A Pakistan judge Monday ordered two women who have publicly acknowledged their same-sex relationship jailed for perjury after one initially claimed to be a man. Sixteen years ago Shumail Raj had herself surgically altered to remove her breasts and uterus, but medical examiners found that she was still a woman. She and her partner Shahzina [...]
Francois-Xavier Byuma, vice-president of the board of the Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LIPRODHOR) and president of the Rwandan Association for the Protection and Promotion of the Child, was sentenced to 19 years in prison Sunday by a local gacaca court for colluding with criminals, and beating and injuring a [...]
Russian police arrested dozens of demonstrating gay rights activists Sunday, including European lawmakers who wanted to present a letter to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov , who had rejected a request by gay rights activists to hold a parade to mark the 14th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia . The group of activists [...]
A Libyan court acquitted six foreign medics of criminal defamation Sunday. The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor, previously convicted of knowingly infecting over 400 Libyan patients with the HIV virus and sentenced to death, faced defamation charges stemming from the medics' accusations that their confessions were obtained by torture by Libyan police officer [...]
Yemen has agreed to receive most Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo Bay , a senior Yemeni official told Reuters Sunday. The official said that "there are continuous talks with the Americans to hand over the Yemenis in Guantanamo to the Yemeni government," although the official did not specify how many prisoners would be transferred to [...]
Immigration Enforcement: The Rhetoric, The Reality, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, May 27, 2007 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday in an op-ed published in the Sunday Times that the country has chosen to protect the civil liberties of foreign nationals over national security and therefore could not blame the government for last week's reported disappearance of three terror suspects . Pointing to a series of court rulings [...]
Thousands of Pakistanis rallied outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan Saturday in support of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry , who returned to the court building for the first time since being suspended by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf . Saturday's crowd of about 5,000, including many lawyers, chanted "Go Musharraf, go" among other slogans. In [...]
Ukrainian political rivals President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych agreed Sunday to hold elections on September 30 in a move intended to end an escalating constitutional crisis in the country. Repeating a call made earlier this year, Yushchenko said the constitutional confrontation which almost led to violence earlier this week as both men [...]
The Mexican government joined in opposition to a Mexico City abortion law legalizing abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy on Friday, appointing Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora to help argue before the Supreme Court of Mexico that the law is unconstitutional. Mora joins Jose Luis Soberanes , Mexico's top human rights official, who [...]
