Category «Human Rights»

Buried under the rubble: Haunted reflections at the turn of the year

The buried children have been haunting Catherine Morris. She states it’s difficult to celebrate the turning of the year while thousands of children remain lost in the rubble of humanitarian catastrophes caused by disasters, political turmoil, and armed conflicts around the world. In 2023, apocalyptic stories of children and families lost through earthquakes, landslides, wildfires, atrocities, and war crimes filled the news. The Middle East and Ukraine dominated headlines while Afghanistan, Myanmar, and other places were pushed from attention. An insistent question began to intrude. “What if it was your kids under the rubble?” In late November 2023 this question suddenly came close to my family.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, International Legal Research, Legal Research, Refugees, Terrorism

Violence Against Women and International Law – Updated December 2023

Sabrina I. Pacifici is curating sources for their relevance and relationship to this site’s Israel-Hamas War Project articles. The first article on this subject can be read here. Until recent weeks there was a dearth of publicly available information about the scope of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas. But a New York Times article headline dated December 28, 2023 – “How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7” – focused public attention on the facts. My updated article includes links and abstracts to 12 additional sources that provide corroborating testimonies, some in graphic detail, of the sexual violence committed against the initial victims, as well as against released hostages who have shared their experiences from their time in captivity.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Criminal Law, Ethics, Human Rights, International Legal Research, Legal Research, Terrorism

Violence Against Women and International Law

LLRX is highlighting research sources for their relevance and relationship to this site’s Israel-Hamas War Project articles. This guide by Sabrina I. Pacifici will be updated moving forward and currently includes 8 pertinent sources comprising government reports, academic papers, reviews of UN/NGO programs, news, databases, analysis and commentary.

Subjects: Education, Ethics, Human Rights, International Legal Research, Legal Research, Terrorism

Hamas isn’t the first military group to hide behind civilians as a way to wage war

Benjamin Jensen, a war strategy expert from American University School of International Service who served 20 years in the military explained that civilians often become pawns in war when one side does not have a military advantage against a stronger adversary – and looks for other ways to weaken their opponent.

Subjects: Comparative/Foreign Law, Healthcare, Human Rights, Legal Research, Refugees, Terrorism

The Tech at ‘Cop Con’: Cigarette Carton Trackers, VR for School Shootings, and ‘Peacekeeper Batons’

Ese Olumhense a reporter at The Markup gives us an overview of how the International Association of Chiefs of Police brings police leadership and tech vendors together at its annual conference, where clear trends about the future of law enforcement emerged.

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Data Mining, Human Rights, Legal Research, Privacy

Antisemitism has moved from the right to the left in the US − and falls back on long-standing stereotypes

Prof. Arie Perliger, director of the graduate program in Security Studies at the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell addresses the fact the the U.S. is currently experiencing one of the most significant waves of antisemitism that it has ever seen. Jewish communities are shaken and traumatized. Jewish and civil rights organizations both in the U.S. and in other Western countries reported a rise in antisemitic incidents following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military response. The Anti-Defamation League reported that in the first week after Hamas’ deadly attack, in which 1,400 Israelis were killed, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. tripled in comparison to the same week last year. Similarly, London police recorded a 1,353% increase in antisemitic crimes compared with the same period a year earlier. In addition, antisemitic symbols and rhetoric seem to be part of a growing number of protests that erupted around the globe following the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Subjects: Communications, Comparative/Foreign Law, Conflicts, Criminal Law, Human Rights, Legal Research, Refugees

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 16, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Appeals Court Upholds Public.Resource.Org’s Right to Post Public Laws and Regulations Online; Hackers Are Salivating Over Electric Cars; and How Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa Target You With Ads.

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, Communications, Comparative/Foreign Law, Cybercrime, Cyberlaw, Cybersecurity, Human Rights, Legal Research, Privacy

Unforgotten on the Day of the Disappeared: Missing human rights advocates 

On August 30th each year the world is reminded that hundreds of thousands of people in at least 85 countries don’t know where their loved ones are, or even whether they are alive or dead. For the victims of enforced disappearance and their families, every day is the Day of the Disappeared. The unrelenting uncertainty and anguish of not knowing the truth of what has happened to their family member is a recognized form of torture for both the disappeared and their families. The crime of enforced disappearance cuts off the disappeared from any access to legal representation or judicial remedies – they are placed “outside all protection of the law.” “Rampant” global impunity for enforced disappearance has led the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, António Guterres, and UN bodies to call on all countries to ratify or accede to the Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances (Convention or ICPPED). Catherine Morris brings much needed attention to the fact that of the UN’s 193 countries, only 72 have ratified or acceded to the Convention. Canada and the United States (US) are not yet among them. The unrelenting uncertainty and anguish of not knowing the truth of what has happened to their family member is a recognized form of torture for both the disappeared and their families. The crime of enforced disappearance cuts off the disappeared from any access to legal representation or judicial remedies – they are placed “outside all protection of the law.”

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Comparative/Foreign Law, Human Rights, Legal Research, Terrorism

Can you trust AI? Here’s why you shouldn’t

Security expert Bruce Schneier and data scientist Nathan Sanders believe that people who come to rely on AIs will have to trust them implicitly to navigate daily life. That means they will need to be sure the AIs aren’t secretly working for someone else. Across the internet, devices and services that seem to work for you already secretly work against you. Smart TVs spy on you. Phone apps collect and sell your data. Many apps and websites manipulate you through dark patterns, design elements that deliberately mislead, coerce or deceive website visitors. This is surveillance capitalism, and AI is shaping up to be part of it.

Subjects: AI, Big Data, Civil Liberties, Cyberlaw, Human Rights, Legal Research, Privacy