Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Tuesday for significant alterations to India’s new criminal law on violence against women. The new law was signed by President Pranab Mukherjee in early February. The rights groups contend that the new law fails to meet current international human rights standards, noting it does not “criminalize [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Ilan Wurman, Stanford Law School Class of 2013, argues that the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s decision holding that US President Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) appointments were unconstitutional reveals methodological problems with the use of history to answer questions of legal construction…
The Michigan State AFL-CIO (MIAFLCIO), the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council and other labor groups filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Monday challenging the state’s new “right-to-work” laws, which bar unions from forcing workers to pay dues and limit workers’ rights to strike and picket. [...]
France’s lower house of parliament, the National Assembly , approved a bill on Tuesday which extends marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples. The bill was approved by a vote of 329 in favor to 229 against, with 10 abstaining, and must ultimately be approved by the senate in order to become law. The senate, [...]
Bangladesh’s cabinet on Monday approved changes to war crime laws to allow plaintiffs to appeal verdicts delivered by Bangladesh’s crimes tribunal. The amendment permits appeals against “inadequate sentence” in war crimes cases. According to Cabinet Secretary Musharraf Hossain, there is currently no provision for plaintiffs or the government to appeal against any sentence handed down [...]
Three independent UN human rights experts on Monday called for the immediate release of two key opposition leaders and their family members in Iran. Former presidential candidates Mehdi Karoubi and Mir Hossein Mossavi have been confined to their homes since February 2011 after staging a rally in solidarity with protesters in Egypt, for which they [...]
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Monday refused to reconsider an August ruling that Italy’s ban on screening embryos for diseases before they are implanted in a womb violates parents’ rights. The court found that this provision of Law 40 violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to [...]
A Milan appeals court on Tuesday sentenced Niccolo Pollari, the former Italian spy chief, to 10 years in prison for his role in the kidnapping of a terror suspect as part of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) extraordinary rendition program. Egyptian cleric and terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr was kidnapped in Milan in [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona on Friday overturned a state law last that would have blocked funding for Planned Parenthood clinics because the organization also performs abortions. The law was passed last May but has has been on temporary hold since October following a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood. [...]
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday signed a memorandum extending government benefits to same-sex partners of military personnel that were previously available only to spouses. Some of the benefits now extended to same-sex partners include access to commissaries, family counseling, child care, disability and death compensation, payments to missing persons and legal assistance. Benefits [...]
