even if an oil facility is a military objective, the US/Israel *must* avoid "any attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects...which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated"

Constant threats and backlash undermine women's rights around the globe, but women still continue to fight against repression. This International Women's Day, we honor the courage of those working to improve the lives of women and girls everywhere. #IWD26 #InternationalWomensDay

We live in a world where the most powerful people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

🔴 LIVE: Follow my presentation to the UN Human Rights Council #HRC61 ⬇️ webtv.un.org/en/asset/k14...

It’s always important to be honest, but in times of great peril it is indispensable to speak with moral clarity. When governments fail to do so, civil society steps up. www.globalr2p.org/publications... From @globalr2p.org:

Live now - one of @marylawlorhrds.bsky.social last Human Rights Council side events - www.youtube.com/live/-SD5Sr3...

#MiddleEast ​Civilians need to be protected from both external bombs and internal bullets. I am deeply alarmed by the military strikes launched by the United States and Israel against Iran, and its subsecuent responses. 1/

🚨Calling all #intLaw researchers! A team at Leiden is doing a research project on what research methods we use & how we choose our research methods. Help our colleagues by filling in the survey about your #research! www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/research/...

No pasarán

"Anthropic is doing the right thing... The uses it is drawing lines around (mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons) are foreseeable and dangerous. Just as important, its willingness to hold that line in the face of coercive pressure sets an example for the rest of the industry."

People really need to be paying attention to what’s happening in Ethiopia right now. It’s getting virtually no attention in the western media, but the entire region is on the brink of a cataclysmic major war. www.globaldispatches.org/p/ethiopia-i...

‼️OHCHR working on a report on the protection of human rights defenders in the digital age. Please send your inputs! www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for...

RIP. Imagine for a moment a world in which Jesse Jackson beats incumbent Ronald Reagan in the 1984 U.S. Presidential election. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

South Sudan appears on the brink of civil war. Again. Facing declining humanitarian aid and with global attention focussed elsewhere, the country’s rival politicians and predatory warlords prefer conflict to governing. www.globalr2p.org/countries/so...

"The point is not that what progressives do must never be criticized; the point is that the relentless drive to find fault with both sides equally results in a sense of (false) equivalence among those taking cues from supposedly trustworthy centrists."

Stop what you’re doing and read this piece, which is as powerful as you’d expect from @adamserwer.bsky.social witnessing the events of last week on the ground in Minnesota. “The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone.”

📣 A couple of weeks left to contribute to my call for inputs on #Food systems including #ocean, #ClimateChange #HumanRights #CarbonMarkets And many sincere thanks for all the contributions that have been made so far 🙏

The whole world should reject these sham elections administered by an illegitimate military dictatorship. The people of #Myanmar are demanding a real democracy and respect for human rights.🇲🇲

I fear we are going to have to say this a lot again: Int law prohibits bombing countries for the sake of democracy. FOR VERY GOOD REASON. It tends not to work. Attacking a country because its leader lacks legitimacy - whether as pretext or sincerely held rationale - is still just an aggression.

​​✨Our call for applications is out✨ Next year, ISHR's hybrid training will focus on Democratic Backsliding and Racial Justice. If you are an HRDs working on any of those areas and keen to use the #UN for change, apply now!👇 https://ow.ly/KAJV50XHrnt

📣 I am hiring a postdoc! aial.ie/hiring/postd... applications from suitable candidates that are passionate about investigating the use of genAI in public service operations with the aim of keeping governments transparent and accountable are welcome pls share with your networks

🧵 As #EU governments prepare to meet amid a fragile #Gaza ceasefire, pressure is mounting for them to "drop the stick" they never used on #Israel Caving to that pressure would be yet another blow to their credibility, and to hopes for rights and justice: hrw.org/news/2025/10... #EUCO #FAC ⤵️ 1/7

@who.int is appalled by the latest evacuation order, demanding 1 million people to move from Gaza City to a “humanitarian zone” in the south. To civilians: WHO and partners remain in Gaza City. To the intl. community: Act. This catastrophe is human-made, & the responsibility rests with us all.

"Death, destruction, starvation and displacement of Palestinian civilians are the result of choices that defy international law and ignore the international community." "We continue to insist that this horror can be stopped."

New UN investigation reveals “systematic torture” in #Myanmar’s military-run detention facilities – including electrocution, strangulation and gang rape. The Generals responsible for these atrocities must be held accountable under international law.🇲🇲 news.un.org/en/story/202...

The #ICJ delivered a historic Advisory Opinion on #ClimateChange that cuts through decades of delay, denial, & legal ambiguity. It did so with moral & legal clarity that leaves no doubt: states must act to prevent climate harm or be held legally responsible. Read our Q&A: cri.org/cri-qa-on-th...

Volker Türk: Israel’s “plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza strip must be immediately halted.” If executed, it “will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes.” www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Wrote about this sort of thing in my chapter in our book on the Arab state— with Israeli surveillance of Palestine the most dystopian case of information collection and lethal deployment which still failed to deliver control.

Bless OCHA for continuing to try. Systematically obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid is against international humanitarian law and can be a war crime but cautious, hypothetical diplomatic language, slap bang in the middle of the genocide against the Gazans, really doesn't seem appropriate.

There was a saying somewhere that one of the defining features of fascism is that it constantly questions established consensus on, say, democracy, human dignity, and equality; but I can't remember who said/wrote this and where. Does anyone know?

As we mark 80 years since Hiroshima, the global nuclear order is under real stress. Escalation risks in Europe, South Asia, and the Korean Peninsula are intensifying. It’s time for bold, preventive action. My piece in @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/05/h...

For anyone with a faltering memory: the Tigray war was fought from 2020-2022 (although violence and deaths continued for quite some time afterwards) and it was monstrous, with hundreds of thousands of deaths. There was even an international Commission of Inquiry: www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies...

Russia is waging a monstrous war of aggression against Ukraine and it can't be repeated often enough that the war would end TODAY if Russia stopped fighting and withdrew all of its forces from Ukraine's territory. If Ukraine stopped fighting, Ukraine would end. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

States & @UN @UNFCCC @UNDP have #HumanRights obligations to tackle #ConflictOfInterest linked to #FossilFuels at #COP30 in #Brazil particularly after @CIJ_ICJ Opinion shorturl.at/Z0KAD 👉 shorturl.at/xcEzE @srenvironment.bsky.social @caadcoalition.bsky.social @shwetanarayan30.bsky.social

They have money for this but not affordable healthcare?? www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

Gaza is starving. We want to believe sustained international pressure will allow us to save as many lives as possible in Gaza. But so far we’re not seeing the scale of change we need. My interview on @cnn.com with @camanpour.bsky.social : www.cnn.com/2025/07/31/T...

Executive Director Alex de Waal & fellow @fletcherschool.bsky.social Professor @tomdannenbaum.bsky.social call on all states with any leverage at all over Israel to use it without delay to demand comprehensive, full-spectrum, sustainable, & coordinated humanitarian action.

Now @justsecurity.org I join Alex de Waal (@worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social) to call on all states with any leverage at all over Israel to use it without delay to demand comprehensive, full-spectrum, sustainable, & coordinated humanitarian action. Time has run out www.justsecurity.org/117962/mass-...

Billions of people have hard lives and the UN was founded 80 years ago to "save them from hell". It does that on a shoestring budget. It would be INSANE to impose the same austerity measures that have ruined public services in countries around the globe on the United Nations now. #UN80

On the day of the resumption of the Two-State solution conference in New York, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel present reports determining that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza: www.btselem.org/publications... www.phr.org.il/en/genocide-...

NEW on Gaza from @crisisgroup.org: "In short, Gaza needs both open gates and a ceasefire. Outside actors who have expressed outrage but failed to use their leverage must now demand both measures. The machinery of death must be stopped, not merely slowed." www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...

Excited to share this new piece on why @hrw.org is calling for gender apartheid to be recognized as a crime under international law. This comes after long & careful discussion w/many colleagues about if there is need for such a law and any potential downsides. www.justsecurity.org/116780/gende...

"Katz’s scheme breaks international law, said Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers. It also directly contradicted claims made hours earlier by ... Israel’s military chief ... that Palestinians were only displaced inside Gaza for their own protection"

#UK I am receiving information and seeing videos of arrests of people protesting in London against Palestinian genocide and in support of Palestine Action. Some days ago colleagues and I wrote to the goverment indicating our concern for the misuse of terrorism laws against pro-Palestine advocacy 1/

The Human Rights Council elections will take place this October. This year, 14 States are competing for 14 seats. ISHR, in collaboration with @amnesty.org‬, is organising a pledging event on 4 September – a key opportunity for civil society to engage with candidate States. ▶ ishr.ch/campaign/hrc...

It is said to be easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Nevertheless, in international law, you ask the *UN Security Council* for permission, otherwise your use of force is ILLEGAL (unless it is in self-defence under art. 51 of the Charter and no, it doesn't work pre-emptively).

A propos of nothing in particular, this ageing diplomat just bought a subscription to @attackerman.bsky.social & @samthielman.com’s Forever Wars (after reading the free version for ages). Spot on analysis. Punchy commentary. Can’t recommend it warmly enough: www.forever-wars.com/war-on-terro...

Despite being added to the UN's “list of shame” for violations against children in armed conflict, Israel's and Russia’s abuses have only increased; neither has engaged with the UN to negotiate an action plan to end their violations. My new dispatch: www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

During the 2023–2025 super election cycle, civic space shrank and freedoms were repressed. 📢 My report to #UNHumanRights shows how protests were crushed, activists persecuted, and tech misused to silence dissent. 📄 Read more 👉 www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel... #HumanRights #Elections

We just launched our plan to get lifesaving aid to 114m people in greatest need on planet. We’re forced by cuts to hyper prioritise, but we’re determined to do as much as we can with what we have. We ask just 1% of what world spent on defence in 2024. humanitarianaction.info