The UN General Assembly on Friday approved a draft resolution urging all nations to establish a moratorium on the death penalty with a view towards abolishing its application worldwide. Spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) , Rupert Colville, briefed media sources Friday, asserting that most executions violate “international [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday called for US authorities to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, emphasizing the continued indefinite incarcerations of many detainees as a clear violation of international law. Of the 166 detainees in Guantanamo, about half have been cleared for transfer , either to home countries [...]
A Dutch judge on Friday blocked the extradition to the US of a Dutch-Pakistani terror suspect until US authorities agree to provide post traumatic stress disorder treatment equal to what he is currently receiving. The suspect, known under Dutch privacy laws only as Sabir K., is accused of plotting a suicide attack on an US [...]
The Maryland Senate on Thursday gave final approval to a bill that imposes tougher restrictions on obtaining a license to buy a firearm and bans certain types of rifles. Scheduled to go into effect October 1 of this year, the new law will limit magazines to 10 bullets and will ban 45 types of semiautomatic [...]
The Lahore High Court in Pakistan on Thursday acquitted a Christian man sentenced to death for blasphemy. Younis Masih has been in prison for six years. The charges against him stemmed from a incident in which allegedly interrupted a gathering of Sufi singing to make blasphemous remarks in 2005. Masih is expected to be released [...]
A group of prominent Chinese lawyers signed a letter on Friday calling on the Jinjiang People’s Court to explain why it detained a lawyer who defended the Falun Gong , which is banned in China. An online statement from the court said that Wang Quanzhang , a lawyer representing Falun Gong practictioner Zhu Yanian, had [...]
France’s Senate on Thursday commenced debate of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The bill came before the upper house of parliament after approval in February by France’s lower house of parliament. The bill is controversial, despite the fact that both houses of parliament are under the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Nicholas Johnson of the Fordham University School of Law examines the parallels between gun and abortion rights within the context of the proposed assault weapons ban legislation…
British Petroleum (BP) filed an appeal Wednesday contesting the March 5 order of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana which approved the methods being used to calculate losses by the administrator of the $8.5 billion settlement fund which was created following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill . BP is claiming [...]
A Michigan state court judge on Wednesday denied a request by Attorney General Bill Schuette to dismiss a lawsuit filed by organized labor supporters and alleging that the state’s new right-to-work laws were passed in violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act (OMA) . In denying the motion to dismiss, Judge William Collette of the [...]
