Amicae Curiae

Grab your coffee and join us as we head to Peru to examine a state-sponsored family planning program in the 1990s that led to widespread human rights abuses against rural and Indigenous populations. This episode unpacks the case of Celia Edith Ramos Durand, a mother of three who died following a sterilization procedure administered under a system of medical quotas. We discuss how international dev...

Grab your coffee and join us as we head to West Africa, where chocolate, child trafficking, and corporate accountability collide. In this episode, we tell the story of eight children from Mali, aged 10 to 14, who were trafficked to cocoa plantations in Côte d'Ivoire, forced to work without pay, and subjected to brutal violence when they tried to escape. Their story led to one of the most significa...

Grab your coffee and join us as we head to Ethiopia - where feminism, online violence, armed conflict, and digital technology collide. In this episode, we explore the story of Yordanos Bezabih, an Ethiopian women’s rights activist and engineer who became the target of years of online harassment, deepfake abuse, stalking, and death threats because of her feminist advocacy. From coordinated Telegram...

Grab your coffee and join us as we head to Türkiye - where questions of political pluralism, free expression, and state power collide. In this episode, we explore the tense and decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdish minority, the broad use of anti-terror laws, and a media landscape where critical voices risk prosecution. From dismissed mayors to jailed journalists, we look...

Grab your coffee and join us for a journey to Central America - specifically to El Salvador, a small country with an outsized and deeply complex history. In this episode, we dive into colonialism, civil war, U.S. influence, and the rise of one of the world’s most notorious gangs: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). From the surreal “Football War” with Honduras to the long shadows of the Cold War, we trace h...

Grab your coffee and join us for a deep dive into one of the most famous - and disturbing - stories in international law: the rise, rule, and arrest of Augusto Pinochet. This episode takes us from Chile’s 1973 coup d’état and 17 years of military dictatorship marked by torture, enforced disappearances, and mass repression, to an unexpected arrest in London in 1998 that shook the foundations of int...

Grab your coffee and join us at the Thai-Myanmar border, where luxury villas and high-tech infrastructure conceal one of the fastest-growing human trafficking operations in the world. In this episode, we examine the rise of cyber-scam compounds in Myanmar - sites where tens of thousands of people are trafficked, detained, tortured, and forced to scam others online. At the centre is the story is a...

Grab your coffee and join us as we travel to Mindanao, Philippines, to explore the ongoing struggle of the Lumad, the non-Muslim indigenous peoples of the region. This episode traces how colonial land policies, militarization, and counterinsurgency have shaped the lives of Lumad communities - from the legacy of Spanish and U.S. rule to modern laws that promise protection but often fail in practice...

Grab your coffee and join us in discussing one of the darkest chapters of the “Global War on Terror.” In this episode, we tell the story of two French men detained, tortured, and abused at Guantánamo Bay, and the long legal battle that followed against the architects of an entire system. From “enhanced interrogation techniques” to indefinite detention without charge, we unpack how torture was norm...

Grab your coffee and join us as we explore Colombia’s fragile reality of peace after decades of armed conflict. While the 2016 peace agreement promised an end to violence, rural communities continue to face threats from armed groups, especially in regions tied to the cocaine trade. Through the story of two indigenous farmers involved in coca-crop substitution programs, we look at how peacebuilding...

Grab your coffee and join us as we take a closer look at one of the most controversial tools of state power: the death penalty. Our starting point is Bangladesh, where a recent death sentence for former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has reignited global debate. But this episode goes far beyond one case. Besides the violations of the right to protest in Bangladesh, we explore why the death penalty i...

Grab your coffee and join us for a journey into one of today’s deadliest - and least talked-about - conflicts. This episode takes us to Sudan, where power struggles between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have spiraled into mass displacement, ethnic killings, and unimaginable violence, especially against women and girls. We break down how a country with 20 coup attempts, dec...

Grab your coffee and join us as we head to Sri Lanka, where constitutional protections for Buddhism collide with the rights of religious minorities. In this episode, we dive into the story of the Sisters of the Holy Cross of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Menzingen, a Catholic order active in Sri Lanka since the 1930s. Their challenge? Getting legally recognized by the Sri Lankan state.  We u...

Grab your coffee and join us as we head into the heart of the Amazon, where the world's largest rainforest, Indigenous rights, and international law collide - just as COP30 kicks off in Belém, Brazil. In this episode, we step back from our usual single-case deep dive and zoom out to explore the bigger picture: What is COP actually about? Why is Brazil at the centre of global climate discussion...

Grab your coffee and join us on a sinking island in the middle of the Pacific, where the shoreline is moving faster than international law. In this episode, we follow the story of Ioane Teitiota, a man from Kiribati, one of the world’s lowest-lying island States, who asked New Zealand for protection when his home quite literally began to disappear under rising seas. Along the way, we unpack why th...

Grab your coffee and join us deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where oil spills, lawsuits, and the fight for justice collide…And go all the way to the Hague.  In this episode, we unravel the decades-long battle between local communities and one of the world’s biggest oil giants — Texaco (now Chevron) — accused of turning parts of the rainforest into a toxic wasteland. From open waste pits and contami...

Grab your coffee and join us for a case that takes us from a quiet Italian lakeside town to the frontlines of the global war on terror - a story where one man’s name on a UN sanctions list raised a difficult question: Can the global fight against terrorism justify compromising human rights? In this episode, we explore the unbelievable story of Youssef Moustafa Nada - an elderly businessman who end...

Grab your coffee and join us for a journey from the waters of Somalia to the courtrooms of Paris and Strasbourg, where modern-day pirates meet international law. In this episode, we dive into the story of a French couple kidnapped by Somali pirates in 2008, and explore how that adventure ended up before the European Court of Human Rights. Along the way, we unravel the tangled history of Somalia, t...

Grab your coffee and join us to explore Mauritania: The country with expansive anti-slavery legislation - and one of the highest rates of slavery in the modern world. In this first episode, we dive into the unbelievable story of two boys, Said and Yarg Salem, born into hereditary slavery in a country that still denies slavery exists.  From vanishing defendants and systemic discrimination to laws t...

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