On August 19, 2014, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (the Court) issued its Advisory Opinion on the “Rights and Guarantees of Children in the Context of Migration and/or in need of International Protection” (the Opinion). This key Opinion is the first time that the Court has addressed states’ obligations to protect the rights of migrant children, in response to a joint submission by four members of the Organization of American States (OAS).

On February 15, 2016, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU or the Court) delivered its preliminary ruling in a case about the detention of Mr. N. Mr. N. was detained pending the examination of his (fourth) asylum application and claimed that his detention was in violation of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Since his detention was provided for in relevant EU legislation, the question referred to the CJEU was about the validity of this EU legislation.

In Belhaj & Rahmatullah (No 1) v. Straw & Ors, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom cleared the way for claims against British forces for complicity in acts of rendition and torture abroad to proceed to trial. The judgment in Belhaj was one of a trio of important judgments handed down on January 17, 2017, the other two concerning the doctrine of Crown act of state and the right to detain in noninternational armed conflicts. This Note considers only Belhaj, in which the Supreme Court rejected the arguments that the doctrines of state immunity and/or foreign act of state precluded U.K. courts from hearing the claims.

On January 27, 2017, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2339 to extend by one year the mandate of a sanctions regime to address protracted violence, insecurity, and political turmoil in the Central African Republic (CAR). Three years after the Council first imposed the regime under Resolution 2127 (2013), the Council's adoption of Resolution 2339 made it clear that the situation in CAR continued to require a robust sanctions regime, that sexual violence in CAR needed heightened political attention, and that states should improve the ways they enforce the sanctions regime's travel ban. Similar to its predecessor resolutions, Resolution 2339 included certain limitations aimed at making the sanctions targeted and humane. But, as has been the case with sanctions regimes aimed at other countries, this one suffered from a lack of due process guarantees for ensuring the protection of the human rights of the people and entities that were punished for noncompliance.