General

[Thairi Moya Sánchez (PhD) is a full-time professor of public international law at Complutense University of Madrid] Over recent months, the Venezuela file has moved into an accelerated escalation: international airlines suspended or curtailed operations amid official safety advisories and mounting regional military risk; Washington announced coercive maritime measures against sanctioned oil shipments; and, on 3 January 2026, U.S. forces conducted...

[Diana Kearney is a former Visiting Instructor of Clinical Law at Cardozo Law School Human Rights & Atrocity Prevention Clinic] The Trump administration’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and subsequent announcement that the U.S. intends to run the nation is the administration’s most shocking move to date– a tall order for a President that has generated a steady torrent of...

[Efrén Ismael Sifontes Torres is an Ayudante de Segunda in international law courses and a member of the Observatory of International Humanitarian Law at the University of Buenos Aires School of Law] As a Venezuelan and an international lawyer, it took me some time to pause and reflect on the repercussions of the events that have shaken, and continue to shake,...

[Metra Mehran, is an activist from Afghanistan, member of the End Gender Apartheid Campaign and Afghanistan Advocacy Specialist at Amnesty International.  Venesa Sulimani is a survivor-led advocate from Kosovo, advancing accountability for conflict-related sexual and other gender-based violence and mental health awareness.] Last week, we sat in the United Nations in New York as preparations began on what could become the first global...

[Arunava (Avi) Banerjee is a research assistant at the University of Tartu and an Erasmus Mundus scholar in the International Law of Global Security, Peace and Development (ILGSPD) programme] In February 2025, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR or Court) handed down a unanimous judgement in the case of Centre for Human Rights and Others v. Tanzania (hereinafter...

[Beichen Ding is a PhD Candidate in Law at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern] This post was originally written as a reflection for the PhD Workshop “Current Dynamics and Challenges of Contemporary Trade Policy and Regulatory Frameworks” by World Trade Institute, University of Bern. The analysis is inspired by the workshop lectures, in particular the ideas shared by Professor...

[Vashti Ortego is the Global to Local Advocacy Officer at IWRAW Asia Pacific, working on gender equality and women's human rights. She is a transfeminist from the Visayas in the Philippines.] Introduction For more than three decades, the international community has recognized violence against women and girls as a form of gender-based discrimination. This understanding is firmly grounded in the practice of...

[Debora N. Gunawan is an SJD student at the University of Michigan Law School] In late November 2025, a wave of torrential rains, cyclones, and monsoon-driven storms battered South and Southeast Asia. Devastating floods, landslides, and mudslides ravaged wide swathes of the region, from Sumatra in Indonesia to southern Malaysia, southern Thailand, Sri Lanka, and even the Philippines and Vietnam. Reports...

[Nina Keese and Dr. Beril Önder are members of the legal team of the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project, a Middlesex University School of Law–based initiative focused on strategic litigation, research, and advocacy] Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association (Kaos GL) v. Türkiye (App. nos. 27507/23 and 5797/22) is a pending case before the European Court of...

[Christine Ryan is the director of the Crimes against Humanity Project at Columbia Law School. Richard Dicker is the founding director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. Akshaya Kumar is the Crisis Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch.] On January 19, a process that has been 80 years in the making will get underway at United Nations headquarters in New York....

[Sanmay Moitra is a research assistant at ‘Human Rights in Practice’ and an Advanced LLM candidate at Leiden University. He has previously studied international law at the University of Oxford and Georgetown University.] The UN’s Human Rights chief – Volker Turk – delivered a scathing condemnation on 14th November, of the international community’s inaction on the situation in Sudan noting that...

[Anna Maria Puigderrajols Triadó is a PhD candidate at the Europa Law Institute of Leiden University, where she previously completed the Advanced LL.M. in European and international human rights law] In July 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), in its landmark judgement in Ukraine and the Netherlands v Russia, was given a unique opportunity to deal with the...