Articles

The European Parliament Targets Industrialized Misogyny: A Call For Urgent Ban on AI “Nudifier” Apps

This article covers a European Parliament FEMM Committee hearing on the rise of AI-facilitated gender-based violence, particularly the spread of non-consensual deepfake pornography and “nudifier” applications. Experts, lawmakers, and civil society representatives warned that existing AI and digital platform laws are failing due to weak enforcement and profit-driven platform models. The hearing stressed the urgent need for stronger corporate accountability, EU-wide bans on exploitative AI tools, improved protection for women and children online, and a proactive approach that treats digital safety as a fundamental human rights and public health issue.

Australia’s Externalised Asylum Model in Nauru and Its Engagement with International Human Rights Law

Australia’s offshore processing of asylum applications in the island state of Nauru has been subject to multilevel backlash from various actors in the international community over time. The externalised system raises relevant questions concerning the principle of non-refoulement, which the present article aims to address by providing comprehensive research on the concept.

Human Rights Defenders Warn of Escalating Criminalisation and Violence Against LGBTIQ+ Communities in Africa

This article summarises a European Parliament DROI exchange of views on the escalating criminalisation, violence, and discrimination faced by LGBTIQ+ persons, particularly across Africa and among displaced queer communities. Speakers highlighted how anti-rights legislation increasingly targets identity, advocacy, healthcare, and public expression, while displaced LGBTIQ+ refugees face severe violence, exclusion, and humanitarian neglect. The discussion stressed the importance of sustained EU engagement, protection for human rights defenders, stronger asylum safeguards, and support for locally led initiatives grounded in universal human rights principles.

Enforced Disappearance: The Case of Sayed Mohamed Almosawi

Enforced disappearance remains a brutal tool of state terror despite robust international laws. This article explores the global legal frameworks designed to combat this crime and examines the tragic 2026 case of Sayed Mohamed Almosawi, whose torture and death in Bahraini custody expose the deadly reality of state-sponsored impunity.

Piercing through the Digital Veil: The Struggle of Kenya’s Content Moderators

This article examines the discrimination and violence faced by Christians in Pakistan, highlighting patterns of physical attacks, assaults on churches and religious gatherings, misuse of blasphemy laws, forced conversions, educational exclusion, and occupational discrimination. It argues that these challenges reflect broader structural inequalities that continue to undermine the rights, security, and freedom of religion of Pakistan’s Christian minority.

The Hidden Crisis: Children During the Sahel Crisis

The Sahel is a geographically challenged area crossing multiple African states. Compounded with climate change, poverty, violence, and political instability, the region presents as one of the most unstable areas on the globe. While international commentary has been focused on terrorist and armed groups exercising control in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, children have been bearing the brunt of the crises. This article examines the impact on children from different crises perspectives, including security and protection, health, and education.

GHRD And The International Day Of Multilateralism And Diplomacy For Peace

This article examines the central role of Sahrawi women in resisting Moroccan occupation and documenting human rights abuses in Western Sahara. It highlights how women activists face gendered violence, surveillance, and institutional harassment because of their leadership in the struggle for self-determination. The piece underscores that protecting Sahrawi women is essential to any meaningful path toward justice and decolonisation.

The Right to Self-Determination of the Sahrawi People

This article examines Western Sahara’s unresolved status as a non-self-governing territory and the Sahrawi people’s long-denied right to self-determination. It traces the historical background of Spanish withdrawal, Moroccan occupation, the failed UN referendum process, and the legal foundations supporting Sahrawi political choice. The piece argues that recent UN approaches risk weakening the right to self-determination by prioritising political feasibility over a genuine democratic outcome.

Deprivation of Liberty in Times of Occupation: What Treatment Should Palestinian Detainees Receive Under International Law?

Israel enforces a differentiated justice systems in Occupied Palestinian Territories for Israeli settlers and Palestinian nationals. Palestinian nationals are subject to deprivation of liberty grounded in criminal and security offences that can only be reviewed by Military Courts. While such distinction is, to a very limited extent, compatible with the Fourth Geneva Convention, the treatment and procedural safeguards that Israel provide to Palestinian detainees contravenes various obligations of Israel under such convention.

The Yazidi Survivors Law and Iraq’s Unmet Obligations Under International Human Rights Law

This article examines Iraq’s Yazidi Survivors Law and the gap between its legal promises and practical implementation for survivors of ISIL atrocities. It analyses how the criminal complaint requirement, the exclusion of children born of sexual violence, and the failure to establish rehabilitation services undermine Iraq’s obligations under international human rights law. The piece argues that these shortcomings deny Yazidi survivors effective reparations, protection, and long-term justice.

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Christians: Religious and Ethnic Persecution

This article explores the escalating violence and institutional persecution faced by Amhara Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia within the broader context of ethnic federalism and political conflict. It examines how the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s cultural and historical influence has increasingly been perceived as a political threat, contributing to targeted violence, displacement, arbitrary arrests, and attacks on religious institutions. The article further analyses whether these patterns of abuse may amount to crimes against humanity or genocide under international law.

The Practice of Kindoki: A Child’s Rights Perspective in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

This article examines the phenomenon of Kindoki in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its devastating impact on children accused of witchcraft. It explores how poverty, conflict, social instability, and unregulated religious practices contribute to violence, abuse, abandonment, and severe human rights violations against vulnerable children. The article also analyses the gaps between existing legal protections and weak enforcement mechanisms that allow these harmful practices to persist.

Abandoned Twice: How the World Is Failing the Yazidis – Again

More than 11 years after ISIS launched a genocide against the Yazidi people of northern Iraq, the survivors are still waiting. Thousands remain missing. Hundreds of thousands remain displaced. Their homeland lies largely in ruins. And the international mechanisms built to deliver justice, protection, and reconstruction are being dismantled one by one, not because the work is done, but because the world has moved on. The Yazidis have not failed to recover; they have been failed.

Targeting Schools as a Method of Warfare

This article examines the targeting and militarisation of schools during armed conflict and the protections granted to educational facilities under International Humanitarian Law. It highlights how attacks on schools violate the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution, while exposing children to death, trauma, displacement, and loss of education. The piece argues that stronger accountability is urgently needed to ensure schools remain protected civilian spaces during war.

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence as a Weapon of War

Across Africa’s conflict zones, sexual violence is not merely a by-product of war but a deliberate strategy used to terrorise, control, and destroy communities. From Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, women and girls are systematically targeted, while international law has struggled to translate recognition of these crimes into meaningful accountability. This article examines how sexual violence has been weaponised in conflict, the evolution of its recognition in international law, and the persistent barriers that continue to deny survivors justice.

Caught in the Crossfire: Iran’s Minorities in Times of War

On June 25, 2025, the execution of Kurdish porter Edris Ali exposed a deeper pattern at the heart of Iran’s current crisis. As war with Israel and the United States escalates, longstanding structures of marginalisation are not paused but intensified, with ethnic and religious minorities facing most of the harm, seen both as internal threats and as groups that can be easily sacrificed.

Balochistan: 78 Years of Occupation, Human Rights Abuses and the Failure of International Accountability

This press release highlights exhibitions at the United Nations drawing attention to human rights violations faced by Sindhi and Baloch communities in Pakistan. It underscores issues such as enforced disappearances, repression of journalists, and threats to cultural identity. The events also amplified calls for self-determination and greater international action to protect these communities.

Sindhi and Baloch Communities Reinvidicate Human Rights Violations and Self-Determination Rights

Discussion About Pakistan’s Trade Status and Human Rights Abuses

This press release highlights calls at the UN Human Rights Council to reconsider Pakistan’s GSP+ trade status due to ongoing human rights violations. Speakers raised concerns over misuse of blasphemy laws, political repression, and restrictions on media freedom. The discussion emphasised that trade privileges should be conditional on measurable improvements in human rights and accountability.

Systematic Human Rights Crisis in Sindh and Balochistan

This press release highlights systemic human rights violations against Sindhi and Baloch communities in Pakistan, including forced conversions, economic marginalisation, and enforced disappearances. It underscores patterns of structural discrimination and political repression affecting religious and indigenous minorities. Speakers called for international accountability and stronger protection of minority rights and self-determination.

Iraq is Losing its Fiercest Female Voices

This article examines how Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities, especially Kurds, Baluchis, and Arabs, face intensified repression during times of war and political crisis. It highlights patterns of executions, arbitrary arrests, torture, and structural discrimination that deepen during conflict. The piece argues that external war has served as a pretext for expanding long-standing state violence against minority communities.