Here, the author Pitasanna Shanmugathas a graduate from Vermont Law looks at the reprisals faced by prominent whistleblowers in the wake of Julian Assange’s release, and the threat whistleblower prosecutions raise to media freedom and the principles of transparency and accountability in government… The release of Julian Assange after years of legal battles highlights the [...]
In early June, Israel carried out a daring rescue, freeing four hostages who had been taken and held for eight months by Hamas and, in flagrant violation of international law, embedding the hostages within families in housing full of civilians, including many children—also a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the laws of war. All major news [...]
The recent defense agreement between North Korea and Russia, pledging mutual defense and assistance, signals a disturbing shift in the global geopolitical landscape. This pact, building on an increasingly visible camaraderie between these authoritarian regimes, raises the specter of a new axis of dictatorships. With China, Iran, and Belarus already exhibiting varying degrees of alignment [...]
In the final analysis, human fragmentation into separate and competitively hostile states is unnatural. Because it is contrary to intellectual understanding and natural law, such fragmentation always makes it impossible to fashion a just and survivable global order. Ipso facto, it also renders impossible any long-term American future. What should be done? Suitable transformations are [...]
Last month marked 15 years since the end of the civil war between the Sri Lankan State and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) — a brutal conflict that spanned three decades and is estimated to have claimed between 70,000 and 100,000 lives. The country has hosted a series of events aimed at memorializing [...]
As the United Nations prepares for its third meeting of international envoys on Afghanistan in Doha, concerns are mounting over the exclusion of Afghan women from the process and the lack of focus on the Taliban’s gender apartheid policies. The plights of women like Arzo — a teacher and a single mother of four — [...]
Nooria — an Afghan refugee in Turkey — faces unbelievable hardships and the daily fear of deportation. Undaunted, she refuses to return to the Taliban’s gender apartheid state in Afghanistan. Before the Taliban’s resurgence, Nooria had a comfortable position with the US Government in Kabul. But following threats from the regime, the 40-year-old fled, and [...]
In the aftermath of the recent rescue of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, an analysis of such extraction operations is warranted. To put this event in context, three things must be understood. First, hostage taking is a war crime. Second, hostage rescue is extremely logistically difficult. Third, the American public [...]
As the Core Group of Nations gathers in Romania on June 28 to deliberate over a pivotal draft statute, the international community faces a defining moment. This statute, which proposes the establishment of a multinational court comprising UN member states and anchored by the Council of Europe, offers a promising avenue for addressing the crime [...]
In a letter written to James Madison from Paris, Thomas Jefferson opined that “no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. . . . Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years.” Jefferson took this perspective because he believed that “he earth belongs to the [...]
