The death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky in November shocked the world and mobilised President Medvedev into a promise of reform. Yet, as a second death tragically illustrates, the system has remained essentially unchanged: brutal, dependent and secretive.
In recognising a right of conscientious objection specifically to military service, the international community of nation states has effectively conceded the morality of such a standpoint. An eventual extension of the interpretation of this right to embrace conscientious objections to payment towa
Conscientious objection is not "opting out". It is an effort to stimulate a new social imagination and a revolutionary mentality that does not normalise violence.
A new anthology of women conscientious objectors reveals the extent to which rejection to military service is part of a greater movement for social change. Vanessa Alexander went along to the book launch
The longing for 'macho' style 'strong' politics is exposed by the UK's post-election arguments
Too much is expected of the BBC, and, in consequence, it does too much. Such a position is unsustainable, argues David Graham
The UK is almost alone in Europe in detaining migrants indefinitely. The cost to the taxpayer does not come cheap. The costs to detainees are incalculable. But in the long term, the most serious damage may be to the British tradition of defending civil liberties from arbitrary state power.
Has the search for efficiency opened politics to domination by special, collusive interests? Yes, and turns citizens into subjects, politics into government. Liberal economics and democracy are no longer the complements they were once thought to be
Indirect Israel-Palestine peace talks underway after four-month deadlock. Death toll rises as Thai peace plan stalls. Afghan peace draft considers Taliban exile. four killed as elections begin in the Philippines. All this and more in today’s security update.
How and when will the Rome Statute and Security Council Resolution 1325 actually contribute to the delivery of justice to a critical mass of the world’s women?
The general election revealed widening fissures in the UK's multi-national state that lie behind the hanging of parliament
Erin van der Maas outlines the role civil society needs to play to ensure public service media
