The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday held the second day of confirmation hearing for Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions , President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed attorney general. Sessions’ first day of confirmation hearings took place Tuesday, where Sessions pledged to fulfill the duties of attorney general with integrity. While various individuals testified to support Sessions’ nomination on [...]
India’s Supreme Court threw out a corruption case on Wednesday against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The case against Modi was brought by Common Cause , a human rights organization, last November and alleged that Modi had received cash payments from companies totaling at least 400 million rupees ($5.9 million) in late 2013 and early 2014. [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday dismissed a four-decade class action lawsuit against Washington DC over the treatment of intellectually and developmentally disabled individuals housed at Forest Haven institution. The named plaintiff in the case, Joy Evans, died of aspiration pneumonia from inadequate medical treatment. In dismissing [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday declined to delay the execution of convicted killer Ricky Gray, which is scheduled to take place January 18. Gray’s attorneys argued in December that the drugs to be used during the execution were untested and potentially torturous. Judge Henry Hudson [...]
Saudi Arabia has arrested two human rights advocates since the beginning of the year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Wednesday. The reason Essam Koshak, 45, and Ahmed al-Musheikhis, 46, were arrested has not been released, and HRW called on Saudi Arabia to disclose the reasons for their detention. If they have not committed any recognizable [...]
A California appeals court ruled Tuesday that the pioneer law that requires prosecutors rather than secret grand juries to decide whether to indict police officers who use lethal force is unconstitutional. The Third District Court of Appeal said the law impedes upon the California Constitution of 1979 by limiting a county grand jury’s authority . [...]
Perpetrators of war crimes in the Central African Republic (CAR) have not been prosecuted or investigated for their crimes, according to an Amnesty International (AI) report on Wednesday. According to AI, the country’s justice system needs to be reconstructed and a Special Criminal Court, tasked with trying suspected war criminals, and a witness protection program [...]
German Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maiziere , released a plan Tuesday to overhaul the country’s antiterror enforcement following the December lorry attack on a Berlin Christmas market . Police have been seeking to improve antiterror enforcement since Anis Amri killed 12 people and exposed holes in the country’s security architecture. The overhaul [...]
Tthe North Dakota Senate on Tuesday rejected a bill to update the definition of marriage and recognize same-sex marital relationships. The bill woud have updated the language in several state laws to change “husband and wife” to “two individuals married to each other” and other similar changes. The bill failed to pass with a vote [...]
UN Special Rapporteur Michel Frost will visit Mexico for the first time to assess the safety of human rights defenders, according to a statement Wednesday. Frost’s visit will take place from January 16 to 24, during which he will visit Mexico City, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Oaxaca and the state of Mexico. “My goal is to take [...]
