The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a November 2012 report on Friday, stating the crisis in Mali has led to human rights violations including rape, summary executions, and extra-judicial killings. According to the report, violations also include stoning, amputation, the recruitment of child soldiers, and forced marriage and gang [...]
Judges for the Second Court of Appeals of Milan on Friday rejected a request by the lawyers of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berulsconi to suspend his appellate proceedings until after Italy’s general elections in late February. Berlusconi was found guilty and sentenced in October on charges of tax fraud for irregularities regarding the purchase [...]
The chief US military judge at Guantanamo Bay on Thursday denied defense motions filed in both the 9/11 military commission trial and the 2000 USS Cole bombing trial. Defense counsel for accused 9/11 conspirators, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed , filed a motion requesting that the court find that the US constitution was “presumed to apply” [...]
A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed concern on Friday over the impeachment and removal of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake . In a statement, the official criticized the actions of the lawmakers against Bandaranayake, calling the situation a “gross interference in the independence of the judiciary and [...]
Myanmar’s campaign of shelling on the state of Kachin violates the laws of war , Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday, the same day the government announced a ceasefire. President Thein Sein ordered the ceasefire after the country’s parliament unanimously passed a motion on the matter. HRW is calling on the government of Myanmar to [...]
A court in Bahrain on Thursday released human rights activist Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafda on bail pending trial for charges of spreading false news to harm security, according to Amnesty International (AI) . Al-Muhafda, the acting deputy head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) , was arrested in November during an unauthorized protest. After [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a union challenging Indiana’s right-to-work law on the grounds that the challenge could not succeed in federal court. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 filed the suit last February arguing that the right-to-work [...]
Iranian lawyer and prominent human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh was temporarily released from prison on Thursday, after spending over two years in prison, her husband said. Sotoudeh left prison in Tehran for three days and was greeted Thursday by her husband and two children. Sotoudeh is serving six years in prison for her September 2010 [...]
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and the country’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai reached an agreement on Thursday on a new constitution. Details of the agreement have not yet been made public . Tsvangirai previously stated that the passage of the constitution was a condition for the conduction of elections scheduled for later this year. According to [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Jennifer B. Wriggins of the University of Maine School of Law says that the legalization of same-sex marriage in Maine through a citizens’ initiative is a significant milestone and model for other states seeking to legalize same-sex marriage…
