Op-eds

Check out our team’s contributions in international news outlets.

Sep 8, 2023

Your Favorite Fashion Brand Is Using Slave Labor. Wake Up!

In August, Bloomberg reported what we at the Human Rights Foundation already knew: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was sending in bots to attack our award-winning Uyghur Forced Labor Checker to deter you from downloading it and discovering the truth behind where your clothes are made and, more importantly, who makes them.

Dec 2, 2023

Why crypto was the perfect tool for criminals and kleptocrats

The news last week of money laundering charges against crypto exchange Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, sent shockwaves through both financial markets and crypto consumers alike.

Oct 10, 2023

Why Central Bank Digital Currencies Can’t Compete With Bitcoin

The emergence of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) has ignited widespread interest, sparking enthusiasm among central bankers, generating curiosity within financial media, and fueling spirited debates in the Bitcoin community.

Mar 7, 2024

UAE once again tries to launder its image

While the United Arab Emirates keeps up its farcical image-laundering — an attempt to look like a place that doesn’t crack down on dissent and individual freedoms — it has found another façade to hide behind: International Women’s Day.

Feb 7, 2022

Tough US actions challenge Britain to step up the fight against kleptocracy

Late last year, amid the broader rhetoric and pledges of the US-led Summit for Democracy, the Biden administration turned to tackling an issue that’s spiked in prominence in the past few years: kleptocracy.

Mar 18, 2021

The last blow to Hong Kong’s faltering democracy

Two Fridays ago, the annual National People’s Congress convened in Beijing to rubber-stamp the Chinese Communist Party’s policies. Unfortunately for Hong Kong, restructuring the city’s electoral process topped the agenda.

Sep 28, 2024

The Indictment of Eric Adams Shouldn’t Surprise Us

The new, unsealed indictment against Eric Adams, accusing him of a range of crimes over nearly a decade, is significant for any number of reasons

Feb 15, 2024

The American Consulting Firms That Live in Fear of Their Murderous Clients

For years, America’s most prominent consulting firms have been competing against one another to service the most heinous regimes on the planet, offering their efforts and advice for tyrants and kleptocrats looking to expand their reach and their repression.

Jan 16, 2024

Taiwan’s ruling party needs to double down on democracy

Taiwan’s incumbent ruling party, the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), may have been able to clinch a victory in a tight presidential race on Saturday, but it’s much too early to bask in the win.

Oct 23, 2023

Social media’s importance in authoritarian run countries

Earlier this month, Meta’s Oversight Board ordered the platform to restore a video uploaded by a citizen-run Cuban news platform on the one-year anniversary of the July 11 protests, during which thousands of dissenting Cubans were brutally repressed.

Oct 27, 2023

Russia’s Slaughter of Indigenous People in Alaska Tells Us Something Important About Ukraine

In the racial-reckoning summer of 2020, local leaders in a small American town gathered for a contentious vote on whether to take down a statue that honored a man who was, as one assessment read, “steeped in racial division, violence and injustice.”

Mar 1, 2024

Russia’s Opposition Needs More Than One Savior

The past few weeks have seen an outpouring of both grief and tributes following the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. And rightfully so. Navalny’s death in a Siberian gulag effectively snuffed out what many viewed as the clearest path to Russia’s eventual democratization.

Oct 4, 2023

Russia’s Crimean Red Line Has Been Erased

In December 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood in the middle of the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall, delivering his annual address to the country’s Federal Assembly.

Apr 28, 2023

Russia has stifled another Putin opponent. Here’s how the West might help him

Some 70 US lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, urging the Biden administration to press Russia for the release of imprisoned dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza.

May 28, 2023

Now the UK is finally tackling ‘Londongrad’, it’s time the US upped its game

A year ago, with a new administration rising in Washington, it was clear that the US had taken the lead in the transatlantic fight against kleptocracy.

Mar 15, 2019

Nicaragua Now. Ortega Still.

That woman in the picture above is Edipcia Dubón. She is an interesting, brave, and touching person.

May 28, 2023

HRF Op-Ed:Make Russia Pay

For months, the West has fretted over the prospect of paying for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Russia’s war has inflicted an estimated $400 billion in rebuilding costs, a tally that rises every day. Western leaders, already alarmed by inflation and the threat of recession, have understandably blanched over the bill.

May 3, 2024

Iran’s death sentence for rapper shows how far it’ll go to squelch dissent

There’s no length Iran won’t go to in order to quash dissent. Murder included.

Feb 27, 2024

In America, there is finally good news on the anti-money laundering front

For years, the US acted as one of the world’s leading centres for money laundering and offshore finance. Now, that reality is changing fast.

Feb 9, 2023

‘Women, life, freedom’: Chants of protest in Iran

Forty-four years after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Tehran is once again feeling the wrath of its citizenry. Then, it was the Shah and his “modern ideals” the people sought to, and successfully did, overthrow. Now, a different regime — the Islamic Republic — is in power and in the people’s crosshairs.

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