Twenty Years of OPCAT: Why Preventive Monitoring Must Evolve to Address New Forms of Vulnerability
Twenty years after the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), torture prevention faces a striking paradox. Unlike traditional human rights mechanisms, OPCAT does...
Niger’s New Anti-LGBTQIA+ Law Violates the Human Rights of Intersex Persons
In February 2026, Niger’s military junta implemented a new Penal Code criminalising indecent, unnatural, and LGBTQIA+ acts with imprisonment ranging from 5 to ten years, alongside monetary penalties (Article 390)....
Making Apartheid Irreversible: Israel’s Death Penalty Statutes and Third State Obligations
When the Israeli Knesset voted to approve the Death Penalty for Terrorists Bill on 30 March 2026, it made irreversible through state-administered killing what the International Court of Justice (ICJ)...
The Torturous Failure of CCTV Surveillance in Indian Custodial Spaces
The persistence of custodial violence within the Indian criminal justice system is constituting the grave rupture to the constitutional guarantee of fundamental right to life and liberty under Article 21...
The Risks of Resistance: Protestors Need a Torture-Free Trade Treaty
Dissent stands as a historical foundation for social change, but the practice often yields hostile opposition from law enforcement. Considered to be efficient tools for crowd-control, projectiles like rubber bullets,...
Individual Criminal Responsibility of the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh for Crimes Against Humanity
Regrettably, the former government of Bangladesh, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, committed serious human rights violations between 1 July and 5 August 2024, including but not limited...
Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Bangladesh: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead
Despite decades of relentless efforts by state and non-state actors—including ministries, law enforcement agencies, NGOs, and donor organisations—modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) continue to be a stark reality in...
Reproductive Rights and the Judicial Attitudes in Recent Abortion Cases in Strasbourg: Will Women’s Suffering Ever Be ‘Severe’ Enough? Part 2
As discussed in Part 1 of this blog, the European Court of Human Rights did not find a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR (prohibition against torture) in the...
Reproductive Rights and the Judicial Attitudes in Recent Abortion Cases in Strasbourg: Will Women’s Suffering Ever Be ‘Severe’ Enough? Part 1
On 14 December 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) released its ML v Poland judgment. As the ECtHR did not find a violation of Article 3 of the...
ECOWAS Court Overlooked Nigeria’s Due Diligence Obligations in #ENDSARS Decision
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Court) delivered an important decision in the Obianuju Catherine Ude & 2 Others v Federal Republic of Nigeria case on July 10,...
Mapping the global crackdown on LGBTIQ rights
On 17 May 1990, the World Health Organisation (WHO) removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), thereby taking an important first step towards addressing and removing the stigma...
No ‘Paradise on Earth’: Justice for Migrants from Japan to North Korea
Over 93,000 ethnic Koreans and their families emigrated from Japan to North Korea during the period 1959-1984. They did so because of lies and misleading propaganda. The North Korean regime...
