Au Burkina Faso, deux journalistes et trois magistrats « enlevés » ou « portés disparus »

Restitution row: how Nigeria’s new home for the Benin bronzes ended up with clay replicas

✍ 7TH EDITION OF DRAW ME THE ABOLITION : REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN ! ✍ To mark the 23rd World Day Against the Death Penalty, young people from around the world are invited every three years to take part in the international graphic poster competition ‘Draw Me Abolition’. @afd-france.bsky.social

Another important statement from the UN Special Rapporteur on torture in favour of a new global treaty to regulate the trade in law enforcement equipment #Torture-FreeTrade

Another important statement from the UN Special Rapporteur on torture in favour of a new global treaty to regulate the trade in law enforcement equipment #Torture-FreeTrade

Always a pleasure to listen to Albie Sachs, this evening in conversation with @abbottkingsley.bsky.social at the @icws-sas.bsky.social His passion for the struggle is infectious, and we were delighted that he contributed a moving dedication at the start of our Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly

Some people here love to dismiss ‘sportsball’ but S. African teams being banned from international competition was an important factor in ending Apartheid because it made their crimes real for non-political folk.

Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

CPS guidance is here. Includes section on ECHR Freedom of Expression. www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidan...

“We believe the progress states have made in their discussions means that the international community can now move to negotiating a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems” – our Policy Manager @elizabethminor.bsky.social takes the floor at #CCWUN

Not sure I agree with @chrisgiles.ft.com over the delay of tax rises - especially if it implies delay in spending on improving services - but overall this is a much better analysis of the UK's fiscal state than most of the rest you'll read

I go. I try. And I will keep trying, even though it feels like a losing battle. Because I remember the whole point of the far-right astroturfing of social media is to make it feel like a losing battle, to make us give up. Anyway, a few snippets on small boat crossings and immigration.

This is a very lengthy piece, but a very interesting journey…

Using draconian penalties from broadly-cast counter-terrorism legislation to restrict basic protest rights? We should know by now where this leads

📢 Last week the EU expanded its pioneering Anti-Torture Regulation, adding more equipment used for torture and other ill-treatment to the trade ban and control lists – a key move to protect detainees, protesters and human rights defenders.

🎉🇪🇺 🎉 Great news from the EU as it significantly strengthens its measures preventing the transfer of law enforcement equipment to those who would use it for torture & other ill-treatment. 🔗: omegaresearchfoundation.org/news/europea... #torturefreetrade

The arrest of Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri in Germany, wanted by the ICC, marks a significant step toward accountability for grave international crimes in Libya. Authorities should transfer him to the Hague without delay. www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

UK ban on Palestine Action at odds with international law, says UN rights chief - www.theguardian.com/politics/202... "says the Home Office proscription restricts right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly" you'd think #starmer the lawyer would understand that, but no...

“The fact that organized protest can break the spiral of silence, and correct our impressions of what other Americans think, is one of the most immediate and important values of protesting in the first place. Scientists have [shown] protests update our impressions of what other citizens believe.”

This heat wave mortality graphic tells quite the story. Europe needs to get over itself and start rolling out air conditioning.

Signs posted today inside the State Department read: "Colleagues, if you remain: RESIST FASCISM, Remember the oath you vowed to uphold" "Here sat America's experts on democracy, human rights...and more. You've just released them and hundreds of their colleagues into the wild"

1/I’ve obtained a farewell note a person in the human rights bureau sent out to his colleagues after being fired from the State Department today. A few tidbits from it:

"By framing the ICC as separate mechanism for condemning & adjudicating the legality of military actions, esp in situations where States disagree with the UNSC's decisions, States seek to amplify broader efforts at UN reform & secure a definitive outcome beyond the political compromises of New York"

If Labour cared about stopping Reform they’d implement proportional representation before the next election

Ollie took his research to a new level by actually playing for @authorscc.bsky.social over the weekend!

"While public attacks on private businesses, government offices, courts and police stations must stop, the [Interior Cabinet Secretary's] 'shoot-to-kill' directive risks further eroding public trust in the police, licences extrajudicial killings and will trigger more unlawful violence."

Sadly the current right-wing coalition government in Finland has cut the funding for the nation’s “Housing First” success story, & homelessness is now on the rise again. That just reinforces the fact that such programs work, if political ideology doesn’t stand in the way. ysaatio.fi/en/news/home...

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” It costs a lot less to house people.

Very proud to be part of a stellar group of scholars and practitioners and this groundbreaking proposal to establish a global index that puts nature at the heart of human progress. 👇

Today Kenyan civil society organisations have called upon the Kenyan government and the UN security council to take action following our reporting with the Daily Nation. We found Kenyan-labelled ammunition crates in a suspected Rapid Support Forces depot in Sudan. pressrelease.co.ke/news/375

A wonderful quote by Herbert Simon: "In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. [...] It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."

So-called “less-lethal” weapons like those that have been used against demonstrators in Los Angeles can cause severe, lasting harm like nerve or brain damage or blindness. They can also kill. www.wired.com/story/what-t...

On increasing the NATO spending norm to 5%: “Spending more is not about pleasing an audience of one, it is about protection a billion people.” Mark Rutte at @chathamhouse.org

This is excellent news.

‘as Judge Cançado Trindade cautioned in his dissenting opinion in Croatia v. Serbia, “perpetrators of genocide will almost always allege that they were in an armed conflict, and that their actions were taken ‘pursuant to an ongoing military conflict’” ‘

The notion we should learn from the United States - where people are getting swept up off the streets and imprisoned by the state for their politically inconvenient speech - might be the most absurd thing the Financial Times has ever published.

NEW: Champaign, IL's police oversight body was created after decades of calls for broad oversight. New reporting shows how officials hampered its operations — creating a board with no control over its cases or even the ability to require a response from the police. @invisible.institute + IPM News

University day for me today - Have spent all of it building a spreadsheet of mental health police contact deaths since the turn of the century. I'm confident I will never find all of them, but the list currently stands at 100, very broadly speaking of five types. 1/

This is interesting — a recent study of mode share (the % share of transportation trips by car, transit, walking, biking etc) relative to city size and income levels in almost 800 cities in 61 countries. Interesting results. HT @davidzipper.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In addition to the underlying story, some of the images from this piece are a visceral reminder of the policing of protest in Kenya and the need for reform www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

The Council of Europe has created a death penalty free zone in its 46 member states. 🎞️ ⬇️ Throwback to 1983, when the Organisation adopted the first legally binding instrument providing for the unconditional abolition of the death penalty in peacetime: Protocol No. 6 to the #ECHR.

A good piece, but I'm not sure about the claim that "Many of the protests that took place during the past decade were ultimately unsuccessful because rapid mobilization via social media had not been preceded by patient organizing and the creation of effective structures for continuous engagement."

The key chart right now: Usually US economic pain is cushioned by falling bond yields and a strengthening dollar, which mean lower interest rates and more spending power for consumers. This time we’re seeing the opposite, meaning the pain will be amplified.

“This is a momentous trial, not only for The Gambia, but also for the United States. Countries have an obligation to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of international crimes who are found within their territory”

With Yoon removed from office today, by my count that makes 34 democratic leaders convicted since 2010. Only one—Trump—faced no real consequences. Trump's actions weren't uncommon. What was exceptional was how our institutions failed to hold him accountable.

#Poland #Estonia #Latvia #Lithuania & #Finland should reject proposals to leave the Antipersonnel Mine Ban Treaty. @kajakallas.bsky.social should reaffirm EU's binding collective commitment to Ottawa Convention & norms aimed at safeguarding humanity in war. www.hrw.org/news/2025/04...

Yes, there will be an economic hit to the rest of us, but it is manageable. It is the US that is in the grip of economic lunacy from wannabe authoritarians and will suffer far most. Ironically they might achieve the aim of a reduced deficit - through recession.

"The trial marks the first time a non-U.S. citizen will stand trial in a U.S. federal court for torture committed abroad." Alleged Gambian "Jungler" Michael Correa stands trial on April 7 in US thepoint.gm/africa/gambi... #Gambia #Jammeh2Justice