Blog Post Jan 27, 2026 All Eyes on Iran: After a Bloody Crackdown, Democracies Should Hold the Regime Accountable It has been 31 days since the Iranian people took to the streets en masse to protest. Though initially sparked by economic hardship, the protests quickly grew beyond Tehran’s grand bazaar, as people expressed outrage over the regime’s widespread human rights violations and called for the removal of dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Blog Post Jan 9, 2026 All Eyes on Iran Since December 28, 2025, the Iranian people have taken to the streets to protest en masse.
Blog Post Dec 26, 2025 The Playbook: How Venezuela’s Football Revival May Unite Its People in their Struggle for Democracy On a tense September night in Maturín, hope bloomed early as Venezuela surged to a 2–1 lead over Colombia, only to crumble following a cascade of goals that sealed their World Cup qualifying fate.
Blog Post Dec 23, 2025 Southeast Asian Nations Must Not Be Duped by Burma’s Sham Elections On Dec. 28, polls will open in Burma in the country’s first elections since the military seized power in a coup in 2021.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 Transnational Repression: A Year in Review At home, autocrats, having consolidated their power, enjoy near-total impunity, crushing dissent through brutality, prisons, torture, and censorship.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 The Lasting Impacts of Transnational Repression Transnational repression is a growing threat to global human rights. In 2025, authoritarian regimes continued to surveil and silence dissidents abroad, relying on physical, legal, and digital tactics to reach beyond their borders and clamp down on the fundamental freedoms of these courageous individuals.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 Weaponizing the International System Authoritarian regimes have more tools than ever at their disposal to target dissidents and activists abroad.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 Violence Beyond Borders Transnational repression has become a common tactic for authoritarian regimes seeking suppression of dissent beyond their borders. With the rapid spread of technology, globalization, and unprecedented ease of global mobility, it is easier than ever for regimes to reach their opponents, even from thousands of miles away.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 El nuevo rostro de la represión: borrar a los activistas El reciente anuncio del Nobel de la Paz para María Corina Machado, junto con las crecientes tensiones con Estados Unidos por las acusaciones de participación estatal en el narcotráfico, han vuelto a poner los ojos del mundo sobre la brutalidad del régimen de Nicolás Maduro.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 Don’t Let Autocrats Erase Activists From Existence The announcement of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and rising tensions with the United States over allegations of state-sponsored drug-trafficking have focused the world on the brutality of Nicolás Maduro regime.
Blog Post Nov 20, 2025 The three-body problem How much does North Korea depend on China and Russia for its future? Rachel Minyoung Lee on nuclear weapons, technology transfers, and a newly emboldened Kim Jong Un.
Blog Post Nov 10, 2025 HRF Freedom Fellowship Spotlight with Shely Andriamihaja Since September 25, the Gen Z movement in Madagascar has launched massive protests, initially sparked by widespread frustration over constant power cuts and water shortages in the capital, Antananarivo. However…
Blog Post Nov 3, 2025 Inside the prison state What’s it like to live in North Korea? Yumi Kim on heavy repression, secret phone calls, and virtual private networks.
Blog Post Oct 31, 2025 The way of Kim Jong Un How is political upheaval in South Korea affecting North Korea? Soo Kim on what’s driving Pyongyang’s increasing hostility toward Seoul.
Blog Post Oct 28, 2025 Obscured by clouds Why does North Korea keep threatening South Korea and its allies without ever going to war? Michael Breen on theater and reality in one of the most enigmatic places on Earth.
Blog Post Oct 6, 2025 The Riyadh job Fifty comedians playing in Saudi Arabia, millions of dollars, and one head-scratcher: Why are they doing this?
Blog Post Aug 26, 2025 The Sculptor Xi Jinping Wants You to Forget For 68-year-old Gao Zhen, last Aug. 26 wasn’t just any other day — it was the day of his arrest.
Blog Post Aug 22, 2025 The Blurry Lines Between Private and Public As a human rights organization, we see economic freedom as inseparable from political and civil freedoms. The freer world we live in today owes much to the expansion of international trade and capital flows. But while economic openness has…
Blog Post Aug 11, 2025 A ‘known unknown’ Where’s all the money coming into American think tanks from? Ben Freeman on the enormous foreign-government “donations” flowing through Washington, D.C.
Blog Post Jul 31, 2025 Tracking CBDCs before they track you Nicholas Anthony Policymakers around the world have become consumed with the idea of launching central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. Prior to 2019, only a small handful of central banks were exploring this idea. Yet, today,…
