, “ethnic tensions [had] existed in Rwanda […]

Erdoğan has revealed himself to be the Turkish embodiment of what we in Europe and the US can now appreciate up close: populist, far-right politics.

Embed from Getty Images  Israeli riot police clashed with settlers living in the Amona “outpost” settlement in 2006 A controversial bill in Israel aims to legalize settlements in the occupied West Bank built on privately owned Palestinian land. The bill was proposed after an Israeli court ordered the demolition of the Amona “outpost,” a West Bank settlement […]

I’ve been thinking a lot about marriage. Not because I’ve found true love, but because more and more countries have considered marriage equality in the second half of 2016. Last month, Gibraltar unanimously passed a bill recognizing marriage equality. Taiwan may become the first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage as early as next year. […]

War seems an inescapable fact of human life. But in past decades it has been civilians, not soldiers, that have borne a disproportionate brunt of warfare across the planet. Historians often reference that, in the last major battle of the 19th century in Solferino, 40,000 combatants were either wounded or killed but only one civilian […]

Embed from Getty Images This article was originally published in JMEPP’s Spring 2016 print edition. Abstract Since King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud assumed the Saudi Arabian throne on 23 January 2015, there have been clear continuities in both Saudi domestic and foreign policies to maintain regime security and stability for the ruling elite; however, […]

The French government’s policy to remove informal settlements of migrants and refugees without providing alternative housing for residents puts vulnerable people into dangerous positions. The French government needs to deliver viable housing alternatives for residents of camps if they want to continue the policy of demolishing settlements they deem illegal. According to the French department […]

Iran sealed a nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers (P5+1) in July 2015. Many human rights defenders who followed the negotiations believed that a less isolated Iran would have more incentives to respect human rights. Others feared that Iran would now get away with human rights violations more than ever as […]

In 2010-2011, the Arab Spring witnessed a burgeoning female presence in an unprecedented manner. In Morocco, women cyber activists arose at the height of the 2011 protests; their voices continue to reverberate today. Virtual spaces facilitated the growth of these new movements and networks of activism. While much has been written about the general role […]

BY CAITLIN RYAN Stepping into a makeshift convenience store in Hanoi peddling toiletries and cleaning products, I immediately felt uncomfortable. In a shop smaller than a two-car garage with several rows of tall shelving, a dozen teenagers milled around as if waiting for a task. Numerous security cameras captured the room from different angles and […]

Can an international sports organization be held accountable for human rights violations that occur as a result of its events? In October, the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) raised this question when it filed a lawsuit against Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international soccer federation, in a Swiss court. The case seeks to […]

The United States should take a stronger stance against unprecedented levels of sexual violence. On July 11, at least five foreign aid workers were brutally gang raped when South Sudanese soldiers invaded the Terrain hotel complex in Juba, the country’s capital. The episode shook the humanitarian world. Never before had a group of aid workers […]