Latest blog articles

Human rights violations continue to be a major issue at the EU’s external borders and  pushbacks have been reported in several EU Member States. Most recently, the spotlight has been on Spain’s long-standing practice of pushbacks at the border of Melilla, as the ECtHR handed down its long-awaited...

Today, on Human Rights Day, the Peace Palace in The Hague will be the venue of the somewhat ironic spectacle of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and global icon of human rights leading her country’s defence against allegations of genocide, the most serious violation of human rights possible.

National laws or ‘legal traditions’ are not the main obstacle to realising the ideal of ‘effective legal assistance’ embedded in the EU procedural rights’ Directives. The resistance to realising this ideal originates mainly from the professional cultures of relevant actors, including criminal...

The review hearing of Augustin Ngirabatware only lasted from 16^th – 24^th September 2019, yet those 7 days were enough to create shockwaves in this little town in the north-east of Tanzania.

In European societies, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting FGM/C is regarded as an alien cultural practice that should not be part of society. It is seen as a barbaric tradition that is associated with refugees and immigrants from African and Muslim States who have brought this custom to Europe.

The development of human rights law is part of a fundamental shift in the nature and purpose of the international legal order. Where once international law was considered to regulate purely inter-state concerns, we now talk of the existence of international community interests and a shared...

‘Police, open the door!’ A sentence often heard when police arrest people at their houses. These arrests are often carried out by heavily armed police teams and accompanied by noise, shouting and violence. In this often chaotic situation, one party is often forgotten: the child(ren) of the arrested...

I wrote my PhD towards the last days of the debate over “social rights”. This debate harkens back to the fifties, when the International Covenant on Social and Cultural Rights was being negotiated. Some claimed that social rights could never be true rights. Others claimed that without social rights...

Over 30 states and 40 business and civil society groups debated strategies for affordable and sustainable medicines prices at last month’s second WHO Fair Pricing Forum—co-sponsored by the government of South Africa.

Marital captivity, which describes a situation in which one or both spouses are not able to terminate a religious marriage and thereby is forced to remain married against her or his will, is an issue that has been receiving national and international attention.