Treaty Actions:
Reservations: 0 (not allowed in this treaty)
Declarations: 49
Territorial exemptions: 1 (Denmark re Greenland. It is like Denmark has some legal jurisdiction here or something)
China has fully ratified. US signed but not ratified. Russia has no commitment. Lots of commitments from smaller and island nations that might not be visible on maps like this here but have high stakes and have high participation in this area.
There are now total of 85 ratifications, 145 signatures, of which there are 57 states that signed but have not yet ratified. (Here counting EU ratification on behalf of its members)
ICYMI: The UN High Seas Treaty entered into force on Jan. 17th, 120 days following the 60th ratification. This is a landmark treaty on environmental protection of the oceans and sustainability. Who committed? I was curious and thought others might be, too.
New publication to share🥳Pleased that "Human rights treaty derogation& COVID-19: WHO guidance & state response" is out &Open Access thanks to ASU agreement with CUP!
The takeaway: States seemed to listen to the WHO about COVID severity & derogated restricting assembly & movement to address risk
The helpful and painful editing tool of Word Read Aloud strikes again
Bit by bit our standards of human rights are implicitly and explicitly wearing away.
"The State Department...drastically reduce(d) the types of government repression and abuse that the United States under President Trump deems worthy of criticism."
www.npr.org/2025/08/12/n...
Proud of ASU's work on the UN SDGs! "For the sixth year ...ASU is the No. 1 institution in the US & in the top 10 globally for work toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, Times Higher Education announced today in its 2025 University Impact Ranking." news.asu.edu/20250617-uni...
Digging back into email after traveling and glad to find an R&R waiting for me there
nice graphic!
How's everyone here feeling about APSA and ISA travel (and other major conferences) these days? I plan at this point to go to both but am in a privileged travel situation - though my uni has reduced travel approval and funding at least in some parts, so that will be a factor.
International students belong. My employer (ASU) and grad school (Cornell) have great charter/mottos about the importance of inclusion at universities.
#anypersonanystudy #includenotexclude
the % saying "no one" is striking
thank you!
thank you!
thank you friend :)
Happy to share I am tenured& promoted at ASU. I feel very privileged as a human rights scholar, particularly in this current climate, to have my work recognized in this way at a university championing inclusive education. I'm grateful to do what I do where I do & looking forward to what lies ahead.
4 more days to apply for the 2025 New Era Workshop!
NEW is an annual three-day training program for PhD students in international affairs and related disciplines, held September 25-27, 2025 at the University of Denver! Applications can be found on our website. Share with your networks!
University center/initiative/program/etc. directors, what social media (if any) are you finding effective for those accounts these days?
I'm so sorry and outraged to hear about this and the continued harm being carried out in the research world
I'm so sorry and outraged to hear this happened!
An important thread to read and share
That's terrible!
"It is only the second time in the WHO's 75-year history that an international agreement of this type has been reached – the first being a tobacco control deal in 2003."
Looking forward to reading more into the completed agreement today
www.bbc.com/news/article...
thanks Bree! It was a pleasure meeting your through it and wonderful to stay in touch since then :)
just finished submitting my ISA reimbursement forms to my uni and got my APSA acceptance. Let's hope that there will be some better news for uni funding, reserach, etc. come APSA time for us all :)
Derogations, democratic backsliding, and international human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic Did states misuse international legal emergency provisions during the COVID-19 pandemic to justify human rights abuse, or did they follow international human rights law? Many governments restricted citizens’ freedom of movement, association, and assembly during the crisis, raising questions about states’ commitments to international human rights law. Some states used derogations to communicate temporary suspension of international legal provisions in a proportional and nondiscriminatory manner; others did not. We explored the dynamics of democratic backsliding and derogation use during the pandemic. We found that backsliding states were more likely to issue human rights treaty derogations. These derogations had mitigating effects once issued. Backsliding states that issued derogations were more likely to communicate restrictions and less likely to issue abusive and discriminatory policy during the pandemic. Derogations helped temper abuse in states not experiencing backsliding. However, derogations did not always protect against abuse and media transparency in backsliding states. These results lend support to the use of flexibility mechanisms in international law and find that most states did not use emergency derogations to heighten human rights violations. The study contributes to the understanding of how international legal measures may help mitigate elements of democratic backsliding during times of crisis.
Stacked fuzzy bar charts showing the results of ordered logistic regression models across a range of human rights violations in backsliding and non-backsliding countries
Hey! Latest paper by @suparnac.bsky.social and @audreycomstock7.bsky.social and me is live at the Journal of Human Rights: "Derogations, democratic backsliding, and international human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic"
doi.org/10.1080/1475...
Preprint here: www.andrewheiss.com/research/art...
"The vote against the Ukrainian and European-backed resolution saw the US at odds with its longtime European allies and instead aligned with the aggressor in the war on the three-year anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine."
www.cnn.com/2025/02/24/p...
Sick kiddo at home, midterm grading, and an ISA paper that. . .
yikes
