Rory O'Connell

The European human rights system is coming under sustained political pressure with relentless misinformation and scapegoating.

We have established the AGORA Group as a pan-European platform committed to dialogue & inquiry on key issues concerning the ECHR.

Please join us!

lnkd.in/e3HhescZ

Reinforce, Reform or Rupture? The Future of the European Convention on Human Rights Introduction  If a week is a long time in politics, then two years is an eternity for the Council of Europe. At the Reykjavik summit in May 2023, European leaders across the political spectrum reaffir...

Reinforce, Reform or Rupture? The Future of the European Convention on Human Rights | by Alice Donald and Andrew Forde

The select committee report on the asylum hotel shambles highlights a point I made repeatedly - the absurd gimicks pursued by the last govt like Rwanda took resources away from running the actual system properly.

Right, I have read the three published witness statements closely, and...

...well.

I have spotted some rather interesting points.

I may also have worked out how the CPS thought the evidential test was somehow met at charging stage but not on the eve of prosecution.

Post will be up about 10am.

Live Coverage: Louisiana v. Callais SCOTUS arguments The ACLU is at the Supreme Court for oral arguments in Louisiana v. Callais. Follow live coverage of the fight to defend voting rights.

We're at the Supreme Court to defend Black voters’ power at the polls.

Follow along for live updates.

A 160-year-old campaign against civil rights heads to the supreme court Louisiana v Callais could roll back what remains of the Voting Rights Act, putting the future of America’s multiracial democracy at stake

Oral arguments in the SCOTUS case challenging the VRA - and whether it’s unconstitutional racial discrimination to prohibit legislatures from redistricting away minority voters’ political power - start shortly.

Here’s my preview - on the case & term: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

New HoL committee report on NI post Brexit. A surprising amount of agreement across a broad spectrum of witnesses that much more could be done to smooth the process of applying EU law in NI. Key recommendations for UKMis (FCDO in Brussels) & the UK Govt:

publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ld...

Congratulations to Dr Georgia Stanley on passing her PhD viva this morning! Georgia’s title was ‘The Second Rape: An Investigative Analysis of Rape Myth Narratives in Courtroom and Media Discourses’. Examiners congratulated Georgia on her excellent, well-researched and well-presented thesis!

High Commissioner’s Opening Statement to the 76th plenary session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme | UNHCR (As delivered)Mr. Chairman, Señor Presidente, Distinguished Delegates, Dear colleagues,

'States have a shared responsibility to protect those fleeing for their lives. Sovereignty and the right to seek asylum are not incompatible. They are complementary.' Read the full speech by UN High Commissioner for Refugees here @unhcr.org www.unhcr.org/news/speeche...

My week finished with a trip to Vancouver and the opportunity to visit, and meet students and staff, at Brentwood College School and St. Michaels University School in Victoria and Stratford High School and Mulgrave High School in Vancouver. @ulsteruni.bsky.social @ulsterunischlaw.bsky.social

A highlight of my visit to Toronto last week was the chance to visit (HTS) Holy Trinity School on Orange T-Shirt Day, part of National Truth and Reconciliation Week. @ulsteruni.bsky.social @ulsterunischlaw.bsky.social

It was a pleasure to go to Toronto on behalf of @ulsteruni.bsky.social & @ulsterunischlaw.bsky.social to visit Lakefield College School, Lauremont School, and Upper Canada College.

Wolfson Final Report | Conservatives Wolfson Final Report

Like most apologias, the Wolfson report isn't supposed to be read, it's just supposed to exist to provide cover. But this is really pretty limited cover. If anyone is bothered, note the utter lack of any references re the GFA.

It's all just vibes:

www.conservatives.com/wolfson-fina...

Scholars at Risk is now active on Bluesky! SAR is an international network of institutions and individuals working to protect scholars and promote academic freedom. Keep an eye out for our upcoming #Free2Think2025 report, documenting global attacks on #highered! Learn more: scholarsatrisk.org

Free to Think 2025 | Scholars at Risk Free to Think 2025 is the eleventh installment of an annual report by SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, and analyzes 395 attacks on higher education communities around the world.

SAR’s #Free2Think2025 report is here! As violent threats to #highered in authoritarian contexts persist, recent years have seen increases in attacks on historically liberal contexts—incl. in the #UnitedStates. Read the report’s pressing findings now: www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/fr...

Apart from the unnecessary hardship this will inflict on individuals, this will be bad for integration and social cohesion, bad for the economy, and will increase irregular migration.

[And, as @robfordmancs.bsky.social has shown, it's hugely unpopular and out of step with the British public]

"Megaphone diplomacy via open letters, and speeches talking loosely of “reform”, seek to exculpate national political actors and scapegoat the ECtHR for domestic discontent around immigration, often inflamed by the very national actors that now seek to externalise responsibility to Strasbourg" 🎯

Pop along at the Study In Fair in Toronto to meet Isabella Salem and myself and learn about Northern Ireland, Ulster University and our Ulster University School of Law! www.ulster.ac.uk

Man sitting in train

Arrived in Toronto yesterday (a pleasant 24 degrees) and looking forward to the Study in the UK Fair today in the Hyatt Regency! Come along to the @ulsteruni.bsky.social stand and learn more about the University and @ulsterunischlaw.bsky.social! gostudyin.com/canada/study...

Digest of Recent Articles on Just Security (Sept. 22-26, 2025) U.S. strikes / Venezuela • Israel-Hamas War • Trump executive actions • U.S. military • United States / Immigration • Nuclear weapons testing • Extremism

(1/3) Catch up on our recent analysis:

• U.S. strikes / Venezuela
• Israel-Hamas War
• Trump executive actions
• U.S. military
• United States / Immigration
• Nuclear weapons testing
• Extremism

www.justsecurity.org/121135/diges...

This is the real threat to free speech.

The European Court of #HumanRights has ruled against Italy for not doing enough to tackle #DomesticViolence.

Here are several more examples of how the #ECHR system has helped shift the needle on #ViolenceAgainstWomen👇

🔗 go.coe.int/e9Pqg

#EndViolenceAgainstWomen #EndVAW

A screenshot from the BBC news website showing a photo of CAJ Director Daniel Holder. The text in the article reads: Daniel Holder, Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), says it should not have taken the McCullough Review "to get to the bottom of PSNI surveillance". "There is a current oversight mechanism the UK Investigatory Powers Commissioners Office (IPCO) that missed this," he says. "This was not the mechanism that was supposed to be in place on the back of the Good Friday Agreement." Mr Holder suggests the PSNI fell short of what was envisaged by the Patten Commission which was set up during the peace process to reform policing in Northern Ireland. "The Patten Commission had recommended a specific 'Commissioner for Covert Law Enforcement in Northern Ireland' to ensure covert policing techniques were being used within the law," the CAJ director says. "This unimplemented commitment should now be taken forward."

CAJ Director, Daniel Holder, attended this morning's press conference following the publication of the McCullough Review findings.

"It should not have taken McCullough to get to the bottom of PSNI surveillance"

Full statement with @amnestyuk.bsky.social 👉 caj.org.uk/latest/mccul...

BREAKING: A court ruled that the federal government can't pick and choose among viewpoints when deciding who gets a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

We took the Trump administration to court to fight artistic censorship — and won.

"I do not write these words as an adversary of Israel.... Our commission has documented the crimes by Hamas. But no crime, however grave, justifies genocide. To respond to atrocity with atrocity is to abandon the very values international law was created to protect."

No substitute for reading the Murray/O’Donoghue paper, but this is my way of summarising some key flaws in the PE paper. open.substack.com/pub/societyo...

A must read from @colinmurray.bsky.social and @aoifemod.bsky.social correcting the record on the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the European Convention on Human Rights.

The three most damning paras in the UN Report alleging that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza: Siege starvation, attacks on health care, direct targeting of children as patterns that cannot be explained except if group destruction is one animating purpose.

Why what is happening in the United States shows the need for the United Kingdom to repair its own constitution Our polity is there for the taking

Why what is happening in the United States shows the need for the United Kingdom to repair its own constitution

Our polity is there for the taking

Substack emptycity.substack.com/p/the-pointl...

Personal blog davidallengreen.com/2025/09/the-...

Misinformation and myth: the UK’s phoney war over human r... The debate over the future of the European Convention on Human Rights will shape conference season and beyond

Have you heard the one about a foreign criminal who couldn’t be deported, under the #ECHR, because his son didn’t like #ChickenNuggets abroad?

It’s not actually true, believe it or not.

🔗 observer.co.uk/news/nationa... via @theobserveruk.bsky.social