Amnesty International (AI) on Friday urged Sudanese authorities to cease violence against protesters and journalists. The call came after the country’s police in Khartoum used tear gas and batons against civilians who protested over austerity cuts on Sunday. The protest was initiated by student activists and expanded into several neighborhoods. The proposed austerity measures will [...]
Head of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) Augustine Mahiga on Friday welcomed the signing of the joint communique ending the country’s transitional governing arrangement. During the meeting in Nairobi in which the communique was signed, the principal signatories of the Roadmap for the End of Transition in Somalia discussed outstanding issues and agreed [...]
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Rupert Colville on Friday expressed his concern over the continued attacks on churches in Nigeria which have killed more than 100 people, citing possible crimes against humanity. The Islamic militant group known as Boko Haram was responsible for the attacks on multiple churches in Kaduna on [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday that the treaty body system is in crisis and called on the international community to strengthen it. In her report , she revealed that the human rights treaty body system has doubled in size since 2004 while the resources needed to maintain the system stayed [...]
The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on Thursday convicted former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) member Eric Senessie on eight of nine counts for witness tampering. Four counts alleged that he had bribed witnesses who testified against the former Liberian president Charles Taylor to recant their testimonies. The remaining five counts involved Senessie’s attempt to [...]
The Serbian war crimes prosecutor announced on Friday that his office is investigating suspects accused of helping former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic and former security official Stojan Zupljanin evade justice until they were arrested to face trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Vladimir Vukcevic said that a [...]
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission Catherine Ashton on Thursday condemned Iran for its treatment of minorities and called on the country to cease its discriminatory policies. She also expressed her concern regarding the verdict of the Iran Court of Appeals in the [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the town of Colorado City, Arizona, the city of Hildale, Utah, as well as local utility companies, alleging that the authorities have engaged in systematic discrimination against nonmembers of the dominant local church, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS). [...]
The UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions continued to criticize US drone strikes on Thursday, saying that in some cases the attacks may constitute war crimes. In addressing the 20th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, Christof Heyns said the drone strikes put innocent civilians at risk and set [...]
The UK High Court of Justice on Thursday ruled that retaining photographs and other materials of an innocent suspect should be prohibited. The two-judge panel in London’s High Court held that the current policy of the Metropolitan Police Service (MET) unjustifiably interfered with an individual’s right to respect for his private life guaranteed under article [...]
