Several natives of the US territory American Samoa on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, DC, arguing that those born in American Samoa should be granted automatic US citizenship. The lawsuit challenges federal laws that except American Samoa from the rule pertaining to all other US territories that US citizenship is bestowed as a [...]
Politicians from two political parties in Russia on Friday asked the country’s Constitutional Court to consider the constitutionality of a new law that greatly increases penalties for protesters who violate demonstration regulations. The new law raised the maximum fines for participating in an unsanctioned rally from 2,000 rubles (USD $60) to 300,000 rubles ($9,000)—a 150-fold [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday urged Russian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of rights activist Natalia Estemirova , including an inquiry into possible official involvement in the killing. Estemirova, who was kidnapped in Grozny in July 2009 and shot to death, reported regularly on human rights abuses committed by the [...]
Twenty Ethiopian bloggers, journalists and senior opposition politicians were sentenced Friday to terms ranging from eight years to life in prison on terrorism charges. Amnesty International (AI) criticized the sentences, arguing that the measures taken by the government are an attempt to suppress legitimate dissent. AI added that the trial violated international standards. Among the [...]
A spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday praised an announcement by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak of plans to repeal the country’s 1948 Sedition Act . Razak announced Wednesday that the Sedition Act will be replaced with the more liberal National Harmony Act, which he said [...]
The German government on Friday announced that it will act swiftly to lift criminal sanctions imposed on circumcision . Spokesperson for Chancellor Angela Merkel , Steffen Seibert, said that without adequate protections for the practice of circumcision, Jewish and Muslim communities would not be able to live in Germany because the practice is so fundamental [...]
Chile enacted an anti-discrimination law Thursday following the March beating death of a young gay man in a Santiago park. The hate crime bill , which had been tied up in Congress for seven years after being originally introduced by ex-president Ricardo Lagos, was signed into law by President Sebastian Pinera , providing for harsher [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Thursday alleging that the Highland Park School District has violated state and federal law by failing to ensure that students are reading at grade level. The lawsuit, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court on behalf of eight Highland Park students, cites a “right [...]
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Melissa Fleming on Friday reported that 10 UN staff and aid workers have been arrested in the northwestern Rakhine state of Myanmar and three of them are facing unknown criminal charges. All of the three charged are Myanmar nationals working for the UNHCR while four of [...]
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning , joined by attorneys general from six other states will continue their lawsuit challenging new health care mandates in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that require contraception to be covered under all employer healthcare plans, including those of religious institutions. The seven attorneys general filed the lawsuit [...]
