The Non-effectiveness of the United Nations Security Council’s role in the Syrian Conflict
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the principal organ of the United Nations (UN) charged with maintaining and restoring of international peace and security. Its actions or failures to...
The ILO adopts Convention concerning violence and harassment at work
Sexual harassment, an expression of violence against women (VAW), received remarkable media attention with the #MeToo Movement. It was a reminder of the law’s poor track record in curbing workplace...
Mobilising International Human Rights Law to Promote Tax Justice
Hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue are lost to governments – and particularly those of developing countries – annually as a result of deficiencies in the global taxation system,...
The 2019 Guiding Principles on the Right to Education: The Drafters’ Perspective
The Oxford Human Rights Hub in partnership with the Masters in International Human Rights Law at the Department of Continuning Education, University of Oxford will be hosting a panel discussion...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
