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Case Watch: Brazil’s Supreme Court Rules against Blanket Prohibition on Pretrial Release
Brazil’s Supreme Court has overturned a blanket ban that prevented pretrial release pending trial for anyone charged with certain categories of drug crime.
ICC Judges Demand More, Earlier from Prosecutor’s Office
Judges at the International Criminal Court are increasingly requiring prosecutors to deliver a fuller account of the facts of a case at the earliest stage of the legal process.
It Is Time for a Global Agreement on the Rule of Law
This September the "rule of law at the national and international levels" will be on the agenda at the UN General Assembly. There are sharp international differences over what that title means. But there are also important opportunities to agree...
European Court Reform: Civil Society Excluded from Debate
Next week, all 47 member states of the Council of Europe will convene in the seaside town of Brighton to discuss the future of the European Court of Human Rights. With so much at stake, why is civil society being pushed aside?
Challenging Police Profiling in France
Fifteen people have filed civil law suits against the French state for racial profiling—the first major legal action in France to address the longstanding police use of identity checks that target visible minorities.
Case Watch: Political Will and the Pilot Judgment Procedure
In recent years, the European Court of Human Rights has come to rely on the pilot judgment procedure as a way of managing its overwhelming backlog of cases. But two recent decisions on the procedure itself underline that the new tools alone will...
Should It Be Illegal to Swear at a Police Officer?
Police in the UK have argued that those who swear at them during street encounters are likely to cause them alarm and distress, thereby allowing them to use their powers of arrest. A recent ruling rejected the practice.
Stateless in Bakassi: How a Changed Border Left Inhabitants Adrift
The peninsula of Bakassi has long been the subject of a territorial dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria. Now it shows what can happen when control over the territory where people live shifts from one country to another.
Appalling Conditions in Latin America’s Prisons
In the aftermath of the gruesome Comayagua prison fire in Honduras, one fact stands out: Almost two-thirds of the 800 inmates were awaiting trial or being held without charge.
A Legal Education Clinic for Cambodia
Justice Initiative Fellow Bruce Lasky tells of his experience setting up a legal clinic in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which opened in January 2004.
We Are Dominicans
For Dominicans of Haitian descent, obtaining proof of citizenship—required for everything from education to employment to voting—has become a legal and bureaucratic impossibility.
For a New Path Forward, Denmark Must Commit to Equality
Life in Denmark has become increasingly difficult for the thousands of Muslim citizens and immigrants in the country. Many new policies ostracize Muslims—and they are illegal.
A New Guide Shows the Way Forward on Expanding Access to Justice
A new guide produced by the Open Society Justice Initiative with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides a road-map for the development of national tools to assess and improve access to justice.
Interview: Why the OAS Faces a Credibility Test over its Human Rights Commission
Professor Judith Schönsteiner, a leading Chilean jurist, discusses the challenge facing the Organization of American States: there are more seats available to fill at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission than there are qualified candidates.
Q&A: Using the Law to Confront Poverty in India
Colin Gonsalves talks to James A. Goldston of the Open Society Justice Initiative about his approach to using the law to achieve social and economic change.
Using Human Rights to Challenge a Home Repossession Order in Romania
A Romanian court is being asked whether the safeguards of the European Union's rights charter apply when people face the loss of their home, after falling into arrears on mortgage payments.
Q&A: Mothers Are Leading the Search for Mexico’s Missing People
Mexico continues to break records for its rates of deadly violence and disappearances, but criminal accountability remains virtually absent. A group of mothers in the state of Coahuila have taken up their own fight for truth and justice.
Almost a Decade after his Death, Sergei Magnitsky Gets a Measure of Justice
The ruling from Europe's human rights court validates the underlying rationale for the laws adopted by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and some other countries to impose sanctions on designated individuals implicated in gross human rights abuses.
A Looming Threat to Equal Citizenship in America
A new report by Open Society Justice Initiative argues that three techniques are currently being used by the U.S. government to attack the identity and sense of belonging of U.S. citizens.
Case Watch: UN Finds Mexico Responsible for Man’s Disappearance, Relies on Witness’s Word
There are more than 40,000 people who are missing in Mexico. One family’s journey to find out what happened to their son could help others seeking justice.
