About the Journal

The Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy is a peer-reviewed, open access academic journal committed to advancing the understanding and practice of human rights, legal frameworks, and public policy from a global and interdisciplinary perspective. Established to foster high-quality scholarship, the journal provides a platform for academics, legal practitioners, policymakers, and human rights advocates to engage in critical and constructive dialogue on contemporary issues affecting individual and collective rights, legal systems, and policy reform.

Published quarterly, the journal welcomes original research articles, theoretical analyses, policy commentaries, case studies, and legal reviews that address pressing issues in national and international contexts. The journal operates under a double-blind peer-review process, ensuring impartial and rigorous evaluation of each submission by two or three anonymous experts in the field.

The Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy aims to contribute to the scholarly community and to practical reform by publishing articles that are methodologically sound, empirically robust, and normatively insightful. It bridges disciplines and perspectives across legal studies, political science, international relations, sociology, and public administration.

Aims and Scopes

The Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy aims to:

  • Promote critical scholarship on human rights, constitutional law, criminal justice, civil liberties, and public policy.

  • Serve as a platform for legal theory and practice by examining the intersection of law and societal change.

  • Encourage interdisciplinary approaches that engage with legal, political, sociological, and philosophical perspectives.

  • Provide empirical and normative insights on contemporary issues, including but not limited to:

    • Human rights law and enforcement mechanisms

    • International humanitarian law and conflict resolution

    • Transitional justice and post-conflict legal reforms

    • Gender rights and anti-discrimination frameworks

    • Migration, refugee law, and statelessness

    • Environmental law and rights-based climate policy

    • Rule of law, judicial independence, and legal institutions

    • Civil society participation in policymaking and legal reform

The journal encourages both country-specific case studies and comparative analyses that illuminate broader regional or international dynamics. It supports work that contributes to both academic debates and practical outcomes in legal and human rights systems worldwide.

Open Access Statement

The Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy is fully committed to the principles of open access publishing. All published articles are freely available online to readers across the world without any subscription or paywall barriers. This model enhances the global dissemination and visibility of scholarly work, especially in regions where access to traditional academic databases is limited.

Authors retain full control over their intellectual property and are empowered to share, distribute, and build upon their work under the terms of the applied license (see below). The journal believes that unrestricted access to high-quality research is essential to academic collaboration, policy advocacy, and the realization of human rights globally.

Copyright and License

Authors who publish in the Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy retain full copyright over their work. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Under this license:

  • Authors may distribute and reproduce their work in any medium or format, for non-commercial purposes, as long as proper attribution is given.

  • Readers are free to copy, redistribute, and adapt the material for non-commercial uses.

  • Commercial reuse or redistribution of the articles is prohibited without prior permission from the copyright holder.

This licensing model supports both the protection of authors' rights and the broad dissemination of scholarly knowledge.

Plagiarism Policy

The Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy upholds the highest standards of academic integrity and publication ethics. All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using iThenticate, a leading plagiarism detection software.

Any manuscript found to contain plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, improper citation, or unacknowledged reproduction of others’ work, will be rejected immediately. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the article may be retracted and the authors may be permanently banned from future submissions. The journal also reserves the right to inform the authors’ affiliated institutions.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submissions are entirely original and appropriately cited. All sources, whether quoted verbatim or paraphrased, must be properly acknowledged in accordance with APA citation style.

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

The Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy operates under an article processing charge (APC) model to support open access publication and journal operations. Upon acceptance, authors are required to pay an APC of 1,500,000 Iranian Tomans.

This fee covers:

  • Editorial handling and peer-review management

  • Typesetting and layout formatting

  • DOI assignment and metadata submission

  • Online hosting and long-term digital preservation

  • Indexing and discoverability through academic databases

There are no charges for submission or peer review, and the APC is only payable after the article has been formally accepted. The journal may consider APC waivers or discounts for authors from low-income countries or those without institutional funding, upon request.

Peer-Review Process

The Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy employs a double-blind peer-review system to ensure objectivity, scholarly rigor, and ethical fairness. Each submitted manuscript undergoes the following review stages:

  1. Initial Editorial Screening: The editorial team assesses the manuscript for scope alignment, formatting, and originality (via iThenticate).

  2. Reviewer Assignment: Two or three expert reviewers in the field are invited to conduct a comprehensive review. Neither the reviewers nor the authors are aware of each other’s identities.

  3. Review Criteria: Manuscripts are evaluated based on:

    • Originality and contribution to the field

    • Theoretical grounding and methodological rigor

    • Relevance to the journal’s aims and scope

    • Clarity, coherence, and scholarly presentation

  4. Review Decision: Based on the reviewers’ comments, the editorial decision may be:

    • Accept without revision

    • Accept with minor revisions

    • Revise and resubmit

    • Reject

Authors will receive detailed reviewer feedback and are expected to submit revised versions with a response letter if revisions are required. The typical review timeline ranges from 4 to 8 weeks.

Archiving and Repository Policies

The Journal of Human Rights, Law, and Policy is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of all its published content.

  • Self-Archiving Policy: Authors are permitted and encouraged to deposit both pre-print and post-print versions of their manuscripts in institutional or subject-specific repositories. They may also share their articles on personal websites, academic networking platforms (e.g., ResearchGate), and teaching repositories, provided proper citation and journal attribution are included.

  • Journal Website Archiving: All articles are permanently archived on the journal’s official website and are assigned a unique DOI for citation and indexing. Backup copies of the entire journal content are maintained in secure digital repositories to guard against data loss or technical failure.

The journal intends to pursue long-term archiving arrangements with national and international preservation services such as LOCKSS and CLOCKSS in future phases.