Bahrain’s Shura Council , the upper house of parliament, on Sunday approved a change in the nation’s constitution that will allow military trials for civilians accused of being involved in terrorism plots. Critics are concerned that Bahrain is returning to policies that it promised to reform, including cracking down on dissenting political groups and skirting [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 5-3 Monday in Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado that a juror’s racial bias creates an exception to the no-impeachment rule that limits the second-guessing of jury verdicts. The rule is designed to protect a jury’s verdict from being questioned later due to comments expressed during jury voting. Miguel Peña-Rodriguez was convicted of [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday vacated a lower court ruling in a case concerning transgender restroom policies following a move by the Trump administration to rescind guidelines that school districts should allow students to use the bathroom of their choice. The court had previously set arguments in the case for March 28 but has [...]
Bahrain’s justice ministry filed a lawsuit on Monday to dissolve an opposition group because of its threat to security. According to the ministry, the National Democratic Action Society, or Waad, had committed serious violations contrary to the rule of law. The ministry also attests that Ward supports terrorism and sanctions violence by glorifying individuals convicted [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law discusses the recent executive order banning individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries, and the effects of US Customs and Border Protection officials’ perpetuation of harassment at US airports… Ever since President Trump signed an executive order banning individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries, reports of harassment [...]
Hearings began on Monday in a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) , with Ukraine asking the ICJ to bar Russia from “any action which might aggravate” the contentious border conflict between the two nations. Ukraine’s filing that started the proceedings alleges that Russia has subjected Ukraine to “increasing degrees of pressure and [...]
The US State Department on Friday released its annual report on the current human rights situation across the world. This report has been published annually since the mid-1970s and has usually been accompanied by a press conference, though current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson chose to write a short foreword to the report in lieu [...]
In response to the mass execution of 15 people in Jordan on Saturday, several human rights groups, including Amnesty International (AI) , condemned the hanging as being secretive and conducted “without transparency. This mass execution was largest ever in one day in Jordan’s history. Samah Hadid, deputy director of AI’s regional office in Beirut, called [...]
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday rebuffed calls for international judges to participate in the country’s war crimes tribunals. The president, who has been suspicious of war crimes allegations raised by the Tamil Tigers , has stated that any war crimes tribunal will be an internal process to bring peace to the country. He [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz called Friday for the US to adopt a consistent approach to indigenous land rights in pipeline projects. The Special Rapporteur was concerned about how indigenous peoples were not fully consulted on the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), leaving them with disruptions to their land. She [...]
