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Human Rights & Foreign Aid blog
The Budapest Memorandum and the Nuclear Arsenal Ukraine Gave Up What Ukraine got in 1994 for giving up the third-largest nuclear arsenal, why it got assurances, not guarantees, and what that teaches about nonproliferation. Conditioning Military Aid and the Old Argument Over Leverage on Allies When Ronald Reagan suspended cluster munitions shipments to Israel in 1982, he joined a long American argument: should military aid to partners come with conditions, and does leverage ever work? Distinction, Proportionality, Precaution: The Rules That Govern Every Strike The three core targeting rules of the laws of war, where they came from in 1949 and 1977, and why they bind every army and armed group equally, whatever the cause. Henry Dunant at Solferino and the Founding of the Red Cross How a Genevan businessman who stumbled onto the battlefield of Solferino in 1859 wrote the book that created the Red Cross and the first Geneva Convention, and why his idea still matters. Hostage-Taking Is a War Crime, and the Law Behind the Families' Campaign From the families in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square to the Geneva Conventions: why taking hostages is forbidden to every party in every war, how the rule was built, and where its edges are argued. How Asylum Works, From the 1980 Refugee Act to a Border Interview What asylum law actually requires, from the 1980 Refugee Act's definition of a refugee to the credible fear interview at the border and the years-long wait in immigration court. How the Paris Agreement Actually Works, From the Gavel at Le Bourget Why the Paris climate deal runs on national pledges, a five-year ratchet and public scrutiny instead of penalties, and what that design can and cannot do. Rebuilding Gaza After the October 2025 Ceasefire and Who Pays for It The October 2025 ceasefire stopped most of the shooting. How big Gaza's rebuilding job is, who has pledged money, and why past pledges went unpaid. Russia's Deportation of Ukrainian Children and the ICC Warrant for Putin Why the ICC's March 2023 warrant for Vladimir Putin is about children, what the law says about moving children in war and what it takes to bring them home. South Africa's Genocide Case at the ICJ and What Provisional Measures Mean What the World Court actually ordered in South Africa v. Israel on January 26, 2024, what it did not decide, and how a genocide case moves from emergency orders to a final judgment. Starvation as a Method of War and What International Law Forbids What the law says about starving civilians in war, from Security Council Resolution 2417 to the 2025 famine finding in Gaza City, and how hunger is measured, prohibited and prosecuted. The Dismantling of USAID in 2025 and Whether a President Can Close an Agency How USAID went from a locked headquarters in February 2025 to a State Department remnant by July, and what courts said about closing an agency Congress created. The Leahy Law and the Rule That US Weapons Not Go to Abusive Units How a 1997 Leahy amendment came to bar US aid to foreign security units credibly implicated in gross abuses, how vetting works and why critics call it uneven. The Montreal Protocol, the Treaty That Began to Mend the Ozone Hole How a 1987 treaty backed by the Reagan administration and ratified without dissent by the Senate set the ozone layer on the path to recovery, and what climate diplomacy can borrow from it. The Pocket Rescission of August 2025 and Spending Congress Already Approved How a rescission request sent in the last weeks of the 2025 fiscal year let about $4.9 billion in foreign aid expire without a vote, and why the legal fight over it matters for every appropriation. UNRWA From Its 1949 Founding to the Fight Over Aid for Palestinian Refugees How a temporary 1949 UN agency became school, clinic and food line for millions of Palestinian refugees, and why Israel's 2024 laws and donor cuts hit it.