The International Labor Organization Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) came into force on Thursday, extending basic labor rights to workers in signatory countries. The convention became binding international law to a number of countries, prompting many to begin implementing legislative reforms aimed at improving domestic workers’ labor and social rights. Approximately 53 million workers [...]
The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) on Thursday indicted fundamentalist leader Mir Quasem Ali, on charges of crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 liberation war. Ali, a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) central executive committee, was indicted on 14 charges , including murder, abduction and torture. He is also charged with killing eight people [...]
Kenya’s National Assembly on Thursday approved a motion to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC) . The move is in response to the upcoming trials of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto, who are accused of crimes against humanity and inciting violence after contested elections in 2007. Ruto is set to go on [...]
The nonprofit human rights law firm Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) released a report on Thursday detailing the conditions at Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, a facility that detains non-Afghan prisoners of the US despite not being under US control since March. According to the JPP, many of these detainees are being held indefinitely without charges, trial [...]
The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) on Wednesday announced an end to its policy of segregating HIV-positive inmates at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. As of August 1, eight HIV-positive female inmates were transferred to the general prison population, with similar changes to the male inmate population to go into effect in 2014. The ADOC [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Patrick Brady, University of Maine School of Law Class of 2014, discusses Detroit’s bankruptcy and pension holders’ proactive defense of their rights… Although the pension holders of the city pension funds are at the heart of Detroit’s financial woes, the holders are at a severe disadvantage with respect to their ability to [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Thursday that the refusal by the government of Cambodia to pay staff at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) , is an attempt to undermine efforts to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice. The agreement between the UN and the Cambodian [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Wednesday called on governments to create human rights-based polices addressing migration . According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , there are currently more than 215 million migrants around the world, but this enormous group remains largely invisible. Pillay said, “ur starting [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that it will no longer enforce a federal law that denies same-sex spouses veterans benefits. In a letter , Attorney General Eric Holder informed Congress that the DOJ will not enforce the provision of Title 38 defining a spouse as a person of the opposite sex, because [...]
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday approved a joint resolution authorizing the limited use of force against Syria. In a 10-7 vote, the committee reasoned that Syria was in violation of international law, such as the UN Charter , the Geneva Conventions and the Protocol to the Hague Convention on the Prohibition of [...]
