Human Rights

What Does Israel Fear from This ‘Terrorist’?

The Israeli government smears human rights organizations—like Al Haq, the one I founded—rather than attempting to end the violations they bring to light.

December 2, 2021 issue

Sarah A. Seo

Reimagining the Public Defender

For the poor, who are disproportionately people of color, the criminal justice system in the United States is essentially a plea-and-probation system.

December 2, 2021 issue

Sarah Lustbader

Making Room for Forgiveness

Even if victims or their families decide to forgive, the law rarely does.

November 18, 2021 issue

Nicholas Guyatt

Partners in Brutality

New books investigate the brutality of the internal slave trade by focusing on a single firm, Franklin and Armfield, and examine the role of white women in enslaving Black people.

November 18, 2021 issue

David S. Reynolds

He Was No Moses

While he opposed slavery and southern secession early in his career, as president Andrew Johnson turned out to be an unsightly bigot.

December 16, 2021 issue

David Cole

Let the Decision Stand

Every argument against Roe was squarely rejected in the Supreme Court’s 1992 Casey decision, and nothing has changed since then except the composition of the Court.

November 4, 2021 issue

Ursula Lindsey

In the Fire

The Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi fearlessly told unpleasant truths about discrimination against women in Arab countries.

October 21, 2021 issue

Nancy F. Cott

A Work in Progress

Two new books on the history of feminism emphasize global grassroots efforts and the influence of American women labor leaders on international agreements.

September 23, 2021 issue

The Latest

Jill Filipovic

Choice by Mail

With Roe v. Wade under threat, abortion rights in the US are facing their greatest challenge yet. Enter the Dutch doctor who has opened a new front with safe medication on demand.

January 11, 2022

Tareq Baconi

What Apartheid Means for Israel

A growing consensus has formed around the term—not as a rhetorical comparison to South Africa, but describing a system of domination built on the partition of Palestine.

November 5, 2021

Raja Shehadeh

In His Father’s Footsteps

“So I continued to visit Jaffa, but I had to rely more on my imagination because the reality was of an entirely different place from what he had described.”

October 16, 2021

Raja Shehadeh

Jaffa Revisited

The lost world of my parents’ life in the city once known as “the bride of the sea” mirrors the dispossession that has been story of Palestine from 1948 to this day.

October 1, 2021

Diana R. Gordon

Another Immigration Purgatory for Children

Rather than detain unaccompanied minors, the US places tens of thousands with families every year—then virtually abandons them. Detention is not good policy, but neither is neglect.

September 27, 2021

Kenneth Roth

Litigating the War on Terror: An Exchange

The head of Human Rights Watch rejects criticism that efforts to mitigate America’s worst excesses after September 11, 2001 helped sanitize US belligerence.

September 8, 2021

Samuel Moyn

Michael Ratner’s Tragedy, and Ours

The career of the veteran constitutional rights litigator offers a case history of how US humanitarians ended up sanitizing the war on terror instead of opposing it.

September 1, 2021

Sayed Kashua

My Palestinian Diaspora

To live under forced exile in the heart of my homeland or to live in voluntary exile as a resident alien—this is my choice. Either way, to be a stranger in a strange land.

August 7, 2021

Alma Guillermoprieto

Confrontation in Colombia

Protesters have demanded not just the rejection of a tax bill but a whole new society.

July 22, 2021 issue

Jill Filipovic

US Abortion Politics in Conflict Zones

From Rwanda and Bosnia to Myanmar and Tigray, rape is now recognized as a genocidal crime. Yet its survivors rarely receive the health care they need—thanks to America’s deadly culture war.

June 16, 2021