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The ‘Human Rights Human Wrongs’ Exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery: Showcasing the Power and Pitfalls of Photography in Human Rights Struggles

Max Harris - 6th April 2015

From 6 February until 6 April, London’s Photographers’ Gallery is playing host to ‘Human Rights Human Wrongs’, an exhibition curated by Mark Sealy. In introducing the exhibition, Sealy says its aim is to redress photography’s Eurocentric and imperialist biases on human rights issues, and to reject the idea that an era or event can be […]

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Free Speech Under the Indian Information Technology Act: The Supreme Court’s Recent Judgment

Gautam Bhatia - 27th March 2015

In a landmark judgment on Tuesday, the Indian Supreme Court (PDF of the decision here) struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which criminalised, inter alia, “grossly offensive”, “menacing”, “annoying” and “inconvenient” speech over the internet. In addition, it upheld Section 69A of the same Act, which authorised the blocking of websites, and the rules […]

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Racial Discrimination Act and Free Speech– Carte Blanche or Fair and Reasonable – Where are Human Rights in all This?

Liz Curran - 27th February 2015

Professor George Williams has noted ‘the fact that freedom of speech receives no general protection in Australian law is not of itself and argument for introducing such protection’. Unlike in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and New Zealand there is no such right at a national level in Australia. There is a limited […]

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The Legality of Mass Surveillance Operations

Andrew Wheelhouse - 7th February 2015

A court which isn’t a court in name rules on the legality of a government mass surveillance program that may or may not exist. That about sums up the Kafkaesque world inhabited by the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal in Liberty v GCHQ [2014] UKIPTrib 13_77-H. This claim arose out of the revelations by former National […]

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Harassment against women goes online: the problem of revenge porn

Ann Olivarius - 1st December 2014

As the internet takes a more significant place in our culture, its flaws become more evident. While social media, blogs and forums provide a space for minority groups to find community and discussion, the same platforms can also breed bigotry and hatred. While each group faces its own challenges in the online space, the problem […]

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Human Rights in the UK Media: Representation and Reality

Michelle Farrell - 16th October 2014

On 19 September, the Human Rights and International Law Unit of the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool hosted a one day seminar – part funded by the Modern Law Review – exploring the representation of human rights in the media in the UK. The seminar brought together constitutional and […]

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Will Australia learn from the EU’s mistakes on data retention?

Fiona de Londras - 9th August 2014

Police officers, anti-terrorism officials and politicians all tell us that we need data retention laws, especially in a time of increased technological sophistication. This week, George Brandis—the Attorney General for Australia—announced that Australia will this year join the states with data retention laws, requiring all telecoms providers to retain metadata for two years. This decision […]

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The Supreme Court of Canada Affirms Privacy as Anonymity

Sinziana Gutiu - 5th July 2014

This is a critical time for privacy on the internet. Private entities, from the global, all-knowing Google to a local Internet Service Provider (ISP), retain sensitive and private information about their users. In Canada, privacy advocates are concerned about Bill C-13, the “Cyberbullying Act” and Bill S-4, the Digital Privacy Act, which are currently before […]

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One May Not Retain Personal Data Forever: The Judgment in Google Spain

Menelaos Markakis - 29th May 2014

The Court of Justice of the European Union recently held in Google Spain that an individual may, in some cases, request that Google take down personal information from its search results. The dispute in the main proceedings concerned a decision by the Spanish Data Protection Agency, ordering Google to remove personal data relating to Mr […]

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CJEU Holds the Data Retention Directive Invalid

Menelaos Markakis - 14th April 2014

In joined cases C-293/12 and C-594/12, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Directive 2006/24/EC on the retention of data by service providers for the purposes of investigating, detecting and prosecuting serious crime was invalid. There was a disproportionate interference with the right to respect for private life and with the right to […]

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