The United States has a controversial history with immigration. For one, the United States is mythologized as a nation of immigrants—with the exception of Native Americans. However, since the country’s founding, Congress has passed, and the Supreme Court has upheld, statutes excluding certain groups of people from immigrating to the […]
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is doing his best to restrict human rights and what the term “human rights” means; in the summer of 2020, he said: “Americans have not only unalienable rights, but also positive rights, rights granted by governments, courts, multilateral bodies. Many are worth defending in light […]
Efforts to force local, state, and federal governments to address the law enforcement excessive force crisis across the United States have reached revolutionary heights in 2020, with calls from protesters describing the excessive force as a human rights violation.[1] Deadly uses of force should only occur in the most extreme […]
Renowned civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson has dedicated his career to eliminating injustice in the United States by addressing poverty and demanding racial reconciliation for our country’s oppressive history towards people of color.[1] One of the principal tenets of Stevenson’s work is the importance of “getting proximate to the problem.”[2] […]
The United States has executed thirty-four foreign nationals in the “modern era of the U.S death penalty.”[1] This has been a topic of international concern as authorities within the United States have not informed inmates of their right to have their consulate notified.[2] This has been especially concerning for the […]
After a three-year terror campaign by the Myanmar government against Rohingya Muslims, the Republic of The Gambia (“The Gambia”) filed an Application Instituting Proceedings and Request for Provision Measures with the International Court of Justice in November 2019.[1] In its application, The Gambia detailed the devastating and genocidal acts committed […]
While more and more countries are taking steps to ensure that women have basic human rights, multiple states in the United States are taking a step back. The right for a woman to terminate her pregnancy has become an internationally recognized human right among nations and international organizations.[1] Eighty-seven percent […]
“This really is an invasion of our country by human traffickers. These are people that are horrible people bringing in women mostly but bringing in women and children into our country.” – United States President Donald Trump[1] In 2019, President Donald Trump became more tenacious in his need for […]
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, […]
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 […]