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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 03/04/2026

The HRCtte’s general comment is pretty clear about the standard for such interference: the State must be “manifestly unable to protect the participants from a severe threat to their safety” and such a claim must survive strict scrutiny

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 06/02/2026

Honoured to be invited to speak at this morning's convening organised by SA's Dept of Justice about the human rights obligations to protect individuals from sexual violence in places of detention, alongside powerful presentations from @justdetention.bsky.social -SA #JusticeBehindClosedDoors

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 02/02/2026

geneva-academy.ch/wp-content/u...

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 19/01/2026

Today Dr Kwanele Pakati, Head of #SouthAfrica's National Preventive Mechanism, will discuss their detailed new position paper on how NPMs can more robustly address the tools of torture, including their manufacture and trade, in line with obligations under the UNCAT & the Robben Island Guidelines

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 07/12/2025

Yes, but it *is* also a case of business failure... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

EVs, though a clear improvement on their petrol predecessors, reproduce many of the same problems of car-based urbanism, binding us into a system of maintaining expensive machines that are stationary 95% of the time. The loss of Zipcar isn’t a business failure; it’s a warning that our leaders’ transport priorities are out of whack. Ultimately, if we want a country built for people rather than parked cars, we need to get serious about sharing.

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 03/12/2025

It's being reported that a first family of victims has sought remedy before the Inter-American Commission (I'm sure others will join): www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d... Worth noting that (I think before that news broke) the Commission issued a press release yesterday: www.oas.org/en/IACHR/jsF...

The IACHR reiterates that, under the standards of the Inter-American Human Rights System, the use of military force for public security purposes should be exceptional, strictly regulated, and limited to circumstances where civilian authorities are unable to respond effectively. The deployment of armed forces in operations against alleged criminal groups, particularly outside the territory, carries a high risk of arbitrary deprivation of life, lack of accountability, violations of due process, and erosion of civilian oversight.

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 02/12/2025

www.justsecurity.org/125948/illeg...

The law of armed conflict is generally a more permissive legal regime for the use of military force than international human rights law (IHRL). In particular, the LOAC permits targeting members of the armed forces, including members of organized armed groups, based on their status, and others if and for such time as they “directly participate in hostilities,” which encompasses more than conducting attacks. By contrast, targeting based on status outside an armed conflict is prohibited. Acts opening the door to the use of force against an individual are generally limited to situations in which they pose an imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm. If the Hegseth and Bradley orders and the ensuing second strike had been violations of LOAC in a non-international armed conflict, they would, a fortiori, have violated human rights law as a matter of peacetime law enforcement.

With respect to the U.S. lethal strikes on suspected drug trafficking vessels at issue here, two of us (Schmitt and Goodman, along with co-author Marko Milanovic) have explained why “there is absolutely no question that the U.S. lethal strikes on the boats are a violation of international human rights law.” Without rehashing that analysis here, the bottom line is that the U.S. strikes on suspected drug traffickers at sea are clearly arbitrary deprivations of the right to life under IHRL, an obligation that the United States acknowledges applies extraterritorially. As they wrote:

The widely-accepted standard for arbitrariness prohibits the use of force likely to cause death or grievous bodily injury “except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting their authority, or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives” (Basic Principles on…

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 17/10/2025

Very exciting to have unboxed these earlier. Available in hard copy from next week - so do reach out to your libraries or departments to get it on their shelves, but all of the chapters are available online from @oxfordacademic.bsky.social academic.oup.com/edited-volum... #PeacefulProtest

Hard copies of the Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly (OUP, 2025)

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 01/10/2025

Always a pleasure to listen to Albie Sachs, this evening in conversation with @abbottkingsley.bsky.social at the @icws-sas.bsky.social His passion for the struggle is infectious, and we were delighted that he contributed a moving dedication at the start of our Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 01/05/2025

In addition to the underlying story, some of the images from this piece are a visceral reminder of the policing of protest in Kenya and the need for reform www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 24/02/2025

Delighted that the pre-[print]-publication of The Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly is now live. global.oup.com/academic/pro... The chapters are already available online, but looking forward to getting them all together in hard copy later this year!

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 02/12/2024

Today at 2pm GMT - the UN SR on Freedom of Assembly and the SR on Torture join representatives from the African Commission and other regional bodies to discuss developments regarding the trade in crowd-control weapons and other potentially abusive equipment

Campaigners at the meeting that adopted the Shoreditch Declaration for a torture-free trade treaty

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 12/11/2024

Fantastic to be participating in the 20th All-Africa Course on International Humanitarian Law, taking place in Pretoria with the @ICRC. A great, and replicable, model for capacity building around vital protections

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 22/10/2024

#ACHPR81OS is currently holding a panel commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Luanda Guidelines on Conditions of Detention, Police Custody and Pre-Trial Detention in Africa and their impact, but notes the urgent need for further oversight and accountability in these contents across the continent

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 20/10/2024

It was an honour to present today about #TortureFreeTrade in the margins of #ACHPR81OS. Very encouraging to hear from the Solicitor General of The Gambia about their support for the pursuit of a new Treaty to address the scourge of the proliferation of inherently abusive equipment

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 29/06/2024

Some of the images emerging from these protests prompt major questions www.the guardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/29/kenyas-youth-driven-protest-movement-at-crossroads-as-it-considers-future

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 26/02/2024

Fact check: has Sadiq Khan really overseen a crime surge in London? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 24/02/2024

Tracy Ann-Oberman, Hannah Morrish et al. carry off a dramatic & unsanitised version of Merchant of Venice set in 1936 (currently playing in the West End) Very reminiscent of Wesker’s Chicken Soup with Barley, culminating in the scenes of Cable St memorialised so vividly today in this mural

Mural off Cable Street in the East End of London commemorating the “Battle of Cable St” which resisted Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in 1936

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 19/02/2024

Looking forward to hosting the latest in CGHR’s Practitioner Series on Wednesday, when I’ll be in conversation with Victor Sibaja about his work at the International Criminal Court www.tickettailor.com/events/centr...

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 18/12/2023

Just wrapping up Day 1 of the UNSR on freedom of assembly’s final consultation on the specific technical and practical tools to assist law enforcement in protecting rights during peaceful protest. Look out for the report and a series of helpful annexes next year!

Global consultation on the UNSR on freedom of assembly’s “model protocol” for law enforcement officials around peaceful protest in Geneva

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Thomas Probert @thomasprobert.com · 03/12/2023

Last month I was in Arusha for the launch of the African Commission’s Study on Use of Force by Law Enforcement It’s available (in English and French) online: achpr.au.int/en/soft-law/... I look forward to working with the Commission and other partners on this important topic! #police #humanrights

Photo of the front cover of the ACHPR’s Study on Use of Force

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