Cuts to the UN Human Rights Bodies? We Know What This Leads To
The global populist backlash against multilateralism and rights is reaching the UN treaty bodies. These reactionary politics are manifesting in States’ refusal to pay their dues to the UN (the...
Still the second sex: Some feminist reflections on the new General Comment of the UN Human Rights Committee on the right to life
In October 2018 the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (HRC) adopted general comment (GC) 36 on the right to life, replacing GC 6 and GC 14. Latter documents date...
‘Beyond the Courtroom: Accountability for Grave and Systemic Human Rights Abuses’ (2019) U of OxHRH J 55
The institutional design of the UN inquiry procedure means that human rights abusers do not go unchallenged because of costs or technical legal rules.
Expectations of the Victims of Radovan Karadžić
The Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT) recently delivered the long-awaited judgement in the appeal of Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadžić. A trial chamber of the...
The 40th Session of the Human Rights Council: Some Observations on State Behaviour
The UN Human Rights Council, which was created in 2006, is currently holding its 40th Session. The HRC is the UN’s main human rights body, and is a political body...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: An Eightieth Anniversary Reflection
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) fills important gaps in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by recognising that human rights belong to peoples as well...
Poverty and Politics in the SDGs (with Philip Alston)
Sustainable Development Goal 1 is to eliminate poverty in all its forms everywhere. Poverty stands in the way of people enjoying many of their basic human rights and it can...
Working Together: Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (with Sandra Fredman)
The United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. They aim to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all people. The goals provide policy objectives for...
Analysing Malaysia’s Refusal to Ratify the ICERD
The Malaysian Minister of Diplomatic and Foreign Affairs, Saifuddin Abdullah, reaffirmed the new government’s commitment to improve Malaysia’s human rights track record, which included the ratification of the International Convention...
‘The Family and Diabetes’ in the EU: Taking the Bitter with the Sweet
This year’s World Diabetes Day focuses on ‘the family and diabetes’. Family members play a vital role in diabetes care, especially parents caring for children too young to understand the...
State of Palestine takes United States to International Court of Justice over Jerusalem Embassy
In its consistent diplomatic and legal attempts to salvage the two-State solution based on international law, the State of Palestine instituted a case against the United States of America before...
The Prohibition of Torture 70 years after the UDHR
Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is 70 this December, provides in unequivocal terms that ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman...
