People are often willing to embrace rights-restricting policies if they are seen to provide security or restrain out-groups. Such policies are typically framed as security benefits. What happens when the public is prompted to consider the costs of limiting human rights? Research in this field has rarely tested public responsiveness to an explicit defense of human rights. To shed new light on this, we address two related questions: What arguments can strengthen support for human rights of others?

Bob Seely MBE is a Conservative Party politician who served as the MP for the Isle of Wight from 2017 until 2024. He is a former journalist and soldier. From 1990 to 1995, he worked as a foreign correspondent in the USSR and in post-Soviet states. From 2008 to 2017, he served in the British Armed Forces on the Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and ISIS campaigns.

Join us as we remember Bona Malwal and his achievements in Sudan and South Sudan. Organised by Bona Malwal's family and The Sudanese Programme in collaboration with the Middle East Centre of the University of Oxford. Registration and attendance is free but essential in order to know numbers for College catering purposes.

We are excited to announce the call for papers for the 2026 Oxford Graduate Conference in Political Theory.

We welcome submissions from students pursuing graduate degrees in any department and working in any area of political theory—including but not limited to critical theory, analytic political philosophy, and the history of political thought. We especially encourage students from other institutions to submit their work for consideration, and we also accept applications from current students at Oxford.