The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) said Thursday that Greece must improve detention conditions for migrants and effectively implement recent legislative developments to enhance screening procedures for asylum-seekers. The WGAD, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council , visited Greece for 11 days, finding that the conditions of many of the country’s detention [...]
The Milan Court of Appeals on Friday convicted three Americans for their roles in the 2003 rendition kidnapping of Egyptian cleric and terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr. Due to diplomatic immunity, all three men had been acquitted in the previous trial where the Milan court convicted 23 former CIA agents. Vacating the acquittals, the [...]
A group of UN human rights experts on Friday urged Russian lawmakers to reject proposed legislation banning the dissemination of homosexual “propaganda” to minors. Independent experts joined with UN Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression, human rights defense, cultural rights and the right to health to caution legislators in the Russian State Duma that the [...]
The Obama administration issued a new rule on Friday detailing a broader exemption to the contraception mandate, allowing for religious nonprofits that object to providing health insurance coverage for birth control to opt out of the requirement. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacted in 2010, requires employer-provided health care to cover [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Oksana Siruk, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, discusses the procedural violations and controversy behind the Ukrainian National Referendum Law… On November 6, 2012, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted new legislation regulating national referendums. Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych approved the law on November 27, 2012. This controversial decision has provoked much discussion in Ukraine. [...]
A police officer in Bahrain has been sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for fatally shooting a protester during pro-democracy protests that gripped country in February 2011, according to Bahrain’s State News Agency (BNA). Lead Prosecutor for the Special Investigation Unit Nawaf Abdullah Hamza told BNA that a criminal court in Bahrain determined the policeman [...]
The UN top women’s rights advocate on Friday denounced escalating violence against women in Egypt . Michelle Bachelet , the Executive Director of UN Women expressed particular concern about a recent protest in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, in which 25 women were reportedly sexually assaulted . In her statement, Bachelet urged Egypt’s government to [...]
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is seeking USD $130.4 million in donations to compensate for a budget shortfall that has been ongoing for three years, according to a recent statement by High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay . “Our budget for 2013 has already been reduced by 12 [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), a California State Senator celebrates his state’s ban on reparative therapy, and decries a court’s injunction to halt implementation of the measure…
The Arkansas Senate approved a bill by a vote of 26-8 on Thursday that would prohibit abortions after the first fetal heartbeat is detected, which could be as early as five weeks into the pregnancy. The bill, known as the Human Heartbeat Protection Act, would also require women to undergo a vaginal probe to detect [...]
