On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom (“UK”) held a referendum to decide whether it should withdraw from the European Union (“EU”), the economic and political union between twenty-eight European countries.[1] UK citizens voted to leave the EU by a percentage of fifty-two percent to forty-eight percent.[2] Despite multiple delays, […]
Human Rights
83 posts
In the summer of 2019, an annual music and arts festival held in Byblos, Lebanon, cancelled a concert by the band Mashrou’ Leila, whose vocalist is openly gay, on the heels of an escalating campaign by Christian groups that demanded the concert’s cancellation.[1] The cancellation stemmed from claims that “the […]
With the increase of immigrants entering the United States at the southern border in the past two years, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) realized it needed a way to protect children who were being used for entry by nonfamilial adults. Beginning in May 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement […]
Only twelve years old, Ali has become his family’s breadwinner.[1] He works eleven hours daily at an automobile repair shop near the refugee camp where his Syrian family lives. He earns almost fifteen dollars each week. His father, Mahmoud, couldn’t find work; desperate, the family had sent Ali to look […]
Most conversations about immigration include someone referring to others as “illegal.” The US government officially refers to certain people as “illegal aliens.”[1] Many migrants are accused of being in or entering the US “illegally.” Regardless of whether or not a person has committed a crime in entering the US without […]
Forty-five years ago, in Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the right to an abortion is a fundamental liberty, and where certain “fundamental rights” are involved, regulation limiting these rights may be justified only by a “compelling state interest.”[2] Later, in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey,[3] the Court […]
The men held by the Australian government in offshore processing centers and temporary transit centers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru are not afforded adequate healthcare. The asylum seekers in these centers are not offered proper access to medical attention generally and especially in cases requiring immediate attention, should be […]
Almost three years after Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court ruled that the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island was unlawful as it “breached the right to personal liberty” in the Papua New Guinean constitution, asylum seekers are still being treated as prisoners.[1] The Universal Declaration for Human Rights entitles […]
Yasmine Mohammed is an Arab-Canadian and teaches at various universities around Canada. She is a passionate advocate for the rights of women, LGBT individuals, and religious dissidents—particularly in the Middle East. Yasmine is the founder of a non-profit organization called Free Hearts Free Minds, which is specifically designed to assist […]
Elan Journo is a Senior Fellow and Director of Policy Research at the Ayn Rand Institute (“ARI”). Journo regularly writes and speaks for ARI; he is a senior editor and regular contributor at ARI’s online publication New Ideal. Journo specializes in the application of ethical egoism to foreign policy. Journo […]