UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Hawa Bangura on Friday welcomed the recent ruling by Cambodia’s genocide tribunal to annul a previous ruling that would have prevented it from trying crimes of sexual violence committed during the Khmer Rouge regime. The decision by the Supreme Court Chamber of the [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday called on the government of Bangladesh and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party leadership to encourage an end to the violence wracking the country. Violence between JI protesters and Bangladesh police erupted on Thursday after the International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) sentenced to death JI leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedee . Riots across [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday reduced the amount of damages that Samsung Electronics must pay Apple for infringing on Apple patents. In August a jury awarded Apple a $1.05 billion judgment against Samsung. Judge Lucy Koh ruled that the court must reduce the damages award [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of New Jersey on Thursday upheld a 21-year-old federal law prohibiting gambling, dealing a setback to New Jersey’s attempts to legalize sports betting. Judge Michael Shipp ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) is constitutional, even though it is extremely unpopular in [...]
Germany’s lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag , on Friday approved a bill to broaden copyright protections for online material, especially news articles. The new law would not charge royalties to search engines, including Google , for displaying short passages of text from articles. This provision should assuage previous concerns and campaigns against the potential [...]
The Maryland Senate on Thursday approved a gun control bill that imposes tougher restrictions on obtaining a license to buy a firearm. The Senate voted 28-19 in favor of the bill that would require residents to submit to fingerprinting, training and background checks in order to secure a firearm license. The Senate bill would also [...]
The Washington Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Thursday that a voter approved measure requiring a super-majority vote by the state legislature in order to raise taxes is unconstitutional. The initiative was approved by voters on multiple occasions, but the majority ruled that the language of the state’s constitution is clear and unequivocal. Article II, section 22 [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday presented an annual report detailing her office’s efforts in 2012 and urging further action to confront global human rights challenges. The report identifies and elaborates on advances and challenges within six human rights “thematic priorities” established for the years 2010 to 2013. These include discrimination, [...]
A court of appeals in Bahrain overturned the acquittal of Zainab al-Khawaja, who is accused of insulting a government employee, and sentenced her to three months of imprisonment on Friday, according to the Bahrain State New Agency (BNA). Al-Khawaja is the daughter of prominent Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja , and has served previous [...]
A Dutch court on Friday convicted Yvonne Basebya , a Dutch citizen born in Rwanda, of inciting genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The District Court of The Hague sentenced Basebya to six years and eight months in prison for her role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide . The court found that Basebya incited genocide by [...]
