While human history is replete with examples of repression and the struggle against it, it wasn’t until 1948 that the world came together to declare in one voice the sanctity of each individual’s dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a triumph of the post-war period, and while the world is by most measures a far better place today than in 1948, the declaration’s adoption was not the end of the fight for human...

A specter of treason hovers over Donald Trump. He has brought it on himself by dismissing a bipartisan call for an investigation of Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee as a “ridiculous” political attack on the legitimacy of his election as president.

Seventeen US national intelligence agencies have unanimously concluded that Russia engaged in cyberwarfare against the US presidential campaign. The lead agency, the CIA, has reached the further conclusion that Russia’s hacking was intended to influence the election in favor of Trump.

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Article by Senior Fellow John Shattuck.

Authoritarian democracy is on the march on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite alarming parallels, the U.S. remains better positioned to preserve and rebuild true democracy.

The election of Donald Trump shows what happens when democracy misfires. It echoes recent developments in Europe, most notably in Hungary and Poland, where elected leaders are attacking democratic...

These are dangerous times.  Never has it been so important for domestic and international human rights advocates and scholars to collaborate.  Such action must be guided by past successes in promoting human rights, based on our best history and social science. I share Stephen Hopgood’s sense of urgency, but I disagree with his recommendation that we should only engage in domestic politics and abandon international human rights norms and law. 

We will need even stronger...

In 2016-17, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy is pleased to launch its Emerging Human Rights Leaders Program, which seeks to build a strong, sustainable community of current Harvard Kennedy School students—and future alumni—who demonstrate a clear and passionate commitment to the study, practice, and advocacy of human rights.

falseThis new program, directed by Carr Center faculty member Dr. Timothy Patrick McCarthy, is designed to enhance...

Central European University has named the Shattuck Center on Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery in honor of outgoing CEU President and Rector, and current Senior Carr Center Fellow, John Shattuck. The center at the School of Public Policy was established by Shattuck in 2012, to "develop new approaches to conflict...

Burundi, South Africa, and the Gambia are not violating international law merely by announcing their withdrawal from the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court. In accordance with Article 127 of the Rome Statute, they have every right to go.

Contrary to what some commentators seem to believe, the ICC and the Rome Statute system will not disappear because of some withdrawals. The Statute can still function with 121 states or even less. Think about it this way: in 2003, I was appointed as ICC Prosecutor by 78 states. In those days, the Bush Administration was...

Carr Center's Kathryn Sikkink gave the Plenary address at the 2016 American Political Science Association's Annual Meeting. Her talk, "Are We Making Progress in Human Rights? Transformations in Knowledge and Activism,”  drew on material from her forthcoming book Making Human Rights Work: Evidence for Hope.  

Said Sikkink, "recently there has been a surge of pessimism about...

In a new feature story in the Harvard Kennedy School Magazine, Kathryn Sikkink's work on documenting human rights violations is examined in depth.

"Sikkink, the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy, has devoted her career to addressing that question and the one that follows from it: How can human rights abuses be prevented? Over the past 40 years, she has tracked an evolving, relatively new norm she calls the “justice cascade,” which has increased accountability for human rights offenders, a recent example being the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. In...