Foreign Policy Blogs

Human Rights

Considering Seafarers’ Right to Communicate

Considering Seafarers’ Right to Communicate

For much of the world’s employed, maintaining communication with those closest to them while completing their employment requirements is not a contemplated issue. Many workers can use their own personal or workplace phones, computers, and other devices to contact their friends and family if need be. Outside the workplace, most …

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Zimbabwe & the Search for the Rule of Law

Zimbabwe & the Search for the Rule of Law

What does a country in the middle of collapse look like? This was the question filmmaker Lorie Conway attempted to answer in her new film on Zimbabwe, “Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law.” A recent showing by the United States Institute of Peace gave a venue for both the …

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Kiobel: Repositioning the Yet Ajar Door to U.S. Human Rights Litigation

Kiobel: Repositioning the Yet Ajar Door to U.S. Human Rights Litigation

On Wednesday, April 17, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, a case that developed over years and became highly anticipated by the international human rights community. The case itself had been before the Court twice and had the potential to address …

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Will the DPRK’s Increased Militarism Unify the International Human Rights Approach?

Will the DPRK’s Increased Militarism Unify the International Human Rights Approach?

In what is often being labeled the “Korean Crisis” or “Korean Missile Crisis” the latest outward displays of military prowess by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have prompted concerted international efforts on not only strategies of military containment, but of human rights inquiry. Comprehensive …

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Telecommuting as a Human Rights Approach

Telecommuting as a Human Rights Approach

The modern workplace and the requirements of jobs in the high-technology era have brought what was an outlying issue in the past to the forefront of the debate on employment arrangements. Some major technologically inclined corporations have come to different conclusions. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer banned telecommuting arrangements

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New Pope, New Human Rights Agenda?

New Pope, New Human Rights Agenda?

 
Almost immediately after Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis I, the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church, questions regarding his human rights record were being asked. The niceties of his election to the papacy, that Francis is the first Pope to be Jesuit and to hail from the …

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IACHR’s Mandate Under Fire

IACHR’s Mandate Under Fire

In an upcoming meeting in Washington, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) will consider a proposal that would greatly diminish the ability of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to address human rights violations in the region.
At the Forty-Second …

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Competing Rights: The GMO Debate

Competing Rights: The GMO Debate

The question of whether genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are helpful or harmful has persisted since the 1970s, but reached no solid conclusion. As the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear oral arguments on Tuesday, February 19 in Bowman v. Monsanto Co. that will have far-reaching implications for …

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Civil Society Under Fire in Zimbabwe

Civil Society Under Fire in Zimbabwe

The last time Zimbabwe made widespread international headlines occurred as the country descended into violence following the contested 2008 presidential elections. That chapter in Zimbabwean history ended with the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that split power between President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change …

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U.N. Secretary-General Report Recommends Coordination over Integration in Somalia

U.N. Secretary-General Report Recommends Coordination over Integration in Somalia

As the U.N. Security Council is determining what future role it should play in Somalia based on the recent report of the Secretary-General, the major developments of the political track of the United Nations approach are overshadowed by the security and humanitarian developments during the previous …

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A Break in Eritrea’s Controlled Calm

A Break in Eritrea’s Controlled Calm

Understandably, most of the U.S. was preoccupied with Barack Obama’s second inauguration yesterday. However in the midst of the celebrations of yet another peaceful transfer of power in the U.S., word began to trickle out of an attempted coup in Eritrea. It appears that the attempt, led by …

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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Urges Greater Focus on North Korea

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Urges Greater Focus on North Korea

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued statements by High Commissioner Navi Pillay regarding the ongoing human rights crisis in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). While the system of oppression employed by the DPRK is manifest, it remains “one of the …

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International Migration’s Agenda for 2013

International Migration’s Agenda for 2013

The holiday travel season, the beginning being marked by International Migrants Day on December 18, is winding down. Even this traditional and commonplace form of travel is in some way facilitated or restricted by the human right to migration. Though primarily preoccupied by its connection with the features of the …

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Human Rights 2012: Year in Review

Human Rights 2012: Year in Review


The year 2012 witnessed leaps of progress in human rights protections internationally, many in fields or subjects that tend to fly under the radar or appear tertiary to traditional human rights concerns. At the same time, these developments tend to be more intangible than the creation …

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Ghana’s 2012 Elections: Thievery or Error?

Ghana’s 2012 Elections: Thievery or Error?

The 2008 presidential election in Ghana was regarded as a shining example of a vibrant democratic process. In a typical multi-party system where two parties enjoy the lion’s share of support, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) both earned nearly 50% of the votes cast, …

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