In honor of Viktor Orban's visit to Washington, here's a reminder that Orban has made his country corrupt, stagnant, and impoverished: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

The elimination of USAID was an unforgivable moral atrocity that should haunt Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio for the rest of their days and beyond

One problem with a politicized justice system is you stop being able to tell what are genuine investigations

Fourteen years later, I *still* think one of the best ways for us to repudiate Cheney's legacy of torture would be to recognize and honor the courageous soldiers and public servants who exposed the torture policies and tried to end them. www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/o...

emerging reports about possibly imminent US military attack on venezuela. there can be no doubt about it, certainly not in the coverage: such an attack would be an act of aggression, lacking any basis in international law. we'll get sophistic arguments about self-defense but none will be legit.

Once again, any such attack on Venezuela would be illegal. Regime change dressed up as counterterrorism and counter-narcotics. www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...

"To date, the administration’s claimed legal bases for conducting the lethal operations...are counterfactual, counter-normative, and, as this essay has illustrated, contradictory. They smack of a desperate attempt to justify action that is clearly unlawful." www.justsecurity.org/123360/presi...

A truly shameful decision by #Kyrgyzstan to declare independent investigative outlets Temirov Live and Kloop as “extremist.” A country that was once a beacon of press freedom in Central Asia continues its slide into authoritarianism cpj.org/2025/10/kyrg...

If—and this is a huge "if"—it allows the unilateral presidential imposition of tariffs at all, IEEPA does so only in the context of an "unusual and extraordinary threat ... to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States." Which of those is "Trump got his feelings hurt"?

The US is continuing to launch unlawful military strikes on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea. At least 43 people have been killed since the strikes began last month.

Is using DOJ to loot the US treasury faithful execution of the laws?

Last week, the ICC confirmed that Italy breached its obligation under the Rome Statute by failing to surrender Libyan suspect Osama Elmasry Njeem.

Under Vladimir Putin, the scale of repression against those who disagree with the Kremlin has surpassed anything seen in our country since the death of Stalin. The number of known political prisoners in Russia already exceeds the respective figure for the whole of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s.

Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.

Alex de Waal on last week's conviction in the ICC's Darfur investigation: "The Kushayb trial demonstrates that the ICC is scrupulous and just. The question is whether the governments that are members of the court, such as the UK and all European Union states, will rally to support it."

Alongside 268 faith-based, NGO, & civil society orgs, we call on UN Member States to uphold and strengthen international refugee, human rights, and humanitarian treaties and reject efforts to undo or undermine these legal norms. Read more ⬇️

In a less insane time, if it was discovered that the President of the United States said this privately to their AG, it would’ve triggered an all-encompassing, impeachable corruption scandal. Here, Trump is saying it publicly and it’s just another Saturday.

“ABC and CBS are making a serious miscalculation. Their servility to Trump will not earn them peace, only greater pressure.” That’s the German professional association of journalists, @djv.de, calling on major US media to support their journalists instead of preemptively silencing them.

Hey, foreign reporters, you better be as pathetically supine as the American ones or President Whiny McAddlepate will tattle to your leaders about what a big ol' meanie you were to him.

Though she tried to distance herself from the crimes of her husband former US Senator Bob Menendez, today Nadine Menendez -- who the judge considered a "central participant" in the corruption scheme involving the Egyptians -- was sentenced to 4.5 years www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/n...

Among myriad problems with this ruling, can we pause to appreciate the childlike naïveté exhibited by Cavanaugh on the barely-worth-mentioning inconvenience of being detained and interogated by ICE? We are approaching Plessy levels of obtuseness, or feigned obtuseness.

How is this not a screaming massive headline across every news site? This is insane, a virtual declaration of civil war. We fought a revolution to not be subjected to this kind of tyranny

My government is now sanctioning three leading Palestinian human rights groups: (1) Al Haq Law in the Service of Mankind; (2) Al Mezan Center for Human Rights; (3) Palestinian Centre for Human Rights Utterly disgraceful.

Legally speaking, this is all complete nonsense from SecDef. For use of force purposes, drug smuggling is not/not an imminent threat. Just because the administration mislabels some criminal gang a "foreign terrorist organization" does not make them the equivalent of al Qaeda.

This strike is outright murder even if you accept all the legal arguments the Obama admin made in support of its drone strikes, which you shouldn’t. www.justsecurity.org/119982/legal...

this stuff is such a disgrace. a free citizen of a free country should be ashamed to engage in it.

There’s a high bar to attacking a hospital under the law of war and this explanation doesn’t clear it.

trump very clearly sees any attempt to hold a criminal head of state accountable as a threat to his own standing

Imagine getting up in the morning and going to work for the USG to participate in this disgraceful, sadistic scheme.

Remember how the Trump administration claimed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had to be brought back to the United States to "face justice"? That it wasn't about the deportation case, they just HAD to prosecute him? They lied! The whole thing was a lie! And they don't care at all that you know that.

A bit late given today's new sanctions. But here's a new blog post for @humanrightsfirst.org analyzing the U.S. sanctions on the UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, apparently based on her communications with the ICC and in violation of her UN immunities. humanrightsfirst.org/library/unpa...

Thrilled to be part of Thursday’s @humanrightsfirst.org panel (5pm CET / 11am EST) alongside some fantastic people. We’ll be covering corruption, human rights, and sanctions, and what recent changes mean for accountability. It’s August, but this promises to be great summer brain food. Join us!

statehood for DC on demand and without apology. If you live outside the district and care about democracy, a thing you can do is to decry the actions of the federal government under Trump to senators and representatives and urge them to support statehood for DC and withdrawal of Trump's forces there

Join us @humanrightsfirst.org this Thursday at 11 am ET for a virtual panel on the Trump administration's thinly-justified lifting of several targeted sanctions related to human rights abuse and corruption. Sign up here: humanrightsfirst.org/events/sanct...

While Menendez serves prison time, the foreign government that corrupted him is poised to receive even more aid than they sought through bribery.

Present at the Destruction. Once upon a time, the U.S. Secretary of State understood that it was in the enlightened self-interest of the United States to oppose aggression and territorial conquest.

From @humanrightsfirst.org on Trump-Putin summit on Ukraine: “Less like a serious attempt at reaching a just settlement & more like two 19th Century European monarchs carving up foreign land and resources” humanrightsfirst.org/library/huma... @elizlanders.bsky.social @nadiadobrianska.bsky.social

As a reminder: Trump’s first act was to pardon HUNDREDS of J6 rioters who assaulted and beat DC police officers. Trump’s been responsible for a large percentage of the total assaults (and many of the worst/most brutal) on DC police in the last decade.

Earlier this year we called for targeted Magnitsky sanctions against a New Jersey company and an Egyptian official involved in the bribery scheme. humanrightsfirst.org/library/huma...

Thanks to @tommalinowski.bsky.social for demanding accountability for those involved in the Egyptian government's corrupt scheme to bribe former U.S. Sen. Menendez. New Jersey state officials should act on his calls for investigation and oversight. www.nj.com/opinion/2025...

this is unbelievably stupid, and it should be a national shame that dc isn’t a state

Here is our @humanrightsfirst.org mid-year roundup of U.S. targeted sanctions focused on human rights abuse and corruption (Jan-June 2025). Little to report under Global Magnitsky, and a lot of sanctions misuse and opaque or unjustified delistings. humanrightsfirst.org/library/u-s-...

The Trump administration finally found the Global Magnitsky program and the results are not good. Our statement from @humanrightsfirst.org.

The Trump admin's sanctions on Brazilian justice Alexandre de Moraes support impunity for political allies under the guise of protecting press freedom. Globally, journalists are facing the highest rate of killings ever recorded. How about starting there. humanrightsfirst.org/library/huma...

LFJL joins 15+ civil society organisations in welcoming the arrest of El Hishri by German authorities on an ICC warrant. We commend Germany’s swift action & urge his prompt surrender to the ICC. All #RomeStatute States Parties must fully cooperate with the Court to enable meaningful accountability

This is why the Trump admin should not have ended sanctions against violent Israeli settlers. The U.S. govt should reinstate sanctions against Yinon Levi following reports he killed Palestinian journalist Awdah Hathaleen in the West Bank yesterday. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

252 Venezuelans who were forcibly disappeared from the U.S. and tortured in El Salvador’s CECOT prison have been transferred to Venezuela. Human Rights First condemns the U.S. government for violating these men’s rights by sending them to torture and returning them to their country of persecution.

ICC Judges rule #Hungary failed to comply with obligations under the #RomeStatute by failing to arrest #Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin #Netanyahu during a visit to the country from 2-6 April 2025, at the invitation of PM Viktor Orbán. The Court refers the matter to the Assembly of States Parties.

International Criminal Court judges convicted two leaders of a predominantly Christian rebel group in the Central African Republic of multiple counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity on Thursday, sentencing each to more than a decade in prison.