The Council of Europe found Friday that two labor reforms adopted by Greece as part of wider efforts to curb the nation’s financial crises were illegal. The Council’s non-binding ruling concerned two measures passed by the Greek government in 2010 at the urging of the country’s international creditors. One provision extended to one year the [...]
The UN Working Group on discrimination against women on Thursday urged governments around the world to repeal laws that criminalize adultery and give rise to severe penalties which include flogging, death by stoning and hanging. While the working group conceded that “adultery may constitute a valid ground for bringing a civil proceeding” in some cultures [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday urged world powers to work toward ending the violence in Syria. Pillay, who previously served as a UN war crimes judge, cited the possibility that both the Syrian Army and the Free Syrian Army have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity. In her statement, [...]
An appeals court in Kenya ruled Thursday that Kenyan courts have jurisdiction to try international piracy suspects. The court’s decision overturns a 2010 ruling which found that Kenya does not have jurisdiction outside of its national waters. The appellate court, composed of a five-judge panel, concluded that the decision below failed to consider the negative [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) . Section 3 defines “marriage” under federal law as a “legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and “spouse” as a “person of the opposite sex who is [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday urged the Libyan government to hand over former military intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face charges of crimes against humanity. Fearing there is little chance al-Senussi, a high-ranking member of the Muammar Gaddafi regime, could get a fair trial in Libya, AI has requested [...]
A UK appeals court ruled Thursday in favor of Samsung Electronics (UK) Limited in a design infringement case brought by Apple, Inc. . The decision by the three-judge panel upheld a lower court ruling finding that three of Samsung’s tablets did not infringe on Apple’s registered design patent. The issue in the case was whether [...]
US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on Wednesday entered a temporary stay to a subpoena from the British government seeking research materials from Boston College . The British government is attempting to gain access to research done for the Belfast Project at Boston College, an abandoned oral history of The Troubles , a period of [...]
Uruguay’s Senate passed a bill on Wednesday by a vote of 17-14 that legalizes abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Although the bill declares that the public health care system must allow any woman to decide whether or not to have an abortion, senators removed language from the bill that proclaimed, “every adult [...]
The Northern Ireland High Court on Wednesday held that a law permitting adoption only by heterosexual married couples or single individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation, is unlawful. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) challenged Articles 14 and 15 of the Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 , arguing that the “eligibility criteria for adoption [...]
