JBI Human Rights

JBI Statement Opposing U.S. Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) strongly opposes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghanistan, as announced in the Federal Register on May 13, 2025, with an effective date of July 14, 2025. This abrupt and inadequately justified decision exposes thousands of Afghan nationals currently residing in the U.S. to a risk of facing well-documented grave human rights abuses and atrocity crimes at the hands of the Taliban, the de facto authorities in Afghanistan since 2021. The decision is at odds with both U.S. domestic law and international legal obligations that prohibit returning non-citizens to a country where they face persecution, torture, or other serious harm.

Persistent, Systematic, and Well-Documented Human Rights Violations Render Afghanistan Unsafe

In its May 13 announcement, DHS claims that Afghan nationals no longer face a serious threat to their personal safety from ongoing armed conflict or “extraordinary and temporary conditions” in Afghanistan. DHS cites a “notable reduction in violence and armed conflict,” signs of a slight improvement in Afghanistan’s economy, a slight reduction in the large number of individuals requiring humanitarian assistance, an increase in foreign tourism, and a decrease in kidnapping rates.

However, Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous and repressive countries in the world. Indeed, the same experts on which DHS relied for its analysis of the prevailing security conditions in 2025 also observed that while armed conflict in Afghanistan may have decreased, it is also true that “broader human security has decreased for much of the population due to increased poverty, hunger and the Taliban’s repression and structural violence.” More than half of Afghanistan’s population requires humanitarian aid, and female-headed households are cut off from receiving it and from participation in the economy.

Critically, DHS’s assessment also ignores that the U.S. TPS designation for Afghanistan was issued in part due to the serious personal safety risks resulting from the Taliban’s total disregard for human rights.

In its September 2023 extension and redesignation of TPS for Afghanistan, DHS cited the Taliban’s commission of “summary killings, disappearances, information blackouts, and physical abuse” in response to resistance; repression of women’s ability to meaningfully participate in public and private life and the regular commission of gender-based violence; repression of the exercise religious freedom and targeted violations against the Hazara religious and ethnic minority; reprisals against former employees of the prior government; and abuses against activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and participants in protests. Not only are the patterns of human rights abuse flagged in the September 2023 TPS extension still occurring – as noted by the U.S. Department of State in its most recent Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Afghanistan, published in April 2024 – they have become more serious over time.

In its latest report, published in March 2025, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that Afghanistan experienced “a continual and significant decline in religious freedom conditions” during 2024 and recommended that it be designated a Country of Particular Concern due to “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations, including targeted violence against and persecution of

religious minority communities. USCIRF also sharply criticized the deportation of Afghans, noting that they “face serious religious restrictions or even mortal peril upon their return.”

Similarly, in February 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan warned, “Intensifying Taliban repression, expanding discrimination against women and girls, shrinking civic space, violations against ethnic and religious and an alarming escalation in corporal punishment and other violence are stark warnings that things in Afghanistan are only getting worse.” He further noted that the Taliban’s “systematic gender oppression has been further expanded and institutionalized through new measures” and is “unparalleled globally,” potentially amounting to crimes against humanity. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented dozens of targeted killings, including of six former government and Afghan security forces members between January and March 2025, as well as widespread arbitrary detention and torture and the brutal suppression of protests by Taliban authorities.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has maintained a “non-return” advisory for Afghanistan since 2021 urging all States to grant access to Afghan nationals and, where asylum systems are overwhelmed, to establish temporary protection or stay arrangements until conditions allow for safe, dignified voluntary repatriation. DHS’s decision to terminate TPS for Afghanistan directly contravenes this guidance.

Termination of TPS for Afghanistan Contravenes U.S. Domestic and International Law Obligations

DHS’s decision to terminate TPS for Afghanistan appears inconsistent not only with American values but also with both U.S. domestic and international legal obligations.

Under U.S. domestic law, set forth in Section 244(b)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, TPS may only be terminated if the conditions that led to the initial designation no longer exist. Moreover, the government is required to base any decision to terminate TPS on an objective consideration and good faith analysis of country conditions. As the above statements from authoritative U.S. and international sources demonstrate, Afghanistan remains manifestly unsafe, and conditions that motivated the TPS designation for Afghanistan still exist.

DHS also justified the termination of TPS on grounds that the continued presence of Afghans in the United States contravenes U.S. national security and threatens public safety, citing alleged cases in which Afghan beneficiaries of TPS status engaged in fraud, yet these are concerns that could be adequately addressed through individual vetting and on a case-by case basis. Invoking isolated allegations of individual misconduct to justify terminating TPS disregards the clear intent of U.S. law that such determinations should be based on country conditions, not individual behavior.

DHS’s termination of TPS for Afghanistan also places the United States at serious risk of violating its international obligations, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of individuals to countries where they face a serious risk of torture or persecution, and reflected in instruments including the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Convention against Torture.

Conclusion

DHS’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan defies reality; places thousands of Afghan nationals currently residing in the U.S. at risk of suffering grave harm; and could incentivize

other governments to similarly jeopardize the safety of displaced Afghans who would face violence, persecution, and brutal repression at the hands of the Taliban. JBI urges the U.S. government to urgently reverse course, vigorously oppose the Taliban’s inhumane policies, reaffirm its intention to adhere to its legal obligations, and restore the U.S. legacy of providing refuge to those fleeing persecution.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, JBI appeals to UN leaders and diplomats for moral courage and leadership to reject surging antisemitism and promote Holocaust memory

On January 27, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights convened an event at AJC commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day and appealing to diplomats and UN leaders to act with moral leadership and courage to affirm and confront the increasingly prevalent antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and distortion, that has instilled in many Jews an acute sense of alienation and hostility, including from the United Nations. The recording of the event can be viewed here.

Several participants affirmed their intention to take further efforts to promote Holocaust knowledge, counter the spread of hate, and promote greater respect for the human rights of all, including in cooperation with the United Nations. The launch on January 17, 2025 of the new UN Action Plan to Enhance Monitoring and Response to Antisemitism, was noted positively as a acknowledgement on the part of UN leaders of the need for institutional change. The event, in which over 90 guests, including 30 members of the diplomatic community in New York, immediately followed the official International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at United Nations Headquarters.  

At the JBI event, Holocaust survivor Gabriella Major shared her personal story and underscored the impact of the alarming rise of antisemitism, recounting how one of her grandchildren has recently felt unsafe, isolated, and afraid to live on his college campus due to antisemitism, which she characterized as a disturbing echo of the discriminatory environment her parents and other European Jews experienced in the 1930s.

JBI Director Christen Broecker recalled JBI's decades-long effort, a priority of former JBI Director Felice Gaer, to encourage United Nations diplomats and leaders to act on their responsibility to acknowledge and confront antisemitism and  promote knowledge of the Holocaust, including through the world body. She recalled that UN leaders and bodies refused to acknowledge the Holocaust for nearly 60 years after the organization's founding, noting that this shameful failing was finally corrected only as a result of the moral courage of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the constructive engagement with him by advocates including Annan's trusted communications adviser, Dr. Eve Epstein.

Annan's recognition of the Holocaust of the Jews and the need for the UN human rights agenda to address antisemitism were critical steps that encouraged Member States to act collectively to adopt resolutions recognizing the Holocaust, creating Holocaust remembrance and education programs, and condemning Holocaust denial. Despite the serious setbacks experienced over the past year, these are an enduring reminder of the potential for positive change at the UN even in extraordinarily difficult political contexts. Broecker pointed to the UN's new Plan of Action on Antisemitism as a welcome signal from UN Secretary-General and Under-Secretary-General Miguel Moratinos, the UN focal point on antisemitism, that the UN's senior leadership acknowledges that it has a responsibility to do more to address the surging antisemitism occurring around the world and at the UN today. She expressed JBI's commitment to continue working with UN system actors willing to implement the plan, ensure UN staff are educated to understand, recognize, and reject antisemitism, and lead the UN better fulfill its mission to improve protection of the rights of all, even at this especially challenging time.

"International Law Under Fire": The 2024 JBI Human Rights Lecture by Prof. Yuval Shany

On September 26, 2024, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) gathered prominent experts, diplomats, advocates, and scholars for the JBI Human Rights Lecture in New York City. Delivered by Professor Yuval Shany, entitled “International Law Under Fire: The International Rule of Law, International Lawfare and the Gaza War,” the lecture examines the erosion of the international rule-based order amidst global crises and escalating challenges. Professor Shany is an esteemed authority in public international law and former chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

A Pivotal Moment for International Governance

Professor Shany’s lecture occurred at a critical juncture for the international rule-based order. Crises in countries around the world underline the urgent need for robust human rights mechanisms. At the same time, the international system is increasingly seen as impotent and politicized, particularly with respect to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Shany expresses particular concern about the trend of international law appliers advancing legally dubious and practically unsustainable positions against States that are threatened by non-State actors that effectively deny States the ability to protect their legitimate interests. Observing that "international law...is not a suicide pact," Shany observes that this practice is encouraging State actors encountering these claims to adopt more confrontational positions towards the international rule-based order than they otherwise would have and undermining the ability of outside critics to invoke international law against them even when they violate widely-supported norms. 

Shany also warns of another alarming trend of certain international legal actors with strong political agendas promoting loose and hyperbolic interpretations of international law for the purpose of inflicting reputational harm on States. Shany observed that this practice erodes these actors' credibility while also raising unrealistic expectations among some constituencies that international courts and law enforcement bodies will act on their claims and will eventually generate further popular disappointment with international law.

Shany also exhorts international law appliers to handle this fragile system "with care" and avoid "overreaching in making legal claims that have limited support in legal doctrine and the actual facts on the ground, and which run contrary to important and legitimate state interests, around which the rule-based order is built, such as protection from acts of aggression and resorting to self-defense when necessary." He urges those that have done so to "reconsider their drift towards fringe legal positions that are often based on overly-ambitious structural change agendas and/or collapsing important distinctions between law and politics" and "avoid adopting controversial, at times hyperbolic, legal characterizations when more simple and straight forward ones are readily available."

Shany urges international law appliers to act responsibility and work to restrain the loose and hyperbolic use of international law, recalling that their ability to use it as a basis for advocacy depends on the continued viability of the rule-based international order. He stresses: "For our fragile rule-based international system, the perception that key actors in the system apply international law in a manner that is highly politicized is extremely harmful." Without such changes, he warns, confidence in the impartiality of international law and its ability to address modern challenges will only continue to erode at a time when it is critically needed.

A recording of the lecture can be viewed here: 

Felice Gaer, Legendary Human Rights Champion Who Inspired Generations of Global Advocates, Dies at 78

 

Felice Gaer Baran, an internationally renowned human rights expert who for more than four decades brought life and practical significance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international commitments to prevent grave human rights abuses around the world, died on November 9, 2024 in New York City, following a lengthy battle with metastatic breast cancer. She was 78.  At the time of her death, she was the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI).

Longtime UN official and Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2003-2004 Bertrand Ramcharan characterized Gaer as a “pillar of the human rights movement.” Former High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein similarly deemed Gaer “a highly regarded champion of the universal human rights agenda.” 

Throughout her career, in myriad roles, Gaer insisted that governments and the United Nations should consistently condemn the practices of tyrants and authoritarians and recognize that many forms of harm and inequality once considered ‘internal affairs’ of states as human rights abuses. Gaer's influence established more protective interpretations of human rights norms from within and outside the United Nations human rights system. She effectively advocated for the creation and evolution of numerous international institutions and processes that play a critical role today in monitoring states’ human rights practices and holding violators to account.

Gaer achieved international recognition among human rights advocates as a force multiplier capable of overcoming the obstacles within government bureaucracies and multilateral institutions that often allow perpetrators of egregious abuses to avoid scrutiny and condemnation. Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, who served as the UN’s independent monitor on human rights in Iran and on the right to freedom of religion or belief, praised Gaer’s “exemplary track record” in 2021, stating that “You and JBI have made exemplary contributions to advancing human rights through the UN, especially in strengthening the effectiveness of the UN’s human rights mechanisms. Your own personal contribution, not just through the JBI, but in your own capacity as a member of the UN Committee against Torture and other roles, are not only legendary, but are a source of inspiration for everyone.” Elena Bonner, a one-time Soviet political prisoner, founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, relentless advocate for democratic change in Russia, and wife of famed Soviet physicist, dissident, and Nobel Laureate Andrei Sakharov, with whom Gaer worked closely, recounted in 1997 that Gaer’s fierce approach to advocacy had helped a nascent international human rights movement find its voice. Said Bonner, “it was thanks to individuals like...Felice...who had the courage to be impertinent, that today it is more and more difficult for the rights-violating governments to challenge the universality of human rights and to ignore human rights concerns.”

Gaer began her career at the Ford Foundation as a program officer in 1974, focusing on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; subsequently, her areas also included arms control and human rights.  At Ford, she became heavily involved in advocacy for the rights of Soviet Jewish refuseniks and encouraging broader internal changes that would catalyze greater respect for human rights for all in the Soviet Union. She maintained a passion for championing individual rights defenders while expanding her geographical focus. As the Executive Director of the International League for Human Rights from 1982 to 1991, Gaer championed human rights defenders throughout Latin America, particularly in Chile and Venezuela. She then served as Director of European Programs for the United Nations Association of the USA from 1992 to 1993, before becoming director at the Jacob Blaustein Institute in 1993–where she remained for the following three decades.

Gaer served for nine terms as an appointed “public member” of official U.S. government delegations to United Nations meetings between 1993 and 1999, including six U.S. delegations to meetings of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. As a public member of the U.S. delegation to the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Gaer’s advocacy was instrumental in the creation of the position of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Gaer also played a critical role in bringing about the conceptual and political victory that the U.S. government achieved for women’s rights at the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing – at which the UN explicitly recognized for the first time that women’s rights are human rights – working closely with US Ambassador to the UN  Commission on Human Rights Geraldine Ferraro and First Lady Hillary Clinton. 

In 1999, Gaer became the first American and first woman to serve on the 10-person United Nations Committee against Torture, an expert body that monitors implementation of the Convention against Torture. She was first nominated as a candidate by the U.S. government during the Clinton administration and was renominated by Presidents George W. Bush and Obama. She was elected by UN member States to five four-year terms as an independent expert member and vice-chair of the Committee from 1999 to 2019, an unpaid position which she held concurrently with her other professional roles.

Over her 20 years on the United Nations Committee against Torture, Gaer insisted that the Committee and all other UN treaty bodies should affirmatively and publicly press governments to address allegations of wrongdoing, rather than accepting States’ assertions of compliance at face value. She led the Committee to develop practices that made it far more accessible to non-governmental organizations and human rights defenders seeking to share evidence of human rights violations. She also devoted extraordinary effort to ensuring that the Committee acted on information it received from third parties and conveyed accurate appreciation of the key human rights challenges occurring in every country it reviewed. Her rigorous and unsparing critiques – and her practice of inquiring about alleged victims of torture and arbitrarily imprisoned lawyers and advocates by name in public meetings – occasionally provoked angry outbursts by government officials accustomed to deferential, non-adversarial treatment in UN settings. However, Gaer’s approach turned what might otherwise have been pro-forma exercises into valuable opportunities for advocates to secure formal UN recognition of their claims.

Gaer’s efforts also led to a transformation in the Committee’s against Torture’s approach to the issue of violence against women, which previously was seen only as often a private matter rather than a form of torture or ill treatment for which perpetrators should be punished and victims of which are entitled to redress. The Committee became an important avenue for women’s rights advocates seeking to compel governments to develop more effective national capacities to protect women from violence, as well as members of vulnerable groups such as religious minorities and LGBTQI persons. These efforts brought significant public attention to previously overlooked issues in several countries. In one particularly noted case, Gaer’s insistence at public Committee meetings that Ireland had failed to address the abuses of the church-run ‘Magdalene Laundries’ – which had imprisoned and punished women the church had deemed ‘morally irresponsible’ – galvanized local advocates’ efforts for an official government inquiry to redress this longstanding historical injustice and acknowledge the State’s enduring obligations to survivors of the Laundries.

Gaer also championed the rights of religious minorities and victims of violence justified in the name of religion in countries around the world. Gaer was appointed and served five terms as an independent expert member of the bipartisan federal U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2001-2012, including as its chair. In that capacity, Gaer traveled to countries ranging from Sudan and Egypt to China to Afghanistan, directly pressing government officials to change policies and practices. She testified frequently before Congress and organizations including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on religious freedom issues.

Gaer’s commitment to universality also inspired her to work for decades to correct the persistent failure of the United Nations to recognize antisemitism as a serious human rights concern and to recognize the Holocaust as its most violent manifestation. Her engagement with public delegations to the UN Commission on Human Rights encouraged the U.S. to secure the inclusion of the first reference to antisemitism as an evil that UN efforts should seek to eradicate, in a resolution of the UN General Assembly, in a 1998 text condemning racism, using language previously negotiated by the U.S. at the Commission. 

Thereafter, Gaer participated in the NGO conference that preceded the 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, hopeful that it presented a moment of opportunity to secure recognition of Jews alongside other minorities facing racism and intolerance. When the conference devolved into a spectacle marked by overt displays of antisemitism and harassment and isolation of Jewish participants, leaving an indelible mark on Gaer and other Jewish participants and their allies, Gaer mobilized efforts among the ‘survivors’ of Durban to reflect on and memorialize lessons learned from the experience. 

Gaer emerged from Durban with greater conviction of the responsibility of UN leaders to consistently demonstrate principled leadership and to reject discrimination and displays of identity-based hatred and remained determined to strengthen the international human rights framework for the benefit of all. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who in 1998 became the first UN leader to acknowledge the Holocaust by name, was particularly receptive to these efforts. Together with Annan’s communications advisor, Gaer influenced the Secretary-General to affirm that the “Holocaust of the Jews” was “unique,” commemorate the centenary of Genocide Convention author Raphael Lemkin’s death in 2001, meet with an international delegation of Jewish leaders in 2005, and undertake new UN efforts to develop meaningful programs commemorating the Holocaust. Later, working with senior officials, Gaer supported US efforts to overcome the divisive legacy of Durban and negotiate a universally supported UN anti-racism agenda. She also collaborated with the advisers to successive UN Secretaries-General on Genocide Prevention, elaborating on the obligation to prevent genocide and developing UN policy guidance on combating Holocaust denial and genocide denial. 

Gaer played a singularly important role in catalyzing UN attention to worrying trends of rising global antisemitism that began to be observed in many countries by 2017. At her direction, JBI provided support to and brought representatives of Jewish communities around the world to consultations with then-UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, who then published the first stand-alone UN report on global antisemitism as a human rights concern in 2019 and an action plan on antisemitism in 2022. This was a truly ‘historic’ development that demonstrated to many skeptical Jewish community leaders and human rights advocates the enduring potential for United Nations mechanisms to encourage greater protection of the human rights of all. Said Irwin Cotler, acclaimed scholar and human rights advocate and former Canadian Special Envoy on Combating Antisemitism, “What you have done with respect to learning about and combating antisemitism…are sans pareille.” 

Gaer not only shared her wisdom and practical experience with colleagues but also convened numerous strategy discussions and facilitated the work of hundreds of human rights defenders, advocates, and other independent UN experts through JBI grants that empowered and encouraged their efforts to advance human rights norms and protections on a wide range of subjects and countries. For many colleagues and beneficiaries of her support, Gaer was an invaluable resource, strategist, collaborator, mentor, and friend.

A prolific author of over 40 published articles and book chapters and editor of the volume “The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: Conscience for the World,” Gaer received the American Society of International Law’s Honorary Member Award in 2023, an Honorary Doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2018, and the First Freedom Center's prestigious National First Freedom Award for her religious freedom advocacy in 2010. Gaer’s JBI was also named a “Champion of Prevention” by the UN Office on the Prevention of Genocide in 2023. 

One of three children of Abraham Gaer, a businessman who owned a toy shop, and his wife Beatrice Etish Gaer, Felice was born on June 16, 1946 in Englewood, New Jersey. She was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey and graduated from Teaneck High School. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College and pursued her graduate studies in political science at Columbia University’s Russian Institute (now Harriman Institute), where she received a  Master of Arts degree in 1971 and a Master of Philosophy degree in Political Science in 1975. In 1975, she married Dr. Henryk Baran, a professor at the State University of New York-Albany; Dr. Baran has a long and distinguished career specializing in Russian literature and culture of the Russian Silver Age and avant garde. The couple’s two sons – Adam, a queer filmmaker and curator, and Hugh, a workers’ rights attorney who litigates wage theft, discrimination, and forced labor cases – survive her, as do her brother Arthur Gaer, sister Wendy Philipps, son-in-law Jacob Rozenberg, five nephews, and ten cousins. Gaer’s wisdom, support, conviction, and passionate concern for all humanity made her truly exceptional, and she will be deeply missed.

~ Christen Broecker, Deputy Director, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights

JBI Appeal on International Women’s Day

A new JBI appeal published today to mark International Women's Day calls on governments to take renewed action to bring an end to severe discrimination and gender-based violence against women and girls around the world.

The appeal, which is available in full here, reflects on three situations:

Afghanistan, where the Taliban have imposed uniquely widespread and systematic institutionalized discrimination against women and girls amounting to gender persecution, a crime against humanity. JBI echoes calls by the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan for governments to refuse to recognize the Taliban and avoid normalizing its rule;

Iran, where women and girls face severe and violent repression, epitomized by the security forces' use of patterns of rape and sexual violence to silence, deter, and punish "Woman, Life, Freedom" protesters documented in a report published today by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, finding that senior officials bear responsibility for gender persecution; and

Israel, where women and girls experienced horrific violence, including sexual violence, during and following Hamas’s brutal attacks on October 7, 2023, denial of which has deepened the trauma many Israelis are experiencing. JBI welcomes the March 2024 report of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict validating these claims and echoes her call for the immediate release of the hostages, still in Hamas' captivity, who remain at great risk. 

We urge all leaders to mark International Women’s Day by recognizing these situations and to call for more effective action to acknowledge and secure the rights of women and girls everywhere to equality, autonomy, and protection from violence.

Read the full statement here and below.  

 

JBI Commemorates 75th Anniversary of Genocide Convention and Lemkin's Legacy, Named UN "Champion of Prevention"

December 9, 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention). The Genocide Convention’s adoption, ratification, and effective implementation have been significant JBI priorities since its founding in 1971. JBI’s 2001 publication An Epitaph for Raphael Lemkin, by Dr. William Korey, led the UN to formally recognize Lemkin’s role in developing the Genocide Convention for the first time. JBI also developed, in cooperation with the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, a Compilation of Human Rights-Related Risk Factors for Genocide, a Manual on Human Rights and the Prevention of Genocide, and the 2022 UN Policy Paper Combating Holocaust and Genocide Denial: Protecting Survivors, Preserving Memory, and Promoting Prevention.

In recognition of these efforts, JBIs work was featured in two of the official events commemorating the landmark 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention: the official UN event marking the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide, at which JBI was recognized by the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide as a "Champion of Prevention," and an event convened by JBI in cooperation with the UN Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention reflecting on the legacy of Raphael Lemkin, the "Father of the Genocide Convention."

New JBI Appeal Tracks Surging Global Antisemitism and Calls for Protection

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) has issued a new appeal, Global Leaders, Experts Must Reject Surging Antisemitism Worldwide and Affirm Jews’ Equal Rights, which provides emblematic examples from 25 countries reflecting incidents in which antisemitic hate speech, discrimination, and physical attacks against Jews and Jewish sites have occurred since Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel.

Observing that Jews worldwide are facing an alarming and unprecedented surge in hatred and threats of violence, it notes that “Silence by international authorities in this context is perceived to reflect ambivalence or uncertainty as to how antisemitism is manifested in contexts involving Israel, and has been deeply alienating for the already traumatized Jews who are its real targets.” It calls on United Nations leaders, experts, and others to reaffirm that international and political developments never justify antisemitism and to clarify that while criticism of Israel is not per se antisemitic, such expression is condemnable when it reflects, fuels, or incites identity-based hatred of or violence or discrimination against Jews. 

The appeal also urges leaders and experts to:

• Call on governments to assess Jewish communities’ needs in coordination with them and provide the necessary security assistance they require at this time of crisis.
• Call on governments to ensure that police and law enforcement are aware of the urgent need to protect Jews from threats of violence and ensure police and law enforcement receive training and instruction that Jewish people are not responsible for the words and actions of the Israeli or any other government, and that acts directed against them on this basis are antisemitic.
• Call on social media and technology companies to prohibit antisemitic content on their platforms and services, including misinformation and disinformation that has the effect of conveying antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracies, and take the necessary steps to fully enforce their harmful content and misinformation policies across all languages and dialects.
• Urge university administrators to condemn antisemitic acts and ensure the safety of Jewish students, like all other students.
• Call on other non-state actors, including faith leaders and civil society organizations, to reject and counter antisemitic statements, including those that imply that Jewish people are responsible for the words and actions of the Israeli government.

The full appeal is available here.

Iran: One Year After Mahsa Amini’s Killing, Widespread Human Rights Violations Remain an Urgent Concern

One year after historic popular protests against pervasive violence and discrimination against women emerged across Iran, the regime remains resolutely committed to denying its people’s human rights.  

On September 16, 2022, Jina Mahsa Amini died in custody following her arrest three days earlier by Iran’s morality police, who had accused her of failing to cover her hair in accordance with the country’s mandatory veiling law for women. Amini’s death sparked more than 1,600 protests around the country, many led by women and girls and featuring chants of “Woman, Life, Freedom.” 

The protests were followed by widespread or systematic killing, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual violence, and persecution. Iranian authorities reportedly killed more than 500 protestors, more than half from Kurdish and Baluch areas of Iran, and nearly 20,000 protesters were arrested. Among those particularly targeted for arrest and punishment were hundreds of children, more than 60 of whom were killed. Many of those arrested were subjected to torture and ill-treatment and were tried in secret before Islamic revolutionary courts in proceedings that violated basic due process standards. Iranian authorities also imposed internet blackouts and other extreme restrictions on communication to prevent the sharing of information and further protests.

As Iranian authorities deepen their repression, it is incumbent on the international community to recognize and condemn these ongoing abuses and insist on a change. Additional analysis and recommendations from the Jacob Blaustein Institute about speaking out and accountability are detailed in the report, found here.  

New JBI Appeal Calls for Urgent Protective Action in Response to the Escalating Risk of Genocide in Darfur, Sudan

A new statement by the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI), The Escalating Risk of Genocide in Darfur, Sudan: Urgent Appeal for Protection, calls on the U.S. and other foreign governments to make it an urgent priority to act individually and collectively to compel the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and militias allied with it to cease carrying out attacks targeting members of non-Arab groups and to protect populations that are currently threatened with genocide in Darfur.

Since violent conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023, serious violations of international humanitarian law appear to have been committed by each of the principal parties to the conflict – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF. Particularly alarmingly, photographic evidence, satellite imagery, and testimonies published as of August 20, 2023, indicate that at least six of the Human Rights Related Risk-Factors for Genocide developed by JBI in cooperation with the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide have been committed by the RSF and allied militias against non-Arab groups, particularly the Masalit, in Darfur. These include the widespread commission of human rights abuses targeting members of particular ethnic groups such as destruction and looting of property; denial of access to basic necessities; forcible transfer; killing and enforced disappearances, including of community leaders; denial of freedom of movement; and the commission of sexual violence.

JBI has previously appealed for effective international action to respond to the genocide committed from 2003-2005 against some of the same non-Arab groups in Darfur that are once again being targeted with serious patterns of violations again today. The reported violations being documented in Darfur are a shameful reminder of the consequences of inadequately responding to risks of genocide.

Regrettably, for the most part, the international actors and foreign governments that are endeavoring to bring about an end to the broader conflict in Sudan have not yet responded to mounting evidence that a serious risk of genocide exists in Darfur by taking specific actions commensurate with it. While welcoming the August 9, 2023, warning by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield to the UN Security Council that “History is repeating itself–in the most tragic way possible” in Darfur, JBI calls for the U.S. and foreign governments to take additional actions to respond to this risk as a matter of priority, in line with the obligation in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide for States to “employ all means reasonably available” to prevent genocide from taking place. Specifically, JBI calls on the U.S. and other governments to:

1. Urgently undertake diplomatic efforts to mobilize governments to express concern about the risk of genocide in Darfur at the highest levels of leadership and to take actions aimed at addressing this risk;
2. Make it a diplomatic priority to impede the ability of the RSF and allied militias to obtain weapons and other forms of support that are enabling them to carry out ethnically-motivated violence in Darfur;
3. Take measures to protect civilians in Darfur and Sudanese refugees in Chad and ensure they have access to humanitarian aid;
4. Engage representative Darfuri stakeholders in all ongoing processes to negotiate solutions to the conflict in Sudan; and
5. Encourage UN leaders to undertake, and States to support and initiate, fact-finding efforts that include an assessment of whether the obligation to prevent genocide has been triggered in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan, and to make their findings public, and urge all UN system actors to (i) report on and express concern to relevant stakeholders when they become aware that human rights violations constituting risk factors for genocide are occurring, (ii) avoid taking actions that aid forces engaged in abuses constituting risk factors for genocide, and (iii) avoid repeating past failures in this area, for example as occurred in Myanmar in the context of the genocidal attack against the Rohingya.

The full JBI statement can be viewed here.

JBI Urges International Action to Curb Domestic Repression and Widespread Rights Abuses in Russia

Since 2021, Russian authorities have escalated their longstanding concerted campaign of repression directed against its perceived domestic opponents for the apparent purpose of silencing dissent and independent groups within Russia. This repression has entailed widespread violations of the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association; and arbitrary detention, often  accompanied by torture and ill-treatment.

As a consequence of this repression, Russia’s civil society, independent media, and political opposition have been dramatically weakened; the number of political prisoners and wrongly detained individuals has increased; and many who have not been detained for having expressed opposition to the war or for having engaged in political dissent, human rights advocacy, or independent journalism have been compelled to flee the country or curtail their work. Russia’s domestic repression has also been both a catalyst of and a consequence of its aggression against Ukraine and its commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 In a new briefing paper, entitled “Human Rights Violations inside the Russian Federation: A Catalyst and Consequence of Russia’s Aggression,” the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights calls on governments to take measures, individually and collectively, including at the United Nations, to respond meaningfully to Russia’s domestic repression.

Specifically, JBI recommends that all governments: 

1.    Support independent monitors documenting rights violations committed by Russia, particularly the newly-appointed UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia and human rights defenders and journalists who have been forced to flee the country, and amplify their findings.

2.   Hold Russia accountable at international organizations for its systematic rights violations, particularly by ensuring that Russia’s campaign for re-election to the UN Human Rights Council in October is unsuccessful.                                                        

3.   take steps to hold Russian perpetrators of serious human rights violations accountable, particularly by designating additional Russian officials under so called “Magnitsky-style” targeted sanctions regimes that allow for the imposition of financial sanctions and travel restrictions against individuals credibly alleged to have committed serious human rights violations or engaged in corruption.

4.   Provide protection and redress to Russian human rights defenders, journalists, and other victims of its repression, particularly by ensuring that foreign diplomats inside Russia actively seek to assess the detention conditions of and monitor judicial proceedings concerning Russian political prisoners and other wrongly detained individuals like Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny, who have allegedly been denied medical attention and are at serious risk of harm, and working to secure the release of foreign nationals wrongly detained by Russian authorities, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich.

The full statement is available here.