Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday encouraged Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to refuse to sign a law passed by parliament that they say would deny women protection from domestic violence and forced marriage. Article 26 of the proposed criminal procedure law prohibits authorities from speaking with relatives of criminal defendants. In the case of domestic [...]
A French court opened trial Tuesday against former Rwandan intelligence chief Pascal Simbikangwa in the country’s first trial of a suspect in the 1994 Rwanda Genocide . Simbikangwa, 54, is charged with arming and directing Hutu extremists in the violence that claimed the lives of an estimated half a million ethnic Tutsi. He was arrested [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Monday criticized a recently enacted Saudi Arabian counterterrorism law that it claims will entrench existing patterns of human rights violations. “This disturbing new law confirms our worst fears,” said Said Boumedouha, AI’s Middle East and North Africa Program Deputy Director. The Law for the Crimes of Terrorism and its Financing , [...]
The UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo on Friday urged the island nation of Seychelles to establish a National Action Plan to combat human trafficking, and to hasten to pass the draft anti-trafficking bill currently circulating in its legislature. During her week-long visit to Seychelles, Ezeilo noted [...]
Detroit on Friday filed a lawsuit in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan seeking to invalidate the $1.44 billion of debt the city sold to finance by establishing “sham” service corporations to facilitate the debt sales, and claiming and that all contracts or obligations connected to the debt are also invalid. [...]
Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour on Sunday ordered the creation of a higher court that would be able to hear appeals of military court verdicts. Under the new Egyptian constitution, civilians may be tried in military courts for cases involving direct attacks on military personnel or military installations. Thousands of civilian cases have been referred [...]
Egypt’s Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat on Monday referred Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie along with 50 others to the criminal court. Badie and the other Muslim Brotherhood members are accused of inciting their supporters to resist security forces and spreading chaos in the country. The prosecution called the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist organization” for its [...]
The US Department of Defense (DOD) on Friday asked the federal courts to dismiss a case brought by the Miami Herald demanding to know how much money the government spent to build a prison facility at Guantanamo. The news service requested this figure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) , but the Obama administration [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged the Cambodian government to take steps to stop the threats and intimidation of garment factory workers who are seeking to assert their labor rights through the formation of unions. Currently, Cambodia’s garment industry represents USD $5 billion per year in exports and supports 400,000 jobs. Factory owners and [...]
The Wisconsin branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Article XIII, Section 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution defines marriage as between one man and one woman and bars recognition of same-sex [...]
