Thomas Probert
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Thomas Probert
@thomasprobert.com
650 followers 950 following 62 posts
Researcher on human rights and development. Formerly @UNHumanRights. Writes slowly on the politics of human rights. Posts slower.

London • Cambridge • Pretoria • Geneva
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February 2, 2026 at 12:19 PM
thomasprobert.com
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
January 19, 2026 at 10:05 AM
thomasprobert.com
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.
December 7, 2025 at 1:33 PM
thomasprobert.com
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.
December 3, 2025 at 12:02 PM
thomasprobert.com
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…
December 2, 2025 at 4:33 PM
thomasprobert.com
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)
October 17, 2025 at 3:58 PM
thomasprobert.com
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
October 1, 2025 at 4:16 PM
thomasprobert.com
At the same time, we call on all States Parties to the Rome Statute to cooperate fully with the Court. El Hishri is the second suspected perpetrator of international crimes at Mitiga Prison to be arrested on European soil this year. In January, Italian authorities arrested Osama Elmasry Njeem, another Libyan national and high-ranking member of Al-Radaa, accused of similar crimes at Mitiga. However, instead of surrendering him to the ICC to face accountability, Italian authorities returned him to Libya, where he was welcomed by both officials and armed actors - reinforcing the prevailing climate of impunity.
July 31, 2025 at 4:47 PM
thomasprobert.com
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...
May 1, 2025 at 11:29 AM
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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!
February 24, 2025 at 1:23 PM
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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
December 2, 2024 at 10:02 AM
thomasprobert.com
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
November 12, 2024 at 2:18 PM
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#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
October 22, 2024 at 3:10 PM
thomasprobert.com
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
October 20, 2024 at 4:21 PM
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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
June 29, 2024 at 9:16 AM
thomasprobert.com
Fact check: has Sadiq Khan really overseen a crime surge in London?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...
February 26, 2024 at 6:37 PM
thomasprobert.com
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
February 24, 2024 at 11:38 PM
thomasprobert.com
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...
February 19, 2024 at 11:46 AM
thomasprobert.com
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
December 18, 2023 at 4:55 PM
thomasprobert.com
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
December 3, 2023 at 6:19 PM