UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Rashida Manjoo appeared in front of the UN General Assembly Monday to urge states to fulfill their obligations to prevent violence against women. Presenting her report on the pervasive, widespread violence against women throughout the world and its causes and consequences, Manjoo reminded states of their international human [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called on governments around the world to “intensify efforts to bring to justice those responsible for grave abuses” in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) , highlighted by the UN’s recent mapping report . A full year after the report was published, detailing over 600 violations of international law [...]
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Monday indicated Myanmar’s civilian-led government is planning dramatic changes including releasing hundreds of political prisoners and consequential dialogue with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi . Journalists, lawyers and democracy advocates are among the detainees to be released and pardoned , although no date has been set. [...]
Liberty University on Friday petitioned the US Supreme Court to review its case against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) . The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last month ruled that it could not review the university’s case until the health care law takes effect until 2014 because of a [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression Frank La Rue on Monday condemned a law in Thailand that criminalizes insulting the country’s royal family. Section 112 of the Thai Penal Code says that “whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir to the throne or the Regent shall be punished with imprisonment [...]
The Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Saturday amended election rules to ban the use of religious slogans in campaigning. The Supreme Council stated that “lectoral campaigns based on the use of religious slogans or on racial or gender segregation are banned,” adding that violators could be fined and face up to three [...]
The Supreme Court of India on Monday stayed the execution of a Pakistani national convicted for his participation in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks . The stay was issued after Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab filed an appeal challenging the death sentence . Kasab was convicted in May 2010 of waging war against India, multiple murders [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Jeffrey Addicott of St. Mary’s University School of Law says that despite the confusion as to whether US criminal law or the law of war should apply, the killing of Anwar al-Awlaqi was legal under the law of war, which must govern in this instance…
Prisoners in some Afghan-run detention facilities have been beaten and tortured, according to a report released Monday by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) . The prisoners interviewed for the study had been detained by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) or Afghan National Police (ANP) forces for national security crimes. Nearly half of [...]
A German judge at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) resigned on Monday over statements made by the Cambodian foreign minister. Cambodian government officials have put pressure on the international court to turn the cases over to Cambodia, with the Cambodian foreign minister purportedly stating, “On the issue of the arrest of [...]
