Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Simon Adams

@simonadams.bsky.social

350 followers 130 following 450 posts

President & CEO of The Center for Victims of Torture (@cvt.org). Human rights, humanitarianism, international justice n’ stuff.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · May 1

It has been “enormously hard to communicate to staff, to clients, to people whose lives are at stake — the outcome of these deliberations that are happening in darkened offices somewhere in Washington D.C.” (Me on @CVTorg and the US aid cuts)⬇️ www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

After 100 days, the toll of Trump’s foreign aid cuts has begun to sink in

Here’s how programs on the ground in countries around the world have been upended by President Donald Trump’s swift dismantling of most U.S. international aid.

www.washingtonpost.com

2 4

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 5h

“If a torture-free trade treaty would spare even one person the horrors that we have experienced, it is worth any effort that doing so would require. World leaders can achieve this goal if they commit to it, and lives can be saved.” #TortureFreeTradeTreaty

Center for Victims of Torture @cvt.org · 6d

Survivors of torture have spoken out: It is time to ban goods that have no purpose other than torture. Read the joint declaration from survivors, who write, “We unequivocally support a torture-free trade treaty.”
www.cvt.org/statements/j...

1 1

Reposted by Simon Adams

Center for Victims of Torture @cvt.org · 5h

“There was then no such thing as a one treatment fits all, nor is there now,” writes Dr. Rosa Garcia-Peltoniemi, former CVT senior consulting clinician. She was one of the very first clinicians to provide care to survivors at CVT in its earliest years. Read her story:
www.cvt.org/articles/fro...

From the Beginnings of CVT: A Personal Story

I began working at the Center for Victims of Torture shortly after getting a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota.

www.cvt.org

1 1

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 5h

The treason trial of Vice President Riek Machar leaves South Sudan on the brink of civil war… again. At least 400,000 people have been killed since independence in 2011. Rival warlords doing anything to avoid a democratic election. www.bbc.com/news/article...

South Sudan court rejects Riek Machar's bid to halt murder and treason trial

The special court rules that Riek Machar is not immune from prosecution and it can put him on trial.

www.bbc.com

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 5h

Myanmar’s military junta have already started imprisoning people for saying what the whole world knows - their upcoming “election” is a sham whose sole intention is to legitimize military rule. www.irrawaddy.com/news/politic...

How the Myanmar Junta’s Election Laws Are Stifling Dissent Ahead of Polls

The Irrawaddy’s infographics illustrate the scope of arrests and the penalties behind the Myanmar regime’s pre-election crackdown.

www.irrawaddy.com

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 1d

There is never any justification for deliberately targeting and killing civilians. Not in Israel. Not in Gaza. Not on 7 October. Not today. Collective punishment and indiscriminate attacks are not military strategies, they are crimes under international law. www.globalr2p.org/countries/is...

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory - Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

Israeli forces have perpetrated atrocity crimes in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Hamas and other Palestinian armed gro...

www.globalr2p.org

1 1

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 2d

Russia’s war on #Ukraine has always been a war on civilian cities. It is an illegal and illegitimate war. A war of conquest. Those calling for capitulation on Moscow’s terms are digging the graves of ordinary Ukrainians.

Olga Patlyuk @olgapatluyk.bsky.social · 4d

Watch carefully, everyone. The whole world must see this.
This is what russia brings to the world — only dеstruction.
Nothing else. This country knows no other way.
Every day, russia dеstroys more and more Ukrainian cities.
World, do not stay silent.

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 2d

A fake war of dubious legality and questionable motivation. A deliberate distraction or a dress rehearsal?
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...

Opinion | If We’re at War, Americans Deserve to Know More About It

www.nytimes.com

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 2d

Mother of Exiles: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” What would Emma Lazarus write about ICE or Alligator Alcatraz if she were alive today?

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 5d

Don't be fooled by the Orwellian language of the "funding compact". What Pres Trump is actually asking for is a loyalty pledge. This is how authoritarians work - neutralizing universities as sites of independent thought. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

www.theguardian.com

1 1

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 6d

Latest report by the UN Human Rights Council's Fact-Finding Mission on #Venezuela warns that security forces continue to commit "acts of extreme cruelty," including arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence. www.globalr2p.org/countries/ve...

Venezuela - Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

Ongoing systematic state-led repression in Venezuela may amount to crimes against humanity.

www.globalr2p.org

1 1

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 6d

The international community must uphold its Responsibility to Protect by ensuring any force deployed to #Haiti has adequate personnel, sustainable funding and strong human rights safeguards. www.globalr2p.org/publications...

Atrocity Alert No. 452: Haiti, Venezuela and China - Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

Atrocity Alert is a weekly publication by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect highlighting situations where populations are at risk of, or are enduring, mass atrocity crimes. CIVILIAN ...

www.globalr2p.org

1 1

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 7d

Regardless, we will keep fighting for torture survivors, traumatised refugees, and the humanitarian sector.

Center for Victims of Torture @cvt.org · 7d

The lawsuit CVT joined took a huge blow Friday when the Supreme Court let the Trump administration withhold $4 billion in foreign aid which had been appropriated by Congress and was set to expire today. Even in the face of this setback, we continue to fight for our clients in every way we can.

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 8d

We must end this detestable commerce in human cruelty. #TortureFreeTradeTreaty

Center for Victims of Torture @cvt.org · 8d

We must ban the trade of goods that have no use other than torture. It’s time for a torture-free trade treaty. Sign the petition: www.amnesty.org/en/petition/...

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 8d

There are more 1 million #Rohingya refugees. They deserve protection, justice and safe voluntary repatriation. But for that to happen, #Myanmar’s military dictatorship must be held accountable for their atrocities. www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

UN: Support Protection, Justice for Rohingya

United Nations member states meeting on September 30, 2025, on the plight of Rohingya Muslims should commit to urgent action to protect them from persecution and violence.

www.hrw.org

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 8d

One Million Syrians have returned home since the fall of Assad. They want to rebuild their country and recover from the trauma of atrocities, being refugees, and a decade of war. @CVT.org stands with them. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

1 million people have returned to Syria since fall of Assad, U.N. says

Displaced Syrians returning after 13 years of war are hopeful about their country — and wary of looming economic risks and instability.

www.washingtonpost.com

2 4

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 8d

“Adherence to treaties has saved lives, upheld human dignity, and protected millions of people from persecution, torture and other human rights abuses.” @cvt.org joins the call for all UN Member States to uphold international treaties. www.icj.org/open-letter-...

Open Letter: Call for UN member states to uphold, preserve and strengthen international refugee, human rights and humanitarian treaties | ICJ

The ICJ has joined over 250 civil society organizations in the following open letter urging UN member states to uphold, preserve and strengthen i

www.icj.org

2 2

Reposted by Simon Adams

Center for Victims of Torture @cvt.org · 11d

Bad news as the Supreme Court lets Trump cut foreign aid. Scott Roehm, CVT director of global policy & advocacy, comments to @cnn.com: “The administration is abandoning torture victims to serve a naked political agenda, nothing more.”
edition.cnn.com/2025/09/26/p...

Supreme Court lets Trump withhold $4 billion in foreign aid approved by Congress | CNN Politics

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump to freeze $4 billion in foreign aid payments, handing the White House a significant victory in its monthslong quest to claw back spending tha...

edition.cnn.com

2 4 6

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks Sydney for an extremely brief but intensely rewarding visit.

1 1

Reposted by Simon Adams

Center for Victims of Torture @cvt.org · 13d

Rendering people to countries or prisons that use torture, including CECOT prison, is illegal. Transfers to torture by the Trump administration violate the principle of non-refoulement. These transfers are done out of cruelty and to instill fear and pain among immigrants in the U.S.

1 6

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 13d

It is also immoral and unconscionably cruel.

Reposted by Simon Adams

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect @globalr2p.org · 14d

#R2P remains a vital call to prevent atrocities. Yesterday we were honored to join 🇬🇹🇱🇺🇲🇦🇦🇺🇸🇱 in convening global leaders to discuss #R2P20 @ #UNGA80: incl. political will for atrocity prevention, elevating regional systems & centering CSOs in protection efforts.

www.globalr2p.org/resources/th...

The Responsibility to Protect at 20: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Prevent Atrocity Crimes - Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), a ministerial-level meeting titled “The Responsibility to Protect at 20: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Prevent At...

www.globalr2p.org

3 4

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 13d

Freedom of speech? Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air and censored after mild comments on Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Meanwhile a Fox News host openly jokes about bombing and gassing UN headquarters in New York.

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes.bsky.social · 14d

Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested bombing and gassing the United Nations over escalator and teleprompter issues

5 5

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 13d

One of Sydney’s sadder public memorials: for the thousands of Irish orphan girls taken from workhouses and transported to Australia during An Gorta Mór, the Irish famine. The scheme was overseen by Earl Grey. Another good reason not to drink that abominable brand of tea.☕️🇮🇪

Simon Adams @simonadams.bsky.social · 14d

An honour to deliver a keynote on “Poison ideas: Universities and other antidotes to authoritarianism.” Thanks to ABC’s Big Ideas for recording and DASSH for inviting me to Sydney. As Madiba said: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”

Reposted by Simon Adams

Center for Victims of Torture @cvt.org · 14d

“There’s a growing groundswell of support for an end to what’s happening in Gaza, to violations of international humanitarian law, to the deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people,” says @simonadams.bsky.social on global power dynamics as UNGA begins.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=okJf...

Wars in Gaza and Ukraine on UNGA agenda amid shift in global power dynamics

YouTube video by CNA

www.youtube.com

1 1