Yes, but it *is* also a case of business failure... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It's being reported that a first family of victims has sought remedy before the Inter-American Commission (I'm sure others will join): www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d... Worth noting that (I think before that news broke) the Commission issued a press release yesterday: www.oas.org/en/IACHR/jsF...

#LFJL welcomes the transfer of Khaled Mohamed Ali Al Hishri to #ICC custody after his arrest in Germany earlier this year. Al Hishri, a senior member of the Special Deterrence Force, is accused of overseeing torture, rape, and other serious crimes at Mitiga Prison.

✨ A hard copy has arrived! 📘 Excited to share my contribution "A Feminist Critique" to the @oxunipress.bsky.social Handbook of Peaceful Assembly, edited by T. Abu El-Haj, M. Hamilton. @thomasprobert.com, and S. Srinvasan! @edinburghpir.bsky.social @uoe-sps.bsky.social

📣 Torture equipment found at Paris arms fair: A team from @amnestyfrance.bsky.social & Omega discovered Chinese companies marketing illegal torture equipment at the Milipol arms & security trade fair. As a result of our intervention, fair organisers took measures against the firms involved.

A counterclaim might be an interesting idea

‘A Muslim’s rights are secondary to perceived security concerns.’ Asim Qureshi on the case of Fahad Ansari, and the uses and abuses of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Police and crime commissioners to be abolished, government to announce

Amazing how a few TikToks of e-bike thieves can create a completely false impression observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Grateful to Juliana Miranda, from CELS for the UNGA 1C statement on Torture-Free Trade. This is a human rights issue, and an export control trade issue - at the heart of it though is the prevention of torture - more action is needed from states to end the trade in tools of torture.

I’m sorry, why are we using “critics accuse” language here? These are factually, unambiguously, extrajudicial killings. It’s not an opinion. It’s not a disputed or disputable claim.

Excellent post from @davidallengreen.bsky.social on the Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv match. Underlines for me the importance of an understanding of “peaceful assembly” that incorporated sporting events. And the importance of understanding that no limitation can be an “absolute” priority

NEW Either public safety is an absolute priority at sporting events or it is not. Reflections on the Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv match By me emptycity.substack.com/p/either-pub...

Very exciting to have unboxed these earlier. Available in hard copy from next week - so do reach out to your libraries or departments to get it on their shelves, but all of the chapters are available online from @oxfordacademic.bsky.social academic.oup.com/edited-volum... #PeacefulProtest

Thanks to everyone who came and supported our first seminar of the series on #AlgorithmicGovernance last night. There are still tickets available for the forthcoming seminars. Register here: shorturl.at/l2GPO

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...