Germany formally ratified on Thursday the Council of Europe convention on preventing and comabting violence against women and domestic violence . The so-called “Istanbul Convention” criminalizes violence against women in all its forms. The 81 Articles in the Convention provide substantive law as well as guidance for investigation, enforcement, migration, and international co-operation, among other [...]
A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Ayla Albayrak in absentia to 25 months in prison for propaganda charges . The conviction underlying the sentence comes as a result of Albayrak’s 2015 story “Urban Warfare Escalates in Turkey’s Kurdish-Majority Southeast” , which Turkish authorities claimed was a violation of Article 7(2) [...]
Palestinian political parties Hamas and Fatah on Thursday announded a reconciliation deal in which Hamas has agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza to Fatah in Cairo. While the agreement has not yet been published, reports indicate that Hamas has not agreed to relinquish any of its military power. The meetings between the two [...]
Turkish prisons are committing torture and disappearing citizens, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report Thursday. The report, entitled In Custody: Police Torture and Abductions in Turkey , alleges that even though Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ordered a moratorium on prisoner abuses, they still occur. In doing months of investigation by speaking to lawyers [...]
The Council of Europe published a letter Wednesday in which Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks asked the government of Italy to explain why the Italian navy dispatched ships to the coast of Libya. In July the Italian government announced that it was sending ships to the Libyan coast to help the Libyan government prevent people [...]
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that makes it easier for people to buy more forms of health insurance at potentially cheaper costs. The order identified three main areas of priority: allowing small business access to association health plans (AHP), expanding use of short term, limited-duration insurance (STLDI), and expanding health reimbursement [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense and Jesner v. Arab Bank, PLC . National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense is focused on the question of the Clean Water Act’s judicial review provision. The government argues that the scope of 33 USC § [...]
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration over the issuance of new rules allowing employers to deny coverage for contraception. The complaint alleges that the rules issued by Trump last week violate federal law, which requires insurance carriers to cover preventive healthcare services including contraception [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit , sitting en banc, ruled Tuesday that “a textual and historical analysis of the Second Amendment demonstrates that the Constitution does not confer a freestanding right on commercial proprietors to sell firearms.” The plaintiffs in the case were three individuals, John Teixeira, Steve Nobriga and Gary [...]
The Supreme Court of India ruled Wednesday that sexual intercourse with a girl who is under the age of 18 is rape regardless of the marital status of the girl. Section 375 of the India Penal Code specifies that intercourse with someone under the age of 18 is considered rape. However, Exception 2 to section [...]
