Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated Friday that the Singapore government’s new licensing requirements for news sources impinges on free speech . By placing a registration fee on sources that meet threshold levels of Internet traffic , HRW believes the government will have an undue level of power in deciding who can publish what. Their report [...]
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed a bill on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. Vermont became the seventeenth state in the US to decriminalize marijuana, adding to a growing trend of more lenient drug laws and regulations. Under the new legislation possession of less than one ounce of marijuana (28.3 grams) would be [...]
The UN released a letter on Thursday from UN human rights experts voicing their concern that two Russian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been charged by Russian prosecutors following their involvement with the UN Committee against Torture . The Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial in St. Petersburg and the Public Verdict Foundation in Moscow allegedly violated Russian law [...]
New Mexico Attorney General Gary King said Thursday that New Mexico law does not necessarily allow same-sex marriages . The statement does not directly comment on the matter, as it was made in response to a pending lawsuit in New Mexico brought by a same-sex couple. In a policy memo released by King’s office as [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement on Thursday reenforcing the need for any new Egyptian draft law should respect human rights standards. The statement came as concern over increased convictions of international NGO personnel mounts. Ban reiterated the UN’s commitment to helping the Egyptian government and its people through a successful democratic transition. Following [...]
The House Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) , which would keep the detention center at Guantanamo Bay open despite President Barack Obama’s renewed statements that he will close it. According to the official summary , “While the NDAA mandates the designation of a senior official to facilitate [...]
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled Thursday that couples in same-sex civil unions should be awarded the same income tax benefits as married couples. This ruling is a retroactive interpretation of the Civil Partnership Act of 2001 , which recognized civil unions, but did not explicitly grant those tax benefits. Unions where one partner [...]
The National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting call data from Verizon customers under a top secret court order published by The Guardian Wednesday. The court order, granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to the FBI in April, requires Verizon to turn over information about phone calls between the US and foreign countries and [...]
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday expressed frustration and disappointment over the situation in Darfur . Presenting the ICC’s briefing to the UN Security Council , Fatou Bensouda characterized the situation as having “gone from bad to worse,” citing the fact 300,000 people have been displaced in the first five [...]
The UK government on Wednesday reached a settlement agreement with thousands of Kenyans tortured by British colonial forces during the 1950s. Negotiations began last October after the Queen’s Bench Division on the High Court of England and Wales ruled that three elderly Kenyans could sue the British government for torture they suffered while in detention [...]
